by Garnet Millar, Christine Dahl, and John Kauffman
As excerpted with permission from “Testing the Whole Mind – Educating the Whole Child” in the IAGC Journal 2011
It was in 1958 when E. Paul Torrance, “The Creativity Man,” embarked on his lifelong study of creativity. As director of the Bureau of Educational Research in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota, he was tasked to identify and quantify intellectual giftedness during America’s post-Sputnik days. While most of his peers focused on traditional intelligence, Torrance chose to study creativity, which he believed was at least as important – if not more so. Before coming to Minnesota, Torrance had been a teacher, counselor, and psychologist. Working with the U.S. Air Force, he trained air crew and pilots in ways to evade and escape the enemy. He learned that the underlying element of survival is creativity and that risk-taking and other creative skills are essential to constructive behavior and unusual achievement. Drawing on this experience, Torrance devised what has been called his survival definition of creativity: “Whenever one is faced with a problem for which he has no practiced or learned solution, some degree of creativity is required” (Millar, 2007, p. 37).
At the University of Minnesota, Torrance and his doctoral students designed and developed the Minnesota Test of Creative Thinking. They studied the biographies of creative individuals and identified four rational factors that contributed to their achievements: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. One of Torrance’s great contributions to standardized testing was to ask examinees to “show me something that I have not seen before.” Thinking of something unique and different means – quite literally – that the Torrance Tests have no correct answer. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) come in two forms: verbal and figural. Students who took the test in the 1950 and 60s, the so-called “Torrance Kids,” have participated in several follow-up studies that have allowed Torrance to refine the tests and evaluate their predictive validity.
During the follow-up study (Torrance, 1980), the wealth of information coming from the figural tests pointed to a more thorough definition of creativity. Not only were creative individuals demonstrating fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration, they also showed remarkable openness to new ideas, which they processed in diverse ways. The analysis led Torrance to identify an additional set of 13 creative strengths that fall outside the realm of pure reason:
- Emotional expressiveness
- Articulate storytelling
- Generating expressive titles
- Employing movement or action
- Combining and synthesizing
- Using rich and colorful imagery
- Fantasizing
- Having an unusual visual perspective
- Having an internal visual perspective
- Breaking through and extending boundaries
- Having a sense of humor
- Decentrism – glimpsing infinity.
Torrance incorporated these factors into the scoring scheme of his creativity index (C.I.) or creativity quotient (C.Q.) measured by the TTCT. Today the TTCT is translated into over 50 languages and used in many countries in the world.
Torrance believed that the TTCT could be used diagnostically and, even more so, that the skills of creativity were teachable. Many creative skills are already embedded in classroom curricula, but may not be emphasized enough to develop and nurture creativity in students. Torrance showed that creative skills themselves could serve as rubrics to evaluate and encourage students. The tests accurately assess their intended parameters and are applicable to real life. By this measure, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking score exceedingly well. Not only do they identify creative abilities, they have proven to have predictive validity. Several longitudinal studies (Torrance 1980, 2002; Millar 2007, 2010) confirm that children’s TTCT scores predict creative achievement in adults.
A wise person has said that while human potential is universal, opportunity is not. Giving students the opportunity to achieve their potential is our greatest legacy as teachers. It is time to test and assess for both C.Q. and I.Q. and to intentionally teach creative skills along with basic knowledge. Creative skills will give our students the edge they need to survive and thrive, now and in the future.
For further information on E. Paul Torrance and the TTCT, please contact Scott Rich at Scholastic Testing Service, Inc. at srich@ststesting.com or 1-800-642-6787.
Works Cited
Millar, G. W. (2007) E. Paul Torrance – The Creativity Man: An Authorized biography. Bensenville, Illinois: Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.
Millar, G. W. (2010) The Power of Creativity: Results of the 50-Year Follow-up to the Torrance Longitudinal Study of Creative Behavior. Bensenville, Illinois: Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.
Torrance, E. P. (1980). Growing Up Creatively Gifted: A 22-year Longitudinal Study of Creative Behavior. Creative child and Adult Quarterly, 5 (1980): 148-158, 170.
Torrance, E. P. (2002). The Manifesto: A Guide to Developing a Creative Career. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp.