Grade Level and Creativity

Problem Statement: Creativity has been addressed by many scientists and thinkers. Among them, Guilfort regards creativity as the ability to generate new ideas, and relates it to intelligence. According to Thurstone, creativity must develop and be implemented within a theoretical framework, and a solution must result. Torrance thinks of creativity as a scientific research process and sequences its steps. Purpose of Study: This study was conducted to explore whether significant differences in average fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and total scores of students are observable on the basis of class level or gender, to determine whether a primary school curriculum that has been implemented for 6 years has significantly improved the creative thinking skills of students. Methods: The quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the study. To this end, 172 students from grades 3 to 8 attending a primary school in Çankaya District of Ankara were selected randomly. Descriptive data analysis was conducted on the qualitative data. The data gathered from focus groups were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings and Results: Significant differences were found in average fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and total scores of classes. Fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and total scores of the 5th graders were the highest compared to other classes. On the other hand, the 6th grade students ’ scores were the lowest. Fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration and total scores increased from the 3rd to the 5th grade, but declined to their lowest levels in the 6th year. Scores increase once more in the 7th grade, only to fall again in the 8th grade