Investigating the Scientific Creativity of Fifth-Grade Students

Abstract

Previous research on the scientific creativity of children has been limited. The most salient limitations of previous literature have been: (a) narrowness of theoretical frameworks, (b) limitedness in using a variety of science process skills, (c) ignorance of the gender differences in scientific creativity, and (d) ignorance of elementary school students. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Scientific Creativity Test for fifth-grade students to identify scientific creativity in those students. A related purpose was to investigate the gender differences in scientific creativity. The Scientific Creativity Test consisted of three subtests: Problems and Solutions, Grouping of Flowers, and Design an Experiment. The test was administered to 138 fifth-grade students from six different elementary schools. The reliability analysis showed that the Scientific Creativity Test had a .89 coefficient as a consistency of scores. The concurrent validity analysis indicated that the Scientific Creativity Test had medium correlations with Teachers' Ratings of students' Scientific Ability (r = .42), Science Content Knowledge (r = .42), and Scientific Creativity (r = .51). The interrater reliability of the three items rated by two independent raters [1C (designing a construction about a solution), 2D (drawing a diagram about the relationships among the groups of flowers), and 3B (drawing an experiment to develop a solution for the environmental problem)], using the Consensual Assessment Technique showed medium to high correlations. The General Linear Modeling (GLM) Repeated Measures Two-Way Analysis of Variance indicated no overall significant differences between males and females. An interaction effect, however, was found. Females performed better than males in Subtest II (Grouping of Flowers) and slightly better in Subtest III (Design an Experiment). The analysis using the independent-samples t test indicated no significant differences between females and males in the scientific creativity test except in four items: 2A (grouping flowers) Fluency, 2A Flexibility, 2A Originality, and 2A Complexity. These differences were in favor of females. The findings present support of the psychometric properties of the Scientific Creativity Test in the identification of scientific creativity in children.