Culture, Executive Thinking Style, and Knowledge Fixation in the Development of Creativity in Hong Kong

Within Hong Kong educational reforms, creativity is defined as the ability to generate original ideas and solve problems, with schools implementing creativity development in accordance with their own needs. This study tested the hypothesis that Hong Kong Chinese students’ adherence to Confucian cultural beliefs and their functions of personal cognitive resource affect their creativity. Based on the Creative Inventions Test, an instrument with demonstrated construct validity in the Hong Kong Chinese context, students (N = 324) from one secondary school in Hong Kong created four inventions with each evaluated by non-expert judges for originality and practicality, and extent of knowledge fixation. To estimate their adherence to Confucian cultural beliefs, students also completed a simplified version of the Eastern-Western Perspective Scale and, finally, a subset from the Thinking Styles Inventory. Path models showed that knowledge fixation and social conformity are significant negative predictors of originality and practicality. Furthermore, adherence to Confucian beliefs and executive thinking styles contribute indirectly and negatively to originality and practicality. We conclude that the development of creativity in Hong Kong is influenced by the tensions that exist between students’ Confucian cultural beliefs and social conformity and executive thinking, hence demanding a reimagining of the education reform in Hong Kong.