A seventh-grade slump in divergent thinking is observed at the overall and indicator level¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesisr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · checked against its sources 2026-10-21 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Overall DT shows a significant drop from Grade 6 to Grade 7, and this slump is also observed at the DT indicator level. → Said-Metwaly 2019
Evidence¶
Said-Metwaly 2019¶
Said-Metwaly, S., Fernández-Castilla, B., Kyndt, E., Van den Noortgate, W., & Barbot, B. (2019). Does the Fourth-Grade Slump in Creativity Actually Exist? A Meta-Analysis of the Development of Divergent Thinking in School-Age Children and Adolescents. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Does+the+Fourth-Grade+Slump+in+Creativity+Actually+Exist
q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2
The overall three-level meta-analysis in Results found significant drops including Grade 7; the Discussion states "a DT slump in Grade 7 was observed at the overall as well as indicator-level." No effect size is printed for this drop.
"Further, significant drops were obtained for Grades 7, 10, and 11."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Age and Developmental Stage — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
- Creativity — outcome: instruction changes it
Related Claims¶
- 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 — related
- 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
- A recent large-scale meta-analysis failed to find convincing evidence of developmental slumps in children's divergent thinking — reports the opposite
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
seventh-grade-slump-dt |
title |
A seventh-grade slump in divergent thinking is observed at the overall and indicator level |
description |
A seventh-grade slump in divergent thinking is observed at the overall and indicator level |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2019 |
source_checked |
2026-10-21 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-21 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — said-metwaly-2019 |
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