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The Effects of the Implementation of Creativity Training in the Elementary School Social Studies Curriculum
Author(s) -
CLAGUETWEET CLAUDIA
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/j.2162-6057.1981.tb00276.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , creativity , butte , citation , social studies , library science , mathematics education , computer science , sociology , psychology , pedagogy , history , social psychology , archaeology
Experimental social studies curricula and teaching procedures were developed at the McKinley School in Butte,, Montana, during the 1977-78 school term with f i f t h and sixth grade students of comparable classes. Three groups were selected at each grade leve l. The Experimen ta l, groups had c re a tiv ity tra in ing incorporated in to th e ir social studies program. The Experimental groups had c re a tiv ity train ing dispersed throughout the curriculum. The Experimental? groups acted as a non-treatment group. Instruction was conducted by regular classroom teachers and the testing was supervised by a school counselor.Tests used were the . Torrance Test of Creative Thinking and the Test fo r Inquiry Social Studies. Data'obtained from pre, post and retention testing, were used to generate class means. The class means were compared by the student's t te s t to determine i f there had been a change in means a fte r instruc tion . The data indicated that the Experimental ̂ groups' social studies means were s ig n ifica n tly above the Experimental2 and Experimental3 groups' means. The c re a tiv ity means of the Experimental ̂ and Experi mental^ groups were s ig n ifica n tly above the means of the Experimental3 groups on the sub-tests of fluency and o r ig in a lity . Indications were that c re a tiv ity s k il ls had been increased by e ither teaching strategy but that social studies s k il ls were only in creased by the Experimental! procedures. An Anova was employed to determine i f there were interactions be tween students' in te lligence or sex and teaching methods. There was no in teraction related to the sex variable. There was some main trea t ment e ffect between teaching methods and the in te lligence factor with the high and low in te lligence groups. Recommendations from th is study considered both the areas of c re a tiv ity tra in ing and social studies. Recommendations fo r social studies are the inclusion of c re a tiv ity tra in ing w ithin the social studies curriculum and use of the local community fo r social studies enrichment. C reativ ity recommendations are the use of c re a tiv ity tra in ing and creative problem solving in a spiral e ffec t throughout the elementary curriculum. x i