Work

Fostering students’ creative thinking skills by means of a one-year creativity training program

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Creative thinking is among the most sought-after life and work skills in the 21st century. The demand for creativity, however, exceeds the degree to which it is available and developed. The current project aimed to test the effectiveness of a one-year creativity training program for higher education. The creativity of students following the training was measured before, halfway, and after the training. In addition to the within-subjects comparison across time, performance was compared to a matched control group. At each of the measurement points, different versions of seven well-validated creativity tasks (capturing divergent and convergent creative thinking skills) were employed. The creativity training increased students' ideation skills and, more importantly their cognitive flexibility. However, no difference in originality was observed. Finally, an increase in performance was observed for one of the convergent creativity tasks, the Remote Associate Test. Implications for educational settings and directions for future research are discussed.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229773

Authors: Simone M. Ritter, Xiaojing Gu, Maurice Crijns, Peter Biekens

Institutions: Radboud University Nijmegen, Fontys University of Applied Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Creativity in Education and Neuroscience

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,695