Examining the effect of primary education thinking skills curriculum on the creative thinking abilities of gifted female students

• Creativity has served as a cornerstone of gifted education and talent development for decades, and many scholars have pointed to the development of creativity in gifted students as one of the most important goals of gifted education • Although gifted education has arguably emphasized creativity more than general education contexts, empirical investigations on instructional practices and curricula that foster creativity in gifted students are still needed. • This study investigated the effects of the divergent thinking (DT) lessons from the Primary Education Thinking Skills (PETS TM ) curriculum on developing creative thinking abilities (e.g., fluency, flexibility, originality). • The results indicated significant differences favoring the experimental group on measures of fluency, flexibility, and originality, providing evidence the PETSTM activities enhanced the DT abilities of gifted elementary female students In this study, we investigated the effects of the Primary Education Thinking Skills (PETS TM ) curriculum on the development of divergent thinking abilities among gifted female students in primary schools in Bahrain. A quasi-experimental design was implemented with an experimental group and two control groups. The experimental group received 16 lessons on divergent thinking distributed across eight weeks (two lessons per week). Two divergent thinking tests from the Runco Creativity Assessment Battery (r-CAB) were used to assess students’ creative thinking abilities in fluency, flexibility, and originality. The results indicated significant differences favoring the experimental group on measures of fluency, flexibility, and originality, providing evidence the PETS TM activities enhanced the creative thinking abilities of gifted elementary female students. Limitations and future directions are discussed.