Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2004

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

R. Steve McCallum

Committee Members

William H. Calhoun, Sherry K. Bain, Christopher H. Skinner

Abstract

Using a quasi-experimental design, with pretest and posttest measures with multiple probes, the effects of divergent thinking training (with explicit instruction) on creative worksheets, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT; Torrance, 1990) and story-based problem solving tasks (Realistic Story Telling Problems Activity) were investigated. Explicit instructions for originality enhanced the originality scores on figural creative worksheets and explicit instructions for fluency enhanced the fluency scores on both figural and verbal creative worksheets for experimental group members (n = 15). In addition, experimental group members made significant gains on originality scores on the TTCT (p. < .05), Problem Solving (p. < .05) tasks from the Realistic Story Telling Problems, fluency scores on the TTCT (p. < .001), and Problem Identification (p. < .05) and Problem Solving (p. < .05) tasks from Realistic Story Telling Problems; control group members (n = 15) did not. Implications of the findings of this study are discussed.

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