A Componential Analysis of Gender Differences in Scientific Creativity

In this study, an investigation was carried out to explore if there were any gender differences in scientific creativity and its components. Par-ticipants included 704 sixth grade students who applied to the Education Programs for Talented Students (EPTS) at Anadolu Universi-ty in the City of Eskişehir in Turkey. Of the total sample, 345 were female and 359 were male. Students’ scientific creativity was meas-ured using the Creative Scientific Ability Test (C-SAT). It measures fluency, flexibility and creativity and hypothesis generation, hypothe-sis testing and evidence evaluation. The analy-sis showed that male students scored signifi-cantly higher on fluency and creativity and hypothesis generation components of scientific creativity. Although male students had higher scores on flexibility, hypothesis testing and evidence evaluation components too, the differ-ences between the groups were not significant. The findings shows that gender differences in scientific creativity in childhood and adoles-cence might result from differences in some particular processes.