The Effect of Creative Thinking Instruction on Seventh and Eighth Graders and the Relationship of Creative Thinking to IQ and Reading Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the creative thinking skills of seventh and eighth grade students could be strengthened through classroom activities designed to stimulate fluency, flexibility, and originality. Also sought were the correlations between creativity scores and IQ, and between creativity scores and reading comprehension. This study can be considered a replication of Hicks's 1979 research, though applied to older children. The subjects were seventh and eighth graders attending an urban fringe parochial school. They composed a racially integrated reading class grouped according to reading level and content area teachers' recommendations, rather than according to proficiency in specific reading skills or IQ scores. The effect of a treatment period of eight weeks, with twenty minutes three times weekly, was evaluated by a pretest and posttest using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). A correlated t test was used to test this study's hypotheses. The finding of this study indicated that the fluency and flexibility skills of seventh and eighth grade students were not enhanced by an eight week treatment program. There was a statistically significant difference in the pre- and posttest means for originality. The correlations between IQ and the creativity variables ranged from no important relationships upward to those approaching a weak relationship. No significant relationship was found between total reading comprehension and the creativity variables. A weak relationship was found between reading and IQ scores.