How can technological creativity be taught in the Saudi Arabian elementary school context?

Abstract

Teaching technological creativity in the Saudi Arabian school context can support the inclusion of technology education in general education. To support this view, the thesis proposes that technological creativity be a topic taught in the elementary school context. The intention is to assist pupils aged six to twelve years to learn how to be creative through planning and carrying out activities. The thesis attempts to introduce the concept of technological creativity to gain insights that can help to enlighten pupils technologically in a way that aligns with Islamic culture. A Critical Interpretative Synthesis (CIS) methodological approach was conducted to identify, select, synthesise, and analyse integrated papers on teaching technological creativity at the elementary school level from 21 developed countries. Papers from a variety of sources, 135 altogether, were selected for the synthesis and to develop a synthesising argument (theoretical framework), derived from constructs generated in the papers included. The text of each of the papers was treated as data and objects of inquiry. This makes CIS different from meta-ethnography (ME) in that it does not aim only at aggregating or summarising findings from studies but rather at developing a clear argument around the chosen topic in order to produce a mid-range theory based on a large, diverse body of literature. The analyses were performed in two major stages: identification, inclusion, analysis and the appraisal of papers; and developing a synthesising argument derived from the synthetic constructs embedded in the integrated papers dealing with the question, how can technological creativity be taught in the Saudi Arabian elementary school context? The synthesising argument provides a new model of interpretation developed from the findings of CIS and the synthesis process. The thesis argues that a true understanding of the benefits of this topic can be achieved through a consideration of the findings of this thesis based on the critique of relevant papers drawn from the research literature of a number of developed countries. The research study seeks to encourage the education of pupils through teaching them creative processes and helping them both appreciate and enjoy technology education. Thus the aim includes developing their personality and sense of self-worth. It is also hoped that this research will be of interest to teachers in elementary education, curriculum developers, Saudi scholars and future researchers of technology education.