Convergent and divergent thinking in the meaningful learning of the english language for high school students of the third year of bachelor at the Dr. Francisco Campos Coello public high school in Guayaquil during the first quimestre of the school year 2013-2014

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the implementation of convergent and divergent thinking techniques promotes the meaningful learning in the classroom, and also to encourage teachers to become more interested in applying new methods and techniques. The students were observed using checklists for classroom observations to analyze and determine which of the learning activities that were used to work in class belonged to convergent and divergent thinking. Students were then introduced to new class activities; they worked for a week with activities like: mind mapping, brain storming, free writing, creating dialogs and questions and other activities that belonged to convergent and divergent activities. There were two groups that were considered for the proposal: a control group and an experimental group and the effectiveness in the classroom was measured by means of a pre-test and a post-test. The results were then focused to determine if there was any incidence of convergent and divergent thinking in the meaningful learning in the classroom...