Creative minds in action

Introduction

Why develop students’ creativity?

Creativity lies at the heart of human progress and innovation (Puccio, 2017[1]). Being able to generate, evaluate, and improve upon ideas is a key skill that has driven forward human culture and society, and will become more important in an ever-changing world. Indeed, creative thinking is consistently ranked amongst the most sought-after skill by employers (WEF, 2023[2]) and, faced with a range of emerging challenges, organisations and societies alike require people to be adaptive and innovative (González-Pérez and Ramírez-Montoya, 2022[3]; OECD, 2010[4]).

Contrary to widespread beliefs, everyone has the potential to think creatively (Plucker, Beghetto and Dow, 2004[5]). Creativity is not only about the arts but also demonstrated in thinking in new and original ways, in solving problems, and in achieving results in difficult situations (OECD, 2022[6]). Creative thinking – the cognitive process that allows us to generate new ideas or solve problems in innovative ways – empowers individuals to overcome personal and professional obstacles (Szabo et al., 2020[7]; Childs et al., 2022[8]).

Creative thinking can and should be developed in education (Box 1). Research shows that teaching such skills in school enables students to transfer and apply them outside of educational settings, preparing them for life beyond the classroom (Szabo et al., 2020[7]). Creative thinking can be nurtured through teaching methods that encourage exploration and discovery rather than relying on memorisation (OECD, 2023[9]), but educators need support in recognising and promoting creativity in the classroom. With the right tools and approaches, schools can create environments where creativity thrives, preparing students for the challenges and opportunities of the future (Patston et al., 2021[10]).

Box 1. Why does creativity matter?

A fundamental role of education is to equip students with the competencies they need to succeed in life and society. Creative thinking is important to develop in education because it:

• Prepares students for the future: Students of today will face challenges and work in jobs that do not yet exist. Nurturing their creativity will help them develop the flexibility and problem-solving skills they will need to succeed.

• Helps students uncover their potential: Education plays a valuable role beyond preparing students for the labour market. Engaging students’ creativity in education can help them to discover their individual talents and potential, furthering their personal development.

• Enhances learning: When students think creatively, they explore ideas in new and personal meaningful ways. This makes learning more engaging and effective, especially for students who may otherwise struggle with more traditional teaching methods.

• Supports all subject areas: Creativity is not limited to the visual arts but is also essential in subjects like science, technology and languages. It helps students to solve problems, think outside the box, engage their imagination and come up with original ideas in any field of study.

Recognising the importance of developing creativity in education, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) included an assessment of creative thinking for the first time in its 2022 cycle (OECD, 2022[6]). The results from the assessment were summarised in the PISA 2022 Results (Volume III) report, published in June 2024 (OECD, 2024[11]).

While that PISA report focused on comparing countries’ performance on the test, as well as examining how creative thinking performance related to student and school factors, it did not focus on unpacking the different ways in which students around the world could think creatively nor on identifying the most creative responses. In this report, we take a deeper dive into the minds of students to unpack their creative potential and analyse the content of creative responses across countries and economies (see Box 2). In particular, we examine what kinds of creative ideas 15-year-old students around the world have and we explore how even the most underprivileged students are capable of thinking creatively.

Box 2. Identifying the most creative answers from the PISA data.

In the PISA test, most responses to the items were awarded full credit, partial credit or no credit according to well-defined coding procedures (see Annex A1 of the PISA Results 2022 (Volume III) report) (OECD, 2024[11]). In some cases, responses were awarded either full credit or no credit. The PISA scoring method focused on students’ capacity to generate “sufficiently” original or different ideas, depending on the type of item, across a range of item contexts. While this scoring approach was developed to maximise cross-cultural comparability, it was not able to identify the most creative responses within each PISA participating country and economy. The PISA scoring approach also notably did not include any scoring criteria deemed more susceptible to subjective and cross-cultural rater bias, i.e. criteria related to the “value” of students’ responses.

In this report, we identify some of the most creative responses from students in select countries and economies. To do this, the PISA Secretariat, in collaboration with researchers in 14 countries and economies that participated in the PISA creative thinking assessment, applied two alternative and more granular scoring approaches to a random sample of genuine student responses in the PISA test. These two alternative scoring approaches are described in detail in Annex A, but can be summarised as follows:

• The Holistic Judgement method: Student responses were awarded a score of 1-7, considering all relevant elements of their response holistically to determine a final “creativity” score.

• The Criteria-Based method: Student responses were awarded separate scores for their appropriateness, originality, value, and (where appropriate) idea flexibility.

The OECD gratefully thanks researchers for their contributions to the rescoring effort (see Acknowledgements for a full list).