Developmental Trends of Creative Thinking Ability and Creative Personality of Elementary School Children in Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental trends of creative thinking ability and creative personality of elementary school children in Korea. Even though Torrance (1968) conducted research on developmental trends of divergent thinking, there needs to be an integrated research on thinking ability and creative personality of elementary school children. This study is related to the development of sub-factors of creative thinking ability and creative personality. The contents of the study are as follows:First, integrated creativity test items which consist of two parts, both creative thinking ability and creative personality test, were developed and validated. Creative thinking ability test was composed of three domains - language, drawing and sound. Each domain included items to measure fluency, flexibility, and originality factors. Creative personality test included items to measure sensitivity, curiosity and task commitment factors.Second, 2,782 subjects of elementary school children who were 6 to 11 years old, were randomly sampled nationwide. Then, an integrated creativity test was administered to identify the developmental trends of creative thinking ability and creative personality. The data was analyzed according to total scores and factors. The developmental trends of creativity were identified as the result of statistical analysis.It was thought that these results would give some implications to identify gifted children and to develop educational programs for gifted and talented children.