Creative Thinking Skills in Social Studies Written Exam Questions

In this study, Social Studies teachers tried to examine the questions in their exams according to their creative thinking skills. In the study document analysis and semi-structured interview methods were used for this purpose. A total of 2,065 questions were examined from the examinations prepared by 61 teachers working in 20 different schools in Ortahisar, which is in the central district of Trabzon. The exam questions were examined in terms of the question types commonly used in education, their class levels and their status for creative thinking skills according to their subjects. The SPSS program was used in the analysis of the questions and the findings were presented using frequency and percentage tables and graphs. Interviews with teachers were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. The themes were created from the data obtained from the interview answers. The themes were reflected on the tables according to the frequency of the teachers' answers. For better understanding of the findings, examples of the teachers' exam questions and direct quotations from teachers' answers are given under the tables and graphics. As a result of the research, it was determined that the exam questions prepared by the social studies teachers were inadequate to develop and measure the creative thinking skills of the students.