IMPROVING STUDENT'S CREATIVE THINKING ABILITY AND STUDENT'S LEARNING INDEPENDENCE THROUGH AN OPEN ENDED APPROACH

Abstract

This study aims to examine the differences between the Open Ended and the expository approaches in improving students' creative thinking skills and independent learning. The population in this study were all grade VII students of SMP Negeri 9 Tebing Tinggi, North Sumatra. The sample chosen in the study was class VII-1 as the experimental class which was taught using the Open Ended approach and VII-3 as the control class which was taught using the expository approach. The instruments used consisted of a test of students' creative thinking skills and an independent learning questionnaire. The results showed that the increase in students' creative thinking skills taught by the Open Ended approach was higher than the expository approach. The improvement of students' mathematics learning independence taught with the Open Ended approach is better than the expository approach and there is no interaction between learning and students' initial abilities to increase students' creative thinking skills and independent learning.