Abstract
The aim of the study is conducting methodologically sound, cross-sequential analyses of the creativity development of children attending different school systems. Culture-free tests of creativity (ideational fluency and flexibility) and intelligence were administered in 5 cohorts (two kindergarten and first three elementary school years), which were retested in three consecutive years. Samples include 244 Luxembourg and 312 German children enrolled in educational systems with obligatory kindergarten and 6-year comprehensive elementary school versus optional kindergarten, 4-year comprehensive elementary school and educational placement thereafter. Results demonstrate (1) linear increases in intelligence, (2) declines of divergent performances after school enrollment in both samples, (3) increases in divergent performances up to the 5th elementary school year in Luxembourg and up to the 3rd elementary school year in Germany (i.e., the next to last school year before educational placement) followed by a second creativity slump. Cross-sequential results confirm discontinuities in the development of divergent productions in childhood.
Highlights
Empirical results on creativity development are up to now restricted largely to cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs
Positional Stability Versus Plasticity Over Time — Relative changes examined longitudinally in the 4-year time span are low to medium in ideational fluency and flexibility, but they are markedly higher in intelligence
A double “creativity slump” is apparent in the Luxembourg sample of children who are schooled in an educational system with obligatory two years of kindergarten and 6-year comprehensive elementary school education: Longitudinal and cross-sectional data are in full agreement for a first decline in ideational fluency and flexibility in the transition from the 1st to the 2nd and a second decline in the transition from the 4th to the 5th/6th elementary school grade level, which is connected to the anticipation of educational placement for secondary education after the 6th elementary school grade level
Summary
Empirical results on creativity development are up to now restricted largely to cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs This is the case for creativity development in childhood as well as in adolescence and adult development with one exception: McCrae, Arenberg, and Costa (1987) administered six measures of divergent thinking to 825 males aged 17 to 101 years and repeated test administration in a subset of 278 males initially aged 33 to 74 after a 6-year interval. Torrance hypothesized creativity development to covary with developmental transitions, for example, the transition from kindergarten education to elementary school education Torrance developed this hypothesis on the basis of a combination of the results from independent cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on divergent productions of kindergarten and elementary school students. He hypothesized that the transition from early childhood (kindergarten) to middle childhood (elementary school) is related to the greater demands on social adjustment and conformity in children’s behavior as well as demands on their acceptance of authorities and the requests for convergent thinking, which is frequently thought to be a necessity for the learning of cultural skills like reading, writing, mathematics, etc
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