Divergent and Convergent Thinking across the Schoolyears: A Dynamic Perspective on Creativity Development

Creative thinking is critical to overcome many daily life situations. As such, there has been a growing interest on how creative develops during childhood. However, little known about the underlying mechanisms driving its development. Indeed, almost all research focused divergent thinking, leaving aside convergent and did not thoroughly investigate internal and/or external factors influence their Here, 222 children aged from 4 12 years old attending either Montessori or traditional school performed drawing-based standardized tasks. In addition, subset of 41 were tested using similar tasks for second session 3 apart. The results revealed dynamic developmental stages thinking. More specifically, loss was counterbalanced by gain especially fourth-grade slump (8–10 old). Although Montessori-schooled showed overall higher abilities than traditionally schooled children, no differences observed in trajectories between two pedagogies. This suggests that progress decrease may be mostly due such as brain maturation peer pressure.