Contribution of teacher ratings of behavioral characteristics to the prediction of divergent thinking and problem solving

Abstract

Divergent thinking and problem-solving performance of 382 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from two suburban, middle-class elementary schools was predicted from teachers' ratings of students' affective/behavioral characteristics and from standard intelligence and achievement test scores. Median Rs were .61 and .38, for full-model (ratings plus cognitive measures) and reduced-model (only ratings) predictions, respectively. Results across schools and sexes were similar, with teachers' ratings of sensitivity to beauty, risk taking, awareness of impulses and openness to the irrational, and sense of humor the most frequent significant predictors in addition to the standardized measures. The usefulness of affective/behavioral plus cognitive measures in creative thinking identification procedures is discussed.

Searching for an Alternate Way to Identify Young Creative Minds: A Classroom-Based Observation Approach

“…Identification of creative children has been limited primarily because of a lack of appropriate assessment instruments (Amabile, 1996;Barron, 1988;Ford & Harris, 1992;Houtz & Shaning, 1982;Runco & Albert, 1990;Stearns, 1994; Young, 1985). According to Treffinger (1986), as there is no single uniformly accepted theory of creativity, no single creativity assessment instrument is universally accepted.…”