Torrance Tests Research Articles

Investigating divergent thinking and creative ability in surgeons (IDEAS): a survey protocol

IntroductionA strong pipeline of creative ideas and individuals is critical if we are to tackle the complex healthcare challenges we will face in the 21st century. The field of creativity...

Impact of students’ attitudes about distance learning on their creativity

Introduction. Since 2020, education systems around the world had to shift from traditional classroom-based methods of teaching and learning to different types of remote or distance learning. Therefore, the shift to distance learning is able to provide some understanding on how this model of learning influences student motivation and creativity. Purpose. The study aimed to reveal how student positive or negative attitudes about distance learning influenced their creativity. Methods. The intervention took place at V.O. Sukhomlynskyi National University of Mykolaiv in Ukraine. The research was based on such methodology as a document analysis of student works, conducting a survey, and the correlation analysis. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, a Likert scale questionnaire, the correlation analysis in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were utilized as the research procedure. Results. The research findings revealed that while studying remotely on the elective course of Marketing during 2020-2021 academic year at V.O. Sukhomlynskyi National University of Mykolaiv, students’ attitudes toward distance learning in terms of their attitude to the platform used by the teacher affected their creativity. Conclusion. The main implication of the study is that educators should pay more attention to the platform of distance learning they use to teach students remotely. Understanding that students’ attitudes toward the necessity to study remotely may decrease their creativity, teachers can redirect remote learning toward blended learning and combining traditional and distance forms of learning to support the high level of student creativity.

The importance of developing creative thinking in the preparation of music education professionals in universities

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the level of development of a creative mindset in the training of music education professionals. The research is based on the experimental method which examines the level of creativity of students before and upon completion of the developed training program focusing on development of the creative thinking using cutting-edge technology. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was used to measure the level of students’ creativity. The study was conducted at the School of Music, Soochow University. A total of 95 students were involved in the experiment. According to the results of the pre-test, the majority of students (52%) have a low level of creativity development, while 35% have an average level and only 13% have a low level. The findings of the study show the high importance placed on developing creative thinking skills as part of music training programs in universities.

Developing students’ creative thinking using innovative education technologies

ABSTRACT The development of creative thinking is an important task of modern education. The purpose of this study is to empirically confirm/disprove the hypothesis that the tools of an educational environment with innovative technologies contribute to the development of pedagogy students’ creativity. For this purpose, a creativity course was designed and implemented. Before and after the course, students were assessed using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. Similarities or differences between the control and experimental groups were tested using the χ2 criterion. After taking a course to develop creative thinking, the situation in both groups changed significantly. The research is of theoretical and practical value for teachers and pedagogy students interested in creative thinking development and/or implementation of digital technologies in the educational process. It also has value for software developers. The effectiveness of implementing technological innovations in the educational process depends on these specialists.

Developing a Graphic Design Thinking Model to Enhance the Creative Thinking

In this paper, based on Bloom's Taxonomy and Double Diamond Model, this study explores to development of the Graphic Design Thinking Model, which involves the knowledge dimension and the cognitive dimension, and it will be used to improve creative thinking for solving problems in relevant design courses. To test this hypothesis, the researcher will measure the effectiveness of this model used in the implementation of design projects and compare the improvement of various indicators of creative thinking. The respondents are 30 students from one university in China majoring in art and design, who were asked to take a pre-test, and a post-test according to the GDT Model in the graphic design course. The researcher has referred to the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and used a Likert scale to determine the pre-test and post-test scores in the design projects. The results analyzed by SPSS show that the GDT Model can help students to realize the creation of graphics, significantly improving their creative thinking.
 
 Received: 15 December 2022 / Accepted: 26 February 2023 / Published: 5 March 2023

Research-based approaches to the development and assessment of the creative abilities of future international specialists by means of teaching a foreign language

Introduction. Updated requirements for specialists in foreign relations in line with currently changing practice of foreign relations call for developing in undergraduates such professionally relevant creative skills as finding creative solutions to professional challenges and introducing innovative approaches in the conservative paradigm. Conventional approaches prevalent in teaching a foreign language cannot reveal the full potential of fostering creative skills in future professionals in foreign relations, thus calling for developing and substantiating new effective tools of comprehensive development of creativity through teaching a foreign language in undergraduates majoring in foreign relations. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted at MGIMO University, in 2017-2021. The total number of participants was 151 undergraduates, School of International Business and Business Administration, and International Institute of Energy Policy and Diplomacy, with 74 participants in the educational experiment. The analysis was based on the data obtained through administration of the psychometric instruments the Rokeach Value Survey, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, and additional instruments designed on the basis of relevant projective techniques. Results. The analysis of data obtained for the experimental and control groups shows more noticeable changes in the parameters under study in the experimental group. For high developmental level of creativity, 22.16% increased to 51.88% in the experimental group, compared to increase from 13.3% to 14.2% in the control group. For basic developmental level, 36.2% reduced to 15.14% in the experimental group, compared to decrease from 44.78% to 40.8% in the control group (tEXP=6; p<0,05). The findings from the psychometric measurements are consistent with the findings from the projective techniques, where improvement in performance correlates positively with higher scores for the relevant parameters. The analysis additionally looked into the changes in the profile of scores and in separate scores in the experimental group. Discussion and Conclusion. The findings of the study support the expected increase in the parameters under study in the experimental group, and substantiate effectiveness of the set of instruments designed to develop and measure professionally relevant creative skills through teaching a foreign language in undergraduates majoring in foreign relations. The approaches verified in the study were used to develop the authors’ foreign-language course, which offers practical application of the instruments described here. Further research should explore the correlation of higher creativity scores with higher academic performance as well as the quality of knowledge

How do the 4E approach and actives methodologies contribute to rethinking creativity in teacher training?

How do the 4E approach and actives methodologies contribute to rethinking creativity in teacher training?

Investigating the involvement of cognitive control processes in innovative and adaptive creativity and their age-related changes.

Based on the two-factor model of creativity, two distinct types of creative problem solving can be differentiated: innovative ("do things differently") and adaptive ("do things better"). Flexible cognitive control is a crucial concept in connection with both general and specific styles of creativity: innovative problem-solving benefits from broader attention and flexible mental set shifting; while adaptive creativity relies on focused attention and persistent goal-oriented processes. We applied an informatively cued task-switching paradigm which is suitable for measuring different cognitive control processes and mechanisms like proactive and reactive control. We hypothesized that adaptive creativity is connected to effective proactive control processes, while innovative creativity is based on reactive task-execution. As we have found no previous evidence how age-related changes in cognitive control affects creative cognition; we also examined the effect of healthy aging on different problem-solving styles in an explorative way. Our participants, 37 younger (18-30 years) and 37 older (60-75 years) adults, were divided into innovative and adaptive creative groups according to the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking's Figural Subtest (Hungarian version). Our results showed that among younger adults the adaptively creative group had larger cue-locked CNV component (effective preparatory activity connected to proactive control), while the innovatively creative group had a larger target-locked P3b component (effective target evaluation and categorization in line with reactive control) which supports a functional difference in the two creative styles. By contrast, in older adults innovative problem-solving showed larger mixing costs (less effective maintenance and selection of task sets), and the lack of trial type effect on target-locked N2b (target-induced goal reactivation and less effective conflict resolution); while adaptive problem-solving caused them to make fewer errors (accuracy-oriented behavior). All in all, innovative and adaptive creativity is based on distinct cognitive control mechanisms in both age-groups, but their processing level is affected by age-related changes.

Effect of the STEAM Method on Children’s Creativity

In the globalization era, education requires schools to create students who can think critically in terms of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) and carry out their activities independently. For instance, the rapid development of technology has changed how people communicate, interact, eat, and perform other things. This causes education to become important in preparing students to be independent. Therefore, teachers need to follow the latest developments regarding strategies, approaches, or methods in the learning process. Agyei, D. D., & Voogt, J. (2012). Education is an effort used in helping students to develop their potential, abilities, and talents. This study aims to examine the effect of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) on the creativity of children aged 5-6 years at Lenterahati Islamic boarding school. In this study, the STEAM method is the independent (X) and creativity is the dependent variable (Y). This instrument preparation is known as the Torrance test of creative thinking consisting of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration skills. A total of 25 children in the preschool were selected as the participants using a pretest and posttest. The results showed there is a difference in students' creativity before and after receiving STEAM treatment. This method uses loose parts which help to increase children's creative thinking. High creativity is characterized by fluent, flexible, original, and detailed skills. Therefore, the use of STEAM in learning can increase children's creativity and provide them the ability to solve problems as well as connect with the environment.

Integrating Creative Thinking Skills Pedagogies into a Higher Education Visual Arts Course

AbstractAlthough there has been increasing international emphasis on creativity in education, many creativity training programmes have focused on enhancing students' creative thinking skills with few studies on how these skills can be integrated into the teaching of subject disciplines. As a member of a Community of Practice project that ran from spring 2021 to summer 2022 at my university, I worked with ten university teachers from multiple disciplines to develop and implement instructional strategies to foster students' creative thinking skills. The paper documented the development, implementation and evaluation of creative thinking skills teaching strategies for a higher education course in visual arts. Both the development of the teaching strategies and the measurement of the impact on student learning have undergone vigorous research procedures and made reference to the existing literature. The effectiveness of the activities was assessed using multiple methods including the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, a self‐report inventory, and a focus group interview. The results indicated the new learning activities enhanced students' creative thinking skills. They also showed that creativity can be developed through teaching while revealing that playfulness, freedom and structure, group interactions, and problem‐solving activities are beneficial for the development of creative thinking skills. Readers may better understand the different ways in which creative thinking skills instruction materials can be developed and incorporated into teaching of visual arts by making reference to the strategies suggested and the process of development in the paper.

Interactive Learning Environment Through Visualization to Promote Creative Thinking Among Non-Major Undergraduate Computer Science Students Learning Computer Programming Subject

This study aimed to investigate whether the experience of learning using a visual interactive learning environment through visualization impacts performance and dimensions of creative potential in terms of creative thinking. Sixteen (16) non-random non-major undergraduate computer science students learning computer programming subjects were exposed to a visual interactive learning environment through visualization in a pre-experimental single group pre-posttest research design. Before and after participants learn using visual interactive learning environment through visualization for six (6) weeks, they must complete three Visual tests and two verbal tasks of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The study showed significant evidence that the performance and creative level of the students are better after learning using a visual interactive learning environment except for Verbal Fluency and Verbal Flexibility dimensions of Creative thinking. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

Measuring flexibility: A text-mining approach.

In creativity research, ideational flexibility, the ability to generate ideas by shifting between concepts, has long been the focus of investigation. However, psychometric work to develop measurement procedures for flexibility has generally lagged behind other creativity-relevant constructs such as fluency and originality. Here, we build from extant research to theoretically posit, and then empirically validate, a text-mining based method for measuring flexibility in verbal divergent thinking (DT) responses. The empirical validation of this method is accomplished in two studies. In the first study, we use the verbal form of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) to demonstrate that our novel flexibility scoring method strongly and positively correlates with traditionally used TTCT flexibility scores. In the second study, we conduct a confirmatory factor analysis using the Alternate Uses Task to show reliability and construct validity of our text-mining based flexibility scoring. In addition, we also examine the relationship between personality facets and flexibility of ideas to provide criterion validity of our scoring methodology. Given the psychometric evidence presented here and the practicality of automated scores, we recommend adopting this new method which provides a less labor-intensive and less costly objective measurement of flexibility.

Research Roundup: Thinking Outside the Square: Cultivating Adult and Youth Creativity

Although we have experienced great advances in scientific and technological knowledge over the decades, research suggests that the pace of innovation is slowing down. Creativity is “the process of having original ideas that have value,” yet a recent article surveying decades worth of data and patents reports that innovative papers and patents in science and technology are becoming less disruptive over time.Since 1990, children have experienced compelling losses in scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). In 2010, educational psychologist, Kyung Hee Kim coined the term “creativity crisis” to refer to this steady decline.Having a creative thought and following it through with action is what has enabled humans to evolve. Without creativity, we would not have vaccines to combat illnesses, we would not have flush toilets, and we would not have libraries with electronic check-out systems. Creativity gives us the ability to face new problems and the courage to envision and try different solutions until we find the right one.

The effectiveness of creativity development program on problem solving skills and creativity in 4 to 6 year old children

Aim: The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of creativity development program on problem solving skills and creativity in preschool children. Method: This research was practical and semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population of the research included all children aged 4 to 6 in Isfahan city in 2021. In order to carry out the research, 30 children were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method and were equally replaced in two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The members of the experimental group participated in the creativity development program during 12 sessions of 60 minutes, while the subjects of the control group did not receive any intervention. Subjects were evaluated using Torrance test of creative thinking (1974) and the London Shalis Tower Test (1982). The data were analyzed using covariance analysis. Results: The findings indicated that the creativity development program had a positive and significant effect on problem solving skills and creativity in preschool children (P<0.05). Conclusion: Therefore, from the findings of this research, it can be concluded that creativity development program can play an important role in improving problem solving skills and creativity in preschool children

Pengembangan Instrumen Penilaian Kreativitas Mahasiswa pada Matakuliah Kimia Lingkungan

This study aims to develop creative research instruments for prospective chemistry teacher students in environmental chemistry courses. This instrument was developed using the 4D model, but was carried out until the expert validation test stage was carried out by 3 expert validators who were competent in the field. The results of the validation carried out by the three validators obtained an average score of 3.62 with very valid criteria. The instrument questions were made based on the TTCT-V (Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Verbal) on water pollution. Besides being able to see creative thinking abilities, this test can also show students' cognitive abilities and problem solving. However, it is necessary to carry out further research to see the practicality and effectiveness of the developed test instrument.

Effectiveness of the Formal Aspect of the Torrance Test Identifying Levels of Creative Thinking among Tenth Grade Students: A Case Study

This qualitative study aims to identify levels of creative thinking, including the skills of fluency, originality, details and flexibility, among a group of tenth grade students in Palestine from Jerusalem and Ramallah schools, according to the gender variable, using the formal aspect of the Torrance test of creative thinking. The study sample consisted of students females selected from Secondary School for Girls and males from one of the Excellence School. The results differences in the degree of originality, flexibility and details in favor of female students, and a difference in the degree of fluency in favor of male students, which reflects the societal context with regard to their creative thinking skills. In light of these findings, the researchers recommend the manner of presenting the educational curricula be reconsidered and that teachers be given training in the use of creative thinking strategies and enrichment activities during the presentation of educational content, thus also enhancing creativity among their students.

Pembentukan Ad Divergence Pada Iklan Kreatif Kredivo Versi #Sefleksibelitu

Creative advertising raises interesting points inherent in the ad itself. This is because the concept of divergent thinking is adapted and developed in advertising science with 5 main dimensions, namely originality, flexibility, elaboration, synthesis, and artistic value, which is commonly called Ad Divergence by Robert E Smith from Torrance Test of Creative Thinking and Guildford Theory on creativity. This research method uses descriptive qualitative, namely by collecting data through observation, documentation, and literature study. Research on the formation of Ad Divergence in Kredivo's Creative Ads Version #Seflexbel is to find and identify the application of Ad Divergence in Kredivo's fintech product advertisements. The results of the study show that there is the formation of each dimension of Ad Divergence, but only 2 dimensions dominate the application in the ad.

STEM Education-Based Learning Management for Creative Thinking Development: Length Measurement Lessons of Grade 3 Students

The main purpose of this research was to develop 3rd grade students’ creativity to meet a criterion of 70% by using the STEM Education-based learning management. The target sample included six 3rd grade students of Dongsankaewdongsamran School, Chanuman District, Amnat Charoen Province, Thailand. This research took place in the second semester in the academic year 2020. The design of this research was action research conducted in two cycles. The research instruments were 1) two lesson plans based on the STEM Education-based learning management, 2) the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), 3) a student behavior observation form, and 4) an interview form. Statistics for data collection were mean and percentages. The results showed that in cycle 1 the STEM Education-based learning management improved four students (66.67%) to pass the criterion of 70%. In cycle 2, two students passed the criterion of 70%. All of them finally passed the criterion (100.00%). In conclusion, the STEM Education-based learning management can promote and develop students’ creativity in each cycle.

Bilingualism and creativity: Benefits from cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility.

Bilingualism has been shown to be associated with creativity, but the mechanisms of this association are not very well understood. One possibility is that the skills that bilinguals use in switching back and forth between languages also promote the cognitive processes associated with creativity. We hypothesized that high-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals would show higher convergent and divergent thinking than low-proficient bilinguals, with the differences being mediated by cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility, respectively. Chinese university students (N = 54) were classified as high-proficient (n = 27) and low-proficient (n = 27) bilinguals based on their performance on the National English Test for College Students. As expected, group comparisons showed that the high-proficient group had higher scores on the Remote Associates Test (RAT, convergent thinking) and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT, divergent thinking). Also as expected, the association between bilingualism and convergent thinking was mediated by scores on a Stroop task (cognitive inhibition), and the association between bilingualism and divergent thinking was mediated by scores on a More-odd shifting task (cognitive flexibility). These findings suggest that bilingual learning can promote the development of different components of creativity through stronger cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility. The results provide empirical evidence for the relationship and mechanism between bilingual learning and creativity.

What do educators need to know about the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: A comprehensive review.

One of the most important questions that educators try to answer is how to prepare new generations of students for an unpredictable future. Students need to learn several skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication (the 4 Cs). Creativity, especially, is an essential skill in a complex and unforeseeable world/era, and an important step in any effort to enhance creativity is to identify students' creative strengths and relative weaknesses. This review aims to offer school psychologists and other educators such as teachers, policymakers, and curriculum designers a comprehensive and practical guide to one of the most well-known creativity assessments-the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) that was developed by E. Paul Torrance in the 1960s. The paper discusses the history, components, training, psychometric properties, and uses of the TTCT. Contrary to the notion that the TTCT is only a measure of divergent thinking skills, the current article presents its other uses. It is the authors' hope that teachers, school psychologists, and other educators will find the information reported in this article useful to better understand the TTCT and use it most effectively.