Creativity, knowledge and school achievement

Abstract

In the process of education the knowledge is acquired which is a necessary base for creativity. The problem of relations between creativity and knowledge in school context is posed as a problem of relations between creativity and academic performance due to the influence it has on personal and professional development of an individual. The paper presents the results of survey on relations between creativity, academic performance and academic preferences. Creativity was measured by the test for creative thinking - drawing production of Urban and Jellen, academic performance by general achievement, and academic preferences by a questionnaire. The sample comprised final primary school graders. Low and statistically significant positive correlation was found between creativity and school achievement in the sub-sample of girls. However, girls have a significantly better school achievement and prefer art as a school subject and the test administered demands visual art expression. Hence, it can not be claimed for sure that the obtained results reflect realistic differences in creativity between boys and girls. It is of vital importance for work in school the data that high creativity can be possessed by students who are failures at school. It has been concluded that initial step in the acquisition of knowledge that will contribute to student creative thinking and behavior is the development of cognitive flexibility.

U procesu obrazovanja stiču se znanja koja predstavljaju osnovu za kreativno ispoljavanje. Problem odnosa između kreativnosti i znanja u školskom kontekstu postavlja se kao problem odnosa između kreativnosti i školskog postignuća zbog uticaja koji ono ima na lični i profesionalni razvoj pojedinca. U radu su izloženi rezultati empirijskog ispitivanja odnosa između kreativnosti, školskog postignuća i akademskih preferencija. Kreativnost je merena Urban-Jelenovim testom crtanja, školsko postignuće opštim uspehom, a akademske preferencije upitnikom. Uzorkom su obuhvaćeni učenici završnih razreda osnovne škole (N=212). Utvrđena je niska i statistički značajna pozitivna korelacija između kreativnosti i školskog uspeha u poduzorku devojčica. Međutim, devojčice imaju značajno bolji školski uspeh i preferiraju likovnu kulturu, a primenjeni test zahteva likovno izražavanje. Stoga se ne može sa sigurnošću tvrditi da su dobijeni rezultati odraz stvarnih razlika u kreativnosti između dečaka i devojčica. Za rad u školi od posebnog značaja je podatak da visoku kreativnost mogu da imaju učenici koji su u školi neuspešni. Zaključeno je da početni korak u sticanju znanja koje će doprineti kreativnom ispoljavanju učenika predstavlja razvoj kognitivne fleksibilnosti. Predloženi su pristupi u okviru kojih bi škola mogla ostvarivati ovaj cilj: razvojna diferencijacija kurikuluma, razvijajuća nastava i pluralistički model obrazovanja.