EFFECTIVENESS OF SYNECTICS MODEL OF
TEACHING IN ENHANCING CREATIVITY, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT
MOTIVATION OF LEARNERS
Sesadeba Pany
INTRODUCTION
The
growth and development of human civilization since the pre-historic era till
today is the result of explosion of knowledge and innovations in different
fields. All such innovations are directly or indirectly related to human
ingenuity and creative potentialities. As such, the creative individuals are
the treasure of any nation. Creativity as a psychological construct is more or
less present in each and every human being which is to be unfolded and
nourished through a well planned and purposive system of education. Creativity
is not only concerned with the creation of novel products but it is very much
concerned with innovation of original solutions to problems at hand. As such,
creative potentialities of the individuals need be developed among all the
individuals through appropriate means for the greater benefit of the society.
Education as we know is the most effective means for development of the innate abilities
of the individuals, appropriate educational programmes need be evolved in the
form of teaching techniques for the development of creative ability of the
children. It may be mentioned here that the present day classroom transaction
system provides little opportunity for creative work. The materials presented
to the pupils are very much polished and finished products providing very
little scope to think critically and divergently. Therefore, the teachers need
be trained in appropriate creative teaching techniques to develop the same
among the children. The synectics model of teaching is one such approach specifically
meant for enhancing creativity. The term synectics refers to putting irrelevant
things together. Such task is generally accomplished by use of metaphorical exercises
the keys to development of conceptual distance and ultimately contributing
towards development of creative potential. This model of teaching generally
consists of two approaches such as Making Familiar Strange (MFS) and Making
Strange Familiar (MSF). On the MSF approach a number of research evidences are
found in
OBJECTIVES
The
study was undertaken with the following objectives;
*To
study the effectiveness of the Making Familiar Strange (MFS) approach of
synectics model of teaching on development of learners' creative thinking
ability,
*To
study the impact of MFS approach of synectics model of teaching on development
of learners achievement in the subject general science and
*To
study the impacts of MFS approach of synectics model of teaching on achievement
motivation of the learners.
HYPOTHESES
The
following hypotheses were formulated and tested in the process of investigation
through appropriate techniques;
1 The
Making Familiar Strange (MFS) approach of synectics model of teaching has no
significant impact on the creative thinking ability of the learners.
2
The MFS approach of synectics model of teaching has no significant impact on
learners’ achievement in General Science.
3
The MFS approach of teaching has no significant impact on learners’ achievement
motivation.
METHODOLOGY
The
investigator of the present study followed the non-equivalent control group design
of quasi-experimental type. For the purpose of experimentation two primary
schools of Bhubaneswar city having almost similar facility were randomly
selected out of four apparently similar type of schools with regard to their
management, infrastructural facility; teacher and student strength. All the 35
subjects of the experimental group and 36 subjects of the control group were
subjected to the teaching of 18 lessons on General science. The experimental
group was taught by the investigator himself by following the MFS approach of
Synectics model of teaching whereas the control group was taught by their
regular class teacher by following the traditional method of teaching. Further,
for the purpose of the assessing creative ability, academic achievement and
achievement motivation the investigator had used the verbal and non-verbal test
of creativity as developed and standardized by Baquer Mehdi (1985);
comprehensive achievement test on General science and achievement motivation
inventory as developed and standardized by the investigator himself. The
subjects of both the groups were pre and post tested on all the dependent
variables such as; creativity, academic achievement and achievement motivation.
The pretest scores of both the control and experimental groups were found
almost equivalent when tested for their normality of distribution. As such, all
the hypotheses were tested by means as applying the ‘t’ test statistical technique.
MAJOR FINDINGS
The
major findings of the study are presented briefly in the following: The Making
Familiar Strange (MFS) approach of synectics model of teaching was found to be
effective in enhancing the creative thinking ability of the learners.The MFS approach
of synectics model of teaching did not prove to be effective in enhancing the
achievement motivation of the learners.The MFS approach of synectics model of
teaching did not put any significant impact upon the achievement of the
learners in the subject General science.
CONCLUSION
Creativity
as one of the important psychological construct is found among the entire
individual in different degrees. It is not only essential for individual
development rather has substantial contribution towards the growth and development
of civilization from various angles, Therefore, attempts through appropriate
teaching strategies like synectics model of teaching should be taken for
enhancing such ability among the learners. It may also be suggested that steps
may be taken to apply this approach with necessary modification for developing
the academic achievement of the learners in different curricular areas and achievement
motivation of the learners. However, the results of the present study do not
encourage the use of the MFS approach in teaching with the objectives of
enhancing academic achievement and achievement motivation.