<![CDATA[In contemporary education, the capacity for creative thinking has emerged as a fundamental skill that equips students to navigate an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Within physics education specifically, fostering such capabilities remains underemphasized, as instructional practices tend to prioritize procedural mastery and conceptual recall over exploratory and generative thinking. This preliminary needs assessment study employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design to examine the profile of creative thinking skills and the barriers to their development among physics education students during thermodynamics coursework, a domain in which creative problem-solving is crucial yet remains underexplored. Quantitative data were obtained through a creative thinking test based on Torrance indicators, while qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with students. The results of the study showed that the level of creative thinking of students was still in the medium to low category, with originality (29.17%) and elaboration (35.42%) indicators showing dominant weaknesses. Interviews also revealed that most students felt that they did not get enough space in lectures to explore ideas freely and creatively. These findings indicate a real need to design a physics learning approach that is more conducive to the development of creative thinking skills. The implications of this study highlight the need for project-based pedagogical innovation, open-ended problem solving, and authentic assessments that can stimulate students’ creative thinking more systematically]]>
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