Creative Storytelling In Childhood Is Related To Exam Performance At Age 16

Abstract

Creativity is only partly recognised in education. A recent meta-analysis estimated a correlation of r = 0.22 between creativity and educational achievement across many international student samples of all educational levels. In the meta-analysis, creativity was measured with a variety of measures, including divergent thinking and remote association tasks. The differences in the measures influenced the strength of the relationship between creativity and educational achievement. More research is needed to establish reliable measures of creativity, especially in primary school children, whose creativity remains poorly evaluated. The present study measured creativity in written stories in children at age 9 using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). The study employed a longitudinal design, using CAT creativity scores as a predictor of educational achievement at age 16. Each of the stories from 59 children were coded by 6 different judges for 10 dimensions, including creativity. The inter-rater reliabilities between the judges for the 10 dimensions were high (α = .76 -.95). Among the dimensions, a factor analysis revealed two factors: Creative Expressiveness and Logic. The Creative Expressiveness factor explained an additional 7 % of variance in English grades, but not in Maths, beyond intelligence, previous achievement and personality traits associated with creativity. Overall, the study showed that CAT is a robust and reliable measure to detect verbal creativity in childhood. The results also suggest that early creativity predicts later academic achievement, calling for more attention to early creativity assessment and development.

Early Predictors Of Creative Writing At Age 9

“…Assessment Technique (CAT) has been applied (Baer, Kaufman, & Gentile, 2004;Hennessey & Amabile, 1988;Toivainen et al, 2017). A recent pilot study assessed creativity in children's written stories on 10 dimensions using the CAT (Toivainen et al, 2017). An exploratory factor analysis on the 10 dimensions, revealed two independent factors, based on high factor loadings, which were labelled as Creative Expressiveness and Logic.…”

“…Previous studies have reported associations between creativity and similarly defined factors (e.g. Barron, 1955;Hennessey & Amabile, 1988;Mumford, 2003;Toivainen et al, 2017).…”

“…The CAT relies on the assumption that there is a common understanding of what constitutes as a creative performance or artefact. The CAT has been applied to assess creativity in children's poems, oral and written stories, drawings, and collages (Baer, Kaufman, & Gentile, 2004;Hennessey & Amabile, 1988Toivainen et al 2017Lubart, Pacteau, Jacquet, & Caroff, 2010). These studies have reported high inter-rater reliabilities among independent judges, with alpha coefficients typically ranging from .70-to-.95 (e.g.…”

“…These studies have reported high inter-rater reliabilities among independent judges, with alpha coefficients typically ranging from .70-to-.95 (e.g. Baer et al, 2004;Hennessey & Amabile, 1988;Toivainen et al 2017).…”

“…Empirical research on creativity is rapidly growing employing clinical, cognitive, developmental, educational, differential, organisational and other psychological paradigms (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011). Research has shown that creative ideation is associated with mental health and well-being (Forgeard & Elstein, 2014), academic performance (Gajda, Karwowski, & Beghetto, 2017;Toivainen, Malanchini, Oliver & Kovas, 2017), and organisational innovation (Amabile, 1988;George, 2007). Creativity has been found to facilitate children's problem-solving skills, adjustment to unfamiliar situations, coping ability and emotional understanding (Carson, Bittner, Cameron, Brown & Meyer, 1994;Runco, 2001).…”