Exploring the effects of different interventions of the problem-oriented teaching model on students’ creativity in STEM education

Background Creativity is one of the key competencies for the talent of the 21st century to meet future challenges in a complex world. It is also an innovative basis for students to discover and pose questions.Purpose This study aimed to explore which two interventions of the problem-oriented teaching model, teacher-guided problem finding (TGPF) and teacher-directed question posing (TDQP), was more effective in terms of improving students’ creativity in STEM education.Sample A total of 60 seventh-grade students participated in this study.Design and methods The TGPF group included 30 students who adopted the problem-finding method in which the teacher guided them to find problems, while another 30 students in the TDQP group adopted the method in which the teacher directly posed the questions. The Williams Creativity Aptitude Test (WCAT) was used to test the pre- and post-creativity of the two groups. Paired samples t tests were used to verify whether the two interventions of the problem-oriented teaching model could enhance students’ creativity, and independent samples t tests were used to verify the differences between the two interventions of the problem-oriented teaching model in the enhancement of creativity.Results The results indicated that both TGPF and TDQP can improve students’ creativity. Compared with the TDQP group, the TGPF group’s students could better improve their creativity, especially in the dimensions of adventure, imagination, and challenge.Conclusion This study provides references for teachers to use different problem-oriented teaching interventions in STEM education. Teachers should break from the previous approach of direct problem posing to the creation of situations and other methods to guide students to actively think of and discover problems, so as to better improve students’ creativity.