Does creativity training benefit all students equally? Investigating Matthew and plateau effects among bicultural and native children

Amid increasing global emphasis on multicultural education, bicultural experiences have been identified as important contributors to children’s creative development. Yet, it remains unclear whether creativity instruction benefits bicultural students who already exhibit higher baseline creativity, potentially amplifying gains via a Matthew effect, or whether their learning plateaus due to plateau effects. Empirical research addressing this question remains limited, particularly studies that differentiate cultural backgrounds and integrate both divergent and convergent thinking in instructional design. This quasi-experimental study is the first to develop and implement two distinct creativity focused instructional programs—one targeting divergent thinking, the other convergent thinking—and to examine their effects across culturally diverse student groups. Participants were 121 middle school students in northern Taiwan, categorized as bicultural or native, and randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. Results indicated that the creativity instruction produced significant gains for both groups, with experimental students outperforming controls across all creativity measures. Bicultural students scored significantly higher than native peers in all four dimensions of divergent thinking, though no group differences emerged for convergent thinking. Despite higher initial scores, bicultural students continued to demonstrate substantial learning gains, supporting a Matthew effect pattern in creativity learning. Native students also showed significant improvement, underscoring the overall effectiveness of the intervention. These findings highlight the positive impact of multicultural experiences on creativity and emphasize the importance of culturally responsive instruction tailored to different creativity types. The study addresses a critical gap in the creativity education literature and informs future theory and practice in multicultural educational settings.