The Effect of TRIZ-Based Science Course Activities on Students’ Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of TRIZ-based instructional activities implemented in fourth-grade science lessons on students’ creative thinking and problem-solving skills. The research employed a quasi-experimental design involving experimental and control groups. The study was conducted with 30 fourth-grade students selected through criterion-based purposive sampling. Sixteen students participated in the experimental group, while fourteen students formed the control group. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Problem-Solving Skills Test were used as data collection instruments and were administered as both pre-tests and post-tests. During the intervention process, the experimental group participated in science lessons enriched with TRIZ-based learning activities, whereas the control group continued their instruction according to the existing curriculum. The collected data were analyzed using non-parametric statistical techniques. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was applied for within-group comparisons, while the Mann–Whitney U Test was used to examine differences between the groups. The findings showed that the experimental and control groups displayed similar levels of creative thinking and problem-solving skills prior to the intervention. However, after the implementation, students in the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher scores in several sub-dimensions of creative thinking as well as in both the sub-dimensions and overall scores of problem-solving skills. No statistically significant improvement was observed in the control group.These results indicate that integrating TRIZ-based activities into science instruction can effectively support the development of students’ creative thinking and problem-solving abilities by encouraging the generation of original ideas, flexible thinking, and systematic approaches to solving problems.