Ksenia M. Ganina

This article presents a modified version of the “Incomplete Figures” subtest originally developed by Ellis Paul Torrance. The relevance of the study is determined by the increasing role of creative competency within the system of art and design education, as well as by the need to develop diagnostic instruments that account for the specific features of students’ visual and figurative thinking. In educational practice, standardized creativity tests are widely applied, including the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking; however, their implementation in art education encounters a number of limitations related to the nature of the stimulus material and the professional orientation of students’ activities. The aim of the article is to develop and conduct an initial validation of a modified version of the Torrance subtest aimed at assessing the activity-based component of creative competency, as well as to analyze its diagnostic potential in samples of schoolchildren and university students. The modification is based on the use of more complex stimulus material and involves completing a series of sequential graphic tasks followed by an analysis of the produced works according to the criteria of fluency, originality, elaboration, and resistance to premature closure. The validation of the proposed modification was carried out among undergraduate students majoring in Design and primary school students receiving supplementary art education. The study identified age- and context-related characteristics in the manifestation of specific indicators of creative thinking and confirmed the diagnostic applicability of the proposed modification when working with different categories of learners. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the systematization and updating of scholarly approaches to creativity assessment in the context of art and design education. The practical significance consists in the possibility of applying the proposed modification in educational and research practice for analyzing the development of students’ creative competency and monitoring its developmental dynamics.