Exploring the impact of ICT interaction on students’ creative thinking across performance levels: an explainable AI perspective

This study uses the PISA 2022 ICT questionnaire to examine how students' ICT interaction behaviours in digital environments predict creative thinking across low, medium, and high performance levels (Class 0-2). Using multi-class classification models with Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP), we identify key ICT-related predictors spanning information retrieval, digital content creation, media evaluation, collaborative communication, and emotional response, with largely nonlinear and interactive effects. Results show that ICT influences creative thinking less through usage frequency than through the intentionality and complexity of ICT engagement and its sociocultural alignment. High-performing students tend to display more functional and strategic ICT behaviours, whereas low-performing students more often show superficial, recreational, or potentially unethical patterns, with emotional regulation, media literacy, and digital ethics emerging as salient factors. These findings clarify performance-specific ICT-creativity profiles and support targeted digital literacy interventions tailored to students at different ability levels.