The Torrance Creative Scholars Program.

The Torrance Creative Scholars Program was established in 1989 as an outgrowth of the research of E. Paul Torrance, internationally renowned authority on creativity. Its primary purposes are the identification and nurturance of creative potential. Housed at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, the program offers two levels for students completing grades 4-8. Students who qualify on Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking are invited to participate in a Spring Recognition Ceremony. Most of these students further choose to attend a two-week summer program that provides instruction and practice in several creative strategies and helps them to understand themselves as creative individuals. Program evaluation results have been encouraging, with parents and students confirming instrumental data reflecting improvements in creative motivation and self-concept. After nine years of piloting, the program model is ready for dissemination; non-profit institutions in other states are invited to apply for designation as satellite sites.

Nearly two decades ago, Dr. E. Paul Torrance had a vision. He dreamed of a program dedicated to the identification and nurturance of high creative potential in young people. After several years of planning, two Louisiana educators were designated to develop and pilot the world's first Torrance Creative Scholars Program.

In 1989, the Louisiana Creative Scholars Program held its first sessions. At the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL), we initiated a commuter program for highly creative students in grades 4-6, and Dr. Gail Lewis established a residential program at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, for Creative Scholars completing the 7th and 8th grades. In 1992, the residential program was moved to USL, and the combined program has continued to thrive and expand each year.

Identification

Each fall, the USL Center for Gifted Education sends program literature and information on the characteristics of creative persons to all seventh and eighth grade counselors and all gifted program coordinators in the state. Using these materials as a guide, the counselors and gifted program teachers refer for testing those students who have demonstrated high creative potential. Referral forms are sent home with the students, and interested parents return their completed applications, along with a nominal testing fee, to the USL Center. In early spring, volunteers at approximately 35 school testing sites offer the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Torrance, 1974) to several hundred applicants from throughout the state.

The completed test booklets are sent to a local scoring service for evaluation. To qualify as a Creative Scholar, a student must score at or above the 87th national percentile on either the Creative Average (an arithmetic average of the Standard Scores on five basic areas of creativity: Fluency, Originality, Abstractness of Titles, Elaboration, and Resistance to Premature Closure), or the Creative Index (a score derived from adding bonus points for "Creative Strengths" such as Movement or Action, Synthesis, Unusual Visualization, Humor, and Fantasy, to the Creative Average Standard Score). All new Creative Scholars are invited to participate in a special Spring Recognition Ceremony on the USL campus and are encouraged to apply for the two-week summer program. The names of these students are then distributed (with parents' prior permission) to area newspapers and to the students' home schools. It is gratifying to note that many schools have chosen to honor these students further, often providing the first local recognition for creatively talented youngsters who may not qualify for programs that are limited to academically gifted or talented students.

Program Overview

Each summer the Louisiana Creative Scholars Program offers two two-week programs for qualified students. Junior Creative Scholars, who attend for the first time in the summer following the fourth, fifth, or sixth grade, attend afternoon classes on the USL Campus. In this segment of the program, teachers with special training in the development of creative potential provide instruction in creative strategies within a structure based on Torrance's Creative Incubation Model (Torrance & Safter, 1990). For each year of the two-year sequence, these students explore their own creativity through the use of creative problem solving, synectics, and other techniques centered around a theme--TIME in the first year and SPACE in the second.

For Creative Scholars completing the seventh and eighth grades, a two-week residential program is offered. Approximately 100-120 students from throughout the state (and a small number from other states) arrive on Sunday evening and check in to USL residence halls, where they are housed for the duration of the program. In the dormitories, the students work with and are supervised by experienced teachers (as dorm heads), licensed counselors, and residential assistants (carefully selected college students, many of whom have participated in the Creative Scholars Program in the past). On week days, the residential students are bused to the rural campus of the Episcopal School of Acadiana (ESA), a nearby independent school whose facilities are designed specifically for middle school students.

During class hours, master teachers with special training (and usually certification in gifted education) offer instruction and practice in creative problem solving, lateral thinking, synectics, and other strategies for maximizing the creative potential of first-year students. Second-year Creative Scholars work with carefully selected content-area specialists on the application of these creative strategies within a variety of subject areas. Real-world Problem Solving Day, Theme Day, and special projects selected by the students provide a wide variety of valuable and practical experiences for the Creative Scholars, resulting in an enjoyable and productive summer for all participants. In addition to instruction in and practice with the various creative strategies, the students learn about themselves as creative individuals, discover ways of representing and channeling their creative (and often non-conformist) ideas constructively, and experience group dynamics in action throughout their classes as well as in the residential setting. A unique benefit of the program is the opportunity to meet and work with highly creative peers and teachers, to work cooperatively toward a common goal, and to discover that "It's GREAT to be creative!"

Financial Support

The Louisiana Creative Scholars Program is entirely self-supported, generating all operating funds through student tuition fees. However, the costs of a residential program are extensive, and many highly creative students come from homes in which limited financial resources would ordinarily prohibit their participation. For these reasons we have been extremely fortunate, since the inception of the program, to be able to acquire both private and public grants to provide partial and full tuition scholarships (as well as testing-fee discounts) for students who otherwise would have been unable to attend. For the last four years, the $20 test fee has been reduced to $10 by across-the-board scholarship discounts, the $650 full tuition has been reduced through state grants to $450 per Louisiana resident, and additional funds have provided assistance for many families who qualified on the basis of financial need. In 1997, approximately one-third of the 117 participants received financial assistance from these funds.

Program Evaluation

In the nine years that the Louisiana Creative Scholars Program has operated, we have been continuously amazed at the benefits reported by our participating families. The initial and primary purpose of the program was "the identification and nurturance of creative potential." Both students and parents confirm the yearly accomplishment of these goals and further indicate that the summer experience improves students' self-concepts, increases their motivation for academic achievement, and enhances their interpersonal communication skills. Program evaluations are solicited from faculty, parents, and students, using context-specific questionnaires. In addition, several standardized instruments are administered to students before, during, and/or at the end of the program. This procedure is the result of a collaborative evaluation effort involving the developer of the residential program, the program's current director, and a retired professor who serves as the program's liaison with Dr. Paul Torrance and the Torrance Center for Creative Studies at the University of Georgia. Highlights of our most significant findings are reported herein.

Faculty Evaluation. At the end of each program year, all faculty are asked to complete a questionnaire designed to provide evaluative comments and suggestions for future improvement. Faculty responses in 1996 and 1997, received from approximately 50% of the 13 faculty members who teach in the residential program, identified open-ended assignments, freedom of choice, role-playing experiences, rotating leadership roles within groups, and informal teacher/student relationships as the most valuable aspects of the program. Teaching strategies that seemed most beneficial included the modeling of the creative strategies (creative problem solving, synectics, and lateral thinking) in their teaching, the use of discovery activities, flexibility, and "letting students be themselves." Teachers further reported that students gained several new skills--notably, respect for the ideas of others, the internalization of problem-solving skills, and the strengthening of self-understanding.

Student Assessment. Prior to or at the beginning of the program, all participants are asked to respond to a survey reflecting their attitudes toward school. At the end of the program, they are asked to rate their summer experience on the same factors. The post-survey asks questions related to students' perceptions about the program (degree to which they were understood and appreciated, overall impressions of the program, etc.) as well as the benefits they derived from the program. Table 1 reflects students' comparisons of their perceptions about school to the summer program on selected factors, and student-reported benefits of the program are reflected in Table 2.

Students Comparisons of School to the Summer Program(*)

                            Percentage of students who felt
                            that these factors were true most of
Criterion Variable          the time about their schools and the
                                  summer program

                              First-Year Creative Scholars
                             In School    In the Summer Program
                                n=56            n=55
Recognition given
to creative ideas               33%              76%
Understood                      33%              53%
Appreciated as a person         42%              64%
Accepted as myself              47%              75%
Free/encouraged
to express feelings             44%              76%
Free/encouraged to
express individuality           37%              69%

                            Second-Year Creative Scholars
                           In School     In the Summer Program
                              n=57             n=56
Recognition given
to creative ideas              27%             84%
Understood                     16%             82%
Appreciated as a person        41%             89%
Accepted as myself             52%             88%
Free/encouraged
to express feelings            39%             89%
Free/encouraged to
express individuality          38%             86%

Table 1

Student Reports of Benefits from Attending the Creative Scholars
Program

Criterion Variable                      Percentage of Participants
                                         Indicating Each Response
                                         First-Year   Second-Year
                                          Creative      Creative
                                           Scholars      Scholars
                                            n=55           n=56

Greater self-confidence                      69%            77%
Increased ability to communicate
  and work with others                       71%            68%
Greater flexibility and willingness
  to consider and accept new ideas           80%            36%
Increased ability to generate
  new and creative ideas                     76%            18%
Greater interest in school and/or
  more effective ways of solving or
  coping with school-related problems        51%            45%
Increased interest in one or more
  arts areas                                 84%            27%

Table 2

As shown in Table 2, there was little difference in the percentages of 1997 first-year and returning Creative Scholars who reported increases in self-confidence, in the ability to communicate and work with others, and in their interest in school and/or ways of solving or coping with school-related problems. On the other hand, there were significantly fewer second-year students who reported increases in flexibility, willingness to consider/accept new ideas, ability to generate new and creative ideas, and interest in the arts. While no formal attempt has been made to analyze the reasons for these differences, it is believed that the nature of the first-year program (with emphasis on training in creative thinking and problem-solving strategies) may have influenced the dramatic increases among first-year students, whereas the second-year program (which focuses on applications of creativity within more academically-oriented subject areas) may have simply reinforced prior improvements in creativity and self-concept and/or strengthened areas related to achievement in school.

Finally, the post-survey included questions on students' overall impression of the program and open-ended questions asking what students liked best and least about the program, as well as what they learned from the experience. A summary of first-year Creative Scholars' responses on this segment of the evaluation revealed a median score of four points on a five-point scale, whereas the median for both the second-year students and the total student attendance reached the maximum score of five. With respect to the students' likes, dislikes, and learnings from the program, responses have differed little from year to year. In most years the formation of new friendships, group work, and specific faculty and staff members have been named most frequently as factors students like best, whereas dorm rules and cafeteria food have led in students' dislikes. While these responses have not been surprising, it has been encouraging to note two frequent student comments related to what they learned from the program, attesting to the achievement of several of the program's goals: I am normal and I am creative.

In addition to the collection of qualitative data from these surveys, several published instruments have been used to obtain more objective measures of program effectiveness. Although the use of such instruments was precluded in 1997 by unexpected administrative problems, two standardized self-report instruments were administered in 1996: What Makes Me Run, a junior version of the Creative Motivation Scale (Torrance, 1996) and the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale (Piers & Harris, 1984). Although no consideration was given to the statistical effects of short-term repetition, it was felt by the researchers that the impressive number of increases (greater than 50% on both instruments at all levels) reflected a positive indicator of programmatic success in these two important areas.

In their responses to What Makes Me Run, 63% of the 108 students completing the instrument demonstrated an increase in creative motivation, with first-year Creative Scholars experiencing a more significant gain. On the Piers-Harris Scale, 66% of the 106 respondents reported increases in self-concept; however, the greatest increases were reported by the returning students. (It should be noted that, while most students completed both tests, approximately 10 responses were removed from the data analysis because of illness, attrition, or incomplete data that would have skewed results.)

Parent Evaluations. Shortly after the program closes, a questionnaire is sent to the parents of all participants. This instrument asks parents to respond independently (i.e., on the basis of their personal observations rather than consulting their children for their perceptions) regarding the degree to which they feel their children have experienced growth in specific areas as a result of the program, as well as specific aspects of the residential experience (supervision, facilities, and meals). These surveys also include open-ended questions designed to elicit elaboration on the rated items, strengths of the program, and suggestions for improvement.

While parents have offered a variety of comments on the strengths of the program, several tend to appear most often. These include, in particular, the chance to meet other creative students and make new friends; increases in self-esteem, independence, maturity, and responsibility; and academic improvement. Following the 1997 program, surveys were returned by the parents of 62 (approximately 53%) of the 117 participants. On items requesting ratings on specific elements of the program (e.g., increases in self-esteem, flexibility, academic motivation, and confidence in their own creative ability), it was encouraging to note median scores at the level of four or higher on a five-point scale. It is also significant that the overall impression of parents whose children attended either level of the Creative Scholars Program reflected a mean score of five. The only areas on which median scores were lower were meals (which rarely satisfy the diversity and selectivity of young people's tastes) and dormitory facilities.

Discussion

The Creative Scholars Program has been highly successful in meeting the special needs of highly creative students that ordinarily are not met in traditional school settings. Of particular interest is the observation that second-year Creative Scholars (approximately 50% of those who attended the first-year program in 1997) awarded higher ratings than their first-year counterparts on areas such as enjoyment of the program, success in the academic areas of the classes, extracurricular involvement, formation of friendships, and encouragement of creativity. These findings, along with the returning students' more positive attitudes toward their teachers (not detailed in this article), clearly suggest that continuation in the program increases personal growth and therefore provides significant benefit to participants. Although the brief history of the program has not allowed time for a study of long-term results, follow-up studies are being planned for the near future.

Along with its successes, the Creative Scholars Program has experienced a few problems during its developmental stages. In keeping with characteristics that are typical of the creative person, these students are more adventurous and outspoken than their academically-talented age peers. For this reason, the careful selection and training of well qualified faculty and staff has been a key factor in the program's success. As a result of attention to this need, and by issuing clear statements from the outset regarding behavioral expectations, disciplinary problems have been minimal. It was interesting to note that, despite a 30-student reduction from the previous summer, the 1997 Creative Scholars displayed higher levels of energy and activity than in past years. Concomitantly, the 1997 teachers reported lower thresholds of perseverance and a need for rapid closure on problem-solving tasks. A resulting analysis of the sub-sections on the 1997 creativity tests revealed an interesting trend--i.e., lower than usual scores on a factor identified by Torrance (1974) as Resistance to Closure. Discussion with Sociology faculty at the host institution revealed that this trend has been emerging in the population in general--possibly as a result of the "quick-fix" society (credit cards, fast food, etc.) Further discussions and investigations are planned into this area. Finally, it was learned from a student that several of the 1997 Creative Scholars had provided specific Torrance Test responses to friends whom they wanted to bring with them to this year's program. As a result of this discovery, it was decided to begin alternating Forms A and B of the TTCT in subsequent testing to ensure that all students identified as Creative Scholars do in fact possess high levels of the type of creativity that is assessed for this program.

Following the Summer of 1997, two poignant and touching testimonials were received on the Creative Scholars Program. One mother, whose child could not have participated without a full scholarship, reported that her daughter--previously in therapy for anorexia--had returned home completely restored to good health. The mother attributed her child's rapid recovery entirely to the increased self-understanding and confidence she gained through the Creative Scholars Program. And a quote from another mother's letter makes a fitting close for this section (the student's name has been changed to protect confidentiality):

Geraldine came home to me this week a very

different person than I brought to you last

year! She sees horizons she never saw before.

And as importantly, she is confident that she

can achieve anything she wants to--and that

people who tell her otherwise, well, they just

don't get it!!... Her behavior at home and

school has improved by leaps and bounds...

Watch out for astronaut Geraldine Stelly!

She's headed that way.

Dissemination

Since the inception of the Torrance Creative Scholars Program, a major goal has been to expand its scope. A residential high school in another southern state is hoping to develop a new program, and we hope that others will join us in the near future. To be named a satellite site, an institution or agency must document non-profit status and the availability of appropriate faculty and staff. It is important to note that the goal of dissemination for the Torrance Creative Scholars Program is to make the identification and nurturance of creative potential available to students throughout the nation rather than to provide a profit-generating source for the sponsoring institutions. Staff development services and technical support are available through the USL Center for Gifted Education, which collaborates with the University of Georgia's Torrance Center for Creative Studies in the continuing development of the Creative Scholars Program. Inquiries from interested institutions are welcomed.

REFERENCES

Piers, E. V., & Harris, D. B. (1984). Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (The Way I Feel About Myself). Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.

Torrance, E. P. (1974). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural Form A. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.

Torrance, E. P. (1996). What Makes Me Run. Athens, GA: Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior.

Torrance, E. P., & Sailer, H. T. (1990). The Incubation Model of Teaching: Getting beyond the aha! Buffalo: Bearly Limited.

Jeanette P. Parker directs the Center for Gifted Education at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, where she coordinates and teaches in Louisiana's only graduate program in gifted education. She's a Contributing Editor of the Roeper Review, has published and presented widely, and was instrumental in the creation of the first national standards for graduate degree programs in gifted education. She is currently completing a book on leadership development for the gifted.

Manuscript submitted August, 1997. Revision accepted July, 1998.