Abstract
Creative thinking has been greatly emphasized in secondary school education; it is therefore important to cultivate preservice teachers’ professional knowledge in creative thinking instruction. Visible thinking is one type of thinking approach that acquires learners to start with objectively and carefully observing and documenting their surroundings or a given object. Then, learners document their thinking process and reflect on their learning. The study aims at employing visible thinking to enhance preservice teachers’ professional knowledge. Fifty pre-service teachers who were preparing for being secondary school teachers participated in an 8-week (3 hours per week) experimental instructional program, in which visible thinking processes were employed. Repeated Measure Analysis of Variance demonstrated that the training program designed in this study effectively improved the preservice teachers’ professional knowledge in enhancing students’ dispositions and skills of creative thinking, F(2,49) = 53.74, p < .001, ηp2 = .52. Moreover, some open-ended questions were employed. Content analysis showed that visible thinking practices through the assignments of mind mapping, SCAMPER, six-thinking hats, imagination practices in everyday life, and instructional design are important mechanisms underlying this success. This study provides easy-to-use instructional strategies for cultivating preservice teachers’ professional knowledge in creative thinking instruction.
Author Information
Yu-chu Yeh, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Jui-Ling Chiang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Yu-Shan Ting, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Chih Min Wang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
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