ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Measuring Scientific Creative Thinking: Development and Validation of a Process-Oriented Instrument
1. Shandong Women's University, Jinan, China
2. Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China
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Abstract
Scientific creative thinking (SCT) is a critical cognitive process that drives scientific discovery and innovation. To address the limitations of existing assessment tools in capturing its multi-stage, domain-specific nature, this study developed and validated the Scientific Creative Thinking Scale (SCTS). Grounded in an integrative psychological framework, the SCTS combines explicit indicators of divergent thinking with implicit theories of within-domain appropriateness. The scale employs three open-ended tasks based on real-world scientific scenarios to systematically assess the three core stages of SCT: problem identification, hypothesis construction, and experimental verification. Using a two-stage independent sample design with 401 tenth-grade students, the scale was rigorously validated. Exploratory factor analysis (n = 182) employing Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) with parallel analysis extracted a stable three-factor structure, accounting for 70.189% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis with an independent sample (n = 219) confirmed the three-factor model with good fit indices (CFI = .948, TLI = .922, RMSEA = .076, SRMR = .032). The scale demonstrated robust reliability: internal consistency was satisfactory (Cronbach's α = .87; McDonald's ω = .89), and inter-rater reliability was excellent (ICC ≥.95). Composite reliability for each dimension exceeded .86, and average variance extracted exceeded .67, indicating good convergent validity. The Fornell-Larcker criterion was met, as the square root of AVE for each dimension exceeded its correlations with other factors, supporting discriminant validity. Additionally, the SCTS total score showed a significant positive correlation with science academic achievement (ρ = .55, p < .001), providing preliminary evidence for criterion-related validity. This study offers a process-oriented, psychometrically sound instrument for measuring SCT, laying a methodological foundation for future research on its cognitive mechanisms, individual differences, and developmental trajectories.
Summary
Keywords
cognitiveprocess, instrument development, process-oriented assessment, Psychometrics, scientific creative thinking
Received
07 December 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Lu, Mi and Bi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Hualin Bi
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