Innovation in Teaching, Learning and Evaluation

Innovation in Teaching, Learning and Evaluation

The Effect of Reading Literary Texts in the Classroom on the Development of Creative Thinking among High School Students in Nowshahr

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Department of Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Chalus, Iran
10.22034/jitle.2026.570412.1058
Abstract
The pedagogical role of literature and the importance of teaching it are well known. However, in recent years, the emphasis on other subjects has overshadowed its importance. The present study sought to investigate the effect of teaching literary texts in the classroom on the creative thinking of high school students in Nowshahr. This study is applied in terms of its purpose and semi-experimental in terms of its method. A sample of 63 high school students in Nowshahr, Mazandaran were recruited through convenient sampling. They were divided into two experimental (31 individuals) and control groups (32 individuals). The experimental group read literary texts for 20 sessions, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The Creative Thinking Questionnaire (Lu & Meng, 2005) was used as a pre- and post-test to collect data. Data analysis using independent-samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups after the intervention and the experimental group outperformed in creative thinking. The results indicate that the use of literary texts in the classroom not only has an artistic and aesthetic aspect, but also has a significant impact on the intellectual development and creative thinking of learners.
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