Singapore students are creative, really?

Every day in school is a chance to cultivate good thinking skills in our children. Let’s step in and out of our classrooms to see how it’s done.

29 October, 2024

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Singapore students have done well in the area of creative thinking

This year, our schools received a pleasant surprise when the international PISA study put Singapore students at the top of its rankings for creative thinking.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). More details on the study further on in this story.

How does PISA define Creative Thinking?

In PISA, Creative Thinking is defined as the competence to generate diverse and creative ideas, and evaluate and improve ideas that can result in original and effective solutions, advances in knowledge, and impactful expressions of imagination.

More on the PISA 2022 Creative Thinking study

Little-C and Big-C in Creativity

PISA designed tasks to measure ability in three ideation processes: generate diverse ideas; generate creative ideas; and evaluate and improve ideas. Known as “Little-C” creativity, this ability can be developed through practice and demonstrated in everyday contexts. This is in contrast to “Big-C”, which is usually associated with intellectual or technological breakthroughs and artistic or literary masterpieces.

In school, creativity abounds

How is innovative thinking infused in our teaching and learning?

Students are encouraged to generate diverse as well as creative ideas whether in curriculum, lessons, or school programmes.

They explore, examine, question, and evaluate. Then they improve on one another’s ideas and collaborate for the best solutions. And they do this in all subjects, not just in traditionally creative fields such as the arts.

In Maths Class

Students explore geometry principles with shapes that may or may not form 3D figures. Gamifying learning makes it fun and piques their curiosity, and prompts them to ask questions.

Mr Chan Zi Xian is the Head of Department, Mathematics, at Yio Chu Kang Primary School

In Physical Education

Students co-create new ways to play a sport or game.

Through teaching approaches such as Inquiry-Based Learning and Non-linear Pedagogy, they learn the necessary physical skills while exploring and problem-solving in situations where there is no fixed answer.

Mr Shang Thian Huat is the Head of Department, Physical Education and Co-Curricular Activities, at Blangah Rise Primary School.

In Science Class

The Inquiry-Based Learning approach lets student explore theories, design their own experiments and improve on them.

In Humanities Class

Any Primary 3 to 5 boy could take part in the tournament and represent his house. The students just had to put their hand up for training.

Students are encouraged to conduct historical and geographical investigations in real-world contexts.

One school just devoted a whole week to creativity

Look what Lianhua Primary School’s students came up with when they dived into innovation!

Photos of students creating games made out of recycled carton boxes and plastic containers

These students created musical instruments made out of recycled carton boxes, plastic containers and toilet rolls — in the spirit of environmental sustainability.

To make sports accessible for P1s, these P6s came up with a fun take on volleyball, involving hula hoops and a beachball.

Photo of games made out of recycled materials

Some came up with games to learn about alternative sources of energy…

Photo of students building a tap model using micro:bits and Lego

some built models of an automatic tap using micro:bits and Lego…

Photo of students holding bookmarks to remind others not to waste energy

… others designed pretty bookmarks as reminders not to waste electricity.

This group came up with a board game designed to teach their friends about conserving electricity.

When their creativity is challenged

A good challenge brings out the ability to make connections and problem-solve within limitations.

In and out of school, students get lots of opportunities to put their out-of-the-box thinking hats on.

Photo of Bakri Bin Borham in front of his invention at MOE's Design & Technology Awards

At MOE’s annual Design & Technology Awards

Pour without spilling

Bakri Bin Borham from Bedok View Secondary School borrowed the principles of a gyroscope for his invention of a spill-proof jug.

No matter what angle the jug is tipped, the cup remains in a horizontal position to catch the falling water.

Bakri had seen how Parkinson’s disease could affect the body — his grandfather’s friend has hand tremors that makes pouring difficult — so Bakri wanted to help. He applied science and design concepts for his solution.

Click here to play/stop video

Photo of Grace Tan and her team at MOE's Design & Technology Awards

Arm in a cast? Write on

Grace Tan and her team from River Valley High School designed a tool that enables an immobilised arm to still do some writing.

Grace had fractured her arm and wanted to avoid straining her hand when writing.

She and her classmates invented WriteRight, a triangular tool that lets the fingers grip a pen while maintaining a wide arc.

Click here to play/stop video

At Illustratum 2024, an annual Physics competition organised by the National University of Singapore

Raise an object without touching it

Watch students demo how it is done just by using sound

Click here to play/stop video

Make a building safer in an earthquake

Our students explain how the tuned mass damper concept works — with the help of potato chip cans.

Click here to play/stop video

How does a teacher nurture creativity?

Here’s how 4 innovative teachers guide their students to think about how they think

Click to watch Dr Tay and the School Field

Click to watch Mr Anil and the Workshop of Good Deeds

“Our teachers believe that all students can be creative thinkers and they have been effective in teaching the whole range of students across all our schools.”

Ms Liew Wei Li
MOE Director-General of Education

Apart from Creative Thinking, Singapore has done well in other PISA domains that measure selected 21st Century Competencies.

Singapore was ranked joint-first with Korea in Creative Problem Solving (2012) and topped the charts in Collaborative Problem Solving (2015) and Global Competence (2018).

So…Are you more creative than a 15-year-old Singapore student?

Take the test to find out!

For more interactive stories, visit Schoolbag.edu.sg