Age Peculiarities of the Schoolchildren’s Creativity

Abstract

The article includes an analysis of the empirical research of schoolchildren age-creativity peculiarities. Internal and external sources and conditions of its display in different age periods are defined theoretically. The thoughtful analysis of the creativity concept has allowed to connect it with divergent thinking, the characteristics that are considered as the main creativity parameters. In this regard, the choice of methodology for research is substantiated - creativity test of E. Torrance is aimed at structure diagnostics of verbal and nonverbal creative abilities. Analysis of creativity structure profiles, showing the correlation of its individual indexes, allowed to reveal the qualitative features of verbal and nonverbal schoolchildren creativity, to point out strengths and weaknesses. The empirical research has found that the overall index of the verbal creativity, verbal fluency and flexibility indexes with increasing age of schoolchildren under investigation are reduced. The exception is the index of verbal originality - in adolescents it is higher than that in younger schoolchildren. It was established that the overall index of nonverbal creativity is reduced during the transition from one age period to other. All the partial indexes of nonverbal creativity was significantly reduced during the transition from primary school age to adolescence and increase non-significantly during the transition from adolescence to high school age. This research result is explained by the psychological characteristics of age periods and the influence of the educational surroundings (commitment to the standard and mark, behavior regulation). Creativity was not found among the schoolchildren under investigation of all ages.