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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 2 | Page : 59-64 |
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A study of the impact of smartening schools on creativity and academic achievement among sixth grade students
Fatemeh Behjatiardakani1, Soheila Azizi2, Yasser Rezapour1
1 Department of Educational Sciences and Psychological of Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran
2 Department of Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University Ardakan, Ardakan, Iran
| Date of Web Publication | 24-Jul-2018 |
Correspondence Address:
Fatemeh Behjatiardakani
Ardakan University, Ardakan, Yazd Province
Iran
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2395-2296.237415
AIM: The purpose of this study was to consider the impact of the smartening schools on creativity and academic achievement among sixth grade students in Meybod.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: An experimental study with random cluster sampling method was conducted. The data collection method of the present study is semi-experimental with a pretest - posttest and control group design. The participants of the experimental group were selected from Imam Jafar Sadegh school. It is an intact class of 24 male students, studying at the sixth grade of elementary school. Further, a class of 21 male students, studying at the sixth grade of Haj Jawad Jandaghi elementary school, was selected as the control group. In this study, the experimental group had received training on smart schooling tools, while the control group using the traditional methods. Torrance's creativity questionnaire was used to measure student's creativity. In order to assess the student's progress during the course, their scores on both first and second semesters were used as pretest and posttest. The data were analyzed using SPSS Software Version 21 (IBM Corp.) through ANCOVA.
RESULTS: The results revealed there have been meaningful differences between the achievement and creativity of the students who received their training through intelligent training. They showed higher degrees of achievement and creativity than those who receive their studies regularly and without intelligent training.
CONCLUSION: Creativity is not just certain individuals, including thinking and mental function. However, almost all people, including children, students, workers, farmers, and housewives in school, at work, and even farm, have an average intelligence quotient in various fields of life, which can be creative performance.
Keywords: Academic achievement, creativity, smart school
How to cite this article:
Behjatiardakani F, Azizi S, Rezapour Y. A study of the impact of smartening schools on creativity and academic achievement among sixth grade students. Int J Educ Psychol Res 2018;4:59-64 |
How to cite this URL:
Behjatiardakani F, Azizi S, Rezapour Y. A study of the impact of smartening schools on creativity and academic achievement among sixth grade students. Int J Educ Psychol Res [serial online] 2018 [cited 2023 Dec 10];4:59-64. Available from: https://www.ijeprjournal.org/text.asp?2018/4/2/59/237415 |
Correction to: Int J Educ Psychol Res 0;0:0; DOI 10.4103/2395-2296.204128
This article is republished because of multiple errors including incorrect name and affiliation of 3rd author, and grammar and language corrections in Introduction, Research Methodology, Results and Conclusion.
Original Article
A study of the impact of smartening schools on creativity and academic achievement among sixth grade students
| Introduction | |  |
Today, entering the era of knowledge and experience with amazing developments in the 21st century should be based on scientific literacy, technology literacy, and numeracy, as well as on learning and also thinking and contemplation.[1] The continued use of traditional methods of teaching disabled and educational systems aquaculture memory will consequently have a positive result and cannot be treated at those brave, efficient, committed, thoughtful, critical, flexible, and raised, who deal with problems rationally and creatively to find solutions.[2] In such a system, natural impulses student and his experience in family life and finally his character will be ignored.[3]
Therefore, the methods, approaches, and even educational purposes build self-transformation; a transformation which builds and trains our people, and deserves bold, critical, and creative help. The rapid growth and increasing rate of new technologies, the explosion of knowledge, expansion of communication science, and social perspective changes toward issues with newer horizons, provide societies an inevitable principle which is the need for training human resources specialist, access to information and applications of growing scientific findings.[4]
In todays complicated world, in which a large number of changes is made in human life, and also intensive competitions are being conducted among societies to access better technology, the societies and people must change themselves in such a way as to not fall behind the technological and scientific progress and developments. In this regard, the education system is not an exception. The use of new information technologies (ITs), and the potentiality of new technology-based education show the effectiveness of IT in teaching–learning process. The widespread application of information and communication technology (ICT) in the teaching process, and the evolution of pedagogical approaches in the world provide a new potential in education which is based on new technology.
These schools which follow the development of skill-based approaches are among the key requirements of knowledge-based societies. Despite extensive efforts, smart schools in our country are still largely not operational and they are facing numerous problems. In line with the gradual movement from traditional schools to smart ones, structural and technological changes are necessary. This includes changes in school structure, educational training needs, and legal contexts. In addition, they need to increase students' thinking and knowledge in order to enable them to find practical and effective solutions to adapt themselves to new dynamic environment and also to use it optimally.[5]
In smart schools, teachers ask students to use computer to find the answer to their questions and then tell others instead of be answered by their teachers via using computer themselves can answer all the students' questions instead. Moreover, such schools can teach the students to detect reliable web-based sources of information from those which are not valid and reliable.[6]
A very important point in this type of schools is changing from memory-based method to thinking and creativity-based methods of learning. The way learning is done through a shift from memory-based learning to thinking and creativity-based learning, can help the students of these schools to become familiar with electronic technology and thus increase their individual capabilities.
In smart schools, students learn in accordance with their talents and interests, and attempt is made to help students to reach their full potentiality in all educational and extracurricular activities. Moreover, there would be no restriction for student's progression and pursuing their studies. The more restrictions students face, the less level of achievements they will have; hence, the teacher plays the role of a guide. They help the students to learn how to use their knowledge to develop the quality of their lives which provide them motivation for more progress, respectively.[7]
In such schools, the educational content is not limited to books. In fact, students can use a wide range of sources, including the internet and E-books. Today, due to extensive changes in the curriculum development, teachers and students cannot be convinced of traditional teaching methods.[8]
In smart schools, computers affect teaching and evaluation methods and they change the educational programs to some extent. However, the social functions of schools continue to exist, because they can help students in social relations. In such schools, students learn to process a lot of information and use it to enhance their learning skills and they can be acquainted with global literature or sources of information and also the work of other students and teachers of other parts of the world. The education system needs to convey information to students, and provide them opportunities for fostering creative thinking and intrinsic motivation.
One of the most important criteria in education is assessing students' progress and all the efforts of the ministry of education are implementing such issues. In other words, society and educational system particularly are concerned about the successful development of the student to reach their full potentiality and to find their way in the society.[9]
The main issue is whether the tools of smart schools can contribute creativity and academic achievement and progress of Iranian students. One of the crucial goals of smart schools is creating a dynamic and exciting environment for the achieving their full potentiality and creating individual and social creativity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of smart schools on creativity and academic achievement of students is of the 6th grade of Meybod in 2013–2014 academic year, using the results of this study can help to determine the strong and weak points of smart school approaches to improve the intellectual potentials of the country in line with global level.
They investigated the impact of educational leadership on the creativity of students in Malaysia. They considered the attempts of educational pioneers in increasing the critical and creative thinking of the students. The results of the study showed that teacher's intervention in guiding learners and providing feedback to them during teaching–learning process increases creativity and critical thinking of the students.[10]
They examined the role of ICT in School Program Systems of Tehran. The results showed that the use of ICT in education provides integrity and scheduled combination for both teachers and the students and this causes students to show their potentiality and increase their experiences.[11]
The Torrance creativity test used in this study which consisted of 225 samples declared that active methods have shown increased creativity among students, especially female students, than those of traditional methods. It was shown that comparing active method, student's creativity in traditional method was declined after a year.[12]
Another study by comparison between dynamic and traditional classes revealed that after 4 years of studying in primary school, students who had studied in dynamic system had sustainable superiority in divergent thinking than those who had studied in traditional system.[2]
In the same vein, by comparing the curriculum and syllabus design of smart schools and traditional ones, their research suggests that education is one of the main factors of development of each country and then electronic teaching can be considered as one of the most effective, valid, and newest methods in individual and organizational development.[13]
In a study, by comparing the concept of self-education and speed of learning in Smart Schools and Traditional Education System in Tehran, the analysis of the results showed a significant difference between rate of self-study and speed of learning in students of secondary schools of smart schools and traditional systems.[14]
They investigated the diversity of learners' attitudes toward ICT in Smart Schools in Malaysia. The results show that students' attitude toward the current changes in smart schools is very positive.[15]
The impact of computer-assisted instruction and network resources examined the notification and found that the device can increase student learning in history lessons. Because of the capabilities of computer technology is vastly superior to other training tool, if used correctly, can help with teaching–learning can be effective.[16]
With 99% certainty, the results indicated that due to the use of computer and IT and new strategies by experienced teachers, a significant difference was found in the students' (male and female) academic achievement compared to the students in traditional classes with debate. This difference of how to use new tools and strategies has been associated with the experience of veteran teachers.[17]
Teaching and learning activities and the preparation of teachers and students for learning and teaching English in a school setting looked smart. The results of their research show that teachers are prepared and the role of its new dynamic learning environment is favorable.[18]
| Research Methodology | | |
The data collection method of the present applied research is semi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and control group design. In this study, the effect on the creation and development of intelligent school students paid the sixth. The population-based study of all the sixth grade students in the city increases in 2013–2014 academic year. The size of the target population is 625 people. In this study, an experimental group and a control group were selected using the stratified random sampling because sampling was not possible directly from community members. Through the sampling process, a sampling unit was used instead of an individual class. Cluster sampling is used when a sample of community members is difficult. A total of 45 were selected as a sample of the population. Of these, 24 groups and 21 formed the control group. In this study 60-item questionnaire to measure students' creativity Torrance or answer every question, based on three options have been used, because of this questionnaire, performance, validity, and reliability suitable for frequent use in research and in research and training measures.
Performance of the research should be in the following manner.
- Pretest phase before the experimental intervention (acts independent variable) to students both creativity; Torrance questionnaire is provided
- The operation: Group of smart schools have been selected for 6th year in basic education are smart
- Ps-step test after the end of the smart training program to test again, both groups were given questionnaires, Torrance creativity to respond to it, and the results are analyzed.
| Results | | |
Before testing the hypotheses, in order to ensure that the two experimental and control groups were similar in terms of creativity pre-test scores, independent t-test was used to measure the difference between the mean pre-test of the two groups. The assumptions underlying this test includes examining the equality of the mean score of creativity pre-test of the experimental group and the creativity test mean score of the control group.
[Table 1] shows the results of this test. | Table 1: Results of t-test to determine whether the same group of pretest
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Results show that the obtained value of t-test to compare the creativity in both experimental and control groups (t = 0.092) is less than the critical value of t, df = 43 degrees of freedom with a significant level of α = 0.05 (2.02).
Since the F-value (F = 45.164) with a degree of freedom F (df = 1 and 42) is larger than the significance level of α = 0.05 (4.07), the null hypothesis “the mean score of the creativity pre-test of the experimental group is equal to the mean score of the control group” is rejected with 95% confidence. The results are shown in [Table 2]. Due to the higher average, the test subjects are compared to the control group and it can be concluded that the subjects in the experimental group increased their scores on the creativity test or in other words, intelligent schools has led to an increase in the experimental group creativity. The obtained index indicates that 51.8% increase in the creativity of the participants in the experimental group can be attributed to the intelligence of the schools. | Table 2: Results of covariance analysis after adjustment creativity scores of pre- and post-test scores in the experimental group and control creativity
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In the hypothesis of this study, the equality of the pre-test mean score of the experimental and control groups is examined. [Table 1] shows the results of this test.
The results indicated that the value of t obtained for the comparison of the academic achievement pre-test in both experimental and control groups (t = 0.164) is lower than the critical t value with the degree of freedom (df = 43) and the significance level of α = 0.05 (2.02). The results are shown in [Table 3]. Therefore, the hypothesis that the mean scores of experimental and control group are equal in educational achievement is confirmed, and with 95% confidence it can be concluded that the mean scores of experimental and control groups in the preacademic achievement significantly different from one another. | Table 3: Results of t-test to determine whether the same groups in pretest scores
Click here to view |
Analysis of covariance to determine the impact of schools on academic achievement intelligent subjects participating in the study is shown in [Table 4]. Since the value of F calculated for groups effects (F = 146.411) is larger than the critical value of F with the degree of freedom (df = 1, 42) and the significance level of α = 0.05 (4.07), the null hypothesis regarding the equality of the students' academic development post-tests in the experimental and control groups is rejected with 95% confidence. The results showed that 77.7% of the effect of increasing the academic achievement of participating subjects in the experimental group can be attributed to intelligent school. | Table 4: Covariance analysis to compare the academic achievement after adjusting for pre- and post-test scores of academic achievement in the experimental group and control
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| Conclusion | | |
One of the most important factors in creativity and academic achievement, and generally in the development of educational systems, is the use of new educational technologies. And in accordance with the findings of this study, the students' creativity and academic achievement can be affected by smartening schools. As the results showed, the level of creativity and academic achievement of the students in the experimental group at the sixth grade, who were trained with the smart method, was higher than that of the control group, who were not trained in the traditional way and had no access to computers and electronic equipment.
The results of this study revealed that intelligent schools affect students' creativity. It is clear that creative education must begin at home, and the 1st year of life. The study on teaching creativity in the classroom and using intelligent schools has been stressed. Obviously, creativity does not merely include the mental thinking and function of particular individuals. However, nearly all the people including students, university students, clerks, farmers and housewives, working at school, different work places, and farms, can have creative performance in various fields of life, even by having an average level of intelligent quotient.[19]
According to the results of this study, children can be taught to leave their minds out of the harshness of unconditional traditions, to consider multidimensional, non-traditional, and non-conservative thinking, to deal with issues from new perspectives and unexpected. They should not limit themselves to only one method or solution in answering academic and non-academic problems. And they should know that the progress and development of human life is the result of logical and creative thinking rather than unquestionable following of the traditional and old criteria and frameworks.
To enhance motivation and creativity that are considered as the life's gold rings in today's society, it is better for students to get familiar with computers and their use so that elementary students become able to use this technology in an easier way.
There are individual differences among students; it is undeniable. According to the results of this study, the smartening schools affects on students' academic achievement. Therefore, in IT-based classes, students are more productive and more productive (Najafi, 2006) due to their motivation, interest, computer work attractiveness and multidimensional media, especially cached tutorials. The first field is the teacher's efforts and the second zone of the interconnectedness of the student's efforts cannot be separated and if you take each other to the side like we have to cancel the training.
The results of this study schools on student achievement intelligent influenced the IT-based courses for motivated students, sexy, attractive, especially in cyberspace with computers and multimedia teaching courses, student performance, and greater efforts from the show.[20] Therefore, students in the experimental group obtained a higher academic achievement compared to the control group. One of the most important criteria in assessing education is students' academic achievements; and all efforts of this system is for the purpose of achieving this goal.
There are individual differences among students; it is undeniable. Therefore, it is suggested the content of textbooks be designed by educational material developers in such a way that each student can plan his own development path out of the classroom in accordance with his talents and abilities, and by using new technologies.
Various incidents occur in these two fields, the teachers teach the students, the students learn from the teachers, the teachers use other teachers' experiences, the students also learn from other students, etc. In common teaching, or in what is referred to as conventional teaching, the first field is always the agent which is full of energy and movement. Any order issued from the teacher must be received unquestionably by the second field, or it must directly hit the second field like an arrow that mustn't hit anything but its target. In such a training system, which is also known as teacher-based or teacher-centered training, the learners are constantly the target of the arrows coming from the teachers' bows, and should accept them with open arms; Without the permission or the possibility for them to exist, they should abandon the reciprocity over their boundary.
On the contrary, in the training of the central teacher or central teacher who has been replaced by a student or a pivot student, the second field is always on the boom and the waves of work, effort and activity penetrate to the farthest ends of the field. It creates a happy and satisfying life for the residents of this square. But in the true training, both fields are activated simultaneously and concurrently. If the training is at this stage, which is the highest type of learning-learning, the teacher also learns from his students. In other words, students can also teach their teacher and always add to their knowledge and information and professional experience. In this case, the teacher and pupil's (reflection) discussions grow there and flourish that the other two fields become a field. One of the wonderful phenomena in the true training, when two fields (Teacher and Student), together with a large, well-documented area where every kind of movement and teaching, teaching and learning activity can be done well, beautifully occurs, abundance of collective and collective activities and creative work of students. With a great and vast field in which each of the educational activities teaching and learning is as good as possible, the place is beautiful, abundance of group activities and group work, and creative students. This phenomenon leads teachers and students are trying to get to what they want or need.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3], [Table 4]
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