Australian students rank amongst the highest for creative thinking in the world, according to the OECD’s latest PISA 2022 report, Creative Minds, Creative Schools.
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students around the world know and can do. This volume – Volume III, Creative Minds, Creative Schools – is one of five volumes presenting the results of the eighth round of the PISA assessment.
For the first time, PISA has measured the creative thinking skills of 15-year-old students, assessing their ability to engage productively in the generation, evaluation and improvement of ideas.
“As we navigate the complex environmental, social and economic changes of the 21st century, it is crucial for students to be innovative, enterprising and to use critical and creative thinking purposefully,” OECD Education and Skills Today said.
In 2022, PISA assessed students’ capacity to engage in creative thinking in 64 countries and economies, defined as students’ capacity to produce original and diverse ideas. This volume describes student performance in creative thinking in different contexts and how creative thinking performance and attitudes vary across and within countries and economies.
It examines differences in performance by student characteristics, including gender and socio-economic status, as well as school characteristics. The volume also offers an insight into school leader and teacher attitudes towards creative thinking, how opportunities for students to engage in creative thinking vary across schools, and how these factors are associated with student outcomes.
ACARA’s acting CEO Stephen Gniel welcomed the Creative Minds, Creative Schools findings.
“Critical and creative thinking is one of the Australian Curriculum’s general capabilities, which are integrated and applied across all the learning areas. So, it’s pleasing to see Australia as amongst those singled out for praise by the OECD as a high-performing system in the world for creative thinking in education,” he said.
“Supporting the growth of students’ critical and creative thinking capabilities is one of the ways that the Australian Curriculum develops our young people’s skills for life. Thanks to the dedication of teachers and principals right around the country, the Australian Curriculum comes alive in their hands as they make the expert decisions about the learning experience each student needs in order to succeed.”
As ACARA’s recently released 2023 NAP Science Literacy assessment also demonstrated, Mr Gniel said, students who reported engaging more frequently in Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) activities tended to have higher levels of science literacy.
“Overall Australian students’ strong creative thinking results are a positive outcome of our country’s long-term strategic commitment to creative thinking in our curriculum and our assessment and reporting practices.”
Find out more about the Australian Curriculum’s Critical and Creative Thinking general capability.
View the recording of the launch of PISA 2022 results Volume III: Creative Minds, Creative Schools.
