Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

The effect of equipment structure on the creative thinking of young children in a problem solving situation

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  • Prior to this investigation few studies had looked at the impact of equipment design on the creative thinking of young children while they solved problems. Nor had previous studies provided support for a clear link between creative thinking and problem solving. An original piece of problem solving equipment incorporating creative thinking skills found in Guilford's Structure of the Intellect was designed to test the main supposition of the study. Specifically, the equipment served as a tool to determine if the amount of structure in a problem solving situation would impact the the creative thinking skills young children used as they sought solutions to the problem. The subjects were 112 middle-class children, aged 4 years, 1 month to 7 years, 5 months. They were randomly assigned to one of four equipment conditions as they were accepted into the study on the basis of their age and sex. All four conditions systematically varied so that each group had a problem that did not change in substance, but rather in the structure of the problem situation. The data yielded five scores; four scores of creative thinking that reflected Guilford's work and one score that was a composite. A 2 (age) x 2 (sex) x 4 (condition) MANOVA with time as a covariate was used to analyze the four subscale scores and an ANOVA using the same variables was repeated with the composite score. Separate oneway Scheffe analyses were calculated to examine significant effects where appropriate. The central conclusion of this study was that young children appear to use more creative behaviors while they problem solve if they are presented with a clearly defined and structured problem that has several alternatives available for seeking solutions. In addition, the study confirmed support for a link between creative thinking and problem solving. Age and sex did not have a major effect on the problem presented in this study; however, minor effects were noticed and discussed.
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