Long-Term Effects of Creativity Training with Middle School Students

Abstract

The effectiveness of a creativity-training program was investigated. Two matched eighth-grade classes of high-ability students (N = 48) were chosen for the study. The experimental group spent three days and two nights at an outdoor school learning to use the Osborne-Parnes model of creative problem solving. There was no treatment for the control group. Just prior to the training both groups were tested, and six months after the training they were retested. There were four subtests: (a) datafinding, (b) problem-finding, (c) idea-finding, and (d) solution-finding, containing both divergent and convergent sections. Mean gain scores of the two groups were compared. On every subtest the experimental group outperformed the control group significantly, indicating that after six months the skills of creative problem solving had been retained.