This study explores ever blooming theoretical discussions and policy efforts to educate
students to have creative and convergent capacity with reference to the empirical reality of
South Korean education. In South Korea, most of learning activities in and out of school are
geared toward ranking students in a hierarchical order. Such hierarchy is highly correlated with
life chances and achievements people encounter throughout their life. Our initial question is
“Can current Korean education system support and encourage students who insinuate convergent
potential in their early teens?" After reviewing related researches in education, psychology and
sociology, we define ‘the breadth of interest (interest diversity) toward various subjects in a
school curriculum.’ as ‘convergent potential’ yielding a person with creative and coordinative
capacity in her or his later life. Then we analyzed the relationship between ‘interest diversity’
and the variables included in the numerous researches on the factors affecting educational
achievements of students under current education system in Korea. Our data is from Korean
Education and Employment Panel(KEEP) first collected in 2004. By utilizing a multi-level
growth model, we investigated how 'interest diversity’changed from 9th to 12th grade. Three
major findings worth mentioning are: 1) interest diversity showed decreasing tendency in 4
years time between 9th grade and 12th grade; 2) factors found to have significant effect on the
level of educational achievement in previous researches were positively related to the breadth of
interest on various subjects in 9th grade; however, 3) among the various factors related to
educational achievements, only the percentile score of the students has shown to have positive
relationship with interest diversity from 9th to 12th grade. If STEAM education is to be
understood as an education system where the ‘horizontal width’ of the various subjects taught is
stressed, the results from this study suggests some discord between an education expected to
nurture creative and convergent individuals, and the reality of Korean education.