A Study of Teaching Methods to Promote Creative Thinking Skills of Primary School Students in Guizhou, China

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the views of rural primary school teachers in Xing Ren, Guizhou Province on cultivating students' creative thinking skills, and to formulate a teaching model that is more suitable for the current creative thinking skills through teachers' responses.

This study used a mixture of questionnaire survey and focus group interviews, and selected 354 rural primary school teachers in Xing Ren, Guizhou Province, China, and 12 teachers from 6 schools among the 354 teachers to conduct focus group interviews. The results of the questionnaire indicate that teachers perceive the classroom environment and teaching methods regarding creative thinking skills as particularly lacking, with the highest developmental needs (PNI=0.66) collectively as reflected by the Priority Needs Index (PNI). While resources and collaboration, as well as student engagement, also require attention (PNI = 0.66 and 0.64), the main focus should be on improving the classroom environment and teaching methods to develop students' creative thinking skills. In addition, the results of focus group interviews also showed that teachers should also pay attention to the classroom environment and the main role of students in teaching, and establish good communication with parents in the teaching of creative thinking skills.

This study used the results of questionnaires and focus group interviews to develop guidelines on creative thinking skills.