The development of creativity in Chilean kindergarten and school children / Desarrollo de la creatividad en párvulos y escolares chilenos

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the development of creativity in Chilean kindergarten and school children. For this, we evaluated non-verbal divergent and convergent thinking skills in a sample of 320 Chilean kindergarten, second-, fourth- and sixth-grade school children. We found that kindergarten and second-grade children showed a lower performance in creative fluency and originality than fourth-grade and sixth-grade children. In addition, we found that kindergarten and second-grade children had a low performance in creative elaboration, which worsened in the fourth and sixth grades. We did not find differences between the different educational levels in convergent thinking skills. Our results contradict previous international studies that report a stable development of creativity throughout the first few years of schooling, with a transitory slump in the fourth or sixth grade, revealing an early slump of creative skills in Chilean children, which rebound after the fourth grade. We discuss the potential relationship between the academization and rigidization of Chilean early childhood education and the early slump in creativity.

Exploring the Effects of Age, Gender, and School Setting on Children’s Creative Thinking Skills

“…This phenomenon may be accompanied by a slump in the development of literacy skills making it even more difficult for children to achieve their true academic potential (Chall & Jacobs, 2014). However, it is also important to note researchers have found variations across ages, grades, cultures, and measures (Charles & Runco, 2001; Lau & Cheung, 2010; Storme et al, 2017), including some evidence of children experiencing a slump rebounding in later grades (Barraza, Preiss, & Pardo, 2019) and other showing no "effect" at all (Charles & Runco, 2001).…”

Evaluación de la creatividad: dos estudios normativos del Test de Pensamiento Creativo de Torrance (TTCT), Figuras, Formas A y B en niños argentinos

“…Estas fluctuaciones, en general, no siguen una progresión lineal y podrían ser producidas por factores contextuales (Barbot et al, 2016), por el inicio de la pubertad y factores relacionados con el neurodesarrollo (Barbot & Tinio, 2015;Gralewski et al, 2016). Con relación a los cambios que se dan en la creatividad, Barraza et al (2019) llaman la atención sobre la importancia de tener en cuenta los sistemas educativos a la hora de interpretar los resultados. En este sentido, algunos de los estudios mencionados anteriormente analizan la relación entre la edad y la creatividad en entornos escolares que, hasta el cuarto grado son flexibles y que gradualmente se vuelven más rígidos y académicos a partir de la mitad de la escuela primaria o al comenzar la escuela secundaria.…”

“…Por otro lado, hay sistemas educativos que ya son más académicos y rígidos desde los primeros años. En esta línea, el estudio de Barraza et al (2019) realizado en Chile, encontró que en los primeros años de la escuela primaria los puntajes son bajos y los niños dan respuestas conservadoras pero elaboradas. Por otra parte, los niños de cuarto y sexto grado dan muchas respuestas más innovadoras pero poco desarrolladas.…”

Developing Creative Thinking in Preschool Children: A Comprehensive Review of Innovative

“…The final capability that preschool children can exhibit is their ability to think in an original way, which demonstrates their development of creative thinking; preschool children can generate authentic and unexpected ideas, thinking outside the box and creating solutions that have not been considered before (Barraza et al, 2019;Chew & Eau, 2017). An example of a child combining original and creative thinking is during playtime.…”