Today/CNA-June 18, 24
Singapore’s 15-year-olds came out top in an international benchmarking study on creative thinking, even though they do not think of themselves as creative. Singapore students were tested on how well they generate creative ideas, as well as evaluate and improve on them in the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2022.
A total of 6,600 students from 149 secondary schools and 15 private schools, including international schools and religious schools, participated in the study, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a press release on Tuesday (June 18). Singapore also topped the scoreboard for mathematics, science and reading. Since 2012, Pisa has included an optional innovative domain in each testing cycle, such as creative problem solving, collaborative problem solving and global competence. Singapore ranked joint-first with Korea for creative problem solving, and first for the other two. Singapore participated in the creative thinking study because it is an “important competency” that helps to prepare young people for a rapidly evolving world, said MOE, adding that it was interested in having insights on how students have developed in this area. The findings are useful in improving the curriculum and training teachers to better nurture creative thinking in students, said the ministry’s deputy director-general of education Sng Chern Wei. MOE will take these into account during its curriculum reviews, he added. Participants were awarded full credits for uncommon ideas, and partial or no credits for common and conventional ideas. Singapore students ranked first in generating diverse ideas and generating creative ideas. They came second, behind Korea, in evaluating and improving ideas. In most of the countries that participated in the study, girls performed better than boys on average, and Singapore was no different, although they were comparable in some aspects, said MOE. Girls scored an average of 42 points while boys scored an average of 40 points. Girls also outperformed boys in generating creative ideas, as well as evaluating and improving ideas. Read more at: https://www.todayonline.com/news/singapore-students-top-pisa-study-creative-thinking-despite-not-thinking-themselves-creative-2443396
