Relationships between Thinking Styles and Behaviors Fostering Creativity: An Exploratory Study for the Mediating Role of Certain Demographic Traits

This paper aims to examine the role of demographic traits of Turkish teachers on the relationship between their thinking styles and creativity fostering behaviors. Three studies were conducted to investigate these relationships. In the first study, 202 Turkish elementary and secondary school teachers were included; in the second, 106 novice teachers were participants; and in the third, 246 student teachers participated. The Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) and Creativity Fostering Teacher Index Scale (CFTIS) were administered to all three sample groups. An exploratory factor analysis, correlation, ANCOVA, hierarchical and logistic regression, and structural equation modeling analysis were conducted on the data. All three studies indicated that Type I thinking styles are a powerful predictor for creativity fostering behaviors. The results of Study 1 indicated that both the teachers' branch and the amount of work experience are significant mediators of the relationships between thinking styles and creativity fostering behaviors. The results of Study 2 indicated that the relationship between Type II thinking styles and creativity fostering behaviors is not significant. The results of all three studies, however, demonstrated that although the relationships between thinking styles and creativity fostering behaviors are significant, they are partially mediated by teachers' branch/department. These studies also determined that gender is not a significant factor in these relationships. Finally, there is a general discussion that ties the information collected together from the results of the three studies.