Enhanced Open-Mindedness and Problem Finding Among Gifted Female Students Involved in Future Robotics Design

ABSTRACT This article investigated the impact of a robotic-based enrichment program on problem finding (PF) and active-openminded thinking skills (AOT) in 60 gifted female students (eighth and ninth graders) from the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The participants were randomly selected from several cohorts of gifted students who participated in an enrichment summer program. The enrichment program lasted for 4 weeks. The study instruments included the Problem Generation (PG) test and the Active-Openminded Thinking (AOT) scale, which were administered to the participants at the beginning of the program and at the end of the program. The change in the measured program outcomes after attending the robotics intervention program was assessed by a regression model, where posttest scores were regressed on pretest scores. The results revealed differences for the three subscales of AOT: Belief Identification (BI), Flexible Thinking (FT), and Dogmatic Thinking (DT) as well as the total score of the AOT in favor of posttest condition. Moreover, the results indicated that ninth graders benefited more from the enrichment program than eighth graders did. As for PF, fluency scores showed no significant differences between pretest and posttest, while originality scores were significantly higher for the posttest scores when compared to the pretest scores.