IMPROVING CREATIVE THINKING ABILITIES USING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE CONTEXT OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of physical exercise on the creative thinking qualities of university students. A total of 80 students were randomly selected for the study. Torrance Test of Creative Thinking-Verbal was used to evaluate the creative thinking indicator of the students. During a three-month period, the selected group engaged in regular physical exercise at least three times a week, focusing primarily on table tennis, volleyball, and specially designed team games. For statistical analyses, t-test was used to compare the pre- and post-test results to determine if the observed differences in their scores are statistically significant. The findings confirmed significant differences between the pre and post-test results of TTCT-V scores (fluency: t-1.023, p≤0.005; originality: t-1.041, p≤0.005; flexibility: t-1.132, p≤0.005). The significant difference suggests that exercise effectively enhanced participants' ability to think flexibly and adaptively in creative problemsolving scenarios. Consequently, physical exercise positively influences the creative thinking abilities of university students, as demonstrated by improvements in fluency, originality, and flexibility. It is recommended that educational institutions incorporate more opportunities for physical activity into curricula, fostering an environment conducive to creative thinking and holistic development and actively integrate physical exercise into students' daily routines.