Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The research focused on an experimental study dealing with a teaching method for developing creative thinking in a business management classroom and the use of standardized creativity tests for measuring the effect of such training through pre/post testing of subjects. The treatment, creative training, is the independent (predictor) variable in the study which involved the deliberate and exaggerated use of imagination particularly Connection-Making and Synectics. The creativity measures were the Torrance Tests Of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and Remote Associates Test (RAT). Both of these creativity measures formed the dependent (criterion) variables in the study. The sample for this study consisted of 65 undergraduate students of both genders. Integrative complexity, a control variable, was operationalized as abstractness scores on Tuckman's Individual Topical Inventory. Perceptual style, a second control variable, was operationalized as field-dependence-independence on the Group Embedded Figures Test. The study included the analysis of covariance procedure to determine the effect of the training and a correlational study to determine the effect of conceptual levels (integrative complexity) and field dependence-independence on Creativity as measured by the TTCT and RAT. The analysis of covariance clearly demonstrated a siginificant improvement effect on creative thinking of subjects resulting from the training. Subjects did not demonstrate behavior consistent with theoretical propositions for integrative complexity and for perceptual style by responding more creatively at higher conceptual levels and field independence. The current development of education for creativity was highlighted in the study. Methods for encouraging creativity in Management were formulated and disclosed. / 2031-01-01

Poche qualità umane hanno un così forte impatto sulla nostra esistenza quanto la creatività (Scott et al., 2004). Il presente progetto di ricerca raccoglie le sfide identificate da Houtz (2003) come cruciali per la ricerca psicologica: riconoscere, potenziare e comprendere la creatività. Il progetto si focalizza sul concetto di pensiero divergente (Guilford, 1956) come risvolto cognitivo della creatività e si divide in tre studi. Il primo studio presenta un contributo alla validazione del Wallach Kogan Creativity Test (1965). Nel secondo studio ill WKCT, validato nel primo studio, insieme al Test di pensiero creativo (Sprini e Tomasello, 1989 - versione italiana del Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, Torrance 1966) è servita per valutare l'efficacia di un training di pensiero creativo. Nel terzo studio a 306 soggetti di seconda media sono stati somministrati i seguenti strumenti: Big Five Questionnaire – Children (Barbaranelli et al.,1998), Test di pensiero creativo - forma A, parte verbale (Sprini e Tomasello, 1989) versione italiana del Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT; Torrance, 1966) e una serie di item utilizzati da Choi (2004). Quindi è stata condotta una path analysis per testare un modello in cui personalità, motivazione, pensiero divergente e variabili contestuali sono predittori dell'atteggiamento creativo. / Improving creative thinking is a crucial challenge for the progress of human beings and nations (Florida, 2002). The research project aims at recognizing, fostering and understanding divergent thinking (Guilford, 1956) as cognitive aspect of creativity. The project consists of 3 studies. First study is a contribution to the Italian validation of Wallach Kogan Creativity Test (1965) with subjects aged 12. Second study is an experimental research conducted in a school with children 12 years old. A group of them followed a three-months-training that aimed at fostering divergent thinking abilities, another group served as control. Pretest and posttest were administered using Wallach Kogan Creativity Test (1965) previously validated and also the Italian version of Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1966) in the verbal form (Sprini & Tomasello, 1989). Third study presents a path analysis to test a model in which personality, motivation, divergent thinking and contextual variables are predictors of a creative aptitude.

Lietuvai įsitvirtinant Vakarų Europos erdvėje, vienas svarbiausių švietimo tikslų tampa visuomenės kūrybinių galių stiprinimas. Muzikinis ugdymas kūrybiškumo plėtotei turi ypač palankias sąlygas. Kompleksinis muzikinių veiklų, kuriose gali būti plėtojamas kūrybiškumas, taikymas nėra naujiena bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų muzikos pamokoms. Tačiau muzikos mokyklose mokant groti muzikos instrumentu, tradiciškai didžiausias dėmesys yra kreipiamas tik į reproduktyvų muzikos atlikimą. Todėl, nepakankamas dėmesys kūrybiškumo plėtotei muzikiniame ugdyme, šiame darbe apibrėžiamas kaip problema. Šis mokslinis tiriamasis darbas – tai galimybė išbandyti kūrybiškumo skatinimo galimybes muzikos instrumento pažinimo pamokose, integruojant visas 3 muzikines veiklas: muzikos improvizavimą – komponavimą; muzikos klausymą – vertinimą ir muzikos atlikimą – interpretavimą. Tyrimo objektas – kūrybiškumo plėtotė muzikiniame ugdyme. Šio darbo tikslas - atskleisti kūrybiškumo plėtotės galimybes individualiose muzikos instrumento pažinimo pamokose. Siekiant tikslo numatyti šie uždaviniai: 1. Atskleisti kūrybiškumo sampratą ir jo svarbą šiandieninėje visuomenėje; 2. Išryškinti kūrybiškumą ugdančius veiksnius ir plėtotės būdus muzikiniame ugdyme; 3. Parengti teoriškai pagrįstą priemonių sistemą, skatinančią kūrybiškumą instrumento pažinimo pamokose; 4. Įvertinti kūrybiškumą plėtojančių priemonių sistemos efektyvumą mokinių kūrybinei raiškai; 5. Parengti praktines- metodines rekomendacijas muzikos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / As Lithuania is consolidating in the space of Western Europe, the reinforcement of society’s creative powers is becoming one of the most important objectives of education. Musical development has particularly favourable conditions for the development of creativeness. The application of combined musical activities, where creativeness can be developed, is not a new thing in music lessons at secondary schools. However, at music schools, when teaching to play a musical instrument, the greatest attention is traditionally paid only to the reproductive performance of music. Therefore the insufficient attention to the development of creativeness in musical training is defined as a problem in this paper. This paper deals with the opportunity to try the possibilities of the stimulation of creativeness in the lessons of the perception of a musical instrument, integrating all the 3 musical activities, i.e. music improvisation-creation; listening to music-evaluation and the performance of music – interpretation. The object of this study is the development of creativeness in musical training. The objective of this paper is to reveal the possibilities of the development of creativeness in individual lessons of the perception of a musical instrument. In order to achieve this objective, the following tasks are planned: 1. to reveal the apprehension of creativeness and its importance in today’s society; 2.to show the factors that develop creativeness and the ways of creativeness development in... [to full text]

The purpose of this research was to determine whether an autonomous chamber music project would have a positive effect on band students’ creativity. Two primary research questions guided the study: (1) does engagement in autonomous chamber music increase the creativity of students’ performances of pre-composed music (creative products), and (2) does engagement in autonomous chamber music enhance the manner in which students navigate the creative processes of problem finding, ideation, and evaluation when preparing pre-composed music for performance? It was hypothesized that autonomous chamber music would cause an increase in both creative production and processes. Participants (N = 60) were all enrolled in a band class at one of three participating high schools. Using an experimental randomized block design, participants were evenly divided between an experimental and a control condition. Participants in the experimental condition engaged in an autonomous chamber music project, in which they self-selected into duos, selected a piece of repertoire, analyzed their chosen repertoire, conducted four rehearsals of the repertoire, and recorded a performance of the repertoire. The control group participants did not engage in autonomous music making. All participants continued to engage in all regularly scheduled band class activities during the treatment phase of the study. Creativity was measured twice—in a pretest and posttest—using the Measure of Creativity in Ensemble Collaboration (MCEC), which was designed for the study. The MCEC examines 10 indicators of creative thinking: problem finding fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and collaboration; ideational fluency, flexibility, and collaboration; and evaluation fluency, elaboration, and collaboration. The MCEC also makes use of the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) to evaluate the creativity of musical performances. Experimental and control group scores on all 10 indicators of creative thinking and on the CAT were compared to determine the extent to which the autonomous chamber music project increased creativity. No significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups for any of the 10 indicators of creative thinking, indicating that the autonomous chamber music project had no noticeable effect on participants’ creative process. This finding prompted the investigation of potential boundary conditions which may have inhibited participants’ creative abilities. No substantive relationships were found between creativity and either technical proficiency or enjoyment that suggested either limited participants’ ability to be creative. Additionally, the CAT dimensions (creativity, technical correctness, and aesthetic appeal) failed to achieve discriminant validity, making it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions on the effect of the autonomous chamber music project on participants’ creative production. The failure of the autonomous chamber music project to enhance participants’ creativity is likely a function of a number of potentially confounding variables. Task enjoyment, absolute learning, procedural knowledge, and technical proficiency each have the potential to have inhibited participants’ creativity. Though no concrete evidence explicitly implicates any of those variables in the observed lack of creative growth, the results suggest that each might have acted, in some fashion, to inhibit creativity. Each should be thoroughly investigated to provide further information regarding the relationship between autonomous music making and creativity. / Music Education

Today scholars give particular emphasis to creativity. A definite part of scholarship inquiring particularly into the problem of human creative power covers a wide range of aspects of training for creative thinking. The present work seeks to explore the chances of fostering the cognitive and the personality components of creativity in university students. Creativity means one’s ability to perceive a problem and to generate new ideas, or to think independently and deal quickly and easily with a problem situation, or to find an original way of solving a problem, or to create novel things (Guilford, 1968b; Torrance, 1974; Sternberg, O’Hara, 1999; Sternberg et al., 2005). Ability to think creatively depends not only on one’s knowledge and skills. Rather, it is determined by one’s special ability to distinguish a problem, and to utilise, speedily and in multiple ways, information contained in tasks one has been set (Guilford, 1968; Torrance, 1962). Research outlined in the present dissertation is based on theoretical assumptions advanced by cognitive (J. P. Guilford, E. P. Torrance), humanistic, and Gestalt psychology. The present work regards divergent thinking as a cognitive component of human creative power. Divergent thinking parameters covered by the present research include the fluency, the flexibility, and the originality of thinking. Thus, this particular aspect of creativity is highlighted in this work in order to verify the chances of training for divergent thinking by... [to full text]