Effect of Creative Exploration on Creative Thinking Development Among Basic 9 Science Students with Different Cognitive Styles in Gboko, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63561/fnas-jmse.v7i3.1164Keywords:
Creative exploration, Creative minds, Basic Science and Cognitive StylesAbstract
The study investigated the effect of creative exploration on the development of creative thinking among Basic Science students with different cognitive styles in Gboko. A pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental design involving control and experimental groups was adopted. The research was guided by two objectives, corresponding research questions, and hypotheses. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 70 Upper Basic III students (39 males and 31 females) from a total population of 1,823 students (995 males and 828 females) across 24 government grant-aided schools. Data were collected using an adapted version of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT Figural-B). The instrument was validated by five specialists, including experts in Physics education, Electrical/Electronic technology, Mathematics education, educational measurement, and an experienced Basic Science teacher. Reliability was established through the test-retest method, yielding a coefficient of 0.992 using the Pearson product-moment correlation. Mean and standard deviation were used to address the research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings indicated a significant difference in students’ creative thinking development in favour of those taught using creative exploration compared to those taught through the expository method F(1,67) = 147.909, p < 0.05). However, no significant difference was found in creative thinking development among students with different cognitive styles when exposed to creative exploration F(1,31) = 0.971, p > 0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that creative exploration should be adopted as an instructional approach for teaching Basic Science in basic education schools.
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