Measuring creativity: evaluating middle school students using a divergent thinking task in the visual art classroom

Abstract

This research study evaluated the divergent thinking process, creative fluency and elaboration differences in middle school students who have never taken a visual art class compared to students who have. A modernized, digital version of the Guilford Alternative Uses Task test was used for this study. Collected data was interpreted by determining whether: student's creative fluency and elaboration of solutions are developing at the same rate; fluency and elaboration results are impacted by the thinking time of the activity; gender differences play a role in fluency and elaboration of ideas. This study determined if students who have taken a visual art class before can develop more solutions than students who have not.