Creativity and Drawing Abilities of Chinese Students in Hong Kong: Is There a Connection? New Horizons in

Abstract Background: Recognizing that arts education is important in facilitating learning and in enhancing creativity in students, recent education reform in Hong Kong has sought to promote arts education and efforts to encourage creative expression through different art forms. Among different modes of creative arts expression, drawing has been suggested as the best choice for allowing creative expression by students with high ability in visual arts. Therefore, the connection between students' drawing and creativity warranted investigation. Aims: This study explored the drawing abilities and creativity of Chinese students in Hong Kong based on their drawing performance, and examined their connection in relation to students' self-perceived artistic characteristics and involvement in drawing activities. Sample: 105 Hong Kong Chinese primary and secondary school students, nominated by their schools to participate in the gifted programs of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, participated voluntarily in this study. Method: Students completed two drawing tasks adapted from Clark's Drawing Abilities Test and a self-report questionnaire that included the Artistic Characteristics Scale of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students and the Drawing Activity Checklist. The drawings were rated on students' drawing abilities and creativity by three Chinese visual artists as expert judges. Results: Judges agreed more on their ratings on students' drawing abilities than on students' creativity. Judged drawing abilities and creativity were found to be moderately but significantly correlated. While judged drawing abilities were found to correlate significantly with students' self-reported artistic characteristics and drawing activities, judged creativity was found to correlate minimally with these variables. Conclusion: This study provided supportive evidence on the connection between drawing abilities and creativity. The findings also suggested that creativity enhancement via increasing participation in drawing activities and heightening awareness of artistic characteristics could be mediated by increased drawing abilities