Creative Education
2013. Vol.4, No.1, 29-34
Published Online January 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.41004
Creative Characteristics and Its Relation to Achievement and
School Type among Jordanian Students
Alia Al-Oweidi
The World Islamic Sciences and Education University, Amman, Jordan
Received August 5th, 2012; revised September 10th, 2012; accepted September 20th, 2012
The purpose of this study is to investigate the creative characteristics among creative students in regular
schools and its relation to achievement and school type variables as perceived by teachers. The sample of
the study consisted of (176) male and female students with an age range (9 - 17 years), (127) of them are
high achievers and (49) average achievers chosen purposefully from (11) schools, (7) private schools and
(4) public schools. (67) teachers participated in evaluating the creative characteristics in students regard-
less of the academic achievement of students. The creative characteristics inventory is used to identify the
creative characteristic in students. The findings of the study showed that there are apparent differences in
the means between high achievers and average achievers on all creative characteristics. By using (T) test
to examine the differences between means, the findings showed that the differences were between high
achievers and average achievers on the achievement variable within five domains: fluency, fantasy, prob-
lem sensitivity, originality and intuition for the favor of high achievers. Meanwhile, there were no sig-
nificant statistical differences on the domains and other creative characteristics. With regard to school
type, the findings showed significant differences on the means of the ambiguity, fantasy, curiosity, ad-
venture and sense of humor for the favor of private schools. Moreover, there were significant differences
in the mean of fluency, problem sensitivity, and independency for the favor of public schools.
Keywords: Creative Characteristics; High Achievers; Average Achievers; Public School; Private School
Introduction
Creativity can be defined as a series of mental abilities, it is a
compound purposeful mental activity directed by the strong
desire to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities
that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with
others, and entertaining ourselves and others. Gilford tried to
describe creativity in a simple way by saying “Creativity in its
narrowest meaning refers to the abilities of creative people”.
Guilford listed several assumptions related to the abilities
which form creativity; he sees the creativity whatever its field is
not the sole factor but it is a series of abilities which he
mentioned as: fluency, flexibility, originality, and problem
sensitivity, elaboration, evaluation, reorganizing and synthesis.
It is worth to mention that creative children are those who
display the following creative skills: 1) Fluency: which is an
ability to produce a huge amount of idea, as this ability in-
creases creativity; 2) Flexibility: is an adaptability to change
instructions, freedom from inertia of thought and spontaneous
shift of set; 3) Originality: it is the most advanced characteristic
of creativity as it means novelty and uniqueness in providing
the innovative product that fits the purpose or function it stands
for; 4) Problem Sensitivity: is an ability to find problems and to
aware needs for change or for new devices or methods; 5)
Elaboration: is the realization or transformation of an idea,
which may become very general or simple or in contrary very
fantastic or enriched into details. Mostly, creative people dis-
play traits and characteristics that distinguish them from regular
people. Those traits include: persistence, tendency for research
and investigation, self-confidence, curiosity, openness on new
experiences, managing mystery and complication, diversity of
interests, lack of sophistication, achievement motivation, the
need for support, praise and care, independency, humor, fantasy
and ability to literature appreciation (Myers & Torrance, 2003).
In this context Johnson (2004) mentioned some creative
characteristics may be displayed by creative people. Those
people may acquire deep and basic knowledge, prefer compli-
cation. Have the ability to form concepts and methods in a new
way, have fluency in thinking, taking care of details, using
unique solutions for problems, asking frequent questions, dis-
play the ability for constructive criticism like risks, prefer
reading mystery novels, have a sense of humor and joke and
enjoy their time when they are alone.
Creativity and Academic Achievement
Sometimes there is a weak relation between creativity and
academic achievement; even this relation may be negative in
some cases. This means that high competency in achievement is
not a fundamental condition to accomplish creativity. This con-
firmed Torrance’s argument that learning information and re-
trieving it is not a sufficient indicator for creativity.
In this concern, Einstein was quoted as saying: “I do not ac-
cumulate my memory of the facts that I can find it easily in one
of the encyclopedias”. Therefore, the schools (and teachers) do
not reward creative students (Al-Srour, 2005).
The results of studies indicated that the most creative stu-
dents have obtained medium or low averages in academic
achievement, this is given to one of two reasons: either the
school stages of education could not distinguish the various
creative abilities! Or can not reward those students and satisfy
their needs and their creative thinking.

A. AL-OWEIDI
In Jordan, the educational services had developed rapidly as
those services are not provided by the state only due to the
emergence of the private sector as a strong competitor in this
field.
And since there is an interest from parents to their children,
in order to sharpen their personality in the academic, personal
and creative aspects, many students had enrolled in private
schools in Jordan under the assumptions that private schools
provide services and activities better than public schools
(Al-Srour, 2005).
Thus, the current study seeks to investigate the creative
characteristics among creative students according to the type of
school (private, public).
Hoi Man Ip, Chi Hang Wu, Yim Cheng and Catherine
McBride-Chang (2005) conducted a study in China to explore
performances on three types of creativity tasks (real-world
problem, figural, and verbal; in 22 6th-grade students and 22
university students from Hong Kong. As compared to 6th-grade
students’ scores, university students’ scores (both quality and
quantity) were significantly higher on the real-world problem
and significantly lower on the figural task. On the verbal task,
the groups did not differ. Results are interpreted in terms of an
interaction between task structures and students’ knowledge
bases. Knowledge enhances one’s performance in knowledge-
rich creativity tasks, whereas functional fixedness may occur in
knowledge-lean tasks.
Lee & Seo (2006) conducted a study to examine elementary
teachers’ understanding of creativity, in particular those who
teach the gifted students. Forty-two elementary teachers were
surveyed with an open-ended questionnaire to identify their
understanding of creativity. Their answers were analyzed based
on cognitive, personal, and environmental components of crea-
tivity. Teachers who mentioned all three components were
recognized to have a balanced view. However, one third of the
teachers had a biased view, mentioning only 1 component.
Many had an intermediate view, mentioning 2 components.
Preference for the cognitive component, the disregard of the
personal component, and the partial understanding of the envi-
ronmental component were also discovered. To successfully
facilitate creativity in gifted education, teachers’ balanced view
is essential. Thus the personal component and the environ-
mental component should be emphasized to improve their un-
derstanding.
Burnett & Procter (2004) sought to develop measurement in-
strument that provides teachers with a tool to observe the per-
sonal creativity characteristics of individual students. The in-
strument was developed by compiling a list of characteristics
derived from the literature to be indicative of the personal
characteristics of creative people. The list was then reduced by
grouping like characteristics to 9 cognitive and dispositional
traits that were considered appropriate for elementary students.
The 9-item instrument was then administered in 24 classrooms
to 6 and Year 7 students. Factor analysis revealed an eigenvalue
greater than 1 and accounting for 63% of the variance. The
results indicated that the creativity checklist has very high in-
ternal consistency and is a reliable measurement instrument (α
= .93).
Furthermore, Prabhu, Sutton and Sauser, (2008) hypothe-
sized a conceptual model and tested the mediating and moder-
ating role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation respectively in
the relationship between three personality traits (openness to
experience, self-efficacy, and perseverance) and creativity. This
study, conducted in a university setting from (124) students
who did not finish study yet, the study administrated (What
Kind of Person Are You? KOPAY consisting of (50) items
designed to assess the individual’s behavior and (NEO-FFI)
scale to assess their openness for experience. The findings in-
dicated that the potential mediating role of intrinsic motivation
between creativity/openness to experience as intrinsic motive-
tion partially mediated this relationship. Self-efficacy was
closely related to creativity, with intrinsic motivation com-
pletely mediating this relationship. Extrinsic motivation moder-
ated the relationship between self-efficacy/creativity and per-
severance/creativity and had a negative association with crea-
tivity.
Oral (2006) conducted a study to investigate the aspects of
creativity among prospective teachers in Turkey. The study
sample consisted of (140) male and female students of Akdeniz
University, Faculty of Education. Regression analyses demon-
strated that although creativity dimensions (Fluency, Flexibility,
originality and elaboration) were not included in OSS in previ-
ous years, they are taken into consideration at moderate but
significant levels in recent years; however, it is not sufficient to
produce an educational reform for a creative, developed soci-
ety.
1) Additionally, Kim (2008) conducted a study entitled “Un-
derachievement and Creativity: Are Gifted Underachievers
Highly Creative?” To answer this question the researcher re-
views the available literature that suggests that the under
achievement of gifted students may be tied to their inherent and
unrecognized creativity. Apparently, many gifted students are
underachievers and up to 30% of high school dropouts may be
highly gifted. Finally, it reviews the studies and theories that
have shown that once underachievers are placed in an environ-
ment that fosters their needs, with motivation, mentors, under-
standing, freedom, and responsibility, they can become highly
productive.
2) In Malaysia, Habibollah, Rohani, Tengku, Jamaluddin and
Vijay (2010) conducted a study to examine if a relationship
exists between creativity and academic achievement and if the
relationship differs between males and females. The sample of
the study consisted of (153) male and female students (male =
105 and female = 48) completed creativity test. Cumulative
grade point average (CGPA) was used to select the participants.
Creativity was measured using the Khatena-Torrance Creative
Perception Inventory (KTCPI). Pearson Correlation analysis
indicated that aspects of creativity are related to academic
achievement. Moreover, the findings indicated that there are
differences between males and females on some domains as the
means of males performance on the innovation and artistry
domains were higher, while it was higher for females on envi-
ronmental sensitivity, intellectuality and independency do-
mains.
Moreover, Kim and Van Tassel (2010) aimed to examine
whether there is a relationship between creativity and behavior
problems among underachievers. Forty-one elementary and 89
high school students and 4 teachers in Korea participated in this
study. To achieve this aim three measures were used, those are,
(Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural, Runco Ideational
Behavior Scale [RIBS], and Scales for Rating the Behavioral
Characteristics of Superior Students-Revised Edition [SRBCSS-R]),
with their scores on a measure of behavior problems reported
by their teachers. The results indicated that, among under-
achievers, there is a relationship between behaveioral problems
30

A. AL-OWEIDI
and students’ scores on the three measures of creative potential.
Both underachievers and high achievers showed high scores on
creative abilities test more than other students. Meanwhile,
there were no significant statistical differences on both RIBS
and SRBCSS-R.
Ai (1999) conducted a study in Spain to investigate the rela-
tionship between creativity and academic achievement and to
examine the differences between males and females according
to this relationship. The sample of the study consisted of (68)
schools selected randomly. The instruments were administrated
on (2264) male and female students. To achieve the aim of this
study Torrance Tests of creativity thinking (TTCT) and Abedi-
Schumacher tests of creativity test were administrated. The
findings of the study indicated that creativity is related to
achievement for both males and females. Moreover, males
showed more flexibility than females while females were better
in elaboration than males.
Significance of the Study
The importance of the current study is as follows:
1) Identifying the creativity characteristics displayed by high
achievers and average achievers in regular schools since ex-
ploring those characteristics among students and its relation to
achievement may help teachers in enhancing procedures of
teaching to fit and support those variables (achievement and
creativity characteristics).
2) Investigating the role of school type (private, public) in
developing creativity among students and observing which
system is the one developing the creativity characteristics
among students.
Procedural Definitions
- Creativity Characteristics: Those are ( Fluency, mystery,
fantasy, elaboration in thinking, problem sensitivity, inde-
pendency, curiosity, originality in thinking, flexibility and
sense of humor) in case of being assessed by the teacher
above average on the scale of the creative characteristics
quartet measurement, so that the average is above (3) for
the item and (12) for the domain.
- High achievers: Students who achieve (80) and above on
the school achievement test scores at the end of the school-
ing year of (2010/2011) in private and public schools in
Jordan.
- Average achievers: Students who achieve less than (79) on
the school achievement test scores at the end of the school-
ing year of (2010/2011) in private and public schools in
Jordan.
- Public school: Schools following the Jordanian Ministry of
Education in academic, financial and administrative affairs
and considered a property of the Jordanian state.
- Private Schools: Schools following private education de-
partment academic, financial and administrative affairs and
owned by one person or a group of people.
Study Question
The objective of this study is represented in the following
question:
- Are there any significant statistical differences in the crea-
tive characteristics among creative students in regular
schools as perceived by teachers attributed to Academic
Achievement (Regular, Higher Achievers)?
- Are there any significant statistical differences in the crea-
tive characteristics among creative students in regular
schools as perceived by teachers attributed to school type
(public, private)?
Methodology
Study Population
The population of the study consisted of all private and pub-
lic schools and all male and female students in (3-11) grades in
Amman city for the schooling year 2011.
Participants
The sample of this study consisted of (11) schools (7 private
schools and 4 public schools). Sixty-seven teachers participated
in assessing the creative traits among students regardless of
their academic achievement. Noting that the assessed sample
consisted of (176) male and female high achievers, (49) average
achievers chosen intentionally.
Study Instrument
To achieve the aim of this study the researcher administrated
(Al-Srour, 2011) scale to assess the creative characteristics
among students, this scale is consisting of (48) items distributed
on (12) items, those are (Fluency, mystery, fantasy, elaboration
in thinking, problem sensitivity, independency, curiosity, intuit-
tion, originality in thinking, adventure, flexibility and sense of
humor), the scale has high rates of validity and reliability. To
detect the validity content: instrument has been jugged by (5) of
specialists in the areas of educational psychology and special
the percentage of agreement was (.90).
Validity construction procedure:
The instrument was applied in pilot study (n = 60) students,
correlation coefficient between items and dimension has been
reached, the coefficient values of the correlation coefficient
were between (.60 - .82). Cronbach’s alpha was used to detect
the reliability of instrument, values of reliability coefficient on
the dimensions in order are as follows: (.60, .71, .79, .63, .76,
.61, .60, .81, .76, .66, .68, .81). The value of consistency on all
the paragraphs of the scale was (.84).
Administration Procedures
 The researcher met teachers who had a good knowledge of
students since they had a long experience in teaching those
students in previous years. Teachers were assigned to select
students who display creative characteristics regardless of
their academic achievement. Moreover, the researcher em-
phasized that teachers should choose students who are en-
rolled in at least two years in the school, teachers have been
informed of the study objective, and that the information
and results of the study will be used only for the purposes
of scientific research.
Significance of the Study
The importance of the current study is as follows:
1) Identifying the creativity characteristics displayed by high
achievers and average achievers in regular schools since ex-
ploring those characteristics among students and its relation to

A. AL-OWEIDI
achievement may help teachers in enhancing procedures of
teaching to fit and support those variables (achievement and
creativity characteristics).
2) Investigating the role of school type (private, public) in
developing creativity among students and observing which sys-
tem is the one developing the creativity characteristics among
students.
Administration Procedures
The researcher met teachers who had a good knowledge of
students since they had a long experience in teaching those
students in previous years. Teachers were assigned to select
students who display creative characteristics regardless of their
academic achievement. Moreover, the researcher emphasized
that teachers should choose students who are enrolled in at least
two years in the school, teachers have been informed of the
study objective, and that the information and results of the
study will be used only for the purposes of scientific research.
Results
To answer the study main question (Are there any significant
statistical differences in the creative characteristics among crea-
tive students in regular schools as perceived by teachers attrib-
uted to academic achievement? The means and standard devia-
tions were calculated on the sub-domains of the scale. Table 1
shows the results of the means and standard deviations on the
sub-domains.
Table 1 shows differences in the means between high
achievers and average achievers on all the creative characteris-
tics for the favor of high achievers. Meanwhile, there were
significant statistical differences on five domains (fluency,
imagination, problem sensitivity, originality and intuition) for
the favor of high achievers. Moreover, the findings showed that
the most important creative characteristics according to
achievement variable were curiosity and fluency while the least
apparent domains were sense of humor and imagination.
It is noted in Table 2 that there are significant statistical dif-
ferences on the variable of school type (public, private). The
findings showed that there are differences on the following
creative characteristics (Mystery, imagination, curiosity, ad-
venture and sense of humor) for the favor of private schools.
Moreover, there were differences in means on the following
characteristics (fluency, problem sensitivity and independency)
for the favor of public schools. However, (t) test results didn’t
show any significant differences except on independency do-
main for the favor of public schools and the least apparent
characteristic is the sense of humor.
Discussion
The findings of the study indicated that there are differences
in the means between high achievers and average achievers on
all the creative characteristics for the favor of high achievers.
Meanwhile, there were significant statistical differences on five
domains (fluency, fantasy, problem sensitivity, originality and
intuition) for the favor of high achievers. Meanwhile, there
were no significant statistical differences on the domains and
other creative characteristics. This result can be interpreted that
traits such as fluency, fantasy, problem sensitivity, originality
and intuition are related in its nature with high achievers. Those
Table 1.
Means, standards deviations (SDs) and (T) test results according to
school type.
sig SD T M variables
1.824 2.680 13.69 Public
.103
2.233 13.62 Private
Fluency
2.290 1.562 11.60 Public
.213
2.476 12.58 Private
Mystery
2.886 .413 10.55 Public
.521
3.014 12.07 Private
Imagination
2.609 .469 12.55 Public
.495
2.525 12.74 Private
Elaboration
2.528 .489 12.98 Public
.485
2.805 12.76 Private
Sensitivity to the
problems
1.865
*5.717 13.51 Public
.018
2.426 13.16 Private
Independently
1.990 .458 13.49 Public
.500
1.839 14.16 Private
Curiosity
2.568 .002 12.33 Public
.967
2.574 13.01 Private
Originality
2.313 .013 12.38 Public
.910
2.485 13.01 Private
Intuition
2.208 .976 12.29 Public
.325
2.473 13.54 Private
Adventure
2.070 2.194 12.58 Public
.140
2.419 13.09 Private
Flexibility
3.084 .089 10.51 Public
.766
3.227 11.79 Private
Sense of Humor
Note: *Significant at p < .05.
students usually have the ability to maintain and store informa-
tion and therefore, increasing their fluency as they are capable
of self regulation, facing problems and solving the difficult
problems they may face. Furthermore, the related literature
indicates that fantasy, originality and intuition are special char-
acteristics of high achievers. Moreover, there were differences
on the means of school type as the findings showed that that
there are differences on the following creative characteristics
(Mystery, fantasy, curiosity, adventure and sense of humor) for
the favor of private schools and there were differences in means
on the following characteristics (fluency, problem sensitivity
and independency) for the favor of public schools. This result
can be explained that traits such as fantasy, adventure and curi-
osity are linked to financial facilities. For example, to develop
adventure trait among students the school must make trips ad
sport facilities and this needs a lot of money that can be pro-
vided by private schools more than public schools. Furthermore,
The sense of humor occurrence in private schools is higher than
public school can be explained by the opportunity given by
32

A. AL-OWEIDI
Table 2.
Means and standards deviations (SDs) and (T) test results according to academic achievement.
sig T SD M Variables
1.751 14.17 High Achievement
.015
*5.977
2.343 12.27 Moderate Achievement
Fluency
2.271 12.68 High Achiever
.502 .453
2.624 11.22 Moderate Achievement
Mystery
2.777 11.94 High Achievement
.014
*6.165
3.547 10.71 Moderate Achievement
Imagination
2.502 12.98 High Achievement
.805 .061
2.524 11.92 Moderate Achievement
Elaboration
2.323 13.39 High Achievement
.001
*10.705
3.128 11.39 Moderate Achievement
Sensitivity to the problems
.404 .701 2.178 13.54 High Achievement
2.363 12.57 Moderate Achievement
Independently
1.924 14.17 High Achievement
.522 .411
1.752 13.37 Moderate Achievement
Curiosity
2.305 13.12 High Achievement
.015
*5.989
3.068 11.96 Moderate Achievement
Originality
2.116 13.26 High Achievement
.012
*6.457
2.847 11.65 Moderate Achievement
Intuition
2.493 13.31 High Achievement
.681 .169
2.327 12.71 Moderate Achievement
Adventure
2.156 13.17 High Achievement
.342 .908
2.633 12.33 Moderate Achievement
Flexibility
3.119 11.72 High Achievement
.363 .831
3.392 10.55 Moderate Achievement
Sense of Humor
Note: *Significant at p < .05.
those schools for students to show jokes and give a sense of
humor, while students in public schools are not allowed to
show jokes and this is due to the character of the teacher, which
prefer to work and seriousness in dealing. As for a independ-
ency characteristic, it was higher for public school students
since teachers help students in carrying out their tasks person-
ally and help them on self-regulation.
Conclusion
The findings of the current study confirmed that the teachers
should prepare educational activities from curriculum and
achieve it within the classroom to develop imaginative abilities
and sense of humor in students; also the creative aspects of
students in public schools need to be developed. Therefore,
teachers may conduct some activities and add several teaching
strategies to enhance and develop the creative characteristics
among their students in public schools.
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