Indicators of Creativity in School Natural Sciences Textbooks for Chilean Primary Education

The aim of this research was to analyze the performan-ce indicators of the cognitive ability creating, indica-tors that are promoted in the educational activities of the textbooks of Natural Sciences of the Seventh and Eighth grade of Chilean primary Education. The type of research was descriptive, and, through multi-methods, quantitative and qualitative elements were integrated to respond to the purpose of the study. The data was collected using a scheme of a priori categories, based on indicators of creativity, which definitions were built from the literature review. The results show that, among the indicators of creating, the most frequent are elabo-rating and designing (19.23%); and that in all the the-matic units present in the school textbooks, there are educational activities that promote the cognitive ability to create, although its registration frequency fluctuates between 5.26% and 15.38%. In conclusion, in the Na-tural Sciences textbooks, cognitive skills of the creating level are promoted; however, the frequency is low and insufficient for students to generate ideas, provide solu-tions and formulate proposals.