The Effectiveness of Using the STEAM Approach in Teaching Science on Developing Divergent Thinking and Deep Understanding among Middle School Students

The current study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of using the STEAM approach in teaching science in developing divergent thinking and deep understanding among middle school students. The experimental method was used. The study sample consisted of (64) students from the third intermediate grade, with (32) students in the experimental group and (32) students in the control group. The study tools, specifically the divergent thinking test and the deep understanding test, were applied, and the necessary information and data were collected and statistically analyzed. The results of the current study indicate that there are statistically significant differences at the (0.05) level between the mean scores of the control and experimental groups in the post-test of the divergent thinking test and the deep understanding test, in favor of the experimental group. It also indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation at the (0.05) level between the total score of the divergent thinking test and the total score of the deep understanding test in the post-test among the students of the experimental group. In light of the results of the current study, a set of recommendations and proposals related to the results of this study have been included.