In elementary school, enhancing creativity is considered as an educational goal and is integrated in curricula of different federal states. To identify and name conditions in school which either foster or hinder creativity, and to relate creativity to other relevant covariates, it is necessary to examine creativity development on a systematic longitudinal database. In this study, creativity development is examined with data from the PERLEProject which focused on the personality and learning development of elementary school children from first to fourth grade. In order to measure creativity, the Test for Creative Thinking – Drawing Production (TCT-DP) was used and is therefore described in detail. Overall, creativity development, as captured by the TCT-DP, shows to be unstable: Regarding the average value of creativity, the achievement stagnates after second grade. In addition, very low test-retest-correlations reveal different individual developmental courses. However, within classes, the individual development is more alike than between classes. The results emphasize the relevance of external conditions for creativity development.

Keywords
Creativity development; Personality development; TCT-DP