Cultivating creative thinking in Pakistani public schools: a quasi-experimental study

Given the limited number of studies on creative thinking skills, particularly the use of the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT) thinking program among elementary-level students in Pakistani public schools, this study investigates the program's effectiveness on 8th-grade English students' creative thinking abilities. A quasi-experimental research design, employing a pretest-posttest control group method, was used. Participants were divided into experimental and control groups. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) measured the program's effectiveness. The study was conducted in two stages: teacher training and experimentation with 60 students. In stage I, two teachers were trained to integrate CoRT thinking lessons into their English curriculum, enhancing teaching methods and fostering creative thinking in students. In stage II, the experimental group of 30 students received the CoRT program, while the control group of 30 did not. This experimental phase, lasting six weeks, took place in the English classroom of Government Girls MC High School Kot Fareed, Sargodha, Pakistan. The findings revealed that participants who underwent the CoRT program training demonstrated significant improvement in creative thinking abilities compared to those who did not receive the training, as measured by the TTCT. The study suggests practical implications for educators, emphasizing the creation of environments in public schools that nurture creative abilities by incorporating activities that promote creative thinking skills.