| The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the traditional, academic-based classroom environment vs. the informal, learning-center classroom environment on creative thinking abilities of students as measured by the Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement test. Thirty-eight kindergarten subjects were randomly selected from two existing classrooms at the Jones Early Childhood Learning Center in Nacogdoches, Texas. Nineteen subjects represented the traditional classroom and an additional nineteen subjects represented the informal classroom. The Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement test was administered as a pretest to the subjects in December, 1988, and the subjects were then posttested in May, 1989, using the same instrument. An analysis of covariance produced results which showed the subjects in the informal, learning center classroom performed significantly greater at the.05 level on the elements of fluency, originality, and imagination than did the subjects in the traditional, academic-based classroom. |
