Best Practices for Leveraging PISA CT Data to Understand Gender Differences in Creative Thinking

Access to data from the 2022 PISA creative thinking assessment (PISA CT) provides a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of gender differences in creativity. However, in addition to the general theoretical and methodological considerations discussed elsewhere in this special issue, there are several matters specific to gender differences in creativity that should be considered when interpreting the results of the PISA CT. First, the overall creative thinking index on the PISA CT may not provide much value to understanding gender differences in creativity, as differences may be domain and task specific. Second, gender differences in careless responding may bias results for gender differences in PISA CT scores, as effort is associated with enhanced creative performance. Third, the restricted age range of PISA participants may limit the generalizability of results, as the developmental dynamics of gender differences in creativity suggest that the size and direction of gender differences in creative performance may change during this stage of adolescence. Each of these issues, as well as potential solutions and directions for future research using PISA CT scores to examine gender differences in creativity, are discussed.