A recent large-scale meta-analysis failed to find convincing evidence of developmental slumps in children's divergent thinking¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? A recent large-scale meta-analysis failed to find convincing evidence of developmental slumps in divergent thinking, and reported slump ages (9–10 years) do not correspond with educational-context changes for most children. → Bruce S. Rawlings & Sarah J. Cutting 2024

Evidence¶

Bruce S. Rawlings & Sarah J. Cutting 2024¶

Bruce S. Rawlings & Sarah J. Cutting. (2024). Linking Disparate Strands: A Critical Review of the Relationship Between Creativity and Education. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09973-z

q3 · i? · review · r3

The review reports that a large-scale meta-analysis "failed to find convincing evidence of developmental slumps in DT", noting reported slump ages do not align with educational transitions, against earlier fourth-grade-slump claims.

"a recent large-scale meta-analysis failed to find convincing evidence of developmental slumps in DT, and the ages at which slumps are reported (9–10 years) do not correspond with changes in educational contexts for most children (Said-Metwaly et al., 2020)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• A seventh-grade slump in divergent thinking is observed at the overall and indicator level — reports the opposite
• Divergent thinking shows an overall upward developmental trend across Grades 1–12, peaking in Grade 9, with significant drops in Grades 7, 10, and 11 — reports the opposite
• No general fourth-grade slump in divergent thinking: Grade 4 shows a plateau relative to Grade 3 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The seventh-grade slump is moderated by DT test, task content domain, and gender, with larger drops for WKCT, figural tasks, and a higher proportion of males — related
• DT test and country of study significantly moderate the Grade 3–4 originality trend, with a drop for WKCT and for eastern-country samples — related
• Task content domain significantly moderates the Grade 3–4 DT difference, with a positive SMD for figural tasks and a negative SMD for verbal tasks — related
• Intellectual giftedness significantly moderates the Grade 3–4 fluency trend: gifted subjects tend to increase while non-gifted subjects tend to decline — related
• Publication bias was significant for the overall DT analysis but not for the fluency, flexibility, or originality indicator analyses — related