Is it Possible to Enhance the Creative Thinking Skills of EFL Learners through Training?

Esim Gursoy, Hatice Kübra Bağ

Abstract


In the light of continuous change of global perspectives, current educational contexts have been evolving to cover the necessary 21st century skills that the individuals must acquire. Two of the 4Cs (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication) of the 21st century educational trends; creativity and creative thinking are the key characteristics of the learners. Considering as one of the requirements of the global communication, knowing and learning a foreign language should keep up with the current improvements in the field of education. Language learners should think critically and creatively in order to communicate with people to enhance the global collaboration. The purpose of this study is to enhance students’ creative thinking skills through appropriate training and to understand the effectiveness of the stimuli type –visual or audio. A pre-experimental research design was chosen for the implementation of the training program. Two different groups –visual and audio – were given either visual or audio stimuli at the beginning of creative thinking tasks. 12 participants were chosen via convenience sampling for each group and the ages of the learners are between 12-13. The training continued for 6 weeks and the participants took 3 hours of training were week. Each training session covered creative thinking tasks which were adapted or designed for the development of creative thinking skills –fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. A task-based pretest was implemented before the treatment and the students’ creative thinking skills were measured through figural, written and oral tests and the post-test was implemented to check the effectiveness of the training program. The results were scored by two different raters and the scores were analyzed through SPSS program. The results indicate that the creative thinking capacity of both groups has improved however the visual group students have higher creative thinking after the completion of the training program. This study suggests that although regarded as a higher level of reasoning, creative thinking can be enhanced to some extent among the secondary school learners of English and it should be a part of EFL curriculum as an essential learning skill.

Keywords


Creativity, Creative Thinking, Creative Thinking Training, 21st Century Skills, Visual-Stimuli, Audio-Stimuli

Full Text:

PDF

References


Acar, S., Burnett, C & Cabra, J. F. (2017). Ingredients of creativity: Originality and more. Creativity Research Journal, 29(2), 133-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2017.1302776

Baer, J. (2011). Domains of creativity. In Runco, M. A., & Pritzker, S. R. (Eds.). Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 2). (pp.404-408). USA: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375038-9.00079-0

Boden, M. (2001). Creativity and knowledge. In A. Craft, B. Jeffrey, & M. Leibling (Eds.), Creativity in education (pp. 95-102). London: Continuum.

Carter, R. (2004). Language and creativity: The art of common talk. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203468401

Cliatt, M. J. P., Shaw, J. M., & Sherwood, J. M. (1980). Effects of training on the divergent-thinking abilities of kindergarten children. Child Development, 1061-1064. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129544

Cremin, T. (2009). Teaching English creatively. Learning to Teach in the Primary School Series. London: Routledge.

Cropley, A. J. (2011) Definitions of creativity. In Runco, M. A., & Pritzker, S. R. (Eds.). Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 2). (pp.358-368). USA: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375038-9.00066-2

Drapeau, P. (2014). Sparking student creativity: Practical ways to promote innovative thinking and problem solving. ASCD, USA.

Guilford, J. P. (1967). Creativity: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 1(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1967.tb00002.x

Guilford, J. P. (1970). Creativity: Retrospect and prospect. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 4(3), 149-168. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1970.tb00856.x

Kabilan, M. K. (2000). Creative and critical thinking in language classrooms. The Internet TESL Journal, 6(6), 1-3.

Karimi, L., Ramezani, V., Ahmadi, M., Heshmati, R., & Jafar, E. (2010). Psychometric properties of Torrance test (Persian version) of creative thinking (A form). Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 1429-1433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.301

Karpova, E., Marcketti, S. B., & Barker, J. (2011). The efficacy of teaching creativity: Assessment of student creative thinking before and after exercises. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 29(1), 52-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0887302X11400065

Kaufman, J. C., & Sternberg, R. J. (Eds.). (2006). The international handbook of creativity. NY: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818240

Kim, K. H. (2006). Can we trust creativity tests? A review of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Creativity research journal, 18(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1801_2

Ma, H. H. (2009). The effect size of variables associated with creativity: A meta-analysis. Creativity Research Journal, 21(1), 30-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410802633400

Maine, F. (2015). Dialogic readers: Children talking and thinking together about visual texts. NY: Routledge.

Maley, A., & Peachey, N., Eds. (2015). Creativity in the English language classroom. London: British Council.

Manske, M. E., & Davis, G. A. (1968). Effects of simple instructional biases upon performance in the unusual uses test. The Journal of general psychology, 79(1), 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.1968.9710449

Papalazarou, C. (2015). Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set. In Maley, A., & Peachey, N. (Eds.), Creativity in the English language classroom (pp.24-28). London: British Council.

Reid, J. M. (1995). Learning styles in the ESL/EFL classroom. Heinle and Heinle.

Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305-310.

Rose, L. H., & LIN, H. T. (1984). A meta‐analysis of long‐term creativity training programs. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 18(1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1984.tb00985.x

Scott, G., Leritz, L. E., & Mumford, M. D. (2004). The effectiveness of creativity training: A quantitative review. Creativity Research Journal, 16(4), 361-388. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410409534549

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1604_1

Speller, K. G., & Schumacher, G. M. (1975). Age and set in creative test performance. Psychological reports, 36(2), 447-450. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1975.36.2.447

Tomlinson, B. (2015). Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively. In Maley, A., & Peachey, N. (Eds.), Creativity in the English language classroom (pp.24-28). London: British Council.

Torrance, E. (1967). The Minnesota studies of creative behavior: National and international extensions. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 1(2), 137-154. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1967.tb00021.x

Torrance, E. P. (1988). The nature of creativity as manifest in its testing. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 43–75). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Tsai, K. C. (2013). A review of the effectiveness of creative training on adult learners. Journal of Social Science Studies, 1(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.5296/jsss.v1i1.4329




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.6p.172

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2010-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.