[[alternative]]An Experimental Study of Prospective Teachers’ Creativities Affected by the Instructional Approach of Problem-solving-oriented Creative Thinking in the Technology Education Course at

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study was to investigate the elementary-school prospective teachers’ creativities influenced by the instructional approach of problem-solving-oriented creative thinking (PSOCT) in the technology education course at the National Taichung Teachers College. The author firstly reviewed the curriculum content of technology education from the main countries and the Curriculum Guide of Natural Science and Living Technology for Grades 1-9 in Taiwan, then designed PSOCT’s instructional activities which emphasized the following five conceptions: simple materials, frugal money, short time, exquisite works, and surprising learning.” After that, a quasi-experiment study was conducted to three classes of sophomore who took technology education course, A, B, C. Being randomly assigned, Class A was the control group and both Classes B and C were the experimental groups. The experiment lasted for 18 weeks. All subjects in both Classes A and B experienced pretests and posttests but all subjects in Class C only experienced posttests. Both pretest and posttest employed the New Creativity Thinking Test. Descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANCOVA and one-way ANOVA were employed to analyzed collected data from tests. In order to interpret the findings of quasi-experiment study, both portfolio assessment and interview were also utilized in Class B to explore the progress of prospective teachers’ creativities. Consequently, the following conclusions were made: (1) The PSOCT may effectively promote prospective teachers’ creativities. (2) The PSOCT’s instructional activities based on conceptions of “simple materials, frugal money, short time, exquisite works, and surprising learning,” can facilitate prospective teachers’ creativities and attitude toward creativity. (3) The PSOCT approach can help prospective teachers “play by thinking” and “play by creating.”