Abrakadoodle® Students Show Significant Gains in Creativity Testing

By: Abrakadoodle | 2 Shares 93 Reads

July 18, 2012 // Franchising.com // Reston, VA -- Abrakadoodle, an international art education program for children, conducted research during the 2011-2012 school year to determine if students exhibited gains when participating in the Abrakadoodle Art Education Program. Abrakadoodle provides a total art education program that includes a standards-based curriculum and art instruction by an Abrakadoodle trained teacher. Abrakadoodle education programs are offered at charter schools and private schools across the country, as part of their academic school programming. Students who were new to the Abrakadoodle program in the Fall of 2011 were tested in October 2011 and then again after participating in the Abrakadoodle program for seven months in April 2012. The Educational Resource Group administered the Torrance® Tests of Creative Thinking under controlled settings for both the October pretest and the April posttest. Fifty-two (52) second and fifth grade students from diverse backgrounds took part in the testing.

Overall grade scores for the entire group increased by seven (7) percentage points, as the scores related to the national averages. Most dramatic results were apparent among the fifth grade students, who had scored significantly below the national averages in the pretest. In addition to the Abrakadoodle Art in Our World Curriculum and Education Program, fifth graders had participated in Abrakadoodle's Creativity Boost™ Exercises.

The highly reliable Torrance® Tests of Creative Thinking TTCT are the most widely used tests of their kind. Students in this study participated in the Figural TTCT Forms A and B: Thinking Creatively with Pictures, which includes exercises to assess five characteristics related to creative thinking. Scoring was based upon grade-related norms. The TTCT is most widely used to determine eligibility for talented and gifted programs. Normative data has been gathered from more than 55,000 students in the US and Canada. The test has been offered in more than 35 countries.

According to Mary C. Rogers, MA.ED, CEO and Co-founder of Abrakadoodle, "We know that student creative abilities decrease as they move through the grades. We are encouraged by preliminary results that may indicate that students who participate in Abrakadoodle's quality art education programs can slow and even reverse that trend. We anticipate conducting further research to more fully assess the effects of our program on student creativity. Part of what makes our art education program unique is our devotion to creativity skills development, which is an important component of our Art in Our World Curriculum and Education Program."

About Abrakadoodle

Abrakadoodle provides high-quality, educationally sound, imaginative arts education programs to schools as part of each school's academic curriculum. The Abrakadoodle Art Education Program provides a complete art education program including the Abrakadoodle Art in Our World Curriculum, a trained and qualified art teacher, materials and teacher supervision. Programs are provided through the Abrakadoodle network at private schools, charter schools and other educational sites. The purpose of the Abrakadoodle Art Education Program is to provide an affordable, standards-based and dynamic learning program for art education that actively sparks the students' imaginations while developing new skills.

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