The Effects of Group Training Activities on Students' Initiation of Creative Investigations

This study examined the effects of group training and several environmental and personal factors on 515 students' decisions to initiate creative investigations in new gifted education programs. Forty-eight groups of above average ability students in grades 3-8 were randomly , assigned to either control or experimental groups. Students in the treatment group received seven lessons in organizing a creative investigation. Initiation of a creative investigation was the dependent variable. Parsonal variables and group membership were entered into a hierarchical discriminant function analysis in an effort to identify the strength of the treatment beyond the personal variables of grade, sex, self-efficacy, learning style preferences, achievement, and academic aptitude. All eight predictor variables proved significant and accounted for 22% of the variance between groups.