Creativity and school grades: A case from Poland

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Abstract

The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between the creative abilities and the school grades of high school students in Poland. Almost six hundred (N = 589) students from 34 high schools from all over Poland participated in the study. Their creative abilities were measured by using the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), and the school results were measured by GPA. Students’ intelligence level (as measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices) and their gender were controlled. The analyses were based on OLS regressions as well as on multilevel models controlling for grouping students into classes. It was shown that creative abilities are not correlated with students’ GPA, yet the multilevel control of grouping students into classes demonstrated interesting and potentially important differences. In some schools, the relations were positive, strong and statistically significant, while in others they were non-existent or negative. The role of creative abilities for GPA was greater in larger schools and in schools located in big cities. We discuss the possible reasons for and consequences of our findings.

Highlights

► Examine the pattern of the relations between creative abilities and school grades of high school students in Poland. ► Compare OLS Regression and Multilevel Model in explaining GPA by creativity when IQ and gender are controlled. ► Show that creative abilities are not correlated with students’ GPA, yet the multilevel control demonstrate important differences between schools.

Section snippets

Possible moderators of the creativity-GPA relations

When exploring the various patterns of the relationship between creativity and school achievement, many factors should be taken into consideration. The strength of the relationship between creativity and school grades differs in every examined aspect of creative abilities. Elaboration strongly correlates with school grades, whereas fluency, flexibility and originality moderately correlate with school grades, and the strength of these relations changes in the case of different types of school

The present study

The main purpose of the study presented below is to examine the relationship between creative abilities and the school grades of high school students when their intelligence and gender are controlled. We expected there to be (H1) weaker relationships between creative abilities and school grades, and stronger (H2) relationships between intelligence and school grades. Our additional goal was to examine the possible differentiation of the relations between schools–checking whether and to what

Participants

The sample consisted of 589 participants (N = 589): 284 males (48.2%) and 305 females (51.8%). The participants were high school students living in different parts of Central Poland. Their ages were between 16 and 20 years with M = 17.6 and SD = 1.2. The research involved students from 34 classes drawn from 34 schools. Only one class was chosen from one of the schools.

The study involved only students in Grades 2 and 3, of which 281 (47.7%) were second grade students and 308 (52.3%) were third-grade

Results

Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables of the study are presented in Table 1.

Men obtained slightly higher results in the intelligence test, whereas women were better students with regard to GPA. Creative abilities were weakly, but statistically significantly related to intelligence and – on the level of statistical tendency (p < .10) – to GPA. Intelligence was correlated with GPA. The comparison of the correlation coefficients between creative abilities and GPA among women and

Discussion

It has been argued that schools ought to teach creativity (Sawyer, 2006). However, the reality is less positive. In a sense, this study also inscribes itself in this negative description of the education system as a place where creativity is not appreciated and supported.

The key hypothesis of our research – that creative abilities are weakly associated with school grades – was rejected. The second hypothesis was partially confirmed, as we found statistically significant, but (contrary to

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