The Effectiveness of Arts-Based Mathematics Interdisciplinary Curriculum in Enhancing Students’ Creative Problem Solving Skills among Secondary School from China

Abstract

This study explores the effectiveness of an Arts-Based Mathematics Interdisciplinary Curriculum in enhancing creative problem-solving (CPS) skills among secondary school students in China. Traditional mathematics instruction in China tends to emphasize rote learning and test preparation, limiting opportunities for students to develop creativity and innovation. In response, the present research embeds arts in mathematics lessons in order to test the hypothesis that such an interdisciplinary approach to teaching enables students' creativity and enhances their CPS competence. It has a quasi-experimental design with a total of two classes selected to participate: one for the experimental group, which received the arts-based interdisciplinary curriculum, and one for the control group, which continued with traditional teaching. Both groups were tested using the PISA 2012 Creative Problem Solving assessment before and after the intervention. These results indicated that the experimental group indeed showed significant enhancement in their CPS, as manifested in the significantly higher post-test PISA scores for the former over the latter. The effect size (Cohen's d = 0.913) demonstrated that there was, in fact, a very serious effect of arts-based curriculum enhancement of creative thinking and problem-solving. The study, therefore, concludes that the inclusion of the arts in mathematics instruction allows the student to be educationally whole and also enhances adaptability, critical thinking, and innovative problem-solving skills. This would have been a bonus for the interdisciplinary teaching method in preparing students for changes that occur around them in the world and would underscore creativity in education.