The Effect Of Steam-Based Actıvıtıes On Collectıve Creatıvıty Of Gifted Students In Science Classes

The study utilized the Science Classroom Creativity (SCC) scale, originally developed by Hong et al. (2022) and adapted into Turkish by Alkış Küçükaydın and Akkanat Avşar (2025). The SCC scale consists of 49 items and encompasses nine sub-dimensions: cognitive traits, affective traits, intrinsic engagement, classroom environment, teacher cognitive support, teacher emotional support, individual creativity, and collective creativity. The reliability of the scale has been well established, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.90 to 0.96 and McDonald’s omega coefficients ranging from 0.90 to 0.98. Validity evidence supports the use of the scale within the Turkish student population, and creativity levels have been analyzed across various demographic variables (Hong et al., 2022). The sample of this study consisted of 45 students formally identified as gifted, currently enrolled in grades 5 through 8 at the Bodrum Science and Art Center (BİLSEM). As part of the intervention, these students were engaged in 50 hours of STEAM-based activities, during which they were challenged to light an LED bulb in 50 different ways. The SCC scale was administered both before and after the intervention. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software package, and the findings were interpreted and reported accordingly. Statistical analyses examined changes in collective creativity with respect to grade level, school type, and gender. Results indicated that 8th-grade students achieved higher scores across multiple dimensions, reflecting a developmental progression in creativity aligned with age. In contrast, students’ cognitive, affective, and creative development did not differ significantly based on school type; students from both public and private schools demonstrated similar gains and were similarly impacted by the intervention. This finding highlights the effectiveness of the program regardless of institutional background. Moreover, mean scores did not significantly differ by gender (p > .05), suggesting that gender was not a determining factor in overall creativity outcomes. However, male students scored slightly higher in the sub-dimensions of teacher cognitive support and individual creative behavior. These observations may inform the development of gender-sensitive instructional strategies in science education. The results of the study demonstrate that the STEAM-based LED experiments significantly and positively influenced all dimensions of collective creativity (p < .05). Group work, design-oriented thinking, and teacher support were particularly influential throughout the process. In light of these findings, the study recommends the increased integration of STEAM-based activities in gifted education programs and emphasizes the importance of incorporating collective creativity as a focus in teacher training initiatives.