Investigating the extent of using Gilford's components of creativity in Persian children's magazines

Objective: Strengthening the thinking of the gens is essential for the present and future growth of the child and society, and the children's literature can play an important role to develop thinking and creativity skills. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the extent to which Gilford's components of creativity were used in Persian magazines for children.Methodology: This study is an applied research. The statistical population of the research consisted of Persian children's magazines, covering three content (fictions, non-fictions and pictures), published by 21 prestigious Persian magazine of children and adolescents listed in the year in the division of the Children's Book Council. A stratified random sampling method was used for each of the triple types of content that was 413 non-fiction articles, 152 fiction articles, 433 picture stories and 442 images of nonfiction content. Survey research and content analysis were used to identify components of Gilfor'ds creativity in the content of magazines. A researched-made check-list was the tool for gathering data. The validity of the tool was based on previous research and its reliability was confirmed by intra-group correlation coefficient. It was validated in each phase through consultation with specialists in Children's literature and Information Science.Findings: The findings showed that the mean of Gilford's creative thinking components varies in the content of fiction, nonfiction, and magazine publishing. In the fictional material, the most commonly used component in the storytelling of all journals is the sensitivity component to the problem with the mean of 7.5 and the lowest average is the complexity and then the combination.In non-fiction articles, it was also found that the average rate of addressing the problem sensitivity component among non-fiction articles was more than the other components, and the least amount of meanings belonged to the evaluation component. It was also found that in pictures, the most average is the sensitivity to the problem, while the amount of attention to the components of creativity in the pictures of children's magazines is small. Another finding showed that the means of the components of creative thinking in non-fiction pictures are more than fictional images, and they have become more relevant to these components. It was also found that in the material of the magazine Tricycle, in non-fiction articles from the magazine, in the narrative images of Soroush Magazine, and in the non-fiction pictures of the magazine, Candles magazine have been able to pay more attention to the components of creativity than other magazines.Conclusion: The Persian journals should pay more attention to the issue of creativity, which would not be possible with their current approach and should be revised in the policy of publishing their works and try to find out what obstacles they encounter in tackling them.