Does shadow education discourage or encourage creative thinking? Evidence from South Korea (La educación en la sombra, ¿fomenta o desincentiva el pensamiento creativo? Evidencia de Corea del Sur)

Using longitudinal data for a nationally representative sample of fifth-graders from the Korean Educational Longitudinal Study of 2013, this study examined the effect of shadow education — referred to as academically oriented extracurricular activities mainly aimed to prepare for examinations — on students’ creative thinking. To estimate the effect of shadow education, we used propensity score matching approaches. We found no significant shadow education effect on gains (or losses) in students’ creative thinking between the fifth and sixth grades. This finding does not support the arguments that students’ participation in shadow education discourages or encourages their creative thinking. Implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.