Australia’s 15-year-old students were the second-highest achieving creative thinkers in an assessment of 64 countries and economies, a new report shows.
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) report is based on data from more than 13,430 Australian students, and principals and teachers who took part in the latest OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
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The PISA creative thinking assessment, introduced for the first time in 2022, measured students’ abilities to generate original and diverse ideas, evaluate ideas and improve ideas. ACER’s analysis found Australia’s proportion of high performers was significantly higher than the OECD average of 27 percent across every state and territory – ranging from 34 percent to 49 percent.
It also identified the performance levels of different demographic groups. The proportion of Australia’s students meeting the national proficient standard (88 percent) was 10 percentage points higher than the OECD average, with 91 percent of students in the ACT achieving this standard.
“The OECD’s report in June named Singapore, Korea, Australia, Canada, Finland and New Zealand as the most successful education systems in developing students’ capacity to engage in creative thinking,” lead author of ACER’s report Lisa De Bortoli said.
“Our findings provide insight into how imaginative, adventurous, confident and capable Australia’s 15-year-olds are in their creative thinking and how it is being fostered in classrooms across the country. This is critical information because creative thinking skills are fundamental to helping people develop innovative and effective responses to issues and problems – in their personal and professional lives, within communities, and as global citizens,” Ms De Bortoli said.
Australia’s performance in creative thinking was like that of Canada and Korea, with only Singapore achieving a higher national average. PISA has measured 15-year-old students’ knowledge and skills in maths, science and reading since 2000.
ACER conducted PISA 2022 in Australia on behalf of and with funding from the Australian and state and territory governments. The OECD has appointed ACER to lead the development and implementation of the next PISA study, in 2025.
Read the full report, PISA 200. Assessing creative thinking for a better future, or visit www.acer.org/au/pisa for more information on PISA in Australia.
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