ERIC Number: EJ1474799
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jun
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0175
EISSN: EISSN-2162-6057
Available Date: 2025-05-05
Along the Convergent-Divergent Continuum: The Role of Task Structure in the PISA Creative Thinking Assessment
Selcuk Acar1; Yuyang Shen1
Journal of Creative Behavior, v59 n2 e70029 2025
Creativity tests, like creativity itself, vary widely in their structure and use. These differences include instructions, test duration, environments, prompt and response modalities, and the structure of test items. A key factor is task structure, referring to the specificity of the number of responses requested for a given prompt. Classic creativity assessments often use divergent thinking tasks, which allow for multiple responses. In contrast, other measures, such as insight tasks or the Remote Associates Test, require a single correct answer. This distinction suggests that a creativity test's correlates could depend on its placement along the convergent-divergent continuum. The PISA Creative Thinking assessment leans toward the divergent end, as none of its items require a single correct answer. However, it differs from traditional divergent thinking tests by not explicitly instructing participants to generate as many responses as possible. Instead, PISA items allow varying numbers of responses--some requiring one, others two or three. This variation reflects different levels of divergence, with one-response items being more convergent than three-response items. We argue that this difference in task structure should be considered when examining the relationship between PISA creativity scores and factors like academic achievement and socioeconomic status.
Descriptors: Creativity, Creative Thinking, Creativity Tests, Task Analysis, Test Format, Test Use, Prompting, Test Items, Item Response Theory, Scores, Correlation, Academic Achievement, Socioeconomic Status, Achievement Tests, Foreign Countries, International Assessment, Secondary School Students
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Remote Associates Test; Program for International Student Assessment
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Educational Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA