(Dis)Inclination of Iraqi Medical Students Towards Creative Thinking: A Quasi-Experimental Study

BACKGROUND: There have been several attempts in the past centuries to quantify the human intelligence, many of these attempts were successful. On the other hand, there have been parallel trials to identify and quantify an individual’s creativity. To date, there is no universal definition of creativity nor a quantifying system to measure it with a reliable accuracy.

MATERIALS & METHODS: This is a quasi-experimental study in an Iraqi population of undergraduate medical students aged 18-20 years; the male-to-female ratio is 3 to 10. The total number of participants was 195 (n=195) who were allocated into three groups; A, B, and C (nA=67, nB=61, nC=67). Each group was interviewed separately, and the participants were given a choice to either correspond to a quiz on an already taught medical subject or write down ideas (one or more) with creative-innovative potentials. There was no restriction on time, language, or the theme of the topics to be written.

RESULTS: There was a significant difference in between the three groups’ tendency to take the quiz (p-value=0.040). However, inter-group and intra-group analyses failed to detect any significant difference in students’ tendencies towards either a creative or a classical form of thinking. Besides, gender was not found to be of a determinant effect on an individual’s tendency towards creativity (p=0.633) or traditional thinking based on an already taught medical knowledge (0.905).

CONCLUSION: There were no statistically significant differences in the tendencies of students towards either an original (creative) or a standard pattern of thinking. However, inter-group analyses indicated some substantial differences in students’ affinity towards exploring an already taught medical knowledge.