Diagnosis of Creative Students at University: Development and Validation of the Learner Scale for Problem-Solving Styles

Problem solving is the key to creativity. The Learner Scale for Problem-Solving Styles (LSPSS) is a new instrument that supports university students in understanding their creativity abilities in solving problems and offers professors an aid in the design of teaching and assessment strategies that enhances student creativity. Based on Kirton’s adaption?innovation theory, three key styles are identified to support creativity in problem solving: (1) idea generation (preferences to improve present ideas or to generate new ideas); (2) method (precision and efficiency); and (3) managing structure (preferences to conform to the formal, impersonal rules and group norms or informal, personal rules and perception individuality). These key styles of creativity were the basis for our development of the LSPSS and included an exploratory factor analysis of a sample of 130 students, and a conformity factory analysis using a new sample of 218 students. The results supported the LSPSS and its factors: sufficiency to originality, rule/group conformity and efficiency. The subscales’ reliabilities were moderate and satisfied. The discriminate validity for LSPSS was also evident.