[[alternative]]Developing Students' Creativity Through Designing STS Exploratory Experiment

[[abstract]]This study is to develop students' creativity through designing soybean curd and starch paste STS exploratory experiments. Two modules were designed based on five-phase learning procedures with 22 processes associated with creativity as a dynamic guideline for planning learning activities. The 22 processes are the learning contents as well as the assessment tasks, which were used in: (a)finding evidence of performance indications for creativity; and (b)evaluating effectiveness of the activities in promoting creativity. Video - based anchors were designed and used for small group and class cooperative learning, divergent thinking skills (e.g., brain storming) were used to promote open-ended, multiple dimensional thinking. Convergent thinking skills (e.g., cause-effect method) were used to screen, analyze, and refine suggested ideas to develop successful opinions. In each step of exploratory experimental design, students begin by diverging and then by converging before proceeding to next step. Each group identified and designed a creative exploratory experiment and presented it to the class for challenge and criticism. The lead group defended, debated, and revised the design. Then each group took turns to lead class activities. The results were displayed as posters, which were evaluated by the class. The whole process was videotaped. Data from direct observation, video-taped records, portfolios, and peer assessments were analyzed. The results are as follows. (1)(a)Fluency in divergent thinking of individuals is in the normal range. (b)Small group and class learnings promoted their divergent thinking. (2)Flexibility was analyzed in terms of four dimensions of thinking: experience oriented, analogical, analytical, abstract. For all the groups, experience oriented thinking (that related to life and chemistry experiments) was used predominately, reflecting academic background of the participants, followed by others in decreasing order. (3)The designing by the case group was evaluated for (a)originality, (b)tangibility, (c)scientific thinking, (d)scientific skills, (e)dramatic value, and (f) acceptability. The class ruled that the idea meets all criteria but (f). Professional capability included abilities of designing and scaffolding activities and assessment of learning outcomes. This creativity cultivating model was found effective in developing teachers' professional capabilities (portfolio assessment) and the exploratory experiment design was observed to significantly improve students' creativity.