Analysis of the relation between creativity level and problem solving skills of gifted and talented students

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between intellect and creativity level of students with gifted, and to understand the relationship between their creativity level and creative problem solving skills. The target group of this study consists of a total of 20 primary school students between the ages 7 and 10; it is determined by the counseling and research center that the students involved in the study have gifted and talented. The study is carried out in Nezahat Gokyigit Botanical Garden in Turkey; the Botanical Garden presents a natural living and learning environment to students who voluntarily participated in this study. A and B forms of The Test for Creative Thinking–Drawing Production TCT-DP is used in the study to determine the creativity levels of students. Students carried out extensive discussions about building hydroelectric power plants on the basis of Six Thinking Hats method and creative problem solving stages. The students wrote down their thoughts about each step to the study guides specifically designed for this purpose. After completing the answering and application processes, semi-structured interviews are held with students and data are collected. The obtained data indicates that there is not a meaningful difference between IQ score and creativity levels of students. According to the study results, there is a relationship between Urban Creativity test scores and creative problem solving skills. It is observed that students with high scores create more ideas (fluency), they have more ideas in different categories (flexibility) and their ideas are more extraordinary (originality). On the other hand, it is determined that there is no difference between groups in terms of detailing thoughts (elaboration).    Key words: Gifted and talented education, relationship between creativity and intellect, creative problem solving-creativity relationship.