Design creativity-promoting programs and curricula that account for grade-level developmental specificities and the moderators of DT growth¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 7 claims (6 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The authors recommend using the meta-analytic findings to guide curriculum development and interventions that promote divergent thinking in line with grade-level and developmental specificities. They state the findings "could have significant implications for development and education scientists, educators, and policymakers" and "might be used to guide curriculum development and implementation to promote DT growth." Because moderators differ by period, programs should be tailored rather than uniform across grades.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Programs should be aligned to the grade-level developmental specificities the meta-analysis identified, including the seventh-grade slump and its moderators.

Constraints¶

• The seventh-grade moderator findings are preliminary by design, since included studies were selected for Grade 4 coverage; country-of-study moderation warrants caution when generalizing across contexts.

Target Learners¶

• School-age children and adolescents in Grades 1–12

Target Learning Goals¶

• Divergent thinking and creative potential development

Claims¶

• 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 [+W]
• 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 [+W]
• Intellectual giftedness significantly moderates the Grade 3–4 fluency trend: gifted subjects tend to increase while non-gifted subjects tend to decline [+W]
• No general fourth-grade slump in divergent thinking: Grade 4 shows a plateau relative to Grade 3 [+W]
• A seventh-grade slump in divergent thinking is observed at the overall and indicator level [+W]
• 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 [+W]
• Publication bias was significant for the overall DT analysis but not for the fluency, flexibility, or originality indicator analyses [~W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• 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