| Divergent thinking is an important creative potential.Training students' divergent thinking is a necessary measure for the construction of creative talents and creative country.As a key area for the construction of creative country and the development of poverty alleviation through education,the northwest minority areas deserve special attention.Divergent thinking is same as other psychological activities,which influenced by genic factor and environmental factor.However,only few researchers have investigated the interaction effect of heredity substance and educational environment on divergent thinking.Thus,the practical research of cultivating divergent thinking is difficult to start from the individual level.In addition,the divergent thinking itself will be affected by the cultural environment,and the northwest ethnic minority area is the area where various culture of different ethnic groups exists and communicates.In recent years,however,only few studies have explored the current situation of divergent thinking of students from the northwest ethnic minority area.The present study is aimed to investigate the current situation of divergent thinking of primary school students in the northwest minority areas,analyze the influence of class environment,COMT gene and the interaction between these two on divergent thinking.Furthermore,the present study is expected to compare the differences of divergent thinking performance among students of three ethnic groups.The participants in the present study were students from grade two to grade six from eight schools in northwest minority areas.A total of 1461 students' divergent thinking information,individual level class environment information and 12 SNP information of COMT gene were collected.After conducting ANCOVA,association analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis,the following results were found:1.There was a "fifth-grade slump" in the verbal divergent thinking of primary school students of Han ethnic group,a significant "fourth-grade slump" in the figural flexibility of primary school students of Hui ethnic group,and a significant "sixth-grade slump" in the verbal fluency and verbal originality of primary school students of Dongxiang ethnic group;2.Ethnic minority groups with richer cultural background performed better on divergent thinking.Students who received education in schools which were mostly consist of Han ethnic group students performed better in most divergent thinking dimensions.And girls performed better in figural elaboration;3.For different ethnic groups,the predictive pattern of class environment on divergent thinking was different;4.The predictive pattern of COMT gene was quite various among three ethnic groups;5.It was found that there were differences in the patterns of interaction between gene and classroom circumstance among different ethnic groups.To sum up,this study draws the following conclusions:there are differences in the performance of divergent thinking of primary school students from different ethnic groups.Class environment and COMT gene could predict the divergent thinking of primary school students,and they have interactive effects on divergent thinking.Nevertheless,these prediction and interaction are reflected in different ways in different cultural backgrounds,that is,ethnicity has an impact on the interaction between environment and gene.The present study provides empirical evidence for future educational practice research.In the future,the educational practice research of divergent thinking can take the results of the present study as references,and develop the schoolbased course,teacher training program and curriculum intervention program.In addition,to a certain extent,the present study has a comparative understanding of the impact of cultural environment on individual divergent thinking.Combined with the results of gene analysis and interaction analysis,the present study could provide empirical support for the formation of systematic divergent thinking theory. |
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