PISA 2022: Finland at the top in creative thinking
Finland's 15-year-olds scored above the OECD average in creative thinking, an innovative domain in the 2022 PISA survey. Around 40 % of our young people were top performers. The national report, written by REAL, the Research Centre for Education, Assessment and Learning, opens up the results from perspectives such as international comparison, equality and curriculum.
In addition to the main domains in the OECD PISA survey, reading, mathematics and science, creative thinking as a fourth, innovative domain was assessed in the 2022 cycle. Altogether, 64 countries and economies participated in this innovative domain. Creative thinking was defined as the ability to generate, evaluate and develop ideas that can lead to original and effective solutions and to produce new knowledge and imaginative outputs effectively. Creative thinking was assessed through written and visual expression and social and scientific problem-solving tasks.
In Finland, 15-year-olds performed well in the creative thinking assessment, with a higher average score than the OECD average. Singapore, Korea, Canada and Australia performed better than Finland in creative thinking. New Zealand, Estonia, Denmark and Latvia were at the same level as Finland. In Finland, 39 % of 15-year-olds reached proficiency levels 5 or 6 in creative 6 in creative thinking. The OECD defines students performing at proficiency levels 5 and 6 as top performers in creative thinking. On average, 27 % of pupils in OECD countries were at these levels.
In Finland, the variation between schools was small. As in the other participating countries, girls in Finland outperformed boys, although boys also scored well. Girls performed particularly well in social problem solving.
The Finnish national core curriculum emphasises the importance of creative thinking as a starting point for teaching and learning and as a skill that can be developed in the context of various subjects and multidisciplinary learning modules in different learning environments.
You can access the national PISA 2022 Creative Thinking report in Finnish by our research centre here.
For more information:
Ninja Hienonen
ninja.hienonen@tuni.fi
+358 50 3182273
Päivi Nilivaara
paivi.nilivaara@tuni.fi
+358 50 9171621