Does shadow education discourage or encourage creative thinking? Evidence from South Korea (La educación en la sombra, ¿fomenta o desincentiva el pensamiento creativo? Evidencia de Corea del Sur)

Abstract

Using longitudinal data for a nationally representative sample of fifth-graders from the Korean Educational Longitudinal Study of 2013, this study examined the effect of shadow educationreferred to as academically oriented extracurricular activities mainly aimed to prepare for examinations -on students' creative thinking. To estimate the effect of shadow education, we used propensity score matching approaches. We found no significant shadow education effect on gains (or losses) in students' creative thinking between the fifth and sixth grades. This finding does not support the arguments that students' participation in shadow education discourages or encourages their creative thinking. Implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Shadow education: new areas of inquiry in teaching, learning and development (Educación en la sombra: nuevas áreas de estudio sobre enseñanza, aprendizaje y desarrollo)

“…Such a finding connects with the body of literature on 'concerted cultivation' (Matsuoka, 2019). The authors conclude that the results are a promising start and call for further research in other locations as well as comparative research (Byun et al, 2023).…”

“…For example, in many societies (both Eastern and Western ones, for that matter), shadow education is seen as a by-product of exam culture rooted in Asia and believed to oppress the development of creativity, negatively affect students' health and well-being and foster educational and social inequalities (Kim & Jung, 2021;Yung, 2021b; as evident from major political discourses in these societies, see Bjork, 2015). However, the article by Byun et al (2023) in this issue and some recent studies in the field (e.g., Entrich, 2021) indicate that these negative perceptions of the consequences of shadow education may not necessarily be accurate. There exists great yet unaccounted diversity in educational practices outside formal schooling (Bhorkar, 2023) and constant transformation in response to social and educational change at the national level, for example, in response to policies regulating private tutoring such as the double reduction policy in China (Kwok & Wang, 2023), or in response to global developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Tsaloukidis & Kobakhidze, 2023).…”

“…Third, many tutorial schools offer courses on non-academic subjects such as sports, music and arts, and they are demanded by parents for their children's development (Liu & Bray, 2022). Some focus on developing students' non-academic attributes such as motivation, critical thinking or creativity (Byun et al, 2023;Teo & Koh, 2020). They are generally treated as supplementary tutoring in the market and should also be included as part of the shadow education discourse.…”

“…It provides a comprehensive overview of international research on shadow education in the last three decades, introducing the main ideas behind the concept of shadow education and outlining the development of the field for the readers of JSED (Bray, 2023). The following four articles provide new empirical evidence on central issues within this special issue's thematic focus, from the perspectives of four Asian societies: South Korea (Byun et al, 2023), Mainland China (Kwok & Wang, 2023), Hong Kong (Tsaloukidis & Kobakhidze, 2023) and India (Bhorkar, 2023). Following this Introduction, readers will find our Prospectives article ('Understanding private supplementary tutoring: metaphors, diversities and agendas for shadow education research'; Bray, 2023).…”

“…En tercer lugar, muchos centros de tutorías ofrecen cursos sobre materias no académicas como deportes, música y arte, buscadas por los padres para el desarrollo de sus hijos (Liu & Bray, 2022). Algunos se centran en desarrollar aspectos no académicos de los estudiantes como la motivación, el pensamiento crítico o la creatividad (Byun et al, 2023;Teo & Koh, 2020). Generalmente son tratadas como tutorías complementarias en el mercado y deberían abordarse en los estudios sobre la educación en la sombra.…”