ASPECTS OF CREATIVITY DEVELOPMENT AT SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN AND PREADOLESCENTS

Humakind has been preoccupied with defining what determines the new ideas in someone's mind, hence manifesting a real interest in studying creativity. The study is based on the Imagination and Creativity Test adapted by Roco (2001) after Torrance, Osborn, Guilford, Wallach, Kogan and Meunier, composed of figural and verbal creativity tests, focusing on the evaluation of fluidity, flexibility, originality. The study was conducted on 133 preteenagers and primary school children from Constanta. The objectives and the hypotheses of the research are: the identification of the significant differences between the figural and the verbal creativity, depending on gender and age level; the identification of the significant differences on fluidity, flexibility and originality level, depending on gender and age level. There was no record of significant differences between the primary school children and the preteenagers or between girls and boys, from the creativity development point of view; fluidity and flexibility are relatively similar as development level, both for the two age categories and genderwise. We recorded significant differences on the originality level, between the primary school children and the preteenagers. The verbal creativity is more developed, compared to the figural one, for the primary school children and the preteenagers. There was a record of the same significant differences concerning the development of verbal and figural creativity, gender-wise. The study offers arguments for the obtained results, presenting a topical and modern perspective on the approached subject, and it is one of the few studies on this theme that have been conducted in Romania. (C) 2017 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK