Direct and indirect effects between thinking styles, metacognitive strategies and creativity in college students

Abstract

Previous studies from the field of Educational Psychology have indicated that thinking styles are related to metacognitive strategies and creativity. Although, there is a body of empirical studies which explains the relationship and/ or predictive relations between these constructs, we have not found studies examining the direct and indirect effects that arise between them. Thus, the objective of this study was to test a theoretical model using structural equation modeling to study these effects. Thus, the objective of this study was to test a theoretical model using structural equation modeling to study these effects. Participants in the present study were 197 university students. Instruments used were: i) the Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI-R) (Sternberg, Wagner & Zhan, 2003) to measure thinking styles; ii) The Learning Strategies Scale (ACRA) (Roman & Gallego, 2001) to measure the metacognitive strategies, iii) The Test of Creative Intelligence (CREA) (Corbalan Berna et al., 2003) to measure creativity. The results indicate that: i) The judicial and legislative thinking styles (Sternberg, 1998) contribute to the use of metacognitive strategies directly and in a positive way, and these styles contribute to the creativity indirectly and in a positive way; ii) metacognitive strategies contribute to the creativity directly and in a positively way. However, not found a direct relationship between thinking styles and creativity.