EFFECTIVENESS OF CERTAIN LEARNING SITUATIONS IN PHYSICS ON ENHANCING CREATIVE THINKING OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Creativity is an important aspect of human development. Creative thinking is one of the important thinking skills. Creative thinking skills are the ability of the individuals to use the mind to generate new ideas, new possibilities and new inventions based on originality in its production. Revision of school curriculum to promote thinking skills is essential for competing in the international arena. The present study was intended to prepare certain learning situations for the enhancement of creative thinking among secondary school students, and also to check the effectiveness of the prepared learning situations in enhancing the creative thinking of them. Experimental method was adopted for the study. Non-equivalent two group pretest-posttest design was the experimental design followed. 72 students from Trivandrum district were the sample, selected randomly from among the secondary school students' population. Learning situations for enhancing creative thinking, based on secondary school physics topics and creative thinking test were the tools used for the study. Paired t-test and critical ratio were the statistical techniques employed. From the statistical analysis, it was clear that the prepared learning situations were effective in enhancing creative thinking of secondary school students.