English abstract
The study aimed at measuring the thinking abilities of fourth grade pupils of basic and general education in the Sultanate, and understanding the differences in the three creative thinking abilities (fluency, flexibility, and originality) among these pupils that are attributed to the type of education (basic or general) and gender (male
female). The sample of the study consisted of 316 pupils from the fourth grade of Basic and General Education from Muscat (164 boys and girls) and Al- Dakhilia region (152 boys and girls).
The Sylvia Reem Test, which was translated by Said Kheir Alla and Munsi (1994), was used for measuring the abilities of creative thinking. The Raven s Progressive Matrices Test was administered to ascertain the equality of the two groups on general ability level (intelligence). Acceptable reliability coefficients were obtained for these two tests.
To answer the first research question of the study, means and standard deviations for each of the three abilities were calculated for basic and general education pupils separately. These means were compared with the general mean (i.e. the mean of each creative ability for all 316 pupils) using the t-test for one sample to indicate the significance of the differences between group means and the general mean for each ability. The results indicated that there are statistically significant differences in fluency only in favor of basic education. For flexibility and originality, there were no statistically significant differences indicating, that the means of these two abilities were not different from the general mean. But, for general education, the differences were statistically significant in fluency and flexibility where the means of these abilities were less than the general mean. The mean for originality was not statistically significant.
As to the second research question, two-way ANOVA was employed for each of the three abilities separately and the total ability. Results have shown that the main effects of education type and gender were both statistically significant in fluency and flexibility and the total ability. The main effect for type of education, however, was not statistically significant in originality. The secondary effect represented by the interaction between type of education and sex was not statistically significantg in the three abilities and the total ability.
Interpretation of the results has been made in the light of the theoretical frame and previous studies. Also, a number of recommendations and suggestions have been reached
