Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of symbolic divergent thinking ability of elementary school students in Bangkok Metropolis and to compare such ability between boys and girls in each grade. The subjects comprised of students from seven elementary schools who were studying from Prathomsuksa I to VII. A sample of 60 was taken from each grade half of boys and half of girls, totaling 420 students. The test was constructed according to Guilfords Structure of Intellect Theory. Two-way Analysis of Variance, Duncans new multiple range test were applied for data analysis. Three aspects of the students thinking ability were analyzed, namely fluency, flexibility and originality. From this study it was found that the development of symbolic divergent thinking ability of students was improved with the advancement in grade. In statistical termes, such improvement was found significant at .01 level. No difference in thinking ability was found between the two sexes, however.