introduction

The importance of creativity in national competitiveness and soft power was discussed, emphasizing the global evaluation of creative thinking and the emphasis on practical innovation in Chinese policies. At the same time, it pointed out the lack of systematic research on the cultivation of creative thinking in junior high school English education in China, and proposed the necessity of analyzing the characteristics of creative thinking among junior high school students based on theoretical frameworks and evaluation methods, aiming to provide support for optimizing junior high school English teaching.

Characteristics and assessment methods of creative thinking among junior high school students

Explored the characteristics of creative thinking among junior high school students and its importance in English curriculum. Creative thinking includes divergent thinking and creative imagination, among which divergent thinking has the characteristics of fluency, flexibility, and originality, while creative imagination involves the process of independently creating new images. Research has shown that divergent thinking and creative imagination in adolescents develop rapidly during the middle school stage, making it a critical period for cultivating creative thinking. However, there is insufficient analysis of the characteristics of creative thinking ability among middle school students in current English teaching research. The international creativity assessment mainly adopts the Torrance Creative Thinking Test (TTCT) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). This study selects TTCT as the assessment framework. TTCT evaluates individuals' creative thinking abilities through language and graphic tasks, including language expression, visual imagination, and other aspects. This study will draw on the TTCT framework and combine language and graphic testing to systematically evaluate the creative thinking of junior high school students and provide teaching recommendations.

research design

The research subjects were 54 students from a class in the second year of junior high school in a national demonstration school for reform and innovation in junior high education, with a moderate to upper level of English proficiency. The research methods include questionnaire survey and data analysis. The questionnaire consists of three open-ended questions centered around Figure 1, and participants answer the questions based on the image. Data analysis analyzes the creative thinking characteristics exhibited by middle school students in English learning from five dimensions of creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, uniqueness, logicality, and generalization. The specific scoring criteria are as follows: fluency is scored based on the number of valid answers; Flexibility is scored according to the category of the answer; Uniqueness is scored based on the uniqueness of the responses given by the participants; Logic is scored in five levels based on the logical response; The summary is scored in five levels based on accuracy and clarity of classification. Researchers fill in Tables 1-3 according to the scoring criteria and complete the data analysis.

Research Results and Discussion

Through the analysis of 54 questionnaire data, the development of creative thinking among junior high school students was found to be unbalanced in five aspects, with fluency being the best and uniqueness being the lowest. Specifically, junior high school students are able to engage in thinking activities smoothly on a topic in terms of fluency, with significant differences in flexibility, the greatest differences in uniqueness, and good logic and generalization. Based on these findings, English teaching suggestions for creative thinking were proposed, including adopting diversified teaching strategies, strengthening situational teaching design, providing diverse learning materials and challenging learning tasks, discovering students' unique perspectives, emphasizing the cultivation of students' problem-solving abilities, and gradually cultivating students' creative thinking through ABC strategies (interest, questioning, creativity). Teachers should guide students to become the main body of learning through high-quality classroom teaching design, and achieve comprehensive development of creative thinking in autonomous, cooperative, and exploratory learning activities.

conclusion

It emphasizes that the development of creative thinking is a complex and dynamic process, especially in middle school where students' creative thinking develops rapidly. Teachers need to explore diverse teaching methods to cultivate the five key dimensions of creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, uniqueness, logicality, and generalizability. The study revealed the current situation of creative thinking among middle school students through questionnaires and data analysis, and provided reference data for English teaching. At the same time, the limitations of the research were pointed out, and it is hoped that future research can further explore more teaching strategies to promote the cultivation of students' creative thinking.