Studying the Association between Thinking Styles and Creativity among Students

Abstract

Background: Developing thinking skills has been receiving considerable attention in educational systems. Students are taught how to use the power of thinking to live a better life. Understanding and utilizing ways of thinking as a preferred approach of reasoning, assessment, and judgment in different aspects of life seem to be influential. This paper aims to study the relationship between viewpoints and creativity in students of Torbat Heidariyeh University of Medical Sciences in 2015.Methods: Sternberg Wagner Thinking Styles Inventory and Abedi Creativity Questionnaire were used to collect the data among students. 13 styles of thinking were studied. Data was analyzed by SPSS20. P<0.05 considered significant.Findings: The mean score of students’ creativity was 97.88±19.17. The highest (24.96±2.43) and lowest (14.11±1.16) mean score belonged to anarchic and legislative styles of thinking respectively. Our findings indicate that local (r=-0.176) and conservative (r=-0.701) forms of thinking are negatively related to creativity. In addition, legislative (r=0.512), global (r=0.634), liberal(r=0.653), hierarchical (r=0.181), anarchic (r=0.356), internal (r=0.198), and external (r=0.189) styles of thinking were positively related to creativity. With respect to legislative (r=0.045), judicial (r=0.23), conservative (r=0.009), and external (r=0.001) styles, no significant difference was observed between male and female students.Conclusion: It is imperative to pay considerable attention to thinking styles and their influence on students’ creativity. As thinking styles are teachable, the hope is that those styles of thinking that create active learning and facilitate creativity in students be taught to learners and teachers.Keywords: creativity, thinking styles, students