The impact of STEM technology on the development of primary school students’ creative thinking skills: An experimental study in Kazakhstan

This study is aimed at developing the scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills of primary school pupils, as well as their creative and higher-order thinking abilities, through STEM-based teaching. The main aim of the study is to determine the effectiveness of developing primary school pupils' creative thinking abilities within the context of STEM education. The research was conducted in three phases: diagnostic, formative, and summative. Within the experimental design, pre and post-tests were administered to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught a specially developed, STEM-based programme over one academic term, while the control group received instruction through traditional teaching methods. The measurement instruments used in the study included Chambers' “Draw-A-Scientist Test” tasks and Torrance's “Finish-a-Picture” creative thinking tasks. The collected data were processed using the SPSS statistical programme and analyzed with the appropriate statistical methods. The research findings revealed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups. The effectiveness of the STEM programme implemented during the experiment was confirmed by comparing the pre and post-test results. In conclusion, the results clearly demonstrate the high effectiveness of the STEM-oriented teaching approach in enhancing the creative thinking abilities of primary school pupils.