The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) introduced creative thinking as an innovative domain in 2022. This paper examines the unique methodological issues in international assessments and the implications of measuring creative thinking within PISA's framework, including stratified sampling, rotated form designs, and a distinct…

The success of the Republic of Estonia in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was a surprise both nationally and internationally and has led to several important questions. What are the reasons for these results? Which historical developments and recent decisions have allowed a small and not particularly rich country to build…

International organisations have pressed countries to prepare students for the knowledge economy by building real-life competencies into national curricula, and the OECD's PISA has assessed competencies like collaboration and creative problem solving. But is there really a deficit in competencies that schools must address? This review of empirical…

Recognising the importance of developing creativity in education, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) included an assessment of creative thinking for the first time in its 2022 cycle -- with the results summarised in the PISA 2022 Results (Volume III) report. While that report focused on comparing countries' performance on…

Creativity has fascinated scholars for generations, and its identification as one of the key 'twenty-first century skills' necessary for economic growth has led to renewed interest. This creates two challenges for the OECD: its flagship Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) does not directly measure creativity. Secondly, the…

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students around the world know and can do. This volume -- Volume III, Creative Minds, Creative Schools -- is one of five volumes presenting the results of the eighth round of the PISA assessment. For the first time, in 2022, PISA assessed students' capacity to engage in…

This paper resists normative definitions of 'creativity' to argue that the concept is constructed by neoliberal discourses in education policy. The analysis is firstly centred on the Australian context, and this is further informed and complimented by a global perspective. Focusing on two pivotal policies, The Melbourne Declaration of Educational…

Creativity is the driving force of technological innovation and sustainable economic growth in the knowledge society. A central question, therefore, is how education helps to enhance creativity. As East Asian countries occupy the top of performance tests such as the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), it is most important…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a measure of soft skills suitable for use in a large survey of Australian adolescents. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with N = 4,704 Australians aged 15-19 over 2 years. Principal components analysis was performed on 14 self-report items, followed by generalised linear mixed…

It was thought in this study that it was important to analyze the countries' economic situation and patent production based on their information transfers via their success rankings in PISA, which determined their success internationally. Therefore, it was aimed to analyze the countries' success in participation into the PISA 2012. Case study…

In this paper, we present a novel approach to defining, teaching, and assessing creativity by examining its origins and delineating the processes involved. The rationale for introducing this framework developed from studying existing thinking and questioning the current metrics for measuring creativity, which we posit are unfit for purpose. We…

Purpose: This article, based on an invited talk, aims to explore the relationship among large-scale assessments, creativity and personalized learning. Design/Approach/Methods: Starting with the working definition of large-scale assessments, creativity, and personalized learning, this article identified the paradox of combining these three…

Purpose: Amidst ongoing attempts to think beyond Western frameworks for education, there is a tendency to overlook Japan, perhaps because it appears highly modern. This is striking given that some prominent strands of Japanese philosophy have formulated an explicit and exacting challenge to the core onto-epistemic premises of modern Western…

Responding to an earlier "Phi Delta Kappan" article, the author rejects the argument that East Asian students' high scores on international educational assessments come at the expense of learning to be creative and entrepreneurial. According to survey research, people in Japan, Korea, and other East Asian nations perceive themselves to…

Certain global leadership forces -- competitiveness, tolerance and creativity -- are so pervasive that they can be illustrated on the part of any country. However, nations also have unique dynamics to consider within our interconnected world. This is the overarching issue being expressed in this essay wherein the Carol Mullen deconstructs Canada's…