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The EdDataX Research Centre at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), commissioned by the Education Bureau to conduct the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 study for Hong Kong, announced the performance of Hong Kong’s 15-year-olds in the Creative Thinking assessment of PISA 2022 today. A total of 64 countries and economies participated in the assessment.

PISA 2022 introduced an innovative module to measure creative thinking, encompassing three key areas: generating diverse ideas, generating original ideas, and evaluating and improving ideas. This assessment was established to capture a multifaceted view of creativity, essential in today’s rapidly evolving world.

In this latest assessment, Hong Kong students achieved a mean score of 32, close to the average for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and economies, which stands at 33.

The assessment analysed the impact of students’ socioeconomic status on their creative thinking performance. The status was based on the parents’ educational background, occupational status and home resource. Results showed that the difference in creative thinking scores between students from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds was minimal. This achievement highlighted the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s educational policies in providing equitable opportunities for all students to develop their creative thinking skills. Hong Kong stood out for its exceptional level of educational equity, ranking first among high-performing economies. Gender differences were also observed, with girls outperforming boys by 3.78 points, surpassing the OECD average gender gap of 2.72 points.

The assessment covered four domains of creativity, including written expression (communication of ideas through writing), visual expression (communication of ideas through various media), social problem solving (understanding diverse perspectives, finding innovative solutions), and scientific problem solving (proposing hypotheses, designing experiments, developing solutions). Hong Kong students showed relative strength in social problem-solving and areas for improvement in visual expression.

Looking ahead, the PISA 2022 results offer valuable insights for enhancing Hong Kong’s education system. The findings will facilitate targeted measures, curriculum enhancements, and policy reforms aimed at fostering a culture of innovation and excellence in education. By empowering students to reach their full creative potential, Hong Kong continues to pave the way for a future driven by innovative and critical thinkers.

The EdDataX Research Centre at CUHK conducted this study on representative samples of age-15 students in Hong Kong, with over 5,000 students participating in each economy. The results of students’ performance in mathematics, science, and reading were released in December 2023, and this supplementary release focuses on their performance in Creative Thinking.