Creativity Tests: A Boon or Boondoggle for Education?

Abstract

In an era of disenchantment with IQ tests, measures of "creativity " have quickly become fashion-able substitutes. There has been pressure to use such tests to select children for gifted programs, for tracking purposes, and even for ad-mission to colleges. To many in the educational community this appeal for the use of creativity tests has a comforting ring. It is consistent with the belief that while high IQ people do a fine job of perpetuating the status quo, in a time of rapid change we need creative individuals to insure innova-tion. The use of creativity tests is also viewed as consistent with the continuing search for greater educational equality. Originally IQ tests were considered equalizers; a person's background could no longer doom him to drudgery if he had ability, meaning high IQ. With the increased reliance on IQ tests for selection and tracking purposes it became clear that while IQ tests liberated some from the expectations of their teachers, they doomed others with lower IQs to inferior educa-tional opportunities. And from this realization came the press for alternative measures of ability. But what measures of ability, which creativity tests should be used? Do creativity tests really measure something different from IQ tests, and if so is this something creativity? While educators pondered the first question, researchers have accumulated evidence on the second. But their respective efforts have not been well coordinated. Much research on creativity tests is available but the profusion of tests, the complexity of the results, and the dispersion of the research articles apparently have hindered translation of scientific findings into educa-tional policies. In an attempt to reconcile some of the conflicting evidence this review consolidates research on two creativity tests, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Wallach and Kogan Creativity Battery, and then suggests the import of the findings for research on creativity and for advice to educational decision makers. These tests were selected

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