PISA

2022-participating jurisdictions?

To shed light on the specific barriers facing the systematic integration of creative thinking in schools and classrooms, PISA asked policymakers which of the following issues, if any, challenge the capacity of their jurisdiction to develop students’ creativity: 1) overcrowded curriculum (lack of teaching time); 2) focus on preparing students for high stakes examinations; 3) lack of training or pedagogic resources for educators on developing students’ creativity; 4) lack of appropriate facilities, equipment and/or materials in schools; 5) lack of assessment focus on creativity; 6) lack of system-level guidelines, standards, or learning progressions on developing creativity; 7) unclear evidence supporting the integration of creativity in education; 8) lack of political will or high-level strategy focused on developing creativity in education; 9) general financial constraints; or 10) other.

Curriculum overcrowding, lack of assessments and teacher training are key issues

Figure 4 shows that policymakers in over 50% of jurisdictions are concerned with overcrowded curricula (53% of jurisdictions), a lack of assessment focus on creativity (52%), and a lack of teacher training or pedagogical resources (51%). Additionally, policymakers identify a lack of appropriate facilities, equipment and/or materials as challenging in 45% of jurisdictions, while in 32% of jurisdictions a reference is made to financial constraints more generally. Insufficient system-level guidelines, standards or learning progressions on developing creativity (43%) and a focus on preparing students for high stakes examinations (38%) are seen as problematic in about 4 in 10 jurisdictions. To a lesser extent, jurisdictions reported unclear evidence supporting the integration of creativity in education (26%) and a lack of political will or a high-level strategy focused on developing creativity (18%) as challenging.

Figure 4 Challenges facing the integration of creative thinking in education

Percentage of jurisdictions reporting the following challenges to integrate creative thinking in their education system, 2022

Note: For each type of perceived challenge, the reported share is based on the number of jurisdictions that selected that challenge as a response, over the total number of valid responses received on this question (N=77). Cases in which no response options were selected (i.e., ‘None / Not applicable’ was not selected, either) were treated as missing data and thus not counted as valid responses.

Source: OECD, PISA 2022 System-Level Questionnaire on Creative Thinking.