E-journal of All India Association for Educational Research (EJAIAER)

VOL.20 Nos: 3 & 4 September & December, 2008

IMPACT OF SYNECTICS MODEL OF TEACHING IN LIFE SCIENCE TO DEVELOP CREATIVITY AMONG PUPILS

Shreyashi Paltasingh

INTRODUCTION

Invention and creativity are essential for progress of society and making the life more meaningful. So there is need to orient students in creative thinking. Young people face tremendous challenges for the future which include reduction of natural resources and enhancing problems to everyday life. So investigation on how effectively to stimulate student’s inventiveness of creativity is important and a worthwhile research endeavour before the society. Most of the research works on creativity was carried out in USA. Isaksen etal(1993) opined creativity is a multifaceted phenomenon that results in production of new and useful ideas .It is the research of interactions among several components of creativity such as person, process, product and press(Trefinger etal,1993).Studies on mind in relation to creative thinking were conducted by several workers(Suddendorf and Fletcher-Flin,1997). Works on creativity especially on nurturing and promoting creative thinking in class room setting is at nascent stage in India .Therefore much remains to be explored and accomplished in this emerging field. There are large number of methods for developing creative thinking such as brainstorming ,brain calming, mind control, synectics, scenario writing, meditation, creative dreaming, sociodrama, psychodrama, destructuring-restructuring, imagery, analogy, awareness, development, gestalt therapy etc. Some of these have been tried out by different researchers in the field of education. Synectics is an interesting new approach to the development of creativity in school children designed by William J.J. Gordon and his associates. Through the metaphoric activity of the synectics model creativity becomes a conscious process. Metaphors establish a relationship of likeness, the comparison of one object or idea with another object or idea by using one in place of other. Through these substitutions the creative process occurs connecting the familiar with the unfamiliar or creating a new idea from familiar ideas. Metaphor introduces conceptual distance between the student and the object or the subject matter and prompts original thoughts. There are two strategies of teaching based on Synectics model. One of it is “Creating something new” which is designed to make the familiar strange, helping students to see old problems, ideas or products in a new and more creative light. The other strategy is “Making the strange familiar” which is intended to make new, unfamiliar ideas more meaningful. The role of teacher is to guard against premature analyses and closure. Here, the investigator had adopted the first strategy as she had tried to help students to create something new. It had stimulated the students to see and feel the original idea in a variety of fresh ways.

HYPOTHESES

H 1: There is significant difference between effects of Synectics model and traditional method of teaching life science in development of creative thinking ability of students.

H 2: The Gain score in creativity of the experimental group taught Life Science by Synectics model was significantly higher than the control group taught by traditional method.

H 3: The training in creativity by teaching through synectics model produce significantly higher achievement in science.

H 4: The experimental group taught through synectics model obtains significantly higher post test scholastic achievement score than the control group.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Sample

It constituted 120 students of class-IX of two schools of which 64 were girls and 54 were boys .These two schools are Oriya medium high schools situated in Banpur town of Khurda district of Orissa. Among them, one school(School-I) had facility for coeducation and the other (School-II) was a girls high school.

Tools

Jalota’s Group Test of General Mental Ability was used to measure intelligence. Mehdi’s Verbal Test of Creative Thinking was administered to find out total creativity scores.

A life science achievement test prepared by the investigator with content validity and coefficient reliability of 0.74 was used to measure achievement scores.

Procedure

The students were divided into two groups in each school. The Experimental group and the Control group had equal number of students(Table-1).The groups were constituted by considering the previous science achievement scores and their intelligence. There was no significant difference in intelligence and achievement score of such groups. The investigator administered Jalota’s General Mental Ability test to obtain intelligence score of students. She had also used science achievement score of students in half yearly examination for the purpose. Then she taught life science through synectics model for 20 weeks to the experimental group of both the schools while same topics were taught by concerned science teacher by traditional method. At the end of experiment, Baquer Mehdi’s Verbal Test of Creative Thinking was administered as post test to both the groups to obtain creativity scores .The investigator also administered Life science achievement test prepared by herself to both the groups. Total marks secured by students in science and other subjects in the subsequent annual examination were considered for testing significance in science achievement and scholastic achievement.

Stastistical Analysis

The significance of difference in pre test and post test correlated mean scores were tested by t-test to find out effect of training on creativity and achievement scores The t-value between gain scores was found out using pooled variance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Comparison of Synectics model with traditional method of Teaching

The effect of training on creativity to develop creative thinking ability of students was studied through first hypothesis. As creativity is a measure of fluency, flexibility, originality, so post test score of all such components were compared between two groups for convenience of discussion. It was found that the t values between post test and pre test scores of fluency, flexibility, originality and creativity were not significant in control group. The t value between post test fluency scores in experimental group were 2.307 and 2.295 in girls as well as 2.131 in boys which were significant at 0.05 level of significance. The corresponding t values of flexibility scores were 2.433, 2.407 and 2.108 which are also significant (P<0.05).The t values with respect to originality were 2.441, 2.365 and 2.297 which are also significant (P<0.05). It was observed that t values between post test and pre test creativity scores were 2.076 and 2.421 in girls which was significant at 0.005 level of significance and that of boys was 2.295 which was also significant (P<0.01).It indicated post test scores of fluency, flexibility, originality and creativity were significantly different from pre test scores in experimental group. So it can be concluded that there is significant difference between effects of Synectics model and traditional method of teaching life science in development of creative thinking ability of students. Thus the first hypothesis is accepted.

Gain in Creativity of Synectics Model

Gain in fluency, flexibility, originality and creativity scores were compared between experimental group and the control group to test the second hypothesis. The t value of gain in fluency scores between two groups were 3.579 and 6.336 in girls and 5.612 in boys which are significant at 0.01 level of significance. The respective t values of gain in flexibility were 4.309, 8.698 and 8.828 which are also significant (P<0.01).The corresponding t value in gain of originality were 5.783, 6.225 and 12.172 which are also significant(P< 0.01).The t value of gain in total creativity scores were 7.058 and 9.102 in girls and 10.623 in boys which are significant at 0.01 level of significance. So it can be concluded that the Gain score in creativity of the experimental group taught Life Science by Synectics model was significantly higher than the control group taught by traditional method and thus the second hypothesis is accepted.

Impact of Training on Science Achievement

The investigator administered achievement test in life science immediately after completion of experiment and its post test scores were obtained .Then marks secured in subsequent annual examination in science were considered. Such two categories of scores were analysed to test the fourth hypothesis. It was observed that the t value of investigator made science achievement scores were 3.944 and 5.279 in girls and 3.386 in boys which are significant at 0.01 level of significance. The corresponding t value in annual examination science achievement were 5.138, 5.228 and 5.224 which were also significant (P<0.01).It indicates that the training in creativity by teaching through synectics model produce significantly higher achievement in science. Hence the fourth hypothesis is accepted.

Impact of Training on Scholastic Achievement

It was found that the t value of scholastic achievement scores of experimental and control groups were 2.849 and 4.028 in girls which are significant (P<0.01) .However such t value in boys was 2.192 which was significant at 0.05 level of significance. So it can be concluded that the experimental group taught through synectics model obtains significantly higher post test scholastic achievement score than the control group. So the fourth hypothesis is accepted.

REFERENCE

Isaksen, S. G., Puccio, G. J. & Treffinger, D .J. (1993) An ecological approach to creativity research: profiling for creative problem solving. Journal of Creative Behaviour, 27, 149-170.

Singh, B. (1987) A study of differential effects of a specially designed teaching strategy on creative production of junior high school children. Journal of Education and Psychology 44, 40, 203-207.

Suddendorf, T. & Fletcheer-flinn, C. M. (1997) Theory of mind and origin of divergent thinking. Journal of Creative Behaviour 31, 3, 169-179.

Treffinger, D. J., Sortore, M. R. & Crosss, J. C. (1993) Dimensions of Creativity., Centre of Creative Learning, Sarasota.