Assessing Creative Problem Solving in Primary School Students

Abstract

Creative problem solving (CPS) abilities are vital in today’s rapidly changing society. Teachers play a crucial role in promoting CPS from as early as primary education. This PhD project focused on CPS in primary school students. A CPS assessment procedure was developed and four studies were conducted to gain insight into the nature of CPS in this age group, as well as to formulate implications for the assessment of CPS. The studies examined the impact of exploring knowledge and defining problems on CPS outcomes, the feasibility of solution-finding, and how students select the most creative ideas. They also explored the generalization of CPS scores across tasks and the impact of raters and tasks on these CPS scores. In addition, the studies investigated the nature of CPS in primary school students by focusing on the CPS process and product. Lastly, it was examined whether elementary school teachers could assess students’ CPS abilities in absolute and relative ways. The findings showed that exploring knowledge and defining problems could assist primary school students in generating more and more original ideas. Furthermore, students were able to identify their most creative ideas. The studies also indicated that primary school students possess CPS abilities, but a comprehensive understanding of a student’s CPS abilities requires multiple tasks and raters. Relative assessments of CPS may yield reliable scores, whereas absolute assessments are more difficult to generalize across tasks. Teachers were quite able to assess CPS, in a relative way. The studies' results have not only provided relevant implications for education but also have opened up novel areas of investigation