A Comparison between the Impact of Strategic and Recreational Computer Games on Student's Creative Thinking

The main purpose of this study was to compare the impact of strategic and recreational computer games on promoting students’ creativity. The research method was quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test. The population of the study comprised all Tehrani male first graders of high school in 2014-2015 academic year. For the purpose of sampling, multi-stage cluster sampling method was utilized, two groups were selected and they were randomly assigned to strategic and recreational computer games groups. Next, the creativity pre-test was administered to the control and experimental groups. Subsequently, one group received strategic computer games and the other group had recreational computer games for a semester. A post-test was given to both groups at the end of the semester. The obtained data were analyzed through analysis of covariance. The results of the study was indicative of the effectiveness of strategic computer games compared to recreational ones in promoting creativity and its three dimensions (fluency, flexibility, and elaboration); however, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in the originality component. The findings of this study indicated that strategic computer games were more effective than recreational ones in boosting student's creative thinking; hence, it is recommended that administrators, principals, teachers and parents suggest playing strategic computer games to students.