Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the impact of cell division teaching designed with computational thinking applications on the creative thinking skills and opinions of 7th-grade middle school students. The teaching design used in the research was created by taking inspiration from a study that provides application steps in the literature and was revised by the researcher. The research, which examines creative thinking skills in both quantitative and qualitative dimensions, was conducted based on the mixed methods design. The study group of the research consists of 39 students attending the 7th grade in two different classrooms of a state school located in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul province during the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. Since the study was conducted during the pandemic period, it was carried out online. Throughout the implementing period, the teaching design integrated with computational thinking skills was done with the 21 students in the experimental group, while in the control group, consisting of 18 students, lessons were conducted according to the existing constructivist approach. Torrance Creative Thinking Test was used as the data collection tool in the quantitative dimension of the research, and a Creative Thinking Question and Semi-structured Interview were used in the qualitative dimension. The data obtained from the Torrance Creative Thinking Test were analyzed using the SPSS program, and it was determined that the implemented teaching design provided significantly enhanced creative thinking skills. Descriptive analysis was conducted on the data obtained from the creative thinking question in terms of flexibility, fluency, and lateral thinking, and it was observed that there was an improvement in students' creative thinking sub-skills and lateral thinking skills parallel to the quantitative findings. The data obtained from the semi-structured interview were analyzed using the MAXQDA program, and it was concluded that students found the teaching integrated with computational thinking skills more enjoyable and were able to easily integrate these skills into other subjects and daily life.

Keywords: Computational thinking skills, Creativity, Algorithm design, Cell division, Science education

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

Şener Koruk, S., & Benzer, E. (2025). Teaching cell division topic using computational thinking skills and determining its’ impact on creative thinking skills and student perspectives. Education and Science, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.15390/ES.2025.2445