Secondary school students in England feel less able to express ideas at school and are less likely to report being able take part in creative activities compared with their peers in many other countries, according to a major international assessment.
And they are less likely to say that their teachers value creativity, according to the latest report from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) on creative thinking, from research carried out in 2022.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) of English 15-year-olds taking part in the Pisa study agreed that they were given the chance to express their ideas at school.
This was below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 69.3 per cent.
English pupils were also less likely than the OECD average to agree that their teachers value students’ creativity - 65.1 per cent agreed with this, compared with 70.1 per cent across the OECD.
Pisa: Fewer creative activities for students
Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills at the OECD, said: “A curriculum that is very heavy on knowledge probably leaves a bit less room for creative thinking.” But he added that he “wouldn’t put it all on the curriculum”.
Critics have previously said that the focus on a knowledge-rich curriculum for 11- to 16-year-olds overloads secondary school students and “stifles engagement”. MPs also recommended that more opportunities be provided for students to study creative and cultural subjects at key stages 3 and 4.
England’s 15-year-olds were also less likely than the OECD average to report that they were able to participate in several creative activities at least once a week.
For example, only 15.2 per cent of English students said they took part in music classes or activities at least once a week, compared with 21.7 per cent across the OECD.
Similarly, only 14 per cent reported weekly participation in computer programming, compared with 17.2 per cent across the OECD.
For debating, the figure was 5.2 per cent, compared with a 9 per cent OECD average, and for contributing to publications such as a school newspaper, the proportion was 4.8 per cent, compared with 8 per cent across the OECD.
However, English pupils reported similar levels of participation in art and science clubs, compared with the OECD average, and were slightly above the average in students’ reports of access to drama at least once a week.
The views of UK students overall contrasted with those of UK school principals surveyed by Pisa. “The availability of school activities according to school principals was much higher than the reported participation of students in such activities,” the Pisa report states.
No critical-thinking assessment
Pisa’s 2022 report focuses on measuring the creative thinking skills of 15-year-olds in OECD and partner countries in a new component of the Pisa test.
But Tes revealed back in 2019 that ministers had decided England would opt out of the new creative thinking test. At the time critics condemned the decision as “very unhelpful”.
“There is a growing amount of research showing that if you embed creativity rigorously, standards in other subjects also go up,” Professor Bill Lucas, who chaired the strategic advisory group for the Pisa creative thinking tests, told Tes at the time.
England and the UK as a whole did not participate in the assessment of creative thinking. But students and principals responded to various questions about creative thinking and access.
The UK, excluding Scotland, had a student response rate of 75 per cent - a drop from 83 per cent in 2018. Response rates at a school level also fell short of the target.
The main Pisa results for maths, science and reading were released in December. England is ranked 11th for maths and 13th for both reading and science.
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