Abstract
<p>The participants were grade 9-12 students (<em>n </em>= 75) from one suburban high school who were part of the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI). The research involved both quasi-experimental and correlational components. First, an ANCOVA was used to compare the mean scores of the Qualifying Problem (QP) for both the treatment and comparison groups with the independent variable being type of program with two levels: participation in problem solving styles training along with FPSPI (treatment) or FPSPI curriculum only (comparison), and the dependent variable being QP scores. After controlling for pretest scores, the treatment group outperformed the comparison group (<em>p = </em>.008). In addition, eight out of nine of the teams (89%) in the treatment group qualified for the state competition, while four out of twelve (33%) of the comparison groups qualified. Second, a hierarchical multiple linear regression procedure was used to determine to what extent and in what manner creative achievement predicted performance in writing a creative problem-solving scenario after accounting for participation in training about problem solving styles. Within the regression model, program type was a significant predictor (<em>p = </em>.001), explaining 38.3% of the variance in QP scores, while creativity of participants TTCT-Verbal, Fluency (<em>p </em>= .313), TTCT- Verbal, Flexibility (<em>p </em>= .633), and TTCT-Verbal, Originality (<em>p </em>= .518) were not significant predictors of QP scores. Third, qualitative data were coded based on themes to determine perceptions of the creative problem-solving process of students who learned about their problem-solving styles and those who did not. Participants in the treatment group made more statements than the members of the comparison group related to an understanding of self and others while participants from the comparison group made more statements than those in the treatment group about the technical aspects of FPSPI.</p>
