EFFECTS OF A SCIENCE FICTION FILM ON THE TECHNOLOGICAL CREATIVITY OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

(KESAN DARIPADA FIKSYEN FILEM SAINS PADA KREATIVITI TEKNOLOGI PELAJAR SEKOLAH MENENGAH)

THE PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of a learning activity based on Science Fiction (SF) film or (movie) on the technologic of creativity of middle school students.

INTRODUCTION

Technology defined as “Human innovation in action.” Technology Education Association (2006), which defined technology as “Human innovation in action.” Williams (1999) believed that the most common type of innovation involves developing new products and improving existing ones. Creativity is important in technology education, efforts to develop creativity often focus on thinking, and education about technology tends to focus on practical hands-on skills and products.

LITERATURE VIEW

In the technological world, one of the most important elements of technological literacy is technological creativity. technological creativity is crucial to technology education, it lacks a substantial research base and a comprehensive framework for classroom-based education as it is a relatively new discipline. Technological creativity refers to the creativity shown by students during hands-on activities.

Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about science and technology of the future. Science fiction texts also include a human element, explaining what effect new discoveries, happenings and scientific developments will have on us in the future. Science fiction texts are often set in the future, in space, on a different world, or in a different universe or dimension. Science fiction have positive impact on the development of technology, and this is because the science fiction always offer many new concepts about the development of technology. If these concepts have practical values and the science fiction are definitely helpful to our students in learning technology. Take the nuclear-powered submarines, rocket to the moon, and nanometer-robots for examples, they are developed somewhat according to the influence of science fiction. Science fiction and science fiction film provide newly technological innovation ideas; help to stimulate students’ imagination

and the basic concepts of science and physics to university or senior high school students. Science fiction and science fiction film are help to develop a physics curriculum that effectively used film to help students understand scientific principles. Besides that, Science fiction and science fiction film  also used to stimulate student interest in learning science and to generate student interest in learning science. Science fiction and science fiction film are considered valuable for teaching science because they induce longer-lasting mental images than do traditional approaches.

Learners with different cognitive styles have different preferences for interacting with multimedia software, and that these preferences affect learning effectiveness. Learners with different cognitive styles produced different results based on the learning environment. Cognitive styles have been categorized into either “holistic–analytic” or “verbal–visual” style. The holistic–analytic cognitive style refers to a method of data organization that focuses primarily on the overriding message and seeks to understand the relationship between various objects. The verbal–visual style refers to a focus on visual or verbal signals.

METHODS

We also analyzed their use of different learning styles in terms of their technological creativity using SF-filmbased learning activities.

Research design

To complete the studies, we used quasi-experimental and unequal-controlgroup pre- and post-test design models to explore the effects of SF-film-based learning activities on middle school students’ technological creativity. We used the Williams Creativity Scale as a pre-test to remove the influence of pre-existing differences in imagination. The post-test analyzed differences in technological creativity after SF-film-based learning activities. To ascertain whether learners with different cognitive styles produced different results based on the learning environment.

Research subjects

Sixty-three students from two classes acted as the control group, and 69 students from the remaining two classes formed the experimental group from the normal teaching school in Taipei City.

Research implementation

The study was conducted for a total of 10 hours over the course of 10 weeks between April and June of 2011. The Williams Creativity Scale was drawn to measure student creativity. The Style of Processing scale (SOP) was used to determine student cognitive styles as this instrument has a high degree of reliability. The control group did not watch any SF films and instead simply discussed the topic that was introduced.

Research tools

The SF film used in this study was “I am Legend”. SF film was the availability of a Mandarin Chinese translation of both the book and the film. Besides that, SF stories which are published in serial form, this book consists of only a single volume, making it easier to use in this experiment. Creativity Tendency Scale to measure middle school students’ creativity. We used the SOP scale to measure middle school students’ cognitive styles. The purpose of the film worksheet was to help students reflect on relevant film content and guide them in remembering the portions of the film that most stimulated their imaginations.

Data analysis and interpretation

We used an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to analyze our data. We also performed an ANCOVA to explore the relationship between cognitive style and group membership (control vs. experimental) on technological creativity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Effects of a SF film on product-design concepts proposed by middle school students

Students in the experimental group obtained higher imagination scores than did those in the control group; they also performed better with regard to technological creativity than did students in the control group. According to this research results, this study suggested that students’ technological creativity with respect to modeling and structure were affected by differences in the pedagogical processes. SF film is not just able to stimulate student’s interest, but also able to stimulate student’s technological creativity.

Cognitive style and SF-film-based learning activities

Based on the result, Show that the technological creativity of  students with visual-type cognitive style was affected by differences in the pedagogical approaches.

CONCLUSIONS

SF can stimulate middle school student’s technological creativity and enhance their ability to design product improvements. Students view SF film performed better than did students who did not view the SF film. Film into the practical educational activities can stimulate students’ imaginations and enhance their ability to design product improvements. SF films with direct relevance to product design would have a significant impact of students’ performance. SF help stimulating the imaginations of middle school students, contributing to their ability to develop concepts and product improvements. Hands-on learning activities based on students’ cognitive styles are effective in stimulating students’ technological creativity. learners with visual-type cognitive styles perform better when engaging in practical technology-education design activities after seeing a SF film.