Creativity and achievement in primary school children

Abstract

The primary objective of this dissertation was to examine the correlation between 'creativity' and 'achievement' in primary school children. This study provides a review of research related to these two concepts and some of the assumptions and theoretical standpoints which underlie it. A quantitative research design was adopted to investigate the relationship between creativity and achievement in pupils of year 6 state primary schools in Gozo. A sample of 167 students in 4 primary schools were assessed on the British Ability Scales Verbal Fluency Scale and the Circles Test and their results related to their year 5 annual examination results. Frequency distributions showed that there was a much more normal distribution of scores on the creativity than the achievement scales. A correlation analysis using the Microsoft Excel Software (1996) was carried out for all data. The results showed an overall correlation in the range of 0.32 - 0.62 with bottom classes registering higher correlation values than the top classes. Also the correlation in the whole male sample was always higher than that of the whole female sample. Though this was partly the result of a restricted range of achievement scores it was concluded that Maltese examinations at primary school level generally assess logical thinking and give much less weight to creativity.