Jaiswal, Vijay. (2007). A Study of Scientific Creativity as related to Scientific Attitude, Study Habits and Achievement in Science. Published. Ph.D., Education. C.S.J.M. Univeristy, Kanpur.

The following objectives were framed and tested in the study:(i) To study the relationship of scientific attitude with scientific creativity.(ii) To study the relationship of study habits with scientific creativity. (iii) To study the relationship of achievement in science (Physics) with scientific creativity. (iv)  To find out the contribution of scientific attitude in the development of scientific creativity. (v) To find out the contribution of study habits in the development of scientific creativity. (vi) To find out the contribution of achievement in science (Physics) in the   development of scientific creativity. (vii) To predict the scientific creativity through the variables scientific attitude, study  habits and achievement in science (Physics).

The following research hypotheses were formulated keeping in view the objectives of the study: H₁:  That scientific creativity has significant relationship with scientific attitude. H₂: That scientific creativity has significant relationship with study habits.H₃: That scientific creativity has significant relationship with achievement in science (Physics).H₄: That scientific attitude contributes significantly in the development of scientific creativity.H₅: That study habits contributes significantly in the development of scientific creativity.H₆: That achievement in science (Physics) contributes significantly in the development of scientific creativity.

Population of the Study: The population of the present study was defined as the class XIth students of science stream studying in various Intermediate colleges of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat affiliated to U.P. Board only. Sample of the Study: The sample of the study consisted of 683 students studying in class XI of Physics streams only out of which 211boys and 116 girls from Kanpur nagar and 227 boys and 129 girls from Kanpur dehat. The selection of the sample was made using stratified random sampling technique. Proportional allocation in stratified random sampling was used which distributed the sample in such a way that the sampling fraction (n/N) was the same for all strata. For this six schools from Kanpur nagar and six schools from Kanpur dehat were selected randomly from the list of schools of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat separately. All the available students in class XI of Physics stream were taken as the sample of the present study.
The following tools were used for data collection: (i) Scientific Creativity Test by Singh (1985) (ii) Scientific Attitude Scale by Singh (1988 ) (iii) Study Habits in Physics (SHP) developed by Self (iv) Physics Achievement Test (PAT) developed by Self.

In the study descriptive survey method was used. Descriptive survey methods also known as non-experimental or correlational method and it deals with the relationships between variables, the testing of the hypothesis, and the development of generalizations, principles or theories that have universal validity.

Mean, standard deviation, Karl-Pearson product-moment correlation method, multiple correlations, t-test, ANOVA, regression analysis  etc. were used to analyze the data.

  

The findings of the study were as follows:1)      Scientific creativity and scientific attitude were found to be low but significantly correlated at 0.05 levels in case of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat male and female students.  2)      Fluency, flexibility and originality dimensions of scientific creativity were found to be low but significantly correlated at 0.05 levels with scientific attitude of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat male and female students. 3)      Scientific creativity and study habits were not found to be significantly correlated at 0.05 levels with scientific attitude of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat male and female students. 4)      Fluency, flexibility and originality dimensions of scientific creativity were not found to be significantly correlated at 0.05 levels with study habits of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat male and female students. 5)      Scientific creativity was found to be low but significantly correlated at 0.01 levels with achievement in science of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat male and female students. 6)      Fluency, flexibility and originality dimensions of scientific creativity were found to be low but  significantly correlated at 0.05 levels with study habits of Kanpur nagar and Kanpur dehat male and female students. 7)      Achievement in science was explaining 3.9% variance and scientific attitude was explaining 2.0% variance in the scientific creativity of Kanpur nagar male students at 0.01 levels whereas study habits was not found to be significantly explaining variance in the scientific creativity even at 0.05 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Scientific creativity = 99.475 + 0.442(Achievement in science) + 0.434(scientific attitude). 8)      Achievement in science was explaining 8.8% variance and scientific attitude was explaining 2.4% variance in the fluency dimension of scientific creativity of Kanpur nagar male students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Fluency = 25.56 + 0.272(achievement in science) + 0.186(scientific attitude). 9) Only achievement in science was found to be explaining 2.3% variance in the flexibility of Kanpur nagar male students significantly at 0.05 level. The regression equation for prediction purpose is as follows:Flexibility = 35.278 + 0.180(achievement in science). 10)   Only scientific attitude was found to be explaining 2.3% variance in the originality of Kanpur nagar male students significantly at 0.05 level.The regression equation for prediction purpose is as follows: Originality = 35.278 + 0.180(scientific attitude). 11)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining 5.9% variance in the scientific creativity of Kanpur nagar female students significantly at 0.01 level.The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows:Scientific creativity = 126.57 + 0.731(achievement in science). 12)   Achievement in science and scientific attitude were found to be explaining 6.7% and 3.3% variances in the fluency of Kanpur nagar female students significantly at 0.01 levels. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Fluency = 28.853 + 0.274(achievement in science) + 0.189(scientific attitude). 13)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining 10.1% variance in the flexibility of Kanpur nagar female students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Flexibility = 37.214 + 0.397(achievement in science). 14)   Only scientific attitude was found to be explaining 10.1% variance in the originality of Kanpur nagar female students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Originality = 37.214 + 0.397(scientific attitude). 15)   Achievement in science and scientific attitude were found to be explaining 3.7% and 2.2% variances in the scientific creativity of Kanpur dehat male students significantly at 0.01 levels. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Scientific creativity = 90.780 + 0.524(achievement in science) + 0.611(scientific attitude). 16)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining significantly 2.8% variance in the fluency of Kanpur dehat male students significantly at 0.05 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Fluency = 44.05 + 0.174(achievement in science). 17)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining significantly 4.1% variance in the flexibility of Kanpur dehat male students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Flexibility = 42.80 + 0.211(achievement in science). 18)   Only scientific attitude was found to be explaining 3.2% variance in the originality of Kanpur dehat male students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows:Originality = 29.604 + 0.302(scientific attitude). 19)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining significantly 5.3%% variance in the scientific creativity of Kanpur dehat female students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows; Scientific creativity = 121.44 + 1.035(achievement in science). 20)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining significantly 4.1% variance in the fluency of Kanpur dehat female students significantly at 0.05 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Fluency = 41.124 + 0.321(achievement in science). 21)   Only achievement in science was found to be explaining significantly 3.0% variance in the flexibility of Kanpur dehat female students significantly at 0.05 level.The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Flexibility = 42.383 + 0.276(achievement in science). 22)   Only scientific attitude was found to be explaining 7.5% variance in the originality of Kanpur dehat female students significantly at 0.01 level. The regression equation for the prediction purpose is as follows: Originality = 37.933 + 0.437(scientific attitude).

The results of this study reveal that both scientific attitude and achievement in science play significant role in the development of scientific creativity. Therefore, teacher and parents must pay more attention on the development of scientific attitude. For this, a short biography of the scientists, Nobel laureates and other distinguished scientists must be included in the science text-books. The students should be motivated to read the contributions of the eminent scientists. Standard science text-books, literature on science, scientific films, scientific models etc. should be provided to the students. The students should be acquainted to the contributions of the scientists. There must be a science club in every school and every student should be member of this club. Science puzzles should be given to the students. Students should be motivated to collect scientific materials from the nature. The students should be given opportunity to organize science fair and observe science museum. Uses of science in daily life can also play important role in the development of scientific attitude. A teacher should also promote achievement in science not only at knowledge level but also at comprehension, application and higher cognitive levels which help in the development of fluency and flexibility dimension of the scientific creativity.

             Our school and colleges have become the teaching shops. We are making a joke of education. We do not lack in creative people, but we lack in training those people and their talents. We are systematically destroying any creative urge that there are in younger students. Scientists severely condemn the present educational system for destroying creativity. The education system is described as “accumulation of the facts and knowledge facts". There is great emphasis on memorization, examinations and careers which assure economic security rather than on thinking pursuing one’s own ideas and interests.

                            

     A teacher has an important role to play in fostering creativity. Most significant is the teacher-student relationship. A scientist remarked “the more you polish, the more shine of the student". A teacher must be able to nurture creativity. For this he/she should adopt the innovative teaching strategies such as brainstorming, creative writing, role playing, asking questions, and provocative questioning, observation and sensitivity training, searching and experimentation, discrepancies and gaps, evaluating, associations and analogies, combining and synthesizing, redefining,, attributes listing, transformation, completing the incomplete, visualization etc. rather than traditional chalk and talk method. In addition to it, he/she should respect the students’ original ideas, feel them free to express their ideas or interests and provide them opportunity to test their ideas. It is a challenge for teachers to introduce teaching strategies for creativity, because they may think that much valuable time will be lost and prescribed syllabus may not be completed. Further creative teaching requires extra efforts, flexibility and more time. Though some of these concerns may be real, these should not dampen the teacher’s enthusiasm. This is because the introduction of creativity in the teaching-learning process is simply following the psychological process of learning, and at the same time providing stimulation, enjoyment and motivation to self-learning. There is evidence to prove that learning through creative expressions lead to better retention and recall of materials learnt.  There is better all-round learning, confidence and feeling of success, joy and satisfaction. If students are learning through creative ways, they become more involved in their work, more tolerant to ideas of others, free in expressions, better motivated and curious. That is indeed the biggest reward for the teachers to get motivated and continue their efforts towards teaching for creativity.

Keyword(s): Scientific Creativity