Israeli students are original but have difficulty; Big gaps between the state education and the ultra-orthodox and Arab schools

32% of Israeli students excel in creative thinking, higher than the average in the OECD, which stands at 27%, according to the findings of the international PISA study (PISA) concerning the field of creative thinking, published today (Tuesday) by the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAMA). A quarter of Israeli students were defined as struggling, higher than the average in the OECD, which stands at 22%. In weighing the findings, Israel is placed 20 out of the 64 participating countries. The study was conducted in Israel in 2022, and it evaluated the creative thinking skills of male and female students at the age of 15.

The approximate explanation for the number of excellent and high difficulty students is differences between the groups tested. The rate of excellent students among Hebrew speakers, for example, stands at 35%, compared to 11% among Arabic speakers. Gaps were also found among those who have difficulty in creative thinking, with 61% of Arabic speakers showing difficulties in creative thinking, compared to 15% of Hebrew speakers. Among boys in Arab society, the rate of those having difficulty was 70%.

Female students are stronger in creative thinking, with 32% compared to 28% among male students. Female students in state education lead with 44% honors. They are followed by female students in state-religious education with 34%, followed by female students in ultra-Orthodox education with 24%, and closing the list are Arabic-speaking female students with 13%.

Creative thinking is “the ability to engage in a fruitful and effective way in raising diverse and original ideas that only a few would think of, as well as in evaluating and improving ideas”, according to Rama. The cognitive model contains cognitive abilities such as visual expression, written expression, solving scientific problems, solving social problems , evaluation and improvement of ideas and raising creative and diverse ideas.

Israeli students are stronger compared to OECD countries in evaluating and improving ideas and solving scientific and social problems. In contrast, the Israeli students expressed weakness in written expression. In coming up with diverse and original ideas and in visual expression, the Israeli students’ abilities were equal to the other students in the OECD countries.

The PISA study is an international study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is conducted once every three years, and tests the literacy level of 15-year-old students in the various countries in mathematics, reading and science. In each study cycle, a guest field is selected to be examined as part of the study. The guest field in the study PISA 2022 is creative thinking. The results of the other parts of the study were published in December 2023.