KEWS Chart’s Contribution to Promoting Students’ Creativity In STEM Education with the Topic Optics

Abstract

This study demonstrates that the KLEWS teaching technique is effective in developing students’ creative abilities in STEM education with the subject of Optics. The KLEWS chart allows students to practice logical and argumentative thinking based on scientific information and evidence. Furthermore, teaching according to KLEWS chart stimulates students’ curiosity, imagination, creativity, and desire to learn more about science. The mixed methods research was carried out on 161 eleventh grade students in Vietnam (including 80 students in the control group and 81 students in the experimental group). The research evaluates students’ creative abilities by observing students’ creative expression in normal STEM’s topics without KLEWS chart in each group. Then, for the experimental group, organize teaching STEM topics using the KLEWS chart, and for the control group, organize teaching the topics of normal STEM. The results showed that the experimental group reached a high level of creativity (7.77/10 points), while the control group had a medium level of creativity (4.81/10 points). In addition, the research found that students were excited and active in STEM activities; applied the KLEWS chart to explore knowledge of STEM topics; confidently made a presentation and had the ability to use the keywords and scientific terms listed in the KLEWS chart and link them together. The findings of this study will help to clarify the effectiveness of developing students’ creative capacity in STEM education using the KLEWS chart.