Assessing the Linguistic Creativity Domain of Last-Year Compulsory Secondary School Students

Abstract

The importance of creativity in the training of people gained special relevance with the PISA Tests of the OECD, which, for the first time, evaluated the general creativity of 15-year-old students in 2022. This descriptive and quantitative study focuses on the evaluation of linguistic creativity, using different classical instruments to measure divergent thinking and adding new ones, such as metaphorical capacity. Participants were 454 students in their last year of secondary education from eight Spanish educational centers. Results indicate moderate performance in divergent thinking tasks, with students exhibiting limitations in generating novel metaphors, often resorting to literal responses. Statistically significant differences according to gender were found in metaphor generation and in the alternate uses task. A correlation study reveals significant associations between metaphor generation and divergent thinking tasks. These highlight the differential role of semantic memory and cognitive processes involved in metaphor generation and divergent thinking. Finally, this study underlines the complexities and multicomponent nature of creativity as a first step to develop educational policies and interventions targeting creativity. Overall, the importance of addressing creativity in a transdisciplinary way and training teachers on techniques to channel creativity are highlighted, such as through the design of challenges or writing workshops.