VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION MAI THI NHAN IMPROVING CREATIVE THINKING OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH CHEMISTRY TEACHING THESIS FOR MASTER DEGREE OF CHEM
Trang 1VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
MAI THI NHAN
IMPROVING CREATIVE THINKING OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH CHEMISTRY TEACHING
THESIS FOR MASTER DEGREE OF CHEMISTRY TEACHING
HANOI – 2015
Trang 2VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
MAI THI NHAN
IMPROVING CREATIVE THINKING OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH CHEMISTRY TEACHING
THESIS FOR MASTER DEGREE OF CHEMISTRY TEACHING
TRAINING SPECIALITY: THEORY AND TEACHING
METHODOLOGY OF CHEMISTRY
CODE: 60 14 01 11
Instructor: As Pro Dr Le Kim Long
HANOI – 2015
Trang 3ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sincere thanks are extended to Associate Professor Doctor Le Kim Long – Rector of Hanoi University of Education who guides and suggests me, without his help, this work would not have been completed
I deeply thanks Doctor Tran Thi Bich Lieu of Hanoi University of Education and Doctor Nguyen Tung Lam – Rector of Dinh Tien Hoang High School for their helpful and guidences during my research
I would like to thank all members in Chemistry Group of Dinh Tien Hoang High School as well as students there for their friendly collaboration and sound discussion during my research They absolutely are the key factors helping this work
I also thanks my friends and family for their unconditional supports and encouragement
Mai Thi Nhan Hanoi, Nov 2015
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ABSTRACT
The 21st century is the age of knowledge economy, thus, to adapt the demands of highly-quality talents, creative thinking are becoming increasingly important In the explosion of knowledge, education has been seen as central in fostering creative skills of youth An emphasis on creative problem solving in science education can help to better preparation of students for scientific and technological problem solving and related careers However, the central concern of most science teachers
is a narrow focus of fostering these skills
The involvment of creativity in education comprises that teachers must understand the core purpose of education - trainning students ways of thinking Teachers should give students opportunities to connect and combine; to work with the artistic, scientific, and historical modes of thought; to communicate in verbal, mathematical, kinesthetic, musical, and visual languages; to understand and use frameworks as springboards for their creativity; and to enjoy the fact that many problems with a single answer have multiple solutions, and that many more problems have no universally right or best answer
Chemistry as a part of science is an essential domain of the school curriculum The chemistry teaching has the potential to encourage students to think flexibly, thanks
to system of theories and problems, in order to increase a variety of approaches to solving problems and, in that way, to contribute to development of learners creative capacities The assumption that chemistry can stimulate creativity depends on the way chemistry is taught
Trang 5CONTENTS
Acknowledgement……….… … i
Abstract ……… ….… ….ii
List of Symbols … ……… … iii
List of Figures ……….….iv
List of Tables ……… ……… v
List of Graphs ……….…….……… vi
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I: THE MAIN THEORETICAL CONCEPT 4
1.1 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY AND BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY 4
1.3 THE NATURE OF CREATIVITY Error! Bookmark not defined
1.4 IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVE THINKINGError! Bookmark not defined
1.5 CREATIVITY IN EDUCATION Error! Bookmark not defined
1.6 METHODS AND TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING CREATIVE
THINKING SKILLS Error! Bookmark not defined
1.6.1 Visualization and creative dramatics techniquesError! Bookmark not defined
1.6.2 Divergent thinking strategies Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.6.3 Mind mapping technique Error! Bookmark not defined
1.6.4 Project-based learning (PBL) method Error! Bookmark not defined
1.6.5 Six thinking hats technique Error! Bookmark not defined
1.6.6 Creative questions and problems Error! Bookmark not defined
1.7 CREATIVE CLASSROOM Error! Bookmark not defined
1.8 ROLE OF TEACHERS Error! Bookmark not defined
1.9 CREATIVITY IN CHEMISTRY Error! Bookmark not defined
1.10 ACTUAL SITUATION OF TRAINING CREATIVE THINKING
THROUGH CHEMISTRY FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTSError! Bookmark not defined
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1 AIMS OF RESEARCH Error! Bookmark not defined
2.2 RESEARCH PLAN Error! Bookmark not defined
2.3 OBJECTS OF RESEARCH Error! Bookmark not defined
Trang 62.4 POSITION, TARGET AND STRUCTURE OF THE EXPERIMENT
LECTURES Error! Bookmark not defined
2.4.1 The position of the experiment lectures Error! Bookmark not defined
2.4.2 Targets of the experiment lectures Error! Bookmark not defined
2.5 EVALUATION METHOD AND DATA TREATMENT OF EXPERIMENT
LECTURES Error! Bookmark not defined
CHAPTER III: INTERVENTION, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONError! Bookmark not defined.
3.1 INTERVENTION TO TRAIN CREATIVE THINKING BY CREATIVE
TEACHING METHODS AND TECHNIQUESError! Bookmark not defined
3.1.1 Visualization technique Error! Bookmark not defined
3.1.2 Creative dramatic technique Error! Bookmark not defined
3.1.3 Imagination and illustration technique Error! Bookmark not defined
3.1.5 Mind mapping and group work techniqueError! Bookmark not defined
3.2 RESULTS Error! Bookmark not defined
3.2.1 Creative products Error! Bookmark not defined
3.2.2 The behavior of students after training creative thinking skillError! Bookmark not defined
3.2.3 The results of tests Error! Bookmark not defined
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CONCLUSION AND PETITION Error! Bookmark not defined.
REFERENCES Error! Bookmark not defined.
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INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century, the appearance of high technology society and knowledge economy brings human a vast of challenge To adapt and develop in new society, people must have qualifications as well as abilities which are appropriate to this global change
In the demand of the information society and knowledge economy, educators should enhance the quality of education, replace the old methods by the new ones The core purpose of education is that education should train students ways of thinking, enhance independent thinking to bring into play students’ ability and creativity
Teaching chemistry not only enhances the personal knowledge but also applies this learning into real life or forms a new one Chemistry teachers are instructors who train thinking for students, such as observation ability, problem solving ability, scientific imagination ability … through learning, which nurtures critical and creative thinking skills Specially, creative teaching methods are the key point for this development
On the other hand, chapter 1 (Atom) and chapter 2 (The periodic table and the periodic law) consist fundamental and difficult knowledge in chemistry program which guides students to study other parts of chemistry Thus, it is the reason why we choose two
chapters as the main chemical contents to research the thesis: “Improving creative
thinking of high school students through chemistry teaching”
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through creative teaching methods (Major topics: Atom – The Periodic Table – The
Periodic Law, Class 10 Basic Program)
We apply the creative teaching methods in teaching chemistry in order to improve creative thinking skills for high school students, which nurtures the teaching and learning quality
- Investigate the theory relating to the topic: Changing the teaching methods Training creative thinking for high school students
- Carry out a survey in high schools to study the use of creative teaching methods
in teaching plan and the train of creative thinking skill for high school students
- Investigate the purpose and contents of chemistry program in high school, especially these topics: Atom – The Periodic Table – The Periodic Law, Class 10
Basic Program
- Build up creative teaching methods and a system of chemistry questions &
exercises to develop students’ creative thinking
- Evaluate the efficiency of experiment lectures through creative products and the
results of tests
5 SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS
If creative teaching methods and a system of chemistry questions & exercises are applied well, creative thinking skill of high school students will be nurtured
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6 THE NEW POINTS OF THE THESIS
- Building up some creative chemistry lectures (Major topics: Atom – The Periodic Table – The Periodic Law, Class 10 Basic Program) to teach students in experiment part
- Collecting and selecting a system of chemistry questions & exercises (Major topics: Atom – The Periodic Table – The Periodic Law, Class 10 Basic Program) to
train creative thinking for students
7.1 Theoretical investigation
- Investigating the theory of creative thinking relating to the topic
- Collecting and analyzing the theoretical materials
7.2 Realistic investigation
- Carry out a survey in high schools to study the use of creative teaching methods
- Exchange the views between chemistry teachers about the contents and form of teaching
- Build up experiment lectures using creative teaching methods and techniques and a system of chemistry questions & exercises
- Using the mathematical statistic in educational scientific research to treat the experiment data
8 STUCTURE OF THE THESIS
Introduction
Chapter 1: The main theoretical concept
Chapter 2: Methodology
Chapter 3: Intervention, result and discussion
Conclusion and Petition
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CHAPTER I: THE MAIN THEORETICAL CONCEPT 1.1 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY AND BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
As educators we are all familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy, created in the 1950′s by Benjamin Bloom, and the more recently revised 2001 version adapted by Lorin Anderson
The chart shown below compares the original Bloom’s taxonomy with the revised one:
Figure 1.1: Bloom’s Taxonomy and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
This new taxonomy reflects a more active form of thinking and is perhaps more accurate The new version of Bloom's Taxonomy, with explanations and keywords is shown below:
Remembering – retrieving, recalling or recognizing knowledge from memory
Remembering is when memory is used to produce definitions, facts or lists, or recite or retrieve material
Understanding – constructing meaning from different types of function be they
written or graphic
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Applying – carrying out or using a procedure through executing or
implementing Applying related and refers to situations where learned material is used through products like models, presentation, interviews and simulations
Analyzing – breaking material or concepts into parts, determining how the parts
relate or interrelate to one another or to an overall structure or purpose Mental actions include differentiating, organizing and attributing as well as being able to distinguish between components
Evaluating – making judgments based on criteria and standards through
checking and critiquing …
Creating – putting the elements into a new pattern or structure through
generating, planning or producing [26]
Bloom’s Taxonomy categorizes thinking skills from the concrete to the abstract - knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation The last three are considered HIGHER-ORDER THINKING Skills
Bloom’s new taxonomy positions the abilities to analyze, evaluate, and create as upper-level skills in the cognitive domain Therefore, critical and creative thinking are specific types of higher-order thinking skills that contrast with the lower-order skills of understanding and remembering Creative and critical thinking are key elements of university life and future career and they are extremmely necessary to problem-solve at school and in life, so students need develop both skills gradually over time The duty of teachers is that they should apply Bloom’s classification as guidence to check the progression of students’ thinking as well as nurture these higher-order thinking skills from early school years
But, why should students reach to higher-order thinking skills and why should teacher reach to higher-order thinking skills in the classroom? Because higher-order thinking skills have enormous benefits for students The reasoning here is similar to the
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rationale for pushing knowledge into our long-term memory First, information learned and processed through higher-order thinking processes is remembered longer and more clearly than information that is processed through lower-order, rote memorization For example, comparing the difference between memorizing a formula and explaining the derivation of the formula, a student who has the latter-type of understanding will carry that knowledge longer Moreover, the student with the deeper conceptual knowledge will be better able to access that information for use in new contexts This may be the most important benefit of high-order thinking Knowledge obtained through higher-order thinking processes is more easily transferable, so that students with a deep conceptual understanding of an idea will be much more likely to be able to apply that knowledge to solve new problems Ironically, teachers are in complete ignorance of the importance of higher-order thinking skills, they are likely to ask recall questions, which requires only remembering and understanding thinking skill, rather than require higher-order thinking skills in classroom The reason for the focus on lower-higher-order thinking skills may be very simple, it is because lower-order thinking skills are easier – easier to understand, easier to teach, easier to test, easier to learn
The level six in Bloom’s revised Taxonomy – creating – is the highest level of thinking
as Anderson arrangement He sees the act of “creating” as combining elements into a pattern that had not existed before and it is the hardest skill for teachers, students to achieve To succeed at this level, students must be able to synthesize their thinking and make predictions based on knowledge If students want to achieve them, they should begin to practice this skill from primary school Specially, by the time students reach high school years, the bulk of class assessment questions and discussions are great chance to practice creative thinking skill
Because of the importance of creativity in education and life, the following part will mention to creative thinking skill andhow to nuture this skill for further purpose