The effect of teaching critical thinking skills on students creativity

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of teaching critical thinking skills on creativity of male high school students in Behbahan city. Teaching critical thinking was independent variable, and creativity were dependent variables. The present study was a field experimental study with pre- post-test and follow-up design. The variables were measured by Critical Thinking of Halpern, version 21 and Creativity of Abedi. The sample consisted of 50 high school students in third grade that were enrolled in the school year of 2015-2016, and were selected through multistage random sampling method. They also were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Before teaching critical thinking to experimental group, the pre-tests of critical thinking and creativity were administered to both groups. Then, the experimental group was taught critical thinking and no training was provided to the control group. After the completion of the course, the critical thinking and creativity questionnaires were administered to both groups, and five weeks later were administered again. Results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that teaching critical thinking causes a significant increase in creativity in students. Also, the results indicated that teaching critical thinking has a persistent effect on creatively over time.