UPDATE: New PISA Report Shows That Girls Outperform Boys In Most Creative Tasks

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 report sheds light on the creative thinking abilities of 15-year-old students across the globe. PISA 2022 tested nearly 700,000 15-year-olds across 81 countries and economies. The new creative thinking assessment, delivered in 64 of those systems, measures how well students generate, evaluate, and improve original ideas.

UPDATE: The OECD now states that after adjusting for reading, the gap still remains in around half of the countries/economies, not all of them. Boys do not outperform girls in creative thinking in any country or economy that took part in the 2022 creative thinking assessment. Across OECD countries, girls score on average 3 points higher than boys in creative thinking. That gap stays in every country/economy even after adjusting for mathematics performance.

Singapore, Korea, Canada*, Australia*, New Zealand*, Estonia, and Finland were the top performers among the 64 countries. Results revealed that students in high-performing education systems excel not only in mathematics, reading, and science but also in creative thinking. However, students from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-resourced schools scored significantly lower in creative thinking tasks.

A significant gender gap was observed, with girls outperforming boys in all types of creative thinking tasks. This difference remained significant even after accounting for performance in reading and mathematics. Girls demonstrated higher proficiency in visual and written expression, social problem-solving, and scientific problem-solving.

However, the report also shows that there is an unprecedented decline in performance across OECD countries.

Measuring Creative Thinking

For the first time, PISA 2022 has assessed the creative thinking skills of students, focusing on their ability to generate, evaluate, and improve ideas. Creative thinking is defined as the competence to engage productively in generating novel and effective solutions, advancing knowledge, and expressing imagination. The study emphasizes the importance of creativity in education for fostering innovation, problem-solving, and holistic development.

Roughly 8 out of 10 students say you can be creative in almost any subject. Students with that belief score about 3 points higher in creative thinking. Only about half of students believe their creative ability can grow (a “growth mindset for creativity”), but those who do hold that belief still score higher (+1 point on average).

Around 60–70% of students across OECD systems report that their teachers encourage original answers, value creativity, and give them room to express ideas. Those students show slightly higher creative thinking performance, even when you control for maths/reading level and background.

In short, teacher behavior and mindset cues correlate with higher creative thinking scores. Creativity is being taught, and is not just ‘innate talent’.

Gender Differences in Creative Performance

Creative thinking performance data (PISA 2022)

Metric	Data	Source
Average OECD creative thinking score gap between girls and boys	Girls score about +3 points higher than boys on average across OECD countries	OECD PISA 2022
Share of top performers in creative thinking (Proficiency Level 5 and above), girls vs boys	~31% girls vs ~23% boys	ResearchGate (analysis of PISA 2022 creative thinking dataset)
Socio-economic gap in creative thinking scores	Advantaged students score about +9.5 points higher than disadvantaged peers	OECD PISA 2022
Creative thinking high-performing countries (36+ points average creative thinking score per system)	Singapore (41), Korea, Canada*, Australia*, New Zealand*, Estonia, Finland	OECD PISA 2022

A standout finding from the report is indeed that girls significantly outperform boys in most creative tasks. These tasks include visual and written expression, social problem-solving, and scientific problem-solving.

Below are the results as found in the report.

Visual and Written Expression

OECD links girls’ higher scores especially to tasks involving written expression and building on others’ ideas. The same dataset shows girls report more positive beliefs about creativity and engage strongly with these task types.

Social Problem-Solving

Girls also outperformed boys in social problem-solving tasks, which require understanding different perspectives and finding innovative solutions to societal issues. This might be attributed to girls’ higher empathy levels and better interpersonal communication skills, which are often nurtured through both socialization and schooling.

Scientific Problem-Solving

In scientific problem-solving, girls again showed superior creative thinking. They were more adept at generating hypotheses and designing experiments, which could be linked to increasing participation and encouragement of girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields.

The reasons behind these differences could be multifaceted, involving a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. Educational systems and cultural practices that foster creativity in girls might also play a significant role.

Below is a diagram showing the creative thinking scores alongside core domain scores (mathematics, reading, and science) for the top-performing countries in the PISA 2022 report.

Impact of COVID-19 on Education Systems

The 2022 PISA assessment is crucial as it is the first to capture data on student performance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, 31 countries and economies managed to maintain their performance levels in mathematics since PISA 2018. Notably, Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Switzerland have either maintained or improved their high performance, thanks to shorter school closures, effective remote learning strategies, and strong support from teachers and parents.

The OECD average in creative thinking is 33 points. Singapore scores 41 points. High-performing systems are defined as 36 points or above.

The gap between the highest-performing and lowest-performing countries is 28 score points, which OECD equates to roughly four proficiency levels. In other words, a typical student in the top countries outperforms almost all students in the lowest group. 97 out of 100 students in the five best-performing countries performed above the average student in the five lowest-performing countries (Albania**, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Dominican Republic**)

Progress in Universal Secondary Education

The report highlights significant progress in expanding access to secondary education, particularly in countries like Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Morocco, Paraguay, and Romania. These nations have successfully broadened educational opportunities to previously marginalized populations, promoting equality and economic participation.

Decline in Performance and Socioeconomic Equity

However, the PISA 2022 assessment reveals an unprecedented decline in performance across OECD countries. Compared to 2018, the average scores dropped by ten points in reading and nearly 15 points in mathematics, equating to three-quarters of a year’s worth of learning. This decline is more pronounced in 18 countries and economies where over 60% of 15-year-olds are falling behind.

Advantaged students score about 9.5 points higher in creative thinking than disadvantaged peers on average across OECD countries.

That socio-economic gap in creative thinking is smaller than the socio-economic gap in maths, reading, and science – meaning creative thinking is slightly less stratified by wealth than core academic performance.

The OECD also reports that girls outperform boys and advantaged students outperform disadvantaged students across all task types. Girls do especially well in written expression and in tasks where they must build on others’ ideas. The socio-economic gap is widest in written expression.

The Role of Technology and Teacher Support

The pandemic-induced shift to remote learning highlighted the importance of digital literacy. On average, students who used digital devices for learning scored higher in mathematics, but excessive use of technology for leisure was associated with poorer results. Teacher support emerged as a critical factor, with students reporting higher mathematics scores where teachers were readily available to help.

Parental Engagement and Investment in Education

Parental engagement also plays a significant role in student performance. Education systems that saw increased parental involvement between 2018 and 2022 showed greater stability or improvement in mathematics performance. Additionally, the report finds a positive correlation between educational investment and performance up to a certain threshold, emphasizing the need for targeted funding to improve educational outcomes.

What’s next?

There’s already a 2025 academic response to PISA Volume III that challenges how large the girl–boy gap looks.

Key points from that literature:

• Past creativity research usually found either tiny female advantages or no consistent gender gap, and in some cases a slight male overrepresentation among top scorers.
• PISA 2022 shows a visible female advantage across nearly all systems, and more girls than boys in the top band.
• Researchers now ask whether PISA’s task design, scoring model, or student engagement patterns (girls reporting higher engagement and persistence on the creative thinking test) may partly drive that gap.

Discover More About PISA 2022 Findings

For a detailed exploration of the PISA 2022 results and their implications, visit the OECD website. The full report offers comprehensive data and analysis.

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