21st century skills: relationship between creativity and socioemotional skills in Brazilian students

ABSTRACT A series of skills are more and more valued in the educational context than cognitive ones. The constructs of creativity and socio-emotional competencies are some of them and were the focus of the study. The aim was to investigate the relationship between both constructs in 362 students from the 3rd (n = 168) and 5th year (n = 194) of Elementary School. That sample was composed of 8 and 15-year-old students (M = 10.3; SD = 1.33) and 180 female, from 13 different municipal public schools in Pernambuco, Brazil. The students answered two creativity tests (figural and verbal) and another that assesses six socio-emotional competencies (openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, external locus of control, and neuroticism). The results indicated significant and positive correlations between figural creativity and three socio-emotional competencies (conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experiences, and locus of control) and between verbal creativity and two socio-emotional dimensions (conscientiousness and agreeableness). Although constructs have shown some commonality, the importance of stimulating both in the educational context is relevant, given the positive results related to these skills, considered essential in the 21st century.

摘要：在教育语境中，非认知类技能的受重视程度正日益超越认知技能。创造力与社会情感能力（socio-emotional competencies）正是此类技能的典型代表，亦是本研究的核心研究对象。本研究旨在探究这两类构念间的关联，研究样本涵盖巴西伯南布哥州13所市属公立小学的362名学生，其中小学三年级168人、五年级194人。该样本的年龄跨度为8至15岁（平均年龄M=10.3，标准差SD=1.33），包含180名女生。参与研究的学生完成了两项创造力测验（图形创造力测验与言语创造力测验），以及另一项用于评估六项社会情感能力维度的测验：经验开放性（openness to experiences）、尽责性（conscientiousness）、外倾性（extraversion）、宜人性（agreeableness）、外控倾向（external locus of control）与神经质（neuroticism）。研究结果显示，图形创造力与三项社会情感能力（尽责性、宜人性、经验开放性与外控倾向）呈显著正相关；言语创造力则与两项社会情感维度（尽责性与宜人性）呈显著正相关。尽管两类构念存在一定共通性，但鉴于上述技能的积极影响（此类技能被视为21世纪的核心必备技能），在教育场景中同时培养这两类技能仍具有重要意义。