Teens in New Zealand rank high for creative thinking: PISA report

New Zealand is an attractive study-abroad destination thanks to the quality education the country provides. As per OECD’s PISA Volume 3 results, the teens in New Zealand are found to be highly creative thinkers.

Study in New Zealand: According to the latest edition of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), teenagers in New Zealand are found to be among the most creative thinkers globally. PISA Volume 3 results which were released recently, ranked them high when it comes to creative thinking.

Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao Acting Chief Executive, Dr Linda Sissons also commented on this and said that she is delighted that the country’s students have stood out globally for their creative thinking.

She said, “New Zealand classrooms adopt a hands-on, practical approach to learning that encourages students to express their ideas and to think critically and collaboratively. Creative thinking is a valuable quality that also enriches the outputs of a wide range of tertiary and career fields, from arts, engineering, technology and biomedicine to infrastructure and mathematics. We are pleased to see this approach endorsed in the latest PISA tests.”

New Zealand Education System encourages students to think outside of box

The report of PISA 2022 creative thinking highlights how the education system in New Zealand is preparing young students to think out of the box in various contexts and how to look at different perspectives. This was the first time that the test report also measured teenagers' ability to think creatively and give original and diverse ideas.

Around 60 to 70% of students who participated in this report said that their teachers give them a chance to express their ideas in school and encourage and motivate them to come up with original ideas and answers.

As far as New Zealand is concerned, its education system is among the highest-performing education systems in the world that encourage creative thinking, the country ranks fifth in the world out of 81 countries and has an average score of 36 points per student which is greater than the OECD average of 33 points.

New Zealand schools should limit screen time of kids, says expert

While observing that the excessive use of digital technologies can lead to poor physical and mental health in school-going kids, a group of experts advised that screen time should be limited in schools.

Julie Cullen, a paediatric physiotherapist and co-author of a New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ) editorial said, "What we found was that some use of digital technologies can actually support health for children, particularly for teenagers. So for example, they can look up health information, they can play some active fitness games or make connections. But we found that frequent and extended use of technologies is associated with the risk of harm across numerous areas of children’s health.”

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