A preliminary study on the level of creativity among chemistry students in district of Melaka Tengah

Abstract

Nowadays, 21st-century education emphasizes creative thinking skills among students all over the world. Creativity is not only limited to art education but can also apply to STEM education inclusive of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to solve the real-world problems. However, there are still few studies in Malaysia that focused on creativity in secondary school. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of students' creativity based on four creativity domains including fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. The research used survey design involving 54 students that underwent Chemistry subject in Melaka Tengah district as the sample. This study used an open-ended question consisting of a Chemistry Creativity Test to collect data. The data were analyzed using a quantitative and qualitative approach. The study found that overall levels of chemistry students' creativity were at the lowest. The result also reported the majority of chemistry students were unable to solve the real-world problem in many ways, lacking in producing a lot of ideas, the ideas were less originality and lack of idea elaborations. The implication of this study is to provide awareness of teachers to improve the student' creative thinking through effective teaching and learning strategy.