Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets and future skills: Innovative educational units for enhancing creative problem-solving in tenth-grade students

Abstract

In an era defined by rapid technological advancement and economic uncertainty, creative problem-solving (CPS) has emerged as a cornerstone of future-ready education. Yet traditional curricula often lack the instructional strategies needed to develop the thinking skills and cognitive flexibility essential for navigating real-world challenges. This study contributes to the evolving pedagogy of CPS by designing and testing innovative educational units that integrate entrepreneurial education, creativity-focused thinking, and structured CPS methodologies, including TRIZ - a theory-based inventive problem-solving approach that guides learners to overcome constraints through systematic thinking. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior and the 21st-Century Skills Framework, the study proposes a distinctive approach that combines motivation, skill acquisition, and applied problem-solving. Conducted among 10th-grade students in Muscat, Oman, the study employs a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of these units on three core CPS dimensions: problem understanding, idea generation, and solution development. Data were collected using a validated Creative Problem-Solving Test (CPST) and analyzed across experimental and control groups. Results revealed significant gains in the experimental group, particularly in idea generation (78.74 %), followed by problem understanding (76 %) and solution development (75.33 %). Gender analysis showed that female students outperformed male students across all CPS dimensions, emphasizing the importance of gender-responsive pedagogical strategies. By bridging motivational theory with cognitive skills training and creativity research, this study offers a scalable, evidence-based model for embedding CPS in secondary education. The findings not only align with Oman’s Vision 2040 but also contribute to global discussions on designing instructional interventions that foster innovation, adaptability, and inclusive problem-solving capacity in young learners.