The PISA report tests for students have revealed a limited relationship between academic results of conventional subjects, such as mathematics, and creative thinkingwhich has a significant gender variant in favor of girls, although less marked in Latin America. In Spain, the Community of Madrid and Castilla y León lead the classification.
In its first evaluation of those creative abilitiespublished this Tuesday by the OECD, Singapore It was with 41 points out of 50, the country with the best grade by farfollowed by South Korea (38), Canada (38), Australia (37), New Zealand (36), Estonia (36) and Finland (36).
Spain stayed average from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with 33 points, at equal that Germany, Czech Republic and Lithuania.
These results were obtained in 2022in the PISA tests that for the first time evaluated the creative abilities of 15-year-old studentsat the same time they tested their capabilities in mathematics, science and reading comprehension.
According to PISA, 80% of Spanish students reached at least the basic performance level.
In this country, 30,800 students from 966 schools took the assessment in mathematics, reading or sciencewhich means some 459,000 15-year-old students (approximately 90% of the total population of 15-year-old students). At a general level, 690,000 students from 80 countries took the assessment in 2022, representing around 29 million 15-year-olds in schools in participating countries.
According to PISA, 80% of Spanish students reached at least the basic performance level (level 3 or more). 25% obtained high performance in creative thinking (levels 5 and 6). Of the latter, those who excel in the test, only 15% are also the best in mathematics, and 14% are the best in reading, which suggests that you can excel in creative thinking without excelling in academic areas and vice versa.
Students from Madrid and Castilian-Leonese, the most creative
Between the autonomous communities, Madrid (34.8 points) and Castilla y León (34.6) obtain the better performance; Ceuta (26.1) and Melilla (26.1) obtain a higher performance discreet.
Chile and Mexico obtained five points more than in mathematics and were the ones with the greatest difference of the 64 in the sample.
The tests were done on students of 64 countries or economies, among which are the members of the OECD. One of the surprises was that several Latin American countries obtained clearly higher marks in creativity which could have been expected taking into account their mediocre grades in other subjects, and in particular in mathematics.
Latin Americans, more creative
Chili (with 31 points out of 50) and Mexico (29) obtained five points more than in mathematics and were the ones with the greatest difference of the 64 in the sample. The gap was also more than four points for Costa Rica (27) and The Savior (23), as well as more than three for Uruguay (29), Panama (23) and Colombia (26).
In it other end of the scalestudents from the Chinese territories of Macau and Hong Kongas well as those of Taiwanwho are among the most advanced in mathematics, demonstrated some comparatively mediocre skillswith scores of 32 for the Chinese and 33 for the Taiwanese.
With general characterwithin the OECD only 28% of the variation in scores in creative thinking can be directly linked to the students’ competencies in mathematics.
Girls, better creative aptitudes in the PISA report
In In all the countries analyzed, girls had a better aptitude for creativity than their peers, although these differences were almost not statistically significant in Mexico, Peru and Chile. They were also reduced in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uruguay, Panama, Indonesia and Colombia.
The director of the OECD Education Department, Andreas Schleicher, contributed to the presentation of the report to the press two elements of explanation.
The main one is that In Latin America there are almost no gender differences in reading ability that are confirmed in the rest of the world in favor of girls and reading is a relevant factor for creativity. The second is that The aspirations of boys and girls for creativity are similar on the continent.
That equalization contrasts with the large gender gaps in creativity in Jordan, Finland, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iceland, Malta, Slovenia, the Philippines or Brunei.
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