Seyed Abbas Razavi
Abstract
Creativity is recognized as one of the key skills in the 21st century. Higher education curricula should cover this skill seriously. The purpose of this study was to explore students' experiences of the creativity process in project-based learning. For this purpose, a descriptive phenomenological method ...
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Creativity is recognized as one of the key skills in the 21st century. Higher education curricula should cover this skill seriously. The purpose of this study was to explore students' experiences of the creativity process in project-based learning. For this purpose, a descriptive phenomenological method was used. Participants were 11 undergraduate students who were studying educational sciences at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz and were selected by purposive sampling method. Inclusion criteria were: undergraduate student in educational sciences, passing an individual project course, doing a creative project, and willingness to participate in the study. The students were involved in a creative project (making an educational game) for approximately 4 months. At the end of the project, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the students. Data were analyzed by a seven-level Colaizzi method. To increase the accuracy of data analysis, MAXQDA software was used. Data analysis revealed four main themes: a) Experiences related to encountering the project, b) processes, c) supportive resources, d) outcomes. Each of the main themes had other sub-themes. Based on the research findings, suggestions have been made to facilitate and improve the students' creativity process.
nasrin darash; sakineh shahi; seyed abbas razavi
Abstract
Introduction Mathematics teaching has important role in people mental and social improvement. In current digital world, teaching math is increasingly necessary, but many problems may occur in students’ functioning in math. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of George Polya’s ...
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Introduction Mathematics teaching has important role in people mental and social improvement. In current digital world, teaching math is increasingly necessary, but many problems may occur in students’ functioning in math. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of George Polya’s mathematics method on problem solving skill and math achievements of fifth grade female students in Dezful. Method This research was a quasi-experimental research with the design of non-equivalent groups. Three female primary schools from three different social-economical regions of Dezful, "uptown, city center, downtown", were selected by cluster random sampling method. In each school, two 5th grade classes were selected. Then, one class was assigned randomly to experimental group and the other one as the control group. The number of the students in each group was 65 persons. Research instrument was a descriptive researcher-made test that implemented in two steps (pre-test and post-test). This descriptive 20 items test included 5 main questions. Each question included 4 minor questions that assessed components such as comprehension, strategy selection, calculation and assessment, in the way of George Poliya`s problem solving. The validity of the test was confirmed by some experts in education. For investigating the reliability, Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.81. Univariate and multivariate analysis of variance was used to analysis data. Findings The findings showed that the mean scores of experimental group had a significant increase in post-test, in comparison to pre-test; that means teaching problem solving skills has a significant positive impact on the students’ achievement. The highest effect was on comprehension (ŋ2 = 0.57), strategy selection (ŋ2 = 0.56) and review (ŋ2 = 0.57), and the lowest effect was on calculation (ŋ2 = 0.42). Conclusion Based on these finding, we can say that problem solving is a learnable skill, and must be taught to reach academic progress, especially in mathematics. By teaching this skill, the important part of academic disappointment of students in math can be diminished.
