Effects of Artistic and Technological Context on Physics Problem Solving for High School Students

This study examines the effects of the introduction of artistic and technological factors on science problems for the activation of creative and integrated thinking. We developed problems consisting of STA(problems that introduced technological and artistic factors on the College Scholastic Ability Test) and TA(problems that introduced artistic factors in a technological context). Subjects of the study included 60 high school senior students in Daegu. Their problem solving processes for STA were examined. Four students were interviewed using the retrospective interview method. Also, after finishing TA, the problem solving processes of four students were examined. The results of the study are as follows. First, students selected scientific context more than artistic and technological contexts. It was found that students preferred short length problem in order to solve problems in a short time. Second, students were more interested in artistic and technological contexts of STA than scientific context, but felt that they were more difficult. Moreover, students were more interested about the context of TA than scientific context. Third, irrespective of the given contexts in STA, students have a tendency to solve problems through relatively brief ways by using core scientific knowledge. This can seem to mean that there is a possibility to stereotype the problem solving process through repeated learning. Logical thinking and elaboration were observed, but creativity was not conspicuous. In addition, integrated thinking was not observed in all contexts of STA. Fourth, science related problems of TA showed similar results. However, in problems related to everyday life, students made original descriptions that they based on their daily lives. Particularly, in creative design, original ideas and integrated thinking were observed.