Improving students’ creativity and Chinese academic achievement through Mind-Mapping integrated Differentiated Instruction (MM-DI)

As technology advances and globalization intensifies, creativity is increasingly recognized as a key competence for contemporary society. Enhancing students' creativity has thus become one of the priorities for educators and researchers. However, the traditional educational approach often fails to foster creative thinking and to address students’ individual differences. This study proposes the integration of mind-mapping (MM) and differentiated instruction (DI) into a Chinese course to boost students’ creativity and Chinese learning. More specifically, the study employs a quasi-experimental research design to investigate the impact of differentiated teaching methods and mind mapping learning strategies on junior high school students' Chinese language learning achievement and creativity. A total of 86 students aged 14–15 from three intact classes participated, and the classes were randomly assigned to three instructional conditions: experimental group I (Differentiated Instruction/DI, N = 28), experimental group II MM-DI (Mind-Mapping integrated Differentiated Instruction/MM-DI, N = 29), and a comparison group that received traditional lecture-based instruction (N = 29). A mixed-methods approach was adopted; quantitative data came from pretest–posttest measures of language learning outcomes and creativity, while qualitative data came from focus group interviews. The results showed significant within-group improvements in Chinese achievement and creativity across all instructional conditions. The MM-DI group showed the largest raw gains descriptively; however, ANCOVA analyses indicated no statistically significant differences among the three groups. Participants also reported that both DI and MM-DI were feasible approaches. Overall, the findings suggest that integrating DI and mind-mapping can support students’ growth in creativity and Chinese learning, while the extent of improvement should be interpreted as gains relative to each group’s own baseline. Based on these findings, educational implications and relevant practical recommendations are provided. • MM-DI showed the greatest within-group gains in Chinese achievement, followed by DI and lecture-based instruction. • MM-DI led to large improvements in both verbal and figural creativity across fluency, flexibility, and originality. • Heterogeneous roles, teacher scaffolding, and innovative teaching enhanced engagement, learning quality, and outcomes.