Effect of Training in Creative Thinking Skills on Educational Psychology to Achievement of Tertiary Education Students

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of training in creative thinking skills on Educational Psychology II achievement of tertiary education students. The study adopted a pre-test, posttest and control design. Four research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The undergraduate Creative Thinking Questionnaire (UNCTQ) was employed in data collection. The instrument was developed by the researchers and it had two items bordering on creativity and critical thinking. It has a ceiling point of 100%. Undergraduates who scores less than 50% were selected through randomization for the study. The objective of selecting them was to teach them creative thinking skills. The UNCTQ was used at pre-test before the training exercise. UNCTQ-1 which was reshuffled after the six weeks training on creative thinking was the second instrument which served as a post-test instrument. The instrument was validated by specialists and was determined to have reliability coefficients of 0.71 and 0.80. Data collected was analyzed in two domains: Descriptive statistics was employed in answering the research questions whereas analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) was employed in testing the hypotheses formulated. The study found that participants in convergent treatment group had improved achievement mean score at posttest assessment; those in divergent thinking treatment group improved and higher achievement mean score at posttest and that those in inspirational thinking skill group obtained a higher achievement mean score at posttest. The study therefore recommends as follows: that training in creative thinking be encouraged in all tiers of education in Nigeria, using the techniques of convergent, divergent and inspirational thinking skills etc.