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Current evaluations in science education research of discovery based science programs give no clear indication of the merit of these new science programs. Getzels and Jackson's studies in creativity suggest that permissive and authoritarian family environments may influence development of creativity and IQ respectively in children. It was reasoned that findings relating family and school environments to creativity could have relevance in science education where discovery based science programs are having a profound effect on altering science classroom environment. It was hypothesized that permissive science classroom environments would produce significantly higher posttest creativity means than the control. Since a current science education goal is to enhance student question asking skill (e.g. Inquiry Training) and since findings indicate question asking styles are related to aptitudes, it is hypothesized that high creative and high permissive groups will have significantly higher factual and yes-no question score means whereas high intelligence and low permissive groups will have significantly higher explanation question score means. Creativity tests used in this study include Guilford's Uses Test and the Question Test from Torrance's Ask-and-Guess Test. The Question Test also yields factual, yes-no, and explanation question scores. To assess classroom environment, the Classroom Environment Scale was developed. Item choices were classified by seven judges into the three environmental categories. The sample consisted of four grade seven classes, three experimental and one control. Experimental groups were taught the ESS unit, Batteries and Bulbs. The experimental groups included a semipermissive group which was taught the unit according to suggestions in the teacher's guide, and the permissive and authoritarian groups which, respectively, had less and more teacher control of classroom environment than the semi-permissive group. Experimental groups were shown to have significantly different classroom environment means in the direction expected. Data for testing hypotheses of this project came from a field experiment and a field study. For the field experiment a before and after design was used, analysis of covariance being employed on the group post creativity means with significant covariates derived from step-down regression analysis of pretest data. All significance levels are at the 5% level. Results of the field experiment indicate that for the more valid creativity test, the Uses Test, the group post creativity means of the permissive and authoritarian groups were significantly larger than the control group post mean. With the Question Test, which lacked discriminant validity in regard to intelligence, only the authoritarian group post creativity mean was significantly larger than the control post mean. For the field study high and low groups were formed using medians of creativity, intelligence and classroom environment as cutoffs, with analysis of variance and the F-test used to detect significant differences in means of question scores or question gains of these high and low groups. When question gain data showed non-normality the Chi-square test was used with significance at 1%. Field study results show that the high creative group had significantly higher mean yes-no and factual question scores than the low creative group, whereas the high intelligence group had a significantly higher mean explanation question score than the low intelligence group. Chi-square analysis revealed significant divergence in factual and explanation question gains for low and high permissive groups. For aptitude-environment interaction low aptitude-low permissive interactions contribute most to divergence of factual question gains and high aptitude-low permissive interactions contribute most to divergence of explanation question gains. Strongest divergences in group question gains came from intelligence environment interaction. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

An experiment was conducted in order to distinguish between semantic elaboration and interacting imagery theories of children's linked noun pair learning. Grades 2 and 6 students were presented with sixteen pairs of nouns linked by different types of connectives and following learning set presentation were required to recall the second noun of each pair upon presentation of the first. One third of the Ss in each grade were asked to form visual images of the two nouns of each pair (Imagery Prompting condition); one third were instructed to form interacting images of each pair (Imagery Training condition); and the remaining Ss were given no special instruction (No Training condition). Results from the experiment showed No Training and Imagery Training Ss to be unaffected by the type of connective employed to link the pairs. However, those Ss in the Imagery Prompting condition recalled significantly more pairs linked by interaction suggesting links (i.e., verbs and interaction suggesting prepositions) relative to pairs linked by connectives which did not suggest a physical interaction (i.e., conjunctions and non-interaction suggesting prepositions). The results were interpreted as favouring an interacting imagery rather than semantic elaboration theory of children's linked noun pair learning. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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In spite of the growing popularity of virtual worlds for gaming, recreation, and education, few studies have explored the efficacy of 3D immersive virtual worlds in post-secondary instruction; even fewer discuss the ability of virtual worlds to help young adults develop creative thinking. This study investigated the effect of virtual world education on creative thought for university level students. Over the course of two semesters, a total of 97 university students participated in this study. Forty-six of these participants (experimental group) spent time in a specially designed virtual world environment, the V.I.E.W., while 51 of the participants (control group) met exclusively in a real-world classroom. Creative thought was measured before and after the intervention with the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Verbal Forms A and B. Although the experimental group's ending scores did not reach the level of the control group's scores, results showed overall statistically significant gains for the experimental group at p = .033. The experimental group also achieved greater gains in the subcategories of fluency and flexibility, with significance at p = .036 and p = .043, respectively. At the end of the course, independent raters measured the creativity expressed in student art critiques, using a scale developed for this study. No overall significant differences between groups were found in the art critiques, except in the category of spatial awareness, where the experimental group's scores were significantly higher than the control group's scores at p = .039. For both instruments, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate statistical data. Results suggest that immersive worlds can be at least as well suited as traditional university classrooms for developing creative thought—particularly in the context of art education. Implications for researchers, students, educators, and administrators are discussed.

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This study investigated the relationship between divergent thinking, assessed by the Product Improvement and Unusual Uses tests of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (1974), and hemisphericity. Hemisphericity, cerebral hemispheric dominance for language function, was assessed by a dichotic listening technique. Sex, age, hand preference, and verbal expression (assessed by a subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities) were controlled. Subjects were selected at three age levels: four years, seven years, and ten years. For the four-year-old group, the findings indicated that a significant positive relationship existed between the fluency and flexibility scores on the Product Improvement task and right dominant subjects; while a significant negative relationship existed between the flexibility scores on the Unusual Uses test and right dominant subjects. In an effort to explain these contradictory findings, the low correlation between the flexibility scores on the Product Improvement and Unusual Uses tasks was noted and discussed in terms of the possibility that these two tests were not measuring the same construct. The effect of hemisphericity on divergent thinking did not reach significance for any other age group. No meaningful interactions were found when the following independent variables were analyzed: sex x hemisphericity, age x hemisphericity, hand preference x hemisphericity, and verbal expression x hemisphericity. When cerebral dominance was examined across the three age groups, there was an increase in mixed dominance with increasing age. This finding was discussed with regard to the physiological maturation of the corpus callosum which may contribute to interhemispheric communication. Further discussion acknowledged that with an increase in age and cognitive growth comes the ability to better use both cerebral hemispheres. Several limitations were considered in the discussion of the results of this study. These included: insensitivity of tests, attentional factors, the role of memory in the dichotic listening task, technical limitations associated with equipment, and the paucity of previous research on which to build in the area of hemisphericity and its relationship to creativity. It was concluded from the findings of this study that for preschool age subjects, there is a positive relationship between right hemispheric dominance for language and the fluency and flexibility scores on the Product Improvement Task. With regard to the development of hemisphericity, the findings of this study indicated a trend toward greater mixed dominance with increasing age. / Ph. D.

This study was conducted to examine the relationships among teachers' playfulness scores and creativity scores and their styles of interaction with children in a play environment. The Play Interaction Scale, the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM), and the Adult Behavior Inventory were administered to 46 students (future teachers) and 37 teachers of three- and four-year-old children in group settings. The Play Interaction Scale, developed for this study, was based on the five environmental components identified by Rubin, Fein, and Vandenberg (l983) as facilitative of play. The instrument was comprised of 20 play vignettes. Subjects indicated the frequency with which they might respond in a structured, elaborative, or unstructured manner to each vignette. The subjects' creativity was measured by using the MSFM and playfulness was determined by each subject evaluating themselves on the Adult Behavior Inventory. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed for the teacher group and the student group. The expected relationships between creativity, and playfulness, and an elaborative teaching style were found for the student group. However, the elaborative style of interaction and ideational fluency were not significantly related in either group. The predicted negative correlation between creativity and a structured interaction style was found only for teachers. / Master of Science

Creative thinking is a multi-faceted trait. It encompasses a constellation of intellectual abilities and personality characteristics. In this study cognitive and personality components of creative thinking were included in an instrument. From the relevant literature the most important cognitive components in order of importance were problem finding, original problem solving, general problem solving, knowledge, and attentiveness to detail. Lack of conformity was suggested to be the most important personality component. Measures of these components of creative thinking were developed. Data were obtained by interviewing 110 third-grade children (M = 8.9 yrs), from which 80 sets were randomly selected to develop a scoring scheme. The scoring scheme was utilized to derive a statistical equation to quantify creative thinking for each individual. To ascertain the reliability and consistency of the developed scoring scheme, the author and two graduate students independently scored the remaining data (30 sets). The coefficient of variability for the three groups of scores were computed by means of pooled estimate of variance. This quantity was found to be .02 which is remarkably small. The relative contribution of each component to creative thinking and the interrelationship between them have been discussed. whether problem finding and problem solving are two separate cognitive processes was also discussed. / Ed. D. / incomplete_metadata

This diploma thesis examines the impact of playing RPG on the development of players'creative thinking. Our aim was to analyze the development of creative thinking in relation with RPG playing. This development was observed in the group of beginners and advanced players and in the control group during six months using creative thinking tests (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking - Figural, Urban's Test for Creative Thinking- Drawing Production). Tests were administered three times, in the beginning, after 3 months and after 6 months. During the second measurement the experimental group was also assigned a Creative Personality Scale (CPS). The obtained values were processed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and t-tests. Overall, it has not been conclusively proved that playing RPG influenced the creative thinking development of players, but a certain trend of improved creativity, especially in RPG-beginners was observed. We found out that the gaming intensity (hours per week) and the creativity are not related. A positive relation between the CPS score and the creativity improvement and also relation between the age and the creativity improvement was established. KEYWORDS RPG, creative thinking, Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking - Figural, Urban's Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing...