Approaches to Creativity: A Guide for Teachers [1 ed.] 9780335243761, 0335243762, 9780335243778

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Approaches To Creativity pb_Approaches To Creativity pb 27/09/2012 13:03 Page 1

Approaches to

“This book takes the complexity of creativity research and breaks it down into readable and interesting prose. Teachers – and everyone else – will enjoy and learn from this valuable contribution.” Professor J.C.Kaufman, Professor of Psychology, California State University, USA “If it is possible to pin down the lightning flash of creativity then this book is the best attempt I have read so far.” Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB Abbot of Glenstal Abbey, Murroe, Co. Limerick, Ireland. This book offers an accessible introduction and a comprehensive guide to a range of ideas on creativity in education. The book provides an overview of the major theories related to creativity and explores the implications for policy and practice. The popular topic of creativity has given rise to a large number of theoretical positions, sometimes contradictory or contested. This book clarifies and organizes these approaches so that teachers understand where particular pedagogical and curricular practices originate and can develop them coherently. Topics covered include:

• • • • •

Creativity in a social context Creativity and technology Creativity and curriculum planning Assessment and creativity Group creativity

• • • • •

Managing creativity Tools of creativity The creative learner Creativity and cognition Creativity as expression

Approaches to C R E A T I V I T Y

CREATIVITY

Approaches to Creativity is an invaluable resource for those who wish to reflect on creativity and explore and engage in the modern discourse of education. It will be of value in teacher education, postgraduate studies, curriculum design and administration.

Anne Jordan is Professor Emeritus at the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and Honorary Professor at the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University in Russia. Cover design: Phil Barker

Orison Carlile and Anne Jordan

Orison Carlile is an independent Educational Consultant and Honorary Professor at the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University in Russia.

Approaches to

CREATIVITY A Guide for Teachers

Orison Carlile Anne Jordan

Approaches to Creativity A Guide for Teachers

Approaches to Creativity A Guide for Teachers

Orison Carlile and Anne Jordan

Open University Press

Open University Press McGraw-Hill Education McGraw-Hill House Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire England SL6 2QL email: [email protected] world wide web: www.openup.co.uk and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2289, USA First published 2012 Copyright © Orison Carlile and Anne Jordan 2012 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN-13: 978-0-33-524376-1 (pb) ISBN-10: 0335243762 e-ISBN: 978-0-33-524377-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP data has been applied for Typeset by Aptara Inc., India Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire. Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event.

Praise for this book

"I’m thrilled to see a book aimed at helping teachers deepen their understanding of creativity and, at the same time, offering practical insights for how teachers might nurture creativity in their everyday curriculum." Professor Ronald A. Beghetto, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Education, University of Oregon, USA “At a time when many books designed to help us rethink big issues distract by their priestly tone and their pretensions to having found a solution, this is refreshingly clear, new and open.” Professor John Onians, Emeritus Professor of World Art History, University of East Anglia, England “It is a rare book which manages to combine deep scholarship with readability. This one achieves that goal while also being timely and relevant. It should be read by all busy teachers who are concerned to apply research about creativity into their teaching practice.” Professor John Panter, Ex-Head of Academic Staff Development, University of Wollagong, Australia “This excellent overview of creativity is consistent with what the social and behavioral sciences tells us about creativity but is an easy read and perhaps more than anything else is enormously practical. Approaches to Creativity is, in short, accessible yet grounded in science. It presents both the broad context for creativity as a part of human effectiveness, as well as the nuts-and-bolts fine points that will allow everyone to learn something about themselves and about fulfilling creative potentials.” Mark A. Runco, PhD Torrance Professor, Creative Studies & Gifted Education Editor, Creativity Research Journal “As an educationalist and policy-maker, I am pleased to recommend this comprehensive and exciting book which clearly outlines international developments in creativity education, including in particular, the Russian contribution to the field.” Professor Nadezhda Shaidenko, Deputy Chair of the Education Committee of the Duma of the Russian Federation

We dedicate this book to our spouses, Celia and Peter, who supported us in many ways.

Contents

Acknowledgements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

xi

Introduction Constructs of creativity Genealogy of creativity Creativity in a social context Creativity and the environment Creativity and culture Creativity and technology Creative curriculum planning Assessing creativity Collaborative creativity Creativity and the domains Talent, expert performance and creativity Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship The creative teacher Managing creativity Tools for creativity The creative learner Creativity and cognition Creativity as expression Developmental theories and creativity

1 7 24 35 50 65 79 94 112 125 140 155 170 187 202 216 231 246 263 279

Author Index Subject Index

293 299

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the help of Rob Carlile for his copy-editing, Peter Jordan for advice on art history, and Fiona Richman at McGraw-Hill for extending our deadline – twice. We would also like to express our thanks to the management of The Park Hotel, Dungarvan, County Waterford in Ireland, for permitting us to use their lobby as a writing retreat.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Creativity Creativity has become a preoccupation of the modern age, with a high premium placed upon it by individuals and society. Numerous policy bodies promote creativity as a national and international goal, assigning a crucially important role to education in its development. However, creativity is a messy and slippery subject, ‘embarrassing, and hard to pin down’ (Pope 2005: xviii). ‘We appear uncertain as to its value, unable to decide whether it is a good or bad thing’ (Marshall 2007: 116).

Literature Policy reports, populist self-help manuals, online discussions and books on classroom approaches all promote creativity as an unmitigated good. Evaluative theoretical accounts reflect on both positive and negative aspects, while empirical research findings from disciplines such as cognitive psychology modify and develop existing constructs of creativity. This wide literature includes some authors and texts that operated as important way-marks at different stages of our journey. The pioneering work of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1978) and that of his followers, underpinned much of our thinking on creativity. Rob Pope’s insightful Creativity: History, Theory, Practice (2005) helped us to appreciate the etymology of creativity and its derivatives. The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity by James Kaufman and Robert Sternberg (2010) synthesized current thinking and research on specific creativity-related topics. Finally, Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom by Ronald Beghetto and James Kaufman (2010) provided a set of wide-ranging perspectives on the pedagogy of creativity.

Justification We come from a western tradition which values reflexivity, so one of our reasons for producing yet another book on creativity was to clear a path through this literary undergrowth in order to map the territory and locate ourselves within it. Our exploration began with the preparation for a module on creativity in education presented to the academic staff of the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University in Tula, Russia, where we are both honorary professors. We hope that our synthesis of the ideas developed there will help other travellers to make the same journey. Complementing this intellectual dimension is a practical one. Many teachers feel obliged to add creativity to their pedagogical kitbag without an adequate consideration

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of social, cultural and psychological confounding variables. Our primary justification stems from the comment of Beghetto who states that ‘Combining research on creativity and teacher development will go a long way in identifying and addressing lingering misconceptions about creativity and problematic practices that teachers have inherited from their own prior schooling experiences’ (Beghetto 2010: 459). A recent OECD report by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI 2012) shows the increasing use of flexible learning spaces, multi-age groupings, team teaching, the involvement of parents and the promotion of autonomous learning, and suggests that these trends are conducive to creativity.

Paradoxes and problems There are profound ironies in attempting to write another book on creativity in education. Creativity involves the new and unpredictable, while the overall aim of education is to develop predictable, learned behaviours for future application. In a world requiring high levels of creative thought, education systems may be encouraging processes that result in less creative people. Other problems arise in relation to the nature of creativity. If creativity is an everyday personal quality, possessed by everyone in adapting to experience, then one may question why such a normal attribute needs to be promoted through education. On the other hand, if creativity is a special quality of exceptional individuals, then education cannot do much to promote it. Whichever way you look at it, educational intervention becomes unnecessary. Although the goal of education to enhance fulfilment and well-being makes the encouragement of individual creativity desirable, an over-emphasis on creative production may place yet another burden on learners. One way of addressing the problem may be to view creativity as a property of social interactions, communities and societies rather than of individuals. While we cannot attempt to resolve all these paradoxes and problems, we argue for a form of ‘pedagogized’ creativity which allots a role for education in developing the conditions under which personal and social creativity may flourish in the context of effective and meaningful teaching.

Purposes If education is to have a role in nurturing creativity, we need to explore and interrogate the constructs and assumptions implicit in the above arguments. We hope that this book will help educators to become aware of key creativity debates, so that they can explore, clarify and articulate their own positions, since all educators base their professional practices on some aspects of theory, however derived. Our approach in this book is deliberately similar to that of our previous work, Approaches to Learning. This involves selecting key topics implicated in creativity, drawn from a number of separate disciplines and from the specialized field of creativity research, explaining their guiding constructs in plain non-technical language. This

INTRODUCTION

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provides a lucid and succinct overview of their theoretical approaches, and teases out their practical implications for educational policy and classroom practice. Since this book is an overview of the main ideas in creativity theory, it will stress the more important texts and theorists, especially in relation to new or emergent research or theoretical positions. For example, key creativity theorists such as Anna Craft, David and Arthur Cropley, Margaret Boden, Howard Gardner and Teresa Amabile present multifaceted perspectives that appear in several chapters. The repetition of key points in a number of chapters is necessary, given the different focus of each chapter, and in consideration of those readers who wish to read stand-alone chapters rather than the whole text. By the end of the book it is hoped that readers will have a nuanced and balanced understanding of the theories underlying creativity. Knowledge of these theories provides:

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insight into the main theoretical positions held by experts; validation and affirmation of existing creativity practices; specific tools and techniques which can promote creativity; terminology with which to explore creativity research and topics; a shared discourse for engagement in the scholarship of creativity; justifications for personal teaching practices; protection from unproven and faddish ideas about creativity.

The book will be of value to teachers and learners in pre-service and in-service teacher education, postgraduate studies, curriculum design and administration. It can be read as a series of stand-alone chapters or as an integrated overview of theoretical perspectives on creativity, drawn from philosophy, literature, psychology, systems theory, sociology and pedagogy. The book originates from a specific context of western education, so most of our examples and references are to English or North American theorists or practices, although we have attempted to incorporate non-western sources where these are illuminating. Each chapter contains:

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an accessible introduction to the theories; references to the constructs of creativity; critical insights drawn from the theories discussed; a summary of key ideas; examples and illustrations from contemporary research and practice; practical implications for educationalists.

Chapter summaries Chapter 2, ‘Constructs of creativity’, considers the issue of creativity and the problems associated with its definition. It identifies nine constructs of creativity that together form a complex lens through which to view creativity, briefly discussing their main characteristics and their overall educational implications.

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Chapter 3, ‘Genealogy of creativity’, takes a historical approach to the development of ideas about creativity, showing how constructs of creativity are influenced by the values and perceptions of the time. Each period is discussed in terms of its influence on the development of the constructs of creativity as ideas were gradually transformed over the course of time, to lead to our current perceptions. Chapter 4, ‘Creativity in a social context’, argues that creativity is not an individual undertaking but is deeply embedded in, and influenced by social contexts which determine the forms and extents to which creativity can be manifested. The creative advantages and disadvantages possessed by certain social groups are discussed, as well as the impact of the environment. Chapter 5, ‘Creativity and the environment’, presents a nested view of the environmental factors which affect the expression of individual creative potential in ever-broadening spheres of influence which dynamically intersect and interact in a reciprocal process. Following this overview, we focus on specific creative spaces such as the community environment, the workplace and the educational setting. Chapter 6, ‘Creativity and culture’, discusses creativity in its cultural context, examining the extent to which different cultures value and view creativity, and considers how this is manifested in education. We treat creativity as a good thing regardless of culture, on the basis that it is increasingly perceived as an important worldwide educational policy goal, while accepting that not all cultures might agree. Chapter 7, ‘Creativity and technology’, considers the influence of technological developments on creativity. It takes the view that technology can complement creativity by offering the support needed to transform ideas into reality. While aware of the unfulfilled promise of many technological developments in education, it suggests some possible avenues for future development. Chapter 8, ‘Creative curriculum planning’, sees creativity not as a desirable option, but as a curricular necessity, explicitly recognized and rewarded within aims, learning intentions and criteria of assessment. It considers the balance between structured routines of study and the flexibility and variation necessary for creative activities within and across domains. Chapter 9, ‘Assessing creativity’, deals with the nature and choice of assessment in relation to its espoused implicit definition, to the values held and to the use that is to be made of the results. It considers issues in relation to the assessment of creative thinking, people, products and environments, and describes a range of standard creativity assessment instruments. Chapter 10, ‘Collaborative creativity’, considers the nature and value of group collaboration in creativity, including both its positive and negative aspects. Creativity is discussed as an emergent phenomenon arising from collaboration. We explore some techniques involved in creative collaboration and consider the practical implications of group creativity for education. Chapter 11, ‘Creativity and the domains’, looks at creativity in the light of subject domains. It examines the potential for creativity in a number of representative domains, discussing the importance of requisite knowledge, highlighting differentiating characteristics and exploring the potential for creativity within each. Chapter 12, ‘Talent, expert performance and creativity’, outlines ways in which the strategies displayed by experts in a discipline can be considered as forms of creative

INTRODUCTION

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thinking. It examines expertise from the perspective of talent, of cognitive problemsolving and of superior reproducible performance, and draws out the implications for education. Chapter 13, ‘Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship’, views creativity as a practical activity leading to tangible novel products and ideas that have valued practical and economic benefits. It looks at the historical roots of innovation and entrepreneurship, and considers how they are supported and developed in practice. Chapter 14, ‘The creative teacher’, deals with the everyday reality of being a creative teacher. Creative teaching is considered within a social and cultural context, and the practicalities of such teaching in the classroom are discussed in relation to the roles that can be adopted and the strategies that can be employed. Chapter 15, ‘Managing creativity’, discusses creativity from the perspective of the manager. Taking broader leadership and management processes for granted, and making brief mention of organizational creativity from a systems perspective, it concentrates on the particular parts of management that relate to creativity. Chapter 16, ‘Tools for creativity’, shows how a rational approach to thinking creatively can be displayed in a series of practical techniques. Although cautioning against ‘stand-alone’ thinking skills programmes to the exclusion of knowledge, skills and motivation, the chapter describes a selection of thinking and creativity tools and provides typical examples of how they might be used in the classroom. Chapter 17, ‘The creative learner’, adopts the constructivist perspective that learners actively construct knowledge and have the capacity to be imaginative and creative. It suggests that creative learning can be developed in alignment with students’ epistemological development through imaginative play, creative disciplinary performance and cognitive apprenticeship, leading to independent self-regulated creativity within a scholarly discourse. Chapter 18, ‘Creativity and cognition’, examines mental processing in relation to creativity. It explores creativity from a cognitive perspective and shows its relationship to educational practices. It considers the place of intelligence, divergent thinking, cognitive taxonomies and a staged approach to problem-solving and knowledge construction. Chapter 19, ‘Creativity as expression’, considers the development of educational ideas that have promoted creative and artistic activities where children express themselves. It describes how creativity as a form of self-expression arose from mid-twentiethcentury humanistic psychology and how it has become a necessary part of education. Chapter 20, ‘Developmental theories and creativity’, approaches creativity from a developmental perspective. It considers a range of well-known developmental theories and discusses how creativity can be manifested and developed in a manner that is appropriate to a particular stage of development.

References Beghetto, R.A. (2010) Creativity in the classroom, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Beghetto, R.A. and Kaufman, J.C. (eds) (2010) Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. CERI (2012) Innovative Learning Environments: The Innovative Cases Strand. Paris: OECD, http//www.oecd.org/document/21/0, 3746, accessed March 2012. Kaufman, J.C. and Sternberg, R.J. (eds) (2010) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Marshall, B. (2007) Creating danger: the place of the arts in education policy, in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: the Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chapter 2 Constructs of creativity

Introduction Creativity has many connotations. In some circles it suggests genius, in others, questionable accounting practices. We live in an age that is obsessed with creativity in the form of innovation, justifying the market-driven claim that everyone in society needs to be creative because the knowledge economy requires such innovation to compete and survive. Education finds itself in a bind because of its numerous and often conflicting roles. It must transmit the traditions and key values of our society; service the economy by producing innovators and radical thinkers; be regulated and accountable to its numerous stakeholders; and yet be flexible enough to stir the imaginations of the young. Reconciling these disparate demands is bewildering, and draws on very different notions of creativity. In this chapter we introduce the issue of creativity and the problems associated with its definition. We then identify nine constructs of creativity and briefly discuss their main characteristics and overall educational implications, leaving the individual chapters to spell these out in detail. We deal with the genealogy of these constructs in the next chapter.

Defining creativity There is a question in Hinduism – ‘How many gods are there?’ A respondent may say, ‘three hundred and thirty million’. Asked again, they may say, ‘one’, then ‘three hundred thousand’, then ‘three’. The precise number of gods is difficult to enumerate because they are all changing facets of Brahma. Many commentators recognize a similar problem with the extensively-used term ‘creativity’ (Craighead and Nemeroff 1994: 291; Craft 2005: 38); ‘Even scholars of creativity do not have a shared language for creativity’ (Joubert 2001: 29).

Definitions Margaret Boden (1994) defines creativity as a conceptual ability to come up with new ideas that are surprising, yet intelligible and also valuable. Most people would agree that creativity must involve originality, or as Jerome Bruner puts it, ‘effective surprise’ (1979: 22). However, this definition is problematic because a ‘new idea’ might not be new with respect to human history and tradition (Boden 2001: 95). Originality on its own is not enough − a new idea may simply be bizarre or unrealistic. In order to be

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creative the idea must be judged to be appropriate by society at large. Boden (1994: 43) makes a helpful distinction therefore between two types of creativity: P creativity H creativity

New to the person concerned but not necessarily to all Entirely new to humanity and to history

Rob Pope avoids the problem of novelty by defining creativity as ‘the capacity to make, do or become something fresh and valuable with respect to others as well as ourselves’ (2005: xvi). The aspects of creativity and their justification are shown in Table 2.1. The English cultural historian Raymond Williams notes that the term ‘creativity’ has become weakened by overuse, but considers that such changes of connotation are unavoidable, ‘given the complexity of interpreting human activity which the term creative now encapsulates’ (1976: 74). Like other words, such as ‘democracy’ or ‘intelligence’, it has been appropriated for many, sometimes incompatible, purposes.

Metaphors Tree Metaphors may also be useful in representing and illuminating what creativity means. A standard metaphor is of creativity as a tree, its roots representing its invisible aspects, its growth and budding representing creative processes and its different branches representing the outcomes of creativity.

Rhizome An alternative metaphor of creativity views it as a set of rhizomes or tubers. These grow underground, so their processes are invisible. They spring up unpredictably, but seek out places where they can emerge and cluster, so space is needed for such emergences (Deleuze and Guattari 1988). Table 2.1 Aspects of creativity Creativity involves

Justification

Potential Making Doing Becoming Freshness Values Others

It may or may not be achieved It can be realized through an object made It can be an action performed It can be an ongoing process of being or becoming It is more than just new; it offers a different perspective It is in accordance with some system of social values It requires independent evaluation by others

Source: based on Pope (2005: xvi)

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Quilt-making A more homely metaphor of ‘quilt-making’ has been used to represent the processes and outcomes of creativity holistically. In this metaphor, the backing of the quilt represents the invisible layer of constructs which underlie the processes and products of creativity, represented by the patterns of meaning-making and interpretations on the surface of the quilt (Tracey 2011).

Stereotypes Dichotomies Several popular assumptions or stereotypes of creativity are often expressed as dichotomies. Right-brained intuitive Individual genius Innate ability

versus versus versus

Left-brain rational Shared social understanding A learned process

Myths Grayson Perry (2010), the radical English potter and winner of the 2003 Turner Prize for art, identifies some ‘myths’ of creativity, among which he includes:

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creativity is made up of the ‘eureka’ moments of individuals; anyone can be creative; creative people are deranged; drugs and alcohol can stimulate creativity; creativity is accidental or caused by mistakes.

Constructs of creativity Our aim in this chapter is not to support any particular definition, metaphor or stereotype, but to show that definitions of creativity draw on specific constructs which are in current use to varying extents. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Creativity as possession. Creativity as product. Creativity as personal genius. Creativity as process. Creativity as exceptional attributes. Creativity as cognition.

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7. 8. 9.

Creativity as innovation. Creativity as social. Creativity as everyday.

An authoritative literature review on creativity commissioned by the UK’s Creative Partnerships Scheme refers to a similar set of creativity constructs called ‘rhetorics’ or ‘persuasive definitions’, aimed at bringing about a consensus in theory, policy and practice. We share the view that it is more useful to see creativity through a range of constructs rather than through ‘unchanging definitions which are difficult to reconcile and debate’ (Banaji et al. 2006: 5). Although their applicability to education varies, the main value of these constructs is in the way they offer theoretical perspectives that will help educators to articulate their understandings, avoid misinterpretations and plan, intervene and evaluate creativity in an informed fashion. The constructs presented below are not necessarily discrete, exclusive or comprehensive. Constructs overlap, so that material in one could just as easily be situated in another. Here we attempt to show their essential connotation; how they developed is discussed in Chapter 3.

Creativity as possession This construct views creativity as a mysterious external force which takes over the individual, who then becomes creativity’s vehicle or mouthpiece. The construct suggests that creative people are not personally responsible for their creativity − a poet or artist may not be able to explain where an idea came from. Although it can have connotations of malevolent possession by a demonic force, creativity is generally viewed positively as ‘inspiration’ − meaning literally that ‘the spirit has entered’. This idea of being possessed or inspired to create a work of art can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the activities of the unconscious mind.

Key features of creativity as possession Creativity as possession:

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is mysterious in nature; has an external origin; is unpredictable in practice; accesses tacit knowledge and understandings; lacks conscious control or direction; relies on the unconscious; is influenced by emotions; is unconstrained and open to experience; can be exhilarating and possibly dangerous; is stimulated by drugs, fasting and meditation.

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Educational implications Education has an indirect role as it cannot regulate the view of creativity as possession. Accordingly, it is learners who are ‘possessed’ by the inspiration and from it construct their own meaning. However, education can create the conditions and freedom which will engage, enthuse and inspire students. This approach is particularly suited to early schooling when children may be more open to experience, delighting in fantasy and the irrational. In order to promote creativity as possession, teachers should:

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adopt a learner-centred pedagogy; accept the mysterious aspect of creativity; encourage an openness to experience; help learners to articulate their thinking; develop the receptivity of learners; be flexible in responding to learners’ interests; offer opportunities for self-expression; acknowledge the emotional dimension of learning; devote time to the development of creative ideas; create safe but bounded spaces for creative activity.

Creativity as product This construct reflects the long-held view that creation is an imaginative act, manifested in a product. Creativity as product is often used in opposition to creativity as process. It calls for an evidence-based approach that suggests that creative processes can only be identified by their outcome – the proof of creative cooking is in the meal. We need to see the artwork or have the scientific idea articulated. The product must have been evaluated by an appropriate community in order to be judged as creative.

Key features of creativity as product Creativity as product:

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implies an identifiable product, idea, behaviour or event; is contextual; needs raw materials, ideas and skills; requires imagination and originality; can be shown in models and exemplars; implies ownership of the product; raises questions about the creativity of reproductions;

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r r r

is evaluated in relation to particular criteria; involves a degree of risk for the producer; encourages hierarchies and elitist rankings in the arts.

Educational implications For educationalists, creativity as product indicates that creativity needs to be demonstrated by an actual outcome. This is familiar territory for teachers, who are well-used to an outcomes-based approach into which products fit very nicely by being accessible and assessable. Producing a product requires the teaching of appropriate skills. Allied to this is a need to encourage and support risk-taking. Evaluation and assessment of the outcome requires a knowledge of the criteria to be used, and training in feedback processes. In order to promote creativity as product, teachers should:

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involve learners in practical ‘making’ activities; require learners to arrive at a discernible outcome; highlight the purposes and contexts of creative outcomes; provide the raw materials and opportunities for creative performance; supply exemplars of creative precedents; encourage personal ownership of outcomes and discourage simple imitation; negotiate evaluative criteria and encourage feedback on outcomes; support risk-taking and encourage persistence in the light of failure; encourage self and peer assessment and evaluation; develop learners’ discrimination of cultural and intellectual achievements.

Creativity as genius This elitist and old-fashioned term views creativity as the realm of genius in which brilliant individuals create awe-inspiring, ground-breaking work, particularly in the arts and sciences. Genius shares the mysterious aura of possession, but unlike possession is internal and associated totally with a person. Geniuses are acclaimed by their professional peers and celebrated by society at large. They display enormous energy and focus, neither needing nor seeking approval. Stereotypically, geniuses are indifferent to everyday realities and lead dramatic lives of such intensity that it frequently results in burn-out at an early age. A more recent alternative term is that of ‘eminence’, which avoids the Romantic stereotype of genius, while retaining its acknowledgement of exceptional performance and an awareness of peer recognition (Simonton 2010: 174−88).

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Key features of creativity as genius Creativity as genius:

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is an outdated nineteenth-century Romantic concept; is mysterious but, unlike possession, is internal; is particularly associated with the arts and sciences; is attached to extraordinary people who: ◦ are very self-composed and self-absorbed; ◦ disregard mundane matters; ◦ possess a high level of energy and commitment; ◦ demonstrate complete domain mastery; ◦ are prolific in their chosen field; results in work which: ◦ is prodigious in quality and quantity; ◦ displays complete mastery of the field; ◦ changes the way people understand the field.

Educational implications Formal education is largely system-based, with rules, structures and procedures. Creativity as genius is not very education-friendly since it is mysterious and fiercely independent, with the genius taking total responsibility for creativity. Education is more comfortable with everyday creativity, whereas genius is firmly in the territory of ground-breaking creativity. Nevertheless, education can play a role in providing the domain mastery that is essential to creative genius. Education also needs to provide the conditions of recognition, tolerance, time and freedom that genius demands. In order to promote creativity as genius, teachers should:

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examine the concept of ‘genius’ with learners; recognize and celebrate giftedness and sustained effort; accept and accommodate students of exceptional ability or effort; celebrate exceptional performance in all fields; teach domain knowledge and expertise; require and reward persistence; provide the time and freedom for personal project work.

Creativity as process This construct views creativity as the ability to act in a particular way to achieve some goal. It may be embedded in subjects and domains, or alternatively can be described in terms of individual or group cognition, which can be applied to all areas of knowledge

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and experience. Creativity as process is susceptible to a technical-rational approach that can lead to the development of problem-solving tools such as those described in Chapter 16. Creativity as process also draws on ideas from systems theory such as those of complexity and chaos. According to these theories, dynamic activities can lead to ‘emergence’ in which properties such as creativity can ‘emerge’ at higher levels in a way that cannot be predicted from properties at lower levels (Johnson 2001).

Key features of creativity as process Creativity as process:

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de-mystifies creativity; emphasizes processes over products; is more suited to modest, everyday creativity; is judged by the quality of its products; assumes a technology of creativity; explains how complexity can lead to the unexpected emergence of creativity; contributes to the democratization of creativity by providing techniques; allows for investigation of specific elements of the process; encourages distributed or group creativity by subdividing processes; occurs over time.

Educational implications Creativity as process is ideally suited to formal education which favours processes and systematized approaches. It relates particularly well to a form of creativity that can be taught − for example, problem-solving and thinking skills. Teaching this kind of creativity involves teacher modelling and active learning methods where students analyse situations and practise techniques. However, in order for the processes to be creative there needs to be an emphasis on the complexity of concepts and extra space and time provided to allow for the emergence of creativity. In order to promote creativity as process, teachers should:

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present creativity as an explicable process; focus on achievable rather than exceptional creativity; explain processes in the form of creativity tools; require that the process results in an outcome; break down problems or activities into component parts; expect all learners to engage in creative processes; teach a staged approach to problem-solving activities; combine active individual and group teaching methods; reveal and emphasize the complexity and inter-relatedness of ideas; devote extra time and space for emergence to occur.

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Creativity as exceptional attributes This construct views creativity not as a mysterious quality, but as a collection of exceptional personal attributes likely to lead to creative activity. These exceptional qualities are derived from the genetic inheritance, family upbringing, life experiences, environment and the personalities of exceptionally creative individuals. Although common threads of challenging or unconventional upbringing, independence, resilience, risk-taking, iconoclasm and obsession can be found, these features are not in themselves sufficient, as they can also be discerned in many uncreative individuals. The creativity must be manifest in creative products which merit the recognition of the relevant community or domain.

Key features of creativity as exceptional attributes Creativity as exceptional attributes:

r

r

r

is derived from studies of exceptional individuals which examine: ◦ genetic inheritance; ◦ upbringing and parental influence; ◦ life experience; ◦ environment; is related to personality and personal psychological features such as: ◦ self-sufficiency; ◦ outsider status; ◦ risk-taking; ◦ obsession; ◦ non-conformity; ◦ determination and persistence; ◦ resilience in the face of setbacks; is related to domain mastery involving: ◦ perception of trends and patterns; ◦ challenges to domain thinking.

Educational implications Formal education is not very suited to exceptional personalities or those with exceptional abilities. Non-compliance and difference may fuel this particular dimension of creativity. Many of the exceptional attributes described above are exactly the kind that cause trouble in the classroom and make a teacher’s life difficult with the result that ‘potentially creative children may be at risk of being rejected by teachers’ (Westby and Dawson 1995: 9). Dealing with this type of creativity therefore requires a highly differentiated approach with individualized instruction, flexible curricula and provision for individual project work, allied to tolerant and nuanced classroom management.

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In order to foster the creativity of exceptional individuals, teachers should:

r r r r

be tolerant of personal diversity and difference; accommodate a range of learner personalities and perspectives; promote students’ self-awareness and reflexivity; manage exceptionality with an appropriate pedagogy which: ◦ emphasizes subject mastery as a prerequisite; ◦ provides a climate conducive to individual meaning-making; ◦ designs flexible curricula; ◦ develops individual learning plans; ◦ encourages personal project work; ◦ recognizes and rewards exceptional achievement.

Creativity as cognition This construct views creativity as a form of generalized, non-disciplinary, higher-level thinking skill, and so is related to creativity as process. Creative thinking is divergent and leads to multiple alternative ideas, unlike convergent thinking which narrows ideas down. Imagination and playful attitudes encourage divergence or alternative scenarios. Emotional intelligence and reflection are also elements of cognition. Recent brain research, also discussed in Chapter 18, suggests that creativity may involve: Synaesthesia Disinhibition

The simultaneous stimulation of different neural centres A relaxation of inhibitory cognitive control or censorship so that incongruous ideas are permitted to enter consciousness

Key features of creativity as cognition Creativity as cognition:

r r r r r r r r r r

is a subset of creativity as a process; assumes creativity is a transferable form of thinking; relies on principles from cognitive science and neuroscience; incorporates both conscious and subconscious elements; includes attention, perception, encoding, memory, rehearsal and recall; may be influenced by biochemical and physiological processes; encompasses emotional aspects; involves motivation and volition; includes an element of reflective awareness and introspection; may be social and distributed as well as individual.

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17

Educational implications Creativity as cognition is a process-centred approach that is very amenable to formal educational techniques since it is generalizable and can be approached in a systematic manner. Although disciplines have their own ways of thinking, meta-cognitive strategies and thinking skills are eminently teachable, as shown in Chapter 16. Cognitive science suggests a range of techniques and teachers can also articulate and model their own thinking and meta-cognitive strategies. These strategies can assist learners to understand or become aware of their own creative thinking. Reflective techniques can help learners understand the influence of emotions and volition on their own thinking. In order to promote creativity as cognition, teachers should:

r r r r r

r r r r r r

teach both general and discipline-specific thinking skills; view creativity as the summit of cognitive activity; be aware of nutritional and environmental influences on cognition; help learners to perceive patterns and develop schemata; promote cognition using strategies such as: ◦ pre-organizers; ◦ appropriate stimuli and encoding methods (visual, auditory, etc.); ◦ memory techniques; ◦ rehearsal and recall techniques; allow for the playful engagement with ideas; model cognitive approaches by making their own thinking explicit; develop learners’ meta-cognitive strategies and reflective selfknowledge; be aware of the emotional and volitional dimension of cognition; use the curriculum to develop cross-disciplinary thinking; show how thinking is scaffolded by peers and society at large.

Creativity as innovation This construct views creativity as the invention of products or techniques that are both original and useful to society. It is popular in the business world as a means of developing new commercial products and services. Ironically, the use of creativity as a business tool has had the effect of turning creativity into a business, spawning countless books, seminars and creativity courses. Innovation moves creativity from the personal to the social, since some societies may be more innovative than others; and from the cultural to the commercial, since there are strong imperatives for technological innovation to confer a competitive advantage in the global economy. There can also be an emphasis on social entrepreneurship where the innovation is promoted not for commercial ends, but for the well-being of society.

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Key features of creativity as innovation Creativity as innovation:

r r r r r r r r r r

values products which demonstrate novelty and commercial usefulness; requires the measurement and evaluation of innovative products; is evaluated by key stakeholders and consumers of the product; is particularly associated with science and technology; may contribute to societal well-being; is frequently a goal of national and global policy; endorses the role of the entrepreneur as a creator; emphasizes the practical and experiential as opposed to the theoretical; may overlook ethical or social values; has turned creativity itself into a marketable product.

Educational implications Numerous policy documents emphasize the importance of education in supporting innovation. This creates a tension for formal education which has traditionally favoured theoretical over practical knowledge, and focused on the development of the whole person. The typical educational environment finds it challenging to accommodate innovation, which may be more suited to workplace learning. An emphasis on innovation has led to a devaluing of the liberal arts in favour of technological and entrepreneurial skills, although community service and social entrepreneurship are increasingly being taught as more benign forms of innovation. In practice however, primary schools stress science, secondary schools promote mathematics, science and technology, and in most universities the business faculty is one of the largest and most influential. In order to promote creativity as innovation, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r r

explain the purposes and values of innovation; discuss the ethical dimension of innovation and creativity with learners; determine their own stance on economic versus personal values; recognize and reward learners’ innovatory service to the community; emphasize the practical skills of design, making and product development; help students to evaluate innovatory products; explore the entrepreneurial dimension of their disciplines; promote and teach entrepreneurial skills; create a climate that promotes risk-taking and is accepting of failure; invite innovators and entrepreneurs to act as mentors; encourage experiential learning such as work experience and internship.

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19

Creativity as social This construct views creativity as a collaborative social phenomenon developed in and through communities and groups, rather than residing within the individual. It is supported by Vygotsky’s view that individual thinking arises from, and is determined by, close social interaction (1978). The construct emphasizes the importance of social recognition and acknowledgment by the community in determining what is accepted as creative, and raises questions about disruptive creativity that might challenge convention. Intense social creativity is found in creative periods such as the Renaissance, in creative social classes such as performers in the entertainment industry, and in creative communities such as the computer industries in Silicon Valley. Social creativity is expressed not only in high culture and the arts, but also in popular and alternative counter-cultures.

Key features of creativity as social Creativity as social:

r r r r r r r r r r

moves away from individual to social psychology and sociology; is an expression of societal practices and values; shapes creative individuals within it; encourages social cohesion and celebration; suggests a dynamic interrelationship between the personal and the social; involves an ethical dimension; sees evaluation as a social activity; includes elements of elitist, popular and counter-cultures; includes the languages and practices of particular discourses and groups; may arise from the interaction of differing cultures and values.

Educational implications Education is itself a social activity, embedded in a society and charged with transmitting its shared culture and values. Similarly, disciplinary areas are social constructs with their own particular discourses. It is the role of education to induct learners into these communities of practice. Education attempts to promote social cohesion, so unconventional types of creativity could be discouraged as a threat to cohesion. Creativity as a social construct suggests that education should encourage creative participatory activities such as sport and drama as a means of promoting social inclusivity.

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In order to promote creativity as social, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

consider their role in the transmission of social and cultural values; be aware of the extent to which different cultures value creativity; show learners how subjects and disciplines are socially constructed; introduce learners to a range of products valued by particular societies; celebrate the achievements of a society or social group; use group diversity to stimulate creativity; explore the ethical dimensions of creativity; encourage group performance through project work, drama and sport; emphasize ‘coopetition’ – cooperation and competition within groups; draw attention to the human dimension of more abstract subjects.

Creativity as everyday This construct views creativity as an everyday human characteristic arising from people’s natural curiosity, imagination, playfulness and use of language. Although it may have its roots in human evolution as a strategy for survival, it is seen today in the creativity of personalized lifestyle choices. Creativity as an everyday phenomenon has an underlying democratizing agenda that aims to counter social inequalities. Creativity of this sort is not special, mysterious or elitist, but simply a part of being alive, and practically a human entitlement in achieving personal fulfilment and self-expression.

Key features of creativity as everyday Creativity as everyday:

r r r r r r r r r r

is totally unexceptional and shown in all human activity; is an aspect of normal human development shown in play and curiosity; emphasizes ordinary creativity rather than high art; may manifest itself in lifestyle choices rather than creative performance; provides a justification for self-expression as empowering and life-affirming; assumes that creativity is the highest form of self-expression; views human life as incomplete without creativity; links with modern democratizing and anti-elitist movements; may be part of a western individualistic world view; may conflict with exceptional creativity.

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21

Educational implications If creativity is the norm in human development, one could ask why it needs to be taught. Nevertheless, education is very well disposed towards this democratic construct, also seen in Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (1983) which, despite some misgiving from theorists, is very popular with practising teachers. In many classrooms, learners are encouraged to express and evaluate their creativity in the form of art, music, creative writing and drama. However, confining creativity to these areas could lead to creativity as a ‘stand alone’ desirable ‘extra’, rather than an essential feature of every subject or discipline. Creativity is not simply manifest in performance, but also in judgement and appreciation, as shown in strategies to develop the communicative abilities and curatorship of learners. In order to promote creativity as everyday, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

offer many opportunities for learners to express themselves creatively; promote imaginative activities and play to encourage flexible thinking; avoid associating creativity solely with an elite high culture; encourage and celebrate performance; look for opportunities to link education and professional creative practice; emphasize the self-evaluation of personal creativity; reinforce education’s role in the expression of the whole personality; present communication, selection and judgement as aspects of creativity; be aware that not all cultures stress self-expression as the highest value; be conscious of a conflict with the quest for excellence.

Conclusion This chapter has explored the problem of the definition of creativity and has considered alternative approaches, such as the use of metaphors and popular stereotypical understandings, before going on to discuss nine constructs of creativity. These form a complex multifaceted lens through which to view creativity. In particular, the constructs may help teachers to locate and articulate their own theoretical position. The constructs:

r r

display the main stereotypical assumptions; trigger reflection on the absolutism of engrained positions;

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r r r r r

offer a variety of ways of conceptualizing creativity; show the interconnectedness of constructs of creativity; have numerous implications for practice; may be inconsistent; vary in their compatibility with formal education.

Table 2.2 Categories of creative constructs Mysterious

Possession Genius Exceptional attributes Production

Although uncertainty presents a challenge, education can provide the necessary domain knowledge and conditions conducive to exceptional creativity

Methodological

Process Cognition Innovation

These are very amenable to formal education since teaching can supply the necessary tools, meta-cognitive strategies and entrepreneurial skills

Mundane

Social Everyday

The creative attributes and entitlements of everyday human existence are stressed; education needs to offer spaces and an environment in which all learners are allowed to express their creativity

They can be categorized into the mysterious, the methodological and the mundane, as shown in Table 2.2 and Figure 2.1. The next chapter takes a more contextual, historical approach that explores how the constructs of creativity have developed over time. Cognition Innovation Attributes

Process

Product Creativity

Genius

Social

Possession

Everyday

Figure 2.1 Categories of creative constructs shown diagrammatically

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23

References Banaji, S., Burn, A. and Buckingham, D. (2006) Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature. London: Arts Council England. Boden, M.A. (ed.) (1994) Dimensions of Creativity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Boden, M.A. (2001) Creativity and knowledge, in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Bruner, J.S. (1979) On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Craft, A. (2005) Creativity in Schools: Tensions and Dilemmas. Abingdon: Routledge. Craighead, W.E. and Nemeroff, C.B. (1994) The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Vol. 1. New York: Wiley. Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1988) A Thousand Plateaus, trans. B. Massumi. London: Athlone. Gardner, H. (1983) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Johnson, S. (2001) Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software. London: Penguin. Joubert, M.M. (2001) The art of creative teaching: NACCCE and beyond, in A. Craft., B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Perry, G. (2010) Grayson Perry on Creativity and Imagination, BBC Radio 4, 18 July. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Simonton, D.K. (2010) Creativity in highly eminent individuals, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tracey, S. (2011) Containers, creativity and quilt-making: an exploration of teachers’ conceptualisations of creative spaces for teaching and learning, TEAN Journal, 2(1), http://bit.ly/tmkJYf, accessed May 2012. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Westby, E.L. and Dawson, V.L. (1995) Creativity: asset or burden in the classroom? Creativity Research Journal, 8(1): 1−10. Williams, R. (1976) Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana/ Croom Helm.

Chapter 3 Genealogy of creativity

Introduction Ideas are rarely static; they develop, change and are transformed. If one accepts the metaphor of creativity as a rhizome then it might be useful to examine its roots and how it has grown and developed over the course of time. This chapter deals chronologically with a number of broad historical periods in terms of how they perceived creativity. We have emphasized periods and contexts where creativity flourished. However we are aware of periods in history where creativity has been stifled. For example, Puritan England and Stalinist Russia could be considered as societies which discouraged aesthetic creativity because creative divergence threatened their rigid conceptions of society. This generalization and simplification is followed by a more considered examination of the transformations that the ideas underwent over the centuries. Each period added another nuance to the understanding of creativity without totally abandoning the older constructs, which persisted and evolved. We also consider the educational implications of all this.

Classical The most ancient view of creativity considered that the individual or group could be possessed by a powerful external force, of which they then become the vehicle and mouthpiece. This view suited the theological focus of ancient peoples. Originally, the ‘possession’ was divine or angelic. A positive interpretation viewed ‘inspiration’ as a spirit being breathed into a body, which then gave voice to creative utterances.

Transformation The construct of creativity as possession and inspiration was transformed over the centuries. For hundreds of years, external possession was seen as dangerous and possibly demonic. Later ages transformed inspiration from an external, mystical and mysterious force to one which was internal, cognitive and subconscious. For example, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Romantic Movement attributed a role to the Muse in stimulating and inspiring human artistic imagination. The Muse became a metaphor for the internal creative workings of the ‘labyrinth of the mind’ (Goethe 1777). This view of creativity as arising from the mind and imagination received the backing of psychologists in the early twentieth century, when Freud and Jung stressed

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the importance of the subconscious and unconscious in all our behaviour. With the invention of the electroencephalogram (EEG) by Hans Berger in 1924 (Haas 2003: 9) there was a transformation from the mysterious to the measurable, as inspiration became accessible in the form of brain waves. Robert Sternberg, a modern creativity researcher, cites evidence to show that during an inspirational phase the human brain generates a particular signature of alpha over beta rhythms (Sternberg 1999: 74). Alpha rhythms Beta rhythms

8–13Hz oscillation in EEG indicating focused concentration and dream-like states 13–30Hz oscillation in EEG indicating conscious thought and awareness

Associated with alpha rhythm brain activity is the phenomenon of creativity as ‘flow’, described in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work (2008) on the psychology of individual creative cognition. ‘Flow’ occurs when someone very well-acquainted with, and immersed in a particular field, experiences a state of total immersion and heightened focus. This condition is effortless, like being on autopilot, and leads to inner clarity, serenity, even ecstasy, along with a sense of timelessness. Recent findings from neuroscience show that a high proportion of our thinking and behaviour is determined by brain processes outside our conscious control (Eagleman 2011). Moreover, the mysterious is making a comeback, with the concept of inspiration being revisited after a decline in critical attention in the twentieth century (Clark 1997). Even traditional ‘possession’ as a source of creativity is presented in the 2010 film Black Swan, where the heroine is only able to stage a harmonized balletic performance after being possessed by an alter-ego, with whom she must integrate. In his talks to school leaders, the English educationalist Guy Claxton (2007) stresses the importance of tapping into more unconscious ways of knowing. Such receptivity involves preparedness and willingness to place oneself into the situation in which inspiration might strike, chances occur or unexpected ideas arise. As the scientist Louis Pasteur points out, ‘Fortune favours the prepared mind’ (Gratzer 2002: 45).

Medieval The medieval period in western Europe considered creation to be entirely a divine prerogative. Biblical creation presents God as creating the world and everything in it from nothing. As God’s ‘creatures’, humans were lowly subservient beings who could not create anything themselves. Until the sixteenth century, derivative terms of ‘creation’ such as ‘creator’ and ‘create’ referred, in a religious sense, to a God responsible for the act of creation (Pope 2005).

Transformation By the seventeenth century, the view emerged that people can also ‘create’, although their ‘products’ might be flawed or dangerous. This view is well represented in Mary

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Shelley’s story of Dr Frankenstein’s folly in fashioning his monstrous and unhappy creature. By the twentieth century, terms such as ‘recreation’ and ‘procreation’ had lost their original force as proxies of divine creation, and had become references to leisure and sexual activities. Over the course of history, creativity has been extended from a divine prerogative to a human one.

Renaissance In the Renaissance, creativity was seen as a human activity. An interest in classical antiquity emerged from a combination of economic security, political stability, social structure, wealthy patrons and the influx of Greek scholars and texts after the sack of the library of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. Humanism replaced religion, patrons sought out exceptionally talented individuals and ‘geniuses’ became famous. Creative artists of all types travelled widely and there was much exchange of ideas internationally. The fame of artists was based on their ability to produce creative works. It could be said therefore that the dominant constructs of creativity at this stage were ‘creativity as genius’ and ‘creativity as product’.

Transformation The idea of creativity as human genius achieved particular prominence in the nineteenth century Romantic period. Although ‘genius’ is an outdated term, the view of creativity as human continues all the way to the present. Creativity is now seen as an entirely human activity, involving the dynamic interaction of knowledge, skills, thinking, personality, motivation and environment. The idea of creativity as product also continued. In his Critique of Judgement in 1790, the German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant stated that creativity involves an evaluation of outcomes, lending support to the construct of creativity as product-related. The construct of creativity as product continues in Edward de Bono’s defining of the word ‘creative’ as the ‘description of a result after it has come about’ (de Bono 1972: 71). The construct of creativity as product is seen in modern education in the popularity of ‘outcomes-based’ approaches, indicating that education policy-makers, curriculum designers and assessors may only accept creative processes if they result in creative outputs. However, Florence Beetlestone claims that an undue emphasis on product rather than process can frighten learners away from originality, since one of the key elements of creativity is the ability to take risks without fear of failure (Beetlestone 1998).

Enlightenment The Enlightenment viewed creativity as the development of useful and appropriate products. Creativity was seen in the tremendous inventiveness of practical advances

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in agriculture, medicine, science and trade. However, the impetus to creative work was not innovation or novelty, but an imitation of revered classical models transposed to a new context. For example, the archaeological excavations which took place in Rome in the middle of the eighteenth century led to a reappraisal and rediscovery of colour in ancient Roman buildings, leading to the exuberant creative designs of the Scottish architect Robert Adam (Harris 2001).

Transformation Although the notion of looking back to a classical ‘golden age’ as a model for creativity did not survive, the Enlightenment idea of creativity as useful remained popular through the Industrial Revolution, with the invention of numerous machines and industrial processes. In America and England the nineteenth century could be called ‘the age of invention’: huge numbers of patents were granted and innovation was celebrated in national exhibitions and trade displays, supported by the exploitation of vast amounts of natural resources and raw materials. By the twentieth century, creativity had replaced raw materials as the key source of economic development (Seltzer and Bentley 1999: 1). For example, the entertainment industry virtually replaced nineteenth-century manufacturing as a locus and outlet for creativity and inventiveness. Modern liberal capitalist societies place a high premium on newness, inventiveness and discovery, with the USA granting more patents than any other country in the world (Costello 2007). However, Amabile (1998) argues that newness on its own is insufficient: to be creative, an idea must also be appropriate, useful and achievable. Ted Levitt (2006) claims that many business people mis-define creativity to mean having great original ideas which are judged by their novelty rather than their potential usefulness. Schools are increasingly encouraged to promote useful creativity in the form of problem-solving, knowledge transfer, computer literacy and entrepreneurial skills, all of which have become explicit learning goals for modern curricula. As part of this practical approach, the English Arts Council/Department for Education ‘Creative Partnerships’ scheme has brought together schoolchildren and professional creative practitioners in order to achieve a range of social, personal and economic goals (Banaji et al. 2006).

Romantic The dominant construct in the Romantic period was that of ‘creativity as genius’. Geniuses produced work of the ‘imagination’ – the term that replaced ‘creation’. For example, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge referred to imagination as ‘the repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM’. In other words, human imagination displays finite humans doing God’s creative work (Pope 2005: 14). Unlike Enlightenment thinkers, the Romantics scorned usefulness and saw creativity as closely associated with the arts, and therefore an attribute of exceptional artistic individuals. In his Critique of Judgement, Kant defines genius as the mental

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aptitude necessary for the production of fine art (Kant [1790] 1914). The Germans referred to the Romantic period as Die Genieperiode – the genius period. Male geniuses, such as Mozart, Goethe and Beethoven demonstrated innate attributes to create works of art which caused them to tower above their contemporaries.

Transformation Genius came to be seen as a form of dangerous hysteria: ‘The genius in his works and in his deeds is necessarily a prodigal. His greatness lies in the fact that he expends himself. The instinct of self-preservation is, as it were, suspended’ (Bissell 2002: 222). A classic text by Caesar Lombroso argued that there was a close link between genius and insanity (Lombroso and Lombroso-Ferrero [1911] 1972). Recent studies have shown that schizotypal personalities who are open to strange influences or voices, are, if combined with high intelligence, more likely to be highly creative (Kaufman and Sternberg 2010). Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love (2006) describes the emotional risks inherent in the Romantic view of creativity as genius, claiming it can lead to narcissism, breakdown and even suicide. As an antidote, she recommends a return to an older classical construct – not of being a genius, but of having a genius as an attendant spirit of creativity, absolving the artist from the entire burden of responsibility for creative production. The construct of creativity as the preserve of genius became increasingly diluted. Francis Galton claimed that genius is an inherited, exceptional ability, associated with prominent families (1869). A later twentieth century view of creativity, derived from case studies of exceptional individuals, maintains the importance of the familial influence, though now seeing it as a product of environment and upbringing rather than simply inheritance (Csikszentmihalyi 2008). For example, Mozart benefited from intensive training by his father and from thousands of hours of immersion in music over many years (Hayes 2002: 551). Although researchers such as Dean Keith Simonton claim that there are some predictors of genius in its positive association with general intelligence (Simonton 2010: 182), education can teach the merits of hard work and determination needed to realize creative potential. Effortless performances are now recognized to be the result of years of hard work: Matthew Syed refers to the 10,000 hours needed for mastery of a domain to be acquired (Syed 2011: 15). Education can have a role in developing talent and giftedness – as for example in enrichment programmes and centres for talented youth. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in imagination in the educational community – for example, in the UK’s university level Imaginative Curriculum Project (Jackson et al. 2006).

Early modern The term ‘creativity’ defined as a process, as opposed to the ‘creation’ of a product, appeared for the first time in the 1875 Oxford English Dictionary. The great interest in scientific, technological and industrial processes in the latter half of the nineteenth

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century, allied to the rise of experimental psychology, contributed to the view of creativity as a process or cognitive skill. This led to the development in the mid-twentieth century of tests to assess the types of thinking claimed to produce or reveal creativity. One popular test was that by Joy Paul Guilford on divergent thinking (1950), where ‘divergence’ means the production of a multiplicity of ideas in response to a situation, rather than seeking a single ‘right’ answer. This is discussed further in Chapter 9. More recently, Boden has discussed divergence as an aspect of the creativity of experts, as shown in three types of creative thinking she has identified (Boden 2004: 95–101): Combinatorial Exploratory Transformational

Combining ideas in unfamiliar ways Investigating alternative possibilities Changing conventional rules

These ways of thinking are discussed in more detail in Chapter 11. The notion of creativity as a thinking skill has recently been extended to encompass a more holistic ‘state of mind’ in which logical and factual intelligence are integrated with the emotions and the imagination (Lucas 2001: 38).

Transformation Although the type of creativity tests developed by Guilford and Torrance (Torrance and Ball 1974) were highly popular in twentieth-century research, doubt has now been cast upon the role of divergent thinking as a form of creativity. Statistical correlations between divergent thinking and subsequent creative performances are very low. Although it may contribute to creativity, ‘divergent thinking is not synonymous with creative thinking’ (Runco 2007: 10). The interest in creativity as ‘process’ led to a wider consideration of creative processes in the mid-twentieth century, under the influence of systems theory, which was popular at the time in engineering, informatics and cybernetics. This theory views a system as a set of components interacting with each other and with their environment to carry out certain activities in pursuit of a goal. Creative processes can emerge from systems that operate on the edge of chaos (Gleick 1994). As well as from internal systemic factors, creativity may also emerge from external contingencies – the chance interconnections that may occur when one system dynamically interacts with, and transforms, other systems (Gould 2003). The systems approach to creativity is seen in the way education may encourage learners to make curricular interconnections that promote complexity and emergence. For example, cross-curricular approaches may be used as a vehicle for creative responses. In one English primary school, children reconstructed mathematical timelines to show how ancient Babylonian cultures still have an effect on culture today (Moore 2009: 41–2). A South Australian school considers authentic problems using mixed age groupings, to suggest solutions to local, national and global issues (CERI 2012). Creativity as emergence from complexity on the edge of chaos presents some difficulties for formal education. Schools generally eschew chaos or uncertainty by having

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strict school rules and tightly-bounded target-driven curricular programmes. Ironically, there is a need for creative thinking on the part of teachers and administrators if they are to provide the space and time necessary for creativity to emerge in their classrooms. The distinction between process and product may be an artificial one, since, as the American philosopher John Dewey indicates, process can only be manifested and evaluated in product (Tiles 1990).

Late modern Twentieth-century definitions of creativity generally emphasized two aspects – originality and appropriateness. Invention was sometimes prioritized without a concern for moral or social values – as in the mid-century development of nuclear and biological weapons. Novelty was preferred to appropriateness or value (Cropley et al. 2010). Creativity began to be seen as a problem-solving tool to respond to numerous contemporary crises in the USA. This approach saw creativity as a response to a preexisting problem, rather than a re-imagining or creation of new ideas – a case of ‘cloudy’ rather than ‘blue-sky’ thinking.

Transformation Creativity was rapidly embraced by the business world as a tool for solving its particular problems, which include the development of new commercial products and services, so the construct of creativity as innovation became extremely important. This has led to the development of a range of creativity tools and books by popular writers such as Edward de Bono and Tony Buzan, as described in Chapter 16. In the late modern period, to complement the idea of major groundbreaking ‘Big C’ creativity has been added everyday ‘small c’ creativity (Simonton 2010: 174–5). Although Csikszentmihalyi (1999) and Mark Kilgour (2007) claim that there is no difference, Gardner (1993) distinguishes between them on the grounds that ‘Big C’ entails the integration and reorganization of cognitive structures, while ‘small c’ entails the extension of existing cognitive structures. The ideas of Vygotsky (1978), disseminated in the West in the 1970s, described thinking as a social process. This supports the idea of creativity as collaborative and social, as for example in a company such as Google where creativity is a distributed property, rather than the preserve of any one employee. The construct of creativity as social is also shown in cooperative learning, group projects and peer-to-peer tutoring. Overall there has been a swing from the individual to the social and from valuefree novelty to value-laden, social and moral responsibility. Recent theorists stress the importance of tempering creativity with wisdom so that there is a balance between novelty – which, if overemphasized, can lead to chaos – and societal values – which, if overemphasized, can lead to stasis (Gardner 2008). Although ‘small c’ creativity may be facilitated by teachable thinking tools and strategies, ‘Big C’ creativity involves large creative leaps which lie outside the domain

External Demonic possession

Medieval

Internal Inspiration by Muse

The subconscious

Alpha brain rhythms ‘Flow’

Romantic

Early modern (1850–1950)

Late modern (1950–present)

Enlightenment

Renaissance

External Benevolent possession

Classical

1 Possession

Possibility of animal or machine creativity

Human can also create

Divine prerogative Tangible created object

2 Product

Genius outdated but still popular Big C

Artistic genius

Genius

3 Genius

Table 3.1 Development of constructs of creativity

Heuristics

Process Systems theory Complexity emergence

4 Process

Systems approach Common characteristics

Imagination the product

Exceptional attributes

5 Attributes

Neuro-scientific developments

Thinking skill

6 Cognition

Innovation for global competitiveness

Practical innovation

Innovation but looking to classical

7 Innovation

Collaborative creativity

8 Social

‘Small c’ creativity Playfulness

9 Everyday

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of education. Nevertheless, ‘Big C’ might be facilitated educationally by the use of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches.

Conclusion This chapter has taken a historical approach to the development of ideas about creativity. It has shown how constructs of creativity are influenced by the values and perceptions of their context. For ease of presentation there has been an emphasis on what could be considered the dominant constructs at any one time, though many different constructs of creativity existed concurrently at all historical periods. Clearly the current constructs are the most complex, having been the result of an accumulation of earlier constructs, as well as developments in psychological research. Table 3.1 briefly summarizes some of the developments of each of the nine constructs of creativity in relation to historical periods.

References Amabile, T.M. (1998) How to kill creativity, Harvard Business Review, September– October: 76–87. Banaji, S., Burn, A. and Buckingham, D. (2006) Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature. London: Arts Council England. Beetlestone, F. (1998) Creative Children, Imaginative Teaching. Buckingham: Open University Press. Bissell, E.B. (2002) The Question of Literature: The Place of the Literary in Contemporary Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Boden, M. (2004) The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. CERI (2012) Innovative Learning Environments: The Innovative Cases Strand. Paris: OECD, http//www.oecd.org/document/21/0, 3746, accessed March 2012. Clark, T. (1997) The Theory of Inspiration: Composition as a Crisis of Subjectivity in Romantic and Post-Romantic Writing. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Claxton, G. (2007) Expanding young people’s capacity to learn, British Journal of Educational Studies, 55(2): 1–20. Costello, N. (2007) Creativity in higher education. Paper presented at the Creativity Conference, Waterford Institute of Technology and National University of Ireland. Cropley, D.H., Cropley, A.H., Kaufman, J.C. and Runco, M.A. (eds) (2010) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999) Implications of a systems perspective for the study of creativity, in R.J. Sternberg (ed.) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: HarperCollins. de Bono, E. (1972) PO: Beyond Yes and No. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Eagleman, D. (2011) Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books. Galton, F. (1869) Hereditary Genius, e-edition (2000), http://galton.org. Gardner, H. (1993) Creating Minds. New York: BasicBooks. Gardner, H. (2008) Five Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Gilbert, E. (2006) Eat, Pray, Love. London: Penguin. Gleick, J. (1994) Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Random House. Goethe, W. (1777) To the moon, in H. Garland and M. Garland (1997) The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gould, S.J. (2003) The Hedgehog, the Fox and the Magister’s Pox: Mending and Minding the Misconceived Gap between Science and the Humanities. London: Vintage. Gratzer, W. (2002) Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Guilford, J.P. (1950) Creativity, The American Psychologist, 5: 444–54. Haas, L.F. (2003) Hans Berger (1873–1941), Richard Caton (1842–1926) and electroencephalography, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 74: 9. Harris, E. (2001) The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Hayes, J.R. (2002) Three problems in teaching general skills, in D.L. Levitin (ed.) Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jackson, N., Oliver, M., Shaw, M. and Wisdom, J. (eds) (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. London: Routledge. Kant, I. ([1790] 1914) Critique of Judgement, trans J.H. Bernard, 2nd edn. London: Macmillan. Kaufman, J.C. and Sternberg, R.J. (eds) (2010) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kilgour, M. (2007) Big C versus little c – creative findings: domain-specific knowledge combination effects on the eminence of creative contributions, in S. Karkulehto and L. Kimmo (eds) Call for Creative Futures Conference Findings. Oulu: Department of Art Studies and Anthropology, University of Oulu. Levitt, T. (2006) Ted Levitt on Marketing. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review. Lombroso, C. and Lombroso-Ferrero, G. ([1911] 1972) Criminal Man. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.

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Lucas, B. (2001) Creative teaching: teaching creativity and creative learning, in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Moore, H. (2009) Where do I come from? History linked to mathematics, geography and language, in C. Rowley and H. Cooper (eds) Cross-Curricular Approaches to Teaching and Learning. London: Sage. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Runco, M.A. (2007) Creativity: Theories and Themes: Research, Development, and Issues. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. Seltzer, K. and Bentley, T. (1999) The creative age: knowledge and skills for the new economy, www.creativenet.org.uk, accessed October 2011. Simonton, D.K. (2010) Creativity in highly eminent individuals, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (ed.) (1999) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Syed, M. (2011) Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice. London: Fourth Estate. Tiles, J.E. (1990) John Dewey: Nature, Knowledge and Naturalism. London: Routledge. Torrance, E.P. and Ball, O.E. (1974) Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, in Norms Technical Manual. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chapter 4 Creativity in a social context

Introduction People gather together to experience public performances of music, theatre and film which are the result of the creative collaboration of a large number of writers, technicians, artists and performers. Children playing create their own make-believe worlds as a collaborative act, and every day, people engage in socially creative activities such as family celebrations, or public occasions such as religious and civic ceremonies. The coming together of an audience contributes to the overall creative experience. Even individual creators are influenced by the response of others to their work; creativity is undeniably a social act.

Background to social creativity The traditional view of creativity was as a quality of exceptional individuals. This was reinforced by Romantic nineteenth-century notions of the solitary genius and by investigations into individual cognition in twentieth-century psychology. Such an individualistic orientation did not consider the multitude of ways in which creativity is a social activity, fulfilling social purposes. Sociological explanations are underpinned by the concepts of structure and agency (Jordan et al. 2008: 73): Structure

Agency

The organization of social life in accordance with societal structures. This concept suggests that social structures completely shape individuals so that they may only be creative to the extent that structures allow. The extent to which individuals have the freedom to take control of their actions. This concept suggests that individuals have the power to change social structures.

Structures are used in sociology to explain the ways in which a social group or structure determines thinking and acting. Structures of family or social class can enable or constrain people in their creativity. Particularly in the West, we may be moving away from a period in which agency or individual freedom was considered a central value, to a more profound examination of the ways in which people’s experiences and creativity are structured by society. By the 1990s a strong view had emerged that social creativity needs the right circumstances, spaces or opportunities to bring it to the fore. This is in line with modern democratizing tendencies to attribute to everyone what was once perceived as a unique, rare and individual commodity.

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Educational implications Teachers need to be aware of the extent to which educational and classroom structures can inhibit or release the creative agency of learners. In order to address issues of structure and agency, a teacher should:

r r r r r r r r r r

design curricula to accommodate creative activity; include creativity explicitly in assessment criteria; show how working within rules can also be creative; promote self-regulation; build learners’ self-efficacy by delivering positive messages about ability; avoid expressing limits to learners’ potential accomplishments; give learners latitude in making choices; encourage sensible risk-taking, allowing learners the freedom to fail; help learners to delay gratification; celebrate efforts to be creative.

The nature of social creativity Modern cultural, constructivist and evolutionary theories view us as social animals, and social relationships are necessarily involved in all creative activities – development, coping strategies, creative empowerment, social participation, group fulfilment, collaboration and cultural confluence.

Development Development by its very nature is a creative process. Vygotsky (1978) describes how the child’s world is made up of close social relationships which are transformed into personal meanings and inner thought. The child then communicates these inner thoughts back to the external world through the use of symbols such as words and actions. In this way an individual creatively contributes to the overall culture. Through the development of their personal creativity, people can contribute to and influence culture. Paradoxically, a person becomes more capable within society by becoming more individual (Smolucha 1992).

Coping strategies Responding to everyday problems can result in social creativity, as groups help each other to develop strategies to deal with the vicissitudes of life – ‘refusing to be stumped by circumstances, but being imaginative in order to find a way around a problem’

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(Craft et al. 2001: 3–4). Creativity as a way of coping with life’s challenges has led to research into the value of creativity to special populations – for example, prisoners and those suffering from different types of impairment (Singer 2010: 177–203).

Creative empowerment Through their agency, groups of people engaged in community involvement can achieve a form of creative empowerment. Mark Webster and Glen Buglass (2004) provide case histories of community arts projects, community gospel choirs and mural painting, showing that the collective enterprise gives participants the confidence and experience to challenge ideological or material structures in their daily lives.

Social participation Participation in live events such as street festivals, Mardi Gras carnivals, religious ceremonies and social rituals can be a creative activitiy. For example, arts marketing consultant Tim Connor, writing in The Stage, describes how attendance at live events is becoming increasingly popular, despite the availability of recordings of all kinds, because ‘the one-off scarce nature of a live event enhances the cach´e of a person who can claim “I was there”’ (Connor 2011: 6).

Group fulfilment Creativity is also concerned with individual and group expression and identity as paths to personal fulfilment, satisfaction and wellness, without which individuals are impaired. It is a modern truism that education should fulfil the personality by allowing for the expression of creativity, although some educationalists claim that the term ‘fulfilment’ itself suggests a deficit model of personality, leading to a view of education and of creativity as primarily therapeutic (Ecclestone and Hayes 2009).

Collaboration There is a growing awareness, especially in science, that discovery is not simply the work of one creator, but is a social phenomenon. Simonton (2003: 480) explores the phenomenon of ‘multiple discovery’ in science where two or more scientists come up with the same idea simultaneously, and race to publish their findings first. Such was the case of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin over the theory of evolution, and the race to the discovery of the DNA double helix by teams from Cambridge and London Universities. Investigating creative collaboration, the US economist Richard Florida identified a new ‘creative class’ of artists, architects, engineers, designers, entertainers and scientists. From this, he derived what he calls the ‘3 Ts’ of economic growth: technology, talent and tolerance (Florida 2005: 6). From his study of Japanese manufacturing companies,

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Florida discovered the effectiveness of Japanese work practices, which include kaizen techniques, suggestion systems and team-based work (2005: 15). The Japanese systems tap into the intrinsic capabilities of shop-floor workers through deliberate methods of workplace interaction.

Cultural confluence When different cultures meet, their intermingling and mutual adaptation can lead to creative synthesis. For example, Florida (2005: 7) refers to the creative benefits of the dense social capital of an environment open to immigrants, artists, homosexuals and different racial groups, which allows people to be themselves and to validate their distinct identities.

Pseudo- and quasi-creativity The use of the one term ‘creativity’ to cover all aspects of creative activity has led some thinkers to distinguish genuine creativity from other types, described in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 Pseudo-creativity and quasi-creativity Definition

Example

Pseudo-creativity

Original but undisciplined and lacking rigour Blind rejection of what already exists

The discredited claim of American researchers in 1989 that they had induced cold fusion in the laboratory

Quasi-creativity

Novelty without a close link to the facts Speculative thinking, daydreaming or fantasizing

Popular conspiracy theories, crystal healing, angelology, urban myths, speculation about UFOs and extra-terrestrial visitation

Source: based on Cropley (2010: 308)

Educational implications Educational settings are inherently social and offer many opportunities for social interaction and creativity. To facilitate social creativity, teachers should:

r r

arrange extracurricular activities to increase group cohesion; celebrate school events such as religious festivals and special occasions;

CREATIVITY IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT

r r r r r r r r

39

encourage all students to participate in school concerts and performances; engage young learners through dialogical means; provide opportunities for group problem-solving and creativity; explore alternative perspectives through classroom discussion; vary group composition by friendship, gender, ability and culture; engender friendly inter-group competition; make assessment collaborative by providing criteria and training; utilize diversity in class membership as a creative opportunity.

The value of social creativity Creativity is an aspect of living and of responding to experience, so it has no innate value. As Gardner (1993) points out, creativity is amoral; being more creative is simply like being more alive. Friedrich Nietzsche famously claimed that the creative artist is above morals, since creativity involves the deification of existence (Nietzsche [1888] 1974: 407). Creativity is currently perceived as entirely positive, benign and always socially desirable. Seana Moran claims that the relationship of creativity to the future involves ‘optimism, thriving and anticipated positive change’ and adds that ‘creativity breeds hope and benefits from hope, because it provides a way to realize that hope’ (Moran 2010: 76). This links to the concept of agency and empowerment discussed earlier. By contrast, some creative effort involves the intention to do harm to or exploit individuals, groups or organizations. A recently published book entitled The Dark Side of Creativity (Cropley et al. 2010) argues that the time is right to consider the frequently neglected negative, malevolent or covert aspects of creativity. For example, Maria Zaitseva (2010: 548) shows that the Soviet government persuaded scientists that its biological weapons programme, although intentionally destructive, was a highly moral and patriotic activity. Education can be ambivalent about creativity. Teachers claim to value it but may see creative pupils as disruptive, impulsive or wayward (Beghetto 2010: 454–5). This is hardly surprising, since creativity involves uncertainty, unpredictability and nonconformity, whereas education is often premised on the known, the predictable and the conformable. Creativity may be unwelcome in the classroom because it:

r r r r r

disrupts the expected classroom order; destabilizes students and teachers; questions the value of effort; questions teacher authority; undermines teachers’ self-confidence.

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Educational implications Educators need to emphasize that creativity is not value-free. To address moral values in creativity, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

examine their own assumptions about the place of creativity in the classroom; explore the general values implicit in subjects; discuss the nature and value of creativity in different subjects; provide historical examples of human and moral creativity; incorporate human intentions in subject discourse; present and discuss ethical issues related to creativity; raise current issues related to innovation; discuss moral issues in scientific and technological research; discuss creativity and originality in relation to academic integrity; present examples of creativity used for malevolent or harmful purposes.

The roles of creativity in society Two key roles for social creativity have been identified: social improvement and artistic and expressive creativity (Moran 2010: 78). Expressivity will be discussed in Chapter 19 on creativity as expression. People come up with new ideas all the time. Social creativity was initially an effective strategy for survival in a harsh and dangerous environment, because group cooperation increased the chances of success in hunting, gathering, defence and early agriculture. In modern society, creativity is seen by governments as a way of halting economic decline, and of addressing the shortcomings of a post-industrial society. Such social improvement may involve radically new ways of thinking about a subject. Nowadays, creativity helps society to become a better place (Richards 2010: 208) by:

r r r r r r

alleviating social problems; improving social systems; enhancing mental and physical health; inventing new products; improving industrial processes; developing scientific knowledge.

A current social concern is with the environment and the effects of the human exploitation of natural resources. In this case, creative responses have tended to arise in the form of alternative lifestyles, mass protests and community initiatives such as small-scale renewable energy projects. At a theoretical level, the 1970s Gaia theory of a

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self-balancing Earth drew on ideas from systems theory, cybernetics and biology, and has become popular, despite scientific scepticism. The products of social creativity must be judged appropriate by domain experts and society, through peer approval and public acclaim. Eventually, the creativity gives way to social acceptance and standardization as the products become normalized. A distinction can be drawn between exploration and exploitation (Goncalo et al. 2010: 117): Exploration Exploitation

The pursuit of new knowledge and ground-breaking creativity The use and development of things already known

Social investment theory uses the language of the stock market, in which shares are bought ‘low’ and sold ‘high’ (Sternberg and Lubart 1995). A new and untried idea will usually not be valued highly – it will be ‘low’, and may be worth investing in, even at the risk of failure – possibly because of an inordinate delay in receiving acceptance (Moran 2010: 78). On the other hand, a well-known and popular idea will have a ‘high’ value and investment may be too risky if it only involves a minor modification of an already successful product. Some creative products such as Post-it notes can be very socially useful without being groundbreaking or revolutionary (Petroski 1992: 84–6). Similarly, the Ethiopian company soleRebels has developed a viable shoe industry based on traditional Ethiopian soldiers’ sandals from the 1930s, manufactured from old car tyres. These shoes now sell worldwide with certified ‘Fair Trade’ status (Slater 2008). A different type of innovative activity may come from social entrepreneurs who display many of the risk-taking characteristics associated with entrepreneurship, but in the service of society rather than of wealth accumulation. For example, Jeff Church founded Nika, which sells bottled water in the USA to fund clean water projects in Ethiopia and Kenya (Morell 2011). Social entrepreneurship is discussed further in Chapter 13.

Pedagogy of functional creativity Cropley and Cropley (2010: 313–14) describe socially useful creativity as ‘functional creativity’ and identify seven phases in its pedagogy, shown in Table 4.2. Table 4.2 Phases in functional creativity Phase

Process

Preparation Activation Generation Illumination Verification Communication Validation

The acquisition of a stock of general and specific subject knowledge Developing an awareness of problems to be solved Brainstorming possible solutions without considering their usefulness Coming up with one or more promising solutions Identifying a promising solution from among those at hand Proposing a possible solution to others Receiving feedback about a solution from subject experts

Source: based on Cropley and Cropley (2010: 312)

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Educational implications Functional creativity can be aided by a methodological approach (Cropley and Cropley 2010: 312–14). In order to support functional creativity, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r r

discuss examples of interesting or exciting functional products; ask learners how they evaluate the creativity of a product; point out indicators of creativity such as challenge, risk-taking and originality; facilitate the acquisition of appropriate knowledge and techniques; encourage learners to identify interesting problems in subject areas; present problems with multiple or undefined solutions; provide learners with strategies to generate multiple ideas; assist learners to identify potential solutions; suggest criteria and train learners to evaluate solutions; help learners to disseminate their results; support learners in responding to external feedback.

Stakeholders in creativity Next we look at four social groups which have a direct interest and involvement in creativity, and can invest in, or use it, to their advantage (Cohen and Prusack 2001; Moran 2010: 78–9):

r r r r

producers or creative artists; benefactors, patrons or promoters; regulators, commentators or evaluators; consumers or end-users.

Producers Individuals and organizations are more creative when they:

r r r

are motivated by intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards; draw on a range of social networks; deploy repertoires and tactics in order to be creative.

Benefactors These are the funders, patrons, supporters, promoters and champions of the creative product. They may be policy-makers, foundations, or financiers at a global, national or regional level who may:

CREATIVITY IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT

r r r

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support creators; champion ideas; provide the economic capital.

Regulators Regulators are the gatekeepers of creativity. In the arts they will be reviewers and critics, in the sciences they will be peer-reviewers and technical evaluators, in business they will be the media and market analysts. All of these:

r r r

weed out products which are of questionable value; select the most likely original and appropriate ideas; celebrate and disseminate creative excellence.

Consumers These include viewers, listeners, audiences or customers. Three types of consumer have been identified:

r r r

early adopters – knowledgeable, up-to-date, eagerly embracing new products; the majority – consumers who may or may not choose to buy a new product; laggards – so late in buying a new product that it may have lost its novelty.

Educational implications Whereas in the past the emphasis was on the individual creator, social creativity is a more complex phenomenon, and requires the involvement of a range of players. In order to highlight the significance of these roles, teachers should:

r r r

r r r r r r

make the roles explicit; show that all the roles have a creative element; show how learners are already practising these roles as: ◦ producers, creating products; ◦ consumers, appreciating different cultural products; ◦ sponsors, supporting creative products; ◦ evaluators, assessing creative products; provide opportunities to experience and explore creative roles of: ◦ producing, reviewing, curating and appreciating; develop criteria for evaluating creative ideas and products; make learners aware of their own consumer behaviour; develop partnerships between learners and creative practitioners; introduce learners to forms of cultural expression and creative performance; show the creative dimension of social networking practices.

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Creative advantage Different social groups possess advantages which can be used to gain power, status and wealth. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu refers to these advantages as forms of ‘capital’ that can be acquired, used, transformed and transmitted (Bourdieu 1986). These advantages or forms of capital do not exist in isolation, but are dynamically interdependent. Certain groups attempt to monopolize these advantages but they are constantly challenged and contested by others. The forms of capital illustrated in Figure 4.1 are:

r r r r

economic capital; cultural capital; social capital; symbolic capital.

Money Resources Economic capital

Family name Status Reputation

Symbolic capital

Advantage

Cultural capital

Lifestyle Artworks Qualifications

Social capital Networks Communication Obligations

Figure 4.1 Advantages of different forms of capital

Economic capital The wealth generally possessed by a dominant social group confers obvious advantages, power and status. Throughout history, wealthy patrons such as the Medici family and the Catholic Popes were able to invest in art and cultural products. Now the power relationship between creators and patrons has changed with the emergence of a creative class – designers, film producers, visual artists and actors – who are creators of wealth as well as aesthetic products. This transfer of economic title is reflected in Richard Florida’s

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book, The Rise of the Creative Class and How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, & Everyday Life (2004). In it, he notes that a third of workers in advanced industrial nations are employed in the creative sector. This sector now amounts to nearly half of all wage and salary income in the USA (2004: 3).

Cultural capital Cultural capital is embodied in lifestyles and beliefs, objectified in artworks and products and institutionalized in qualifications and awards. Cultural capital may be converted into economic capital by its possessors, and can be used to reproduce advantage and dominance. Educationally, certain social classes can use schooling and education as a means of maintaining their advantage in society (Bourdieu 1986: 47).

Social capital This is made up of reciprocal connections, communications and obligations (Bourdieu 1986: 243). Social capital is essential for creativity through a supportive community that provides motivation, exemplars, feedback and networking. It provides advantages which are also convertible into economic capital.

Symbolic capital This is the status, reputation or potential possessed by a recognized creator or group which confers distinctions and advantages over others. The current cult of celebrity is an obvious manifestation of symbolic capital. From an educational perspective, consider children from an advantaged background. Their parents will have the economic capital to provide them with private schooling, extra lessons and specialized equipment. Their homes will contain the cultural capital of creative artefacts and they will be brought to cultural sites and experience cultural events. They will benefit from the social capital of their parents’ network and from their own connections with classmates. Finally, their name and family status will confer symbolic capital. Socially disadvantaged students on the other hand have none of the above forms of capital. Although Bourdieu’s ideas provide teachers with an analysis of the problem, this must not be an excuse for inaction and acceptance of the status quo.

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Educational implications Educationalists need to make students aware of the relevance of external family and social influences on learning. Teachers should:

r r r r r r r r

consider how cultural capital and experiences influence pedagogy; be aware of their own social capital and how they use it; identify the different creative capital that learners possess; reflect on the advantages that cultural capital confers on learners; demonstrate how elitist creativity is challenged by popular culture; consider how the capital that exists can be leveraged for creative opportunities; show the importance of networking and peer support in creative production; analyse the symbolic capital exhibited by the social capital of celebrity status.

Environments for creativity Neither individual nor social creative activity occurs in a vacuum. Creativity always takes place in some physical, intellectual or cultural environment that can either help or hinder that creativity. For Vygotsky, ‘any inventor, even a genius, is always a plant growing in a certain time and in a certain environment’ (cited in Starko 2010: 54). For example, creativity flourished in Renaissance Italy but declined in Maoist China. Creativity tends to be found in societies and organizations characterized by diverse populations, extreme flexibility and varied information flows. Subcultures like that of Silicon Valley in the USA, with its population of technocrats and tolerance for divergent thinkers and lifestyles, seem to create the stimulating environment, context and space in which creativity can flourish. Florida (2005: 6) describes cities as ‘cauldrons of creativity’, citing New York, Berlin, Amsterdam and Dublin as examples. Using indices of technological growth, Bohemianism – the population of artists and creative industries – and homosexuality – the number of couples in same-sex relationships – he found strong correlations between diversity and high-tech growth. Such environments manifest a combination of strong and weak social ties:

Strong social ties Weak social ties

Provide a dense network that may allow information to flow quickly, and lead to shared attitudes, opinions and beliefs May facilitate creativity by providing diverse and non-redundant information (Florida 2005: 124)

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Uncreative environments Some societies, characterized by rigid structures, over-control, task-focus and shortterm objectives, are uninspiring and appear to kill creativity. According to Jane Jacobs (1961), cities and societies may also possess ‘squelchers’ – political, business and civic administrators who divert and derail human creative energy by their ‘roadblocks’. Unfortunately, some modern outcome-driven education systems appear to fit this description, leading Ken Robinson, the author of the English All Our Futures report, to conclude that schools kill creativity (NACCCE 1999).

Educational implications Formal education is a particular kind of artificial environment for creativity. In order to produce an environment conducive to creativity, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

provide a classroom enriched by creative products; consider resources that will advance creativity; encourage classroom diversity of groupings, subjects and ideas; build in flexibility to allow learners to pursue personal creative interests; extend the learning environment beyond the classroom; expose learners to creative environments like libraries, galleries and theatres; explore the creative potential of virtual environments; encourage international communication and connections; set up creative spaces within the classroom and school environment; forge links with working creative artists and their environments.

Conclusion This chapter has argued that creativity is not an individual undertaking. It is deeply embedded in and influenced by social contexts which determine the forms and extents to which creativity can be manifested. Important influences include the prevailing needs and values of society, the different roles that people take on in relation to creative production, and the advantages possessed by certain social groups that enable them to profit from creative production. Finally, types of environment were discussed in relation to how they may or may not be conducive to creativity. All of the above factors have implications for education, and these were presented in the form of practical bulleted recommendations for the teacher endeavouring to create the conditions in which creativity can flourish.

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References Beghetto, R.A. (2010) Creativity in the classroom, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital, in J.G. Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 241–58. Cohen, D. and Prusack, L. (2001) In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Connor, T. (2011) Everybody in the house, The Stage, 27 January: 6–7. Craft, A., Jeffrey, B. and Leibling, M. (eds) (2001) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Cropley, A.J. (2010) Creativity in the classroom: the dark side, in D.H. Cropley, A.J. Cropley, J.C. Kaufman and M.A. Runco (eds) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cropley, D.H., Cropley, A.J., Kaufman, J.C. and Runco, M.A. (eds) (2010) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cropley, D.H. and Cropley, A. (2010) Functional creativity: ‘products’ and the generation of effective novelty, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ecclestone, K. and Hayes, D. (2009) The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education. Abingdon: Routledge. Florida, R. (2004) The Rise of the Creative Class and How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, & Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books. Florida, R. (2005) Cities and the Creative Class. New York: Routledge. Gardner, H. (1993) Creating Minds. New York: Basic Books. Goncalo, J.A., Vincent, L.C. and Pino, G.A. (2010) Creativity as a constraint on future achievement, in D.H. Cropley, A.J. Cropley, J.C. Kaufman and M.A. Runco (eds) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage. Jordan, A., Carlile, O. and Stack, A. (2008) Approaches to Learning: A Guide for Teachers. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Moran, S. (2010) The roles of creativity in society, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Morell, K. (2011) From CEO to Social Entrepreneur: How Jeff Church is Changing the World, www.openforum.com/articles, accessed July 2012. NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. Sudbury: DfEE.

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Nietzsche, F. ([1888] 1974) Werke. New York: Farrar Strauss. Petroski, H. (1992) The Evolution of Useful Things. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Richards, R. (2010) Everyday creativity: process and way of life – four key issues, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Simonton, D.K. (2003) Creative cultures, nations, and civilizations: strategies and results, in P.W. Paulus and B.A. Nijstad (eds) Group Creativity: Innovation Through Collaboration. New York: Oxford University Press. Singer, J.K. (2010) Creativity in confinement, in D.H. Cropley, A.J. Cropley, J.C. Kaufman and M.A. Runco (eds) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Slater, N. (2008) Christmas gift ideas, Guardian online, www. guardian.co.uk/ lifeandstyle/2008/dec 07christmas-gift-ideas-presents, accessed 16 June 2011. Smolucha, F. (1992) A reconstruction of Vygotsky’s theory of creativity, Creativity Research Journal, 5(1): 49–67. Starko, A.J. (2010) Creativity in the Classroom: Schools of Curious Delight. New York: Routledge. Sternberg, R.J. and Lubart, T.I. (1995) Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity. New York: Free Press. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Webster, M. and Buglass, G. (2004) Finding Voices, Making Choices: Creativity for Social Change. Nottingham: Educational Heretics Press. Zaitseva, M.N. (2010) Subjugating the creative kind: the Soviet biological weapons program and the role of the state, in D.H. Cropley, A.J. Cropley, J.C. Kaufman and M.A. Runco (eds) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 5 Creativity and the environment

Introduction It has been said that one of the best ways of ensuring your overall success in life is to pick the right parents for yourself. Unfortunately, this is not an option, so we are left with the possibility of improving the conditions or environment which makes success possible. This chapter deals with the various contexts and environments which are supportive of creative engagement in education. According to Csikszentmihalyi, ‘It is easier to enhance creativity by changing conditions in the environment than by trying to make people think more creatively’ (1996: 1). We begin with a brief look at the characteristics of stimulating environments. The central part of the chapter draws on the work of the Russian-American developmental psychologist, Uri Bronfenbrenner, who claims that human development involves a progressive mutual accommodation between active growing human beings and the changing properties of their immediate settings, in a process influenced by the relations between settings, and by the overall contexts in which the settings are embedded (Bronfenbrenner 1993: 3–44). We describe the dynamic nature of the interactions between the components of this ecological environmental system, using the metaphor of a theatrical production. We end by looking closely at the important creative spaces of the workplace and formal educational settings, in order to consider their implications for creativity.

Stimulating environments Modern neuroscience argues that brain ‘plasticity’ and the environment can alter physiological processes, and enhance or inhibit neural growth and synapse connections. For London taxi drivers, the region of the brain governing spatial navigation is substantially larger than for other drivers, and this enlargement is greater the longer they have been driving (Syed 2011: 86). Research in the USA found that young mice, suffering from a condition similar to autism, showed marked improvement after exposure to an enriched environment containing toys, companions and play, which the researchers described as ‘Disneyland for mice’ (Moriuchi et al. 2007). Schools in the north Italian city of Reggio Emilia are famous for providing a greatly enriched environment for their young children (Cadwell 2002). Since all mental and cognitive processes are responsive to physical surroundings, particular environments are important in creative thinking. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) cites examples from many cultures and historical periods showing how individuals seek out specific environments as a source of inspiration. In William Wordsworth’s Lyrical

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Ballads, he writes about the importance of nature in the development of his poetic thinking. He shows that his affinity with the environment arose from the perception of an overall order into which he was able to locate himself. This ‘oneness’ with the environment is a form of creative transcendence where disparate elements are synthesized and made meaningful: While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things. (From Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth 1798 in Evans 1975) Similar transcendence is displayed by mathematicians when they are struck by the elegance of a mathematical theorem, and by critics when judging works of art, succinctly expressed by the American art critic Clement Greenberg’s judgement of a particular piece of art, saying that it ‘just sits’ (The Open University 1993: 27). We all shape our environments to suit our personalities and activities. Our homes are filled with items rich in meaningful symbolism, confirming our uniqueness, revealing our tastes, history and culture, and stimulating or inhibiting creative thinking. Table 5.1 presents some of the characteristics that are required by creative environments. Table 5.1 Characteristics of creative environments Characteristic

Purpose

Reason

Ordered distraction-free spaces

To support easy and uninterrupted concentration

A familiar environment, without the distractions of the everyday, is needed for the acquisition of domain knowledge

Opportunities and freedom

To allow appropriate patterns of exploratory action

These are needed to determine what activities best promote creativity, and what resources are necessary to encourage these

Time structured and scheduled

To apportion sufficient time for creative activity

Develops learners’ self awareness of their own work patterns and rhythms

Distraction and stimulation

To make accessible ideas which are below the level of conscious awareness

An incubation stage is necessary in order for the subconscious to make new connections

Structured environment

To permit evaluation and dissemination

This formal stage requires a calm, dispassionate atmosphere in which to complete the creative process

Source: based on Csikszentmihalyi (1996)

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Educational implications It is clear that an enriched environment is beneficial to mental activity and Csikszentmihalyi (1996) adds to this the idea of a different environment to support progressive stages of the creative process. In order to create a stimulating environment, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r

build a safe psychological environment that tolerates failure; make learners aware of their own creative working patterns and rhythms; assign formal distraction-free spaces for: ◦ learning domain knowledge; ◦ identifying possible creative projects; provide opportunities for exploratory activities; create stimulating spaces for incubating ideas; supply a range of appropriate resources; allocate and schedule time for creative exploration; structure the environment for reflection and evaluation.

The ecology of environments Since environment is so crucial for creativity, we now consider the different types of environment and how they relate to creative activity. The work of Bronfenbrenner provides a useful conceptual framework for considering the interaction of personal and environmental factors in an ecological system. The ‘nested’ construct indicates that the person is embedded within widening and intersecting circles of influence. These are shown in Figure 5.1. According to Bronfenbrenner, there is an accommodation to, and reciprocity with the environment. This is a dynamic relationship, with individuals not only affected by, but also affecting, their environment to varying extents, depending upon their degree of closeness to that environment. For example, a person affects their home environment more than their political or overall cultural environment (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Although Bronfenbrenner did not directly study creativity, he proposed that imagination allows for a person’s perceptions to be not just reflective but also constructive. Imagination shows the highest expression of development by allowing people to re-mould their experience in accordance with their own wishes. According to Bronfenbrenner, creativity may arise from personal settings – especially where different personal settings interconnect and intersect. It may be enhanced or diminished by the overall culture and by the regulatory environment which is external to the personal settings.

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Microsystem Mesosystem Exosystem Macrosystem

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Family, neighbourhood, school, workplace Interacting systems – school and home Government, business, cultural organizations Culture, language, value systems

Figure 5.1 Bronfenbrenner’s model of interacting systems

Bronfenbrenner’s framework contains four related and interacting systems: Microsystem Mesosystem Exosystem Macrosystem

Immediate settings where the person is present Settings where personal settings interconnect An external setting where the person is not present An overall cultural and linguistic setting

Microsystem This comprises the immediate settings where the learner is physically present, which include the home, the educational institution, the local neighbourhood and the workplace. Learners’ creativity is influenced by the kind of home they come from, their parents and close relations, their school teachers and peers, and their neighbours and workmates. These close influences have been explored in case studies of the family backgrounds of exceptionally creative individuals (Gardner 1998; Simonton 2010). The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman described how his father used sets of bathroom tiles in the domestic environment to develop the young Feynman’s ability to discern and explore patterns (Mehra 1994: 3). This had a later effect on his ability to undertake symbolic manipulation in mathematics and physics, and demonstrates the two-way nature of the interaction between the immediate environment and its inhabitants.

Mesosystem The mesosystem represents the interconnections between micro-settings where individuals are known and present, and external settings where they are known but not

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present. These may be connections between home, school and workplace in the form of feedback systems such as parent-teacher meetings, business briefing meetings, websites, tweets or text messages. The mesosystem also includes policy or curriculum documents that communicate institutional norms to the learner. This system both supports and restrains individual creativity. For example, flexible school rules may support creative exploration by giving learners space and freedom, however, self-expression in clothing and personal jewellery may be inhibited by school uniforms or other dress codes. Even children’s creative play may be affected by health and safety regulations that forbid running in the playground. The mesosystem may be internalized by both teachers and learners so that they exercise self-regulation in relation to creativity. The individual learner can have an influence on the mesosystem by actively endorsing or challenging the status quo.

Exosystem These are external settings where the learner is not immediately present, nor in touch with the setting through known connections. These include educational bodies, the business world and cultural organizations. Their influence on individual creativity can be shown by national educational policies, innovation incentives and evaluations of large-scale projects undertaken by arts organizations. Educational policies affect learners and teachers by legitimizing and promoting creativity. Business organizations encourage entrepreneurs and innovators by the provision of sponsorship and training. Arts organizations offer funding and opportunities for collaboration to creative artists and learners in general (NACCCE 1999). Individuals can have an influence on the exosystem through dissemination of the results of their creativity, through the showcasing of entrepreneurial innovation and success in the marketplace, and through the production of creative artefacts. Groups of individuals can affect the exosystem through concerted protest, as demonsyrated by the ‘Arab Spring’ protests of 2011 which utilized innovative social networking to express and mobilize political opposition to oppressive regimes (Khafar 2011).

Macrosystem The outermost ‘nest’ is the overarching cultural context, which includes the language, history, social, intellectual and cultural climate. The macrosystem provides the Zeitgeist or the ‘spirit of the times’ that determines what is considered to be creative in a particular culture. It shapes the mental constructs of learners and teachers, and influences the mindsets of those who evaluate creative products. In some cultures, the expression of creativity may be encouraged as a cultural enhancement, in others it may be discouraged as a threat to stability and to tradition. The all-encompassing macrosystem also influences the underlying values and world-views of the subsumed mesosystems and exosystems. For example, the most successful painters 10 years after art school are those whose styles best correspond to the institutionally valued styles of the times (Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi 1976). The individual affects the macro-level dynamically since ‘culture is exteriorised mind; mind is interiorised culture’ (Cole 1998: 292).

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Only groundbreaking creators have significant influence on the macrosystem, and only in retrospect is it evident.

Dynamic systemic interaction The micro-, meso-, exo- and macrosystems are interdependent and interact in a dynamic way. A theatrical metaphor can be used to illustrate the interconnectedness of each level. A theatrical performance involves the dynamic interaction between, and feedback from a range of components:

Actors Stage setting Directors Scripts Audience

Learners’ creative performance at an immediate micro-level The micro-environments of school, community and workplace Teachers and mentors who assist and coach the actors at the mesolevel Mores and conventions of the exo- and macro-levels Peers and the wider society at micro-, exo- and macro-levels

Figure 5.2 shows the relationship between these theatrical elements compared to the corresponding educational counterparts. Overall intellectual, social and cultural climate determining what is possible in action and thought

Sociocultural conventions and overall climate

Actors Learners Performance

Home, neighbourhood, school, college Learner present Learner known

Directors Teachers

Connect to the abstract world of ideas Learner absent Learner known

Figure 5.2 The theatrical metaphor

Scripts Rules, policies, community conventions

School administration, Department of Education Learner absent Learner unknown

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Actors Actors live and embody performance. They interpret and bring the script to life. Acting and interpretation are creative. Actors can transform the script by the way they embody and interpret the text. There is a need to impress an audience that includes critics and fellow actors. The actors are responsive to all the other components – especially the audience. Similarly, learners display creativity in action and performance as creative actors within a certain space where they are ‘on stage’ in the act of performing. Their creativity is shown in the ways they are able to develop, transcend or depart from the expectations of the prescribed ‘script’. Just as the actor is responsive to all the other theatrical components, the learner in the microsystem ‘performance’ is responsive to influences from the meso-, exo- and macrosystems and to a variable extent, influences them in turn.

Stage setting This is the space within which the performance takes place. Its architecture, topography and structure present both possibilities and obstacles for the performers. For example, a proscenium arch creates a different level of participation from ‘theatre in the round’, which is more inclusive. The stage scenery can act as a physical manifestation of the script (e.g. there is a door to the right). Within the stage setting can be included the costumes of the actors. The stage has a ‘fourth wall’ – the audience, without which the performance is meaningless. In education, the environment of the classroom or lecture theatre determines to a large extent what is possible in terms of learners’ performances and interactions. For example, raked or tiered lecture theatres are not conducive to collaborative work or any activity other than listening and writing. A laboratory setting determines the experiments or procedures that can be carried out. Educational settings have their appropriate costumes such as laboratory coats or uniforms. Field trips and situated learning are a different form of stage. The microsystem is the physical setting that the learner inhabits. This may be conducive to learning and creativity, or detrimental. The microsystem is affected by the rules and regulations of the meso- and exosystems and the overall cultural expectations of the macrosystem.

Directors Directors interrogate the script. They read it, research the background, annotate it and decide how they think the play should be performed. They show people how to perform within the script. They point out relevant features to the actors, highlight key aspects, fill in gaps and suggest the meaning of the performance. They model performance and coach actors. Directors may be rigid interpreters, allowing little freedom, or they may permit freedom of action. In particular, directors take the place of an audience in rehearsal and give feedback to the actors.

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In education, the directors are the teachers, lecturers, supervisors, coaches, managers and mentors. They select appropriate subject knowledge and prepare course material and lesson plans. They help learners to make sense of the material and to understand the key concepts and transform them into personal ‘performance’. Teachers may have rigid requirements of the ‘performances of understanding’ or they may be more flexible. They assess the performances and give feedback to the performers. Teachers are affected by the microsystem shared with the learners. They are influenced by, and communicate the constraints and requirements of the frameworks of the mesosystem and exosystem, as well as being subject to the pervasive macrosystem.

Scripts These are written sets of instructions, directions or narratives to which the actors respond. They describe a role and determine what is expected and what is possible within that role. Scripts describe how actors speak, behave and interact with others. In education and the workplace, scripts are the generally accepted standard sets of guidelines or operating instructions. They are often written statements from regulations or curricula. They may be the curriculum and assessment rubrics. They are also procedural in terms of timetabling and schedules. There is in addition a ‘script’ of expected behaviour. The mesosystem is like a script in the way it communicates rules and expectations to the microsystem of the learner. The exosystem is also part of the script in the way it gives directions in the form of education policies and curricular standards. Finally, the overarching macrosystem of culture, mores and Zeitgeist writes an invisible script that causes learners to self-regulate.

Audience The audience is an essential part of a performance. Audiences evaluate and validate performance; they applaud or boo, or are moved by it. They influence the performance as well as being affected by it in a dynamic reciprocal process of continuous feedback. They provide a mirror for the performance. The reaction of the audience is assessed by the performers, who adjust the performance to suit. The audience often also includes professional critics who cast judgement and disseminate that judgment to a wider world. Educationally, the audience comprises a number of levels. In the microsystem there is the individual learner, the teacher and classmates or community of peers for whom the performances are enacted initially. They are all evaluators of the performance and give feedback, which has the power to affect learners’ performances. The exosystem is the more remote audience of national examination bodies, professional associations, employers and government departments.

System overrides The above presentation gives a view of performance which is congruent with the script, the director’s wishes, the stage setting and audience expectations. However, the

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performance of a great actor will exceed expectations. For example, at the end of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is led away in defeat and the play finishes without him. The great Shakespearean actor Sir Laurence Olivier creatively startled the audience with an unscripted off-stage anguished scream which expressed his frustration at being outmanoeuvred. From an educational standpoint, total congruence between the learner in the microsystem and the other systems would be uncreative because all the expectations would be met. In some learning environments, strict congruence is a very good thing – as in the case of the instrumentation training of pilots. Creativity, on the other hand, requires divergence from the expectations of the system. It does not destroy the system, but stretches it while still acting within general conventions.

Educational implications The systems approach to creativity provides a useful means of examining the influence of environment and suggests appropriate strategies for creativity enhancement. In order to promote creativity from a systems perspective, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

recognize the importance of the environment on learners’ creativity; identify the opportunities for creativity in the immediate environment; address the constraints and barriers to creativity; initiate creative collaboration between home and school environments; identify the curricular and pedagogical policies that encourage creativity; disseminate examples of creative practice; draw on local, regional and national supports for creativity; exploit the opportunities offered by the cultural climate for creativity; support risk-taking that may challenge prevailing orthodoxies; tolerate cultural diversity and ambiguity in the classroom.

Microenvironments of creative activity We now turn to specific micro contexts where creative activities can be supported.

Community and workplace learning Knowledge cannot ever be separated from its context. All thinking is adapted to the environment and ‘situated’ in human practices and the communities that form around

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them. Learning is therefore not confined to formal educational contexts but is ‘situated’ within the location where the learning is to be used. For example, an apprentice car mechanic learns his or her trade ‘on the job’ in a garage workshop setting rather than in a classroom. The cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) describe a ‘community of practice’ as a social environment of people who can act as exemplars, mentors, explicators and interpreters of experience for the novice. Within these communities of practice, apprentices or novices learn the language of the community, imitate the behaviour of more expert practitioners and act in accordance with the norms of the group (Brown et al. 1989). Situated learning Community of practice

Learning that occurs in the same location as that in which it is used A group of people engaged in a particular profession or interest

The way in which practitioners operate within their context gives rise to creativity. People devise creative solutions to problems arising in the natural settings of everyday life. This involves developing strategies that cannot be taught formally, in particular those involving tacit knowledge, a feature of expert practitioners where their skills have been internalized. Creativity is ‘caught not taught’. Paradoxically, creativity arises from imitation of what creative practitioners do.

School and educational spaces Contrary to the view that school environments are inimical to creativity (Robinson 2006), we would argue that the school is the most important micro-setting in developing the creativity of the young. The school environment can be viewed as a set of spaces in which personal creativity may be practised within an institutional, political and cultural framework. The following discussion of creative spaces draws partly on the evaluation of a creativity training course for teachers in Northern Ireland (Tracey 2011).

Personal space Personal space includes the personal biological space that learners themselves occupy, such as physical characteristics, gender and physical disabilities which can influence learning and creativity. It also includes the psychological characteristics of the individual learner: their personal belief systems and perceptions which arise from their micro and macro environments. These influences will affect the learner’s disposition to engage in learning or in creative activity, either positively or negatively.

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Physical space The physical space is the overall layout of the community environment and workplace: grounds, recreation areas, shared spaces for integrated or cross-disciplinary activities. It contains specialized areas for display, performance and audience appreciation, equipment and resources, and areas devoted to special activities. The physical environment can enhance creativity by allowing for the expression of different activities by literally ‘making room’ for them. This idea of physical space as creative is well expressed by the director of a Japanese kindergarten: ‘The buildings and the school are the curriculum. I worked for several years with an architect to design the buildings and the grounds so that the whole school would be the children’s plaything. The central idea is that the school is the children’s toy. It was designed to be played with in various ways’ (Tobin et al. 2011: 153).

Purposive space These are spaces designed for the specific purpose of imaginal or productive activities: Imaginal Productive

Focus on accessing and using the imagination Result in a creative product of some kind

Imaginal and productive spaces are beneficial to the development of creativity. In the community, imaginal spaces can include libraries, parks and similar sites for contemplation. Workplaces have meeting rooms and presentation areas for imaginal activities, and workshops and offices for productive activities. The school is a particularly important creative setting: here the child can meditate on some imagined form before he acts on it. That is why during the school age we find the first forms of true day-dreaming, the potential and capacity to surrender oneself to a certain intellectual construction independent of its function in realistic thinking. (Vygotsky 1987: 346) There are likely to be more imaginal spaces for younger learners, in whom it is important to develop imaginative faculties, which are then transformed into a broader imaginative capacity as the child develops, and ultimately result in true creative thinking. Imaginal spaces include playgrounds containing materials for imaginative construction, quiet areas where daydreaming or quiet activities are possible and spaces within rooms for imaginative activity – such as a storytelling chair. For older learners imaginal spaces can be places for playing with ideas. This expresses the first ‘combinatorial’ stage of Boden’s model of creativity, which was discussed in Chapter 3.

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Educational institutions offer specialized spaces for imaginative production. Workshops, art and dance studios, theatrical performance spaces, recording studios and writing areas support the production of creative performance and artefacts. The availability of recognized and dedicated spaces legitimizes and catalyses creative activity. These spaces encourage both imaginal exploration of creativity and its expression in the form of an artefact or performance.

Creative spaces There has been a recent move towards the deliberate design of spaces for creative learning which do not resemble the traditional classroom (Temple 2007). Community centres provide multi-purpose spaces which can be adapted for a wide variety of creative activities such as exhibitions, workshops, craft shows and competitions. The University of Brighton in England wished to provide an experimental space to support creative approaches to teaching and learning. The architects designed a neutral space – a ‘white box’ (Morris 2010: 58) adaptable for many different demands. This was more flexible than a space containing distinctive architectural features and visual stimuli such as water features or decorative murals. Although there was also a significant investment in technology, it was underused: ‘the most popular use of the technology was the off button’ (Morris 2010: 60). Instead, the most valuable aspect of the space was the flexibility of the design, in line with the use of socially constructivist pedagogies. Technology must have a pedagogical purpose and not be used for its own sake. There are many past examples of technology in education failing to have any lasting effect. Also, enriched and exotic environments may create expectations of the type of creativity that is valued and may act as a distraction that takes people away from their own ideas.

Virtual spaces The idea of virtual spaces encompasses connections between individuals and groups and the wider community through digital technology and the internet. People are accessing virtual spaces at home and libraries and many public spaces now offer wi-fi to the public. This provides opportunities for learners to make connections with interest groups in the wider community. In addition, the potential to collaborate is far greater via communication in the virtual space than it is in the physical space. An individual with a highly specialized creative interest can find kindred spirits throughout the world. Virtual spaces transcend time, with communication that can be both live and synchronous, such as Skype, or delayed and asynchronous, such as email, instant messaging, twitter, blogs and websites. These greatly enhance opportunities for collaboration and have the potential to diminish power relationships which would be evident in the physical environment. For example, a secondary school pupil may contact an astronaut in space or a Nobel Prize-winner, and expect a response.

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Easy-to use-software for video and sound production places powerful creativity tools in the hands of all learners. Film allows learners to make connections between the different spaces that they occupy, and between fantasy and reality. Great creativity is displayed in the making and uploading of YouTube videos and songs, which often achieve viral popularity and cult status.

Conceptual spaces Conceptual spaces focus on ideas and concepts. Subject domains or fields are endorsed conceptual spaces, with particular ways of thinking and acting. Creativity in the humanities is not the same as creativity in the sciences. The subject domains have different features, boundaries, degrees of openness, overlap and interpenetration. Awareness of the salient features and intellectual topography of a conceptual space allows the learner to explore the boundaries and creatively transcend them. New intellectual spaces can develop from the simultaneous occupation and colonization of multiple conceptual spaces. For example, neuroscience was created from the overlap of cognitive psychology, biology and computing. Different conceptual spaces require different physical manifestations. For example, problem-based learning (PBL), popular in many technological and scientific domains, requires spaces for large and small group work, in an environment offering a range of supportive resources such as internet access and presentation tools.

Educational implications There are many different kinds of environment found in the community that can benefit creativity, including the workplace and educational institutions. A creatively conducive educational environment should:

r r r r r r r r r r r r r

be a safe, welcoming, harmonious physical environment; offer psychological support for risk-taking and self-expression; accommodate a range of physical and intellectual abilities; express creativity throughout the physical setting; contain quiet areas for imaginal activity and contemplation; include exhibition areas displaying a wide range of creative artefacts; showcase creative activities publicly to students and parents; encourage immersive cross-curricular and interdisciplinary activities; contain flexible spaces that can be adapted for many purposes; allow collaborative meaning-making by small and large groups; include virtual spaces for wider exploration and collaboration; expand and challenge learners’ conceptual frameworks; suit the meditative and active stages of creative activity.

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Conclusion The environments surrounding the individual are crucial in determining the expression of their creative potential. This chapter has presented a nested view of the environmental factors which affect the individual in ever-broadening spheres of influence, dynamically intersecting and interacting in a reciprocal process. The chapter then focused on the specific creative spaces of the educational micro-environment, and suggested some practical implications for the educator.

References Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Psychology of Human Development Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1993) Ecological systems theory, in R.H. Wozniak and K.W. Fischer (eds) Development in Context: Acting and Thinking in Specific Environments. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Brown, J.S., Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989) Situated cognition and the culture of learning, Educational Researcher, 18(1): 32–41. Cadwell, L.B. (2002) Bringing Learning to Life: A Reggio Approach to Early Childhood Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Cole, M. (1998) Can cultural psychology help us think about diversity? Mind, Culture and Activity, 5(4): 291–304. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. Evans, Sir I. (ed.) (1975) Selections from William Wordsworth: Poetry and Prose, 11th edn. London: Methuen Classics. Gardner, H. (1998) Extraordinary Minds: Portraits of Exceptional Individuals and an Examination of our Extraordinariness. London: HarperCollins. Getzels J.W. and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1976) The Creative Vision: A Longitudinal Study of Problem-finding in Art. New York: John Wiley. Khafar, W. (2011) An historic moment in the Arab world, TED Talk, March. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mehra, J. (1994) The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. New York: Oxford University Press. Moriuchi, J., Nag, N. and Berger-Sweeney, J.E. (2007) Effects of environmental enrichment on a mouse model of Rett syndrome. Paper presented at the Society for Neuroscience 37th Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, 3–7 November.

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Morris, R. (2010) Designing a creative learning space, in P. Martin (ed.) Making Space for Creativity. Brighton: University of Brighton Creativity Centre. NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. Sudbury: DfEE. Robinson, K. (2006) Schools kill creativity, TED Talk, http://www.ted.com/talks. Simonton, D.K. (2010) Creativity in highly eminent individuals, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Syed, M. (2011) Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice. London: Fourth Estate. Temple, P. (2007) Learning Spaces for the 21st Century. London: Institute of Education, University of London. The Open University (1993) A316 Modern Art: Practices and debates. Broadcast Notes. Milton Keynes: Open University. Tobin, J., Hayashi, A. and Zang, J. (2011) Approaches to promoting creativity in Chinese, Japanese and US preschools, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. Abingdon: Routledge. Tracey, S. (2011) Containers, creativity and quilt-making: an exploration of teachers’ conceptualisations of creative spaces for teaching and learning, Tean Journal, 2(1), http://bit.ly/tmkJYf, accessed May 2012. Vygotsky, L.S. (1987) The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky, Vol. 1, ed. R.W. Rieber and A.S. Caron. New York: Plenum Press.

Chapter 6 Creativity and culture

Introduction The great classical composer Josef Haydn was required to use the tradesman’s entrance when he was the composer in residence at the Esterhazy Palace. In the eighteenth century, his creativity was seen in the same way as the skills of a craftsman such as a stonemason or plumber. This is an example of how the dominant cultural beliefs of a period in history can have an influence on the perception and nature of creativity. This chapter considers creativity in its cultural context, the extent to which different cultures value and view creativity, and how this is manifested in education. As authors, we approach this chapter from a specific western cultural perspective, but we are aware of the presumption of commenting on other cultures and ascribing to them stereotypical characteristics. While it is impossible to stand outside our own cultural framework, we do attempt to be reflexive and self-aware in our analyses and recommendations. Our culture assumes that creativity in education is a good thing regardless of cultural contexts. We are aware however, that a particular culture may not agree with this perspective, and so we could be viewed as presumptuous and patronising in our advice. However, modern research tells us that creativity is increasingly perceived as an important worldwide policy goal, with education as a way of achieving it, as shown in the fact that several Asian countries now seek to promote creativity in their school systems (Lubart 2010: 274).

Definition Culture has been described as ‘a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioural norms, and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group of people’ (Spencer-Oatey 2000: 4). ‘It influences the who, why, what of creativity, the way creativity is expressed and the degree to which it is expressed’ (Lubart 2010: 276). However, culture is not a simple concept with a single meaning and the ‘group of people’ referred to in the above quotation can vary in both type and number. Culture can belong to the totality of a particular broad society as a whole in the form of a historical, ethnic, national, societal identity, or to smaller subcultures, religious groups or countercultures. There are also disciplinary discourses which embody the cultures attached to disciplines and subjects which will not be discussed in this chapter, but in Chapter 11 which deals with creativity and subject domains. At a meta-level, there is also a global consumer culture that subsumes more local cultures. For example, in modern advanced societies, cultural gender divisions are becoming weaker as battles for greater equality between the sexes are slowly won.

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Allied to a global culture is a cyberculture with the power to collapse divisions of space and time, offering opportunities for creative expression and collaboration. This chapter will examine culture predominantly at a national level, though we are aware that culture at this level does not entail homogeneity. The culture of Chinese Hong Kong is markedly different from the culture of Chinese Mongolia, just as city cultures are quite different from rural cultures. The overall culture, formed by a shared history, memory, identity and rituals will penetrate and be penetrated by more local cultures or countercultures. Education is a key aspect of culture and in modern societies plays a critical role in the transmission, manifestation and celebration of culture. However, one also needs to be careful about sweeping generalizations and stereotyping with respect to culture, as there is a danger of committing the ‘ecological fallacy’ of ‘confusing the level of the individual with the level of the society’ (Hofstede 1991: 112). Despite this, while there is no guarantee about the actual behaviour of an individual member of a certain culture, the likelihood is that it will be accordance with that culture’s norms. With that warning in mind, it is possible to view culture as part of what Geert Hofstede (1991) calls ‘software of the mind’. From the point of view of creativity in education, there are several ‘minds’ in question: educational policy-makers and administrators, stakeholders such as parents and employers and, most importantly, the minds of teachers and learners.

Cultural understandings of creativity The first consideration is the extent to which different cultures agree on the standard definitions of creativity as involving originality and value. It appears that learners show a broad consensus on what constitutes originality. Research has found that when Chinese and American undergraduates were asked to rate creative drawings derived from geometric figures, they reached a very high level of agreement as to their originality (Lubart 2010: 268). However, relative weightings of originality do vary according to the society. Todd Lubart (2010: 267) claims that western cultures maintain a construct of creativity as a ‘rupture with the past’, rather than of progressive adaptation or incremental originality, as may be the case with eastern cultures. In traditional Chinese painting there are unchangeable conventions – for example, concerning the placement of rocks, trees and sky. In western art, on the other hand, more freedom is acceptable (Li 1997). In Chinese and other Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHCs), imitation is a form of flattery. This is demonstrated in the story of two artists who were set a competition by the emperor. They were each allotted screens facing each other. The winner produced a mirror which reflected the ‘perfection’ of the work of his rival. There are also different perceptions of the balance between skill and creativity in eastern and western cultures. In the early education of children, westerners believe exploration should precede skill, whereas Chinese educators believe skills should be developed first. Howard Gardner talked of his surprise at observing the creative drawing skills of 6-year-old Chinese children, in spite of what is frequently dismissed as the repetitive copying of objects under close teacher guidance – ‘leading by the hand’ (Gardner 2009). Similarly, a teacher taking an origami paper-folding class in a Japanese

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primary school saw no contradiction between children’s creativity and direct instruction on what they should do (Tobin et al. 2011: 151). There are cultural differences regarding the acquisition of knowledge-domain skills. Some societies value the appropriateness or usefulness of creative products over their originality. A study of the relative weighting of novelty and appropriateness in university students from China, Japan and the USA showed that the American and Japanese students were especially alert to the levels of usefulness of creative works (Paletz and Peng 2008). This is hardly surprising, given the record of innovation and patent development in these two societies. Another aspect of the ‘value’ of creativity is given by research from Kenya which showed that storytelling should be imaginative, but must also carry a moral message (Lubart 2010: 268).

Product versus process Another cultural difference is shown in the relative emphasis that is placed on the product or the process. In the West, the product is important, with the process leading up to it being perceived as linear, as shown by Graham Wallas’s four-stage model of creative problem-solving: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification (Wallas 1926), which is discussed further in Chapter 13. In many eastern cultures however, the process may be more important than the product, and is often perceived as nonlinear, circuitous and connected to a larger reality or rediscovery of existing elements, often of spiritual or existential significance. For example, creativity from a Hindu perspective entails different revelations of a known truth. This is shown very clearly in E.M. Forster’s 1924 novel, A Passage to India, in which the profound experience of the English ladies in the Marabar Caves is interpreted very differently by the Indian and English characters. In Buddhist traditions, with their emphasis on the connectedness of all things, there are many references to creativity as a form of enlightenment – that is, discovering and connecting to what is already within (Pope 2005: 151). The emphasis here may be on meditative non-action. There is also a stress on paradox – to be ‘filled-full’ implies an emptying out: ‘being is created from non-being’ (Kasulis 1981: 31).

Domains Specific cultures place a high premium on the types of creativity arising from particular domains. For example, Old Europe shows its reverence for aesthetic creativity in its cities, museums, art galleries, concert halls, performances and prizes. Emergent societies with more entrepreneurial cultures value domains like technology, science or business. According to Lubart (2010: 269), scientific and technological creativity is highly valued in Turkey; in Latin America the emphasis is on business and advertising; in Hong Kong, business, fashion design, science and politics are seen as highly creative, but artists and writers less so. In Chinese culture, creative accomplishments linked to the social domain, such as drama or music-making, are the most valued. But it is more complicated than just a preference for certain domains. Creativity may be closely linked with religion or belief systems. For example, in Islamic cultures,

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creativity cannot be shown in music or in representational visual art, but is allowable in poetry and story-telling. This has many implications for non-Islamic teachers and European school systems with Islamic pupils.

Everyday and eminent creativity In some cultures, everyone is regarded as creative. Lubart (2010: 269) reports that when a tribe from the Kalahari Desert in Africa were asked to identify their most creative people, they were bemused, because everyone in the tribe created things. Perhaps the wrong question was asked. Similar studies of groups from sub-Saharan Africa found that the majority of people considered themselves creative in their daily lives. In these cultures, creativity is not considered a stand-alone characteristic, and is therefore not differentiated from resourcefulness, imaginativeness or even wisdom. This is a very different sense of everyday creativity to that used in Anglo and North American cultures which views ‘small c’ creativity (Craft et al. 2001: 45–61) as an aspect of self-actualization which education must not ignore. Traditional western cultures value groundbreaking or ‘Big C’ creativity, which alters existing paradigms and is attached to eminent individuals (Kozbelt 2010: 23). Lubart shows that the Polish language differentiates between everyday creativity using the word kreatywno´sc´ to distinguish it from ‘Big C’ creativity for which the word torczosc is used (2010: 270). The Nobel Prize, which recognizes exceptional achievement or research, is still awarded to individuals or leaders, even when in science and technology it is the group that is responsible for the breakthrough.

Characteristics of creative people Most cultures agree on the cognitive characteristics of creative people. These include divergent thinking, imagination, independence and the ability to make numerous connections. However, Koreans appear to prize cognitive characteristics over personality and motivation, whereas North American cultures link creative characteristics with individual personality and assertiveness. Conversely, Chinese cultures value individuals who inspire others. Studies of Chinese teachers suggest that the qualities of ‘expressiveness’ and ‘independence’ that are valued in North American cultures may be viewed more negatively in Chinese culture as ‘rebelliousness’ or ‘deviance’ (Lubart 2010: 270). This has many educational implications for CHCs which are increasingly interested in putting creativity on their national curricula.

Dimensions of culture Geert Hofstede (1991, 2001), a major cultural theorist whose work is emphasized in this section of the chapter, describes five dimensions – power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty and long-term orientations – that can be used to differentiate cultures.

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These dimensions are not independent: there is great complexity in the way they combine, interact and counteract each other with respect to their influence on creativity. It is important to be aware that the dimensions do not occur singly, but within larger cultural patterns, however, for the purposes of this chapter, they will be addressed individually. Moreover, cultures can be viewed at a macro and micro level. Hofstede’s dimensions or indices can be used to characterize a whole ethnic culture or a local subculture. For example, small power distances are still found in European and Scandinavian cultures where there is a greater equality of status and even wealth, and may also be found in the culture of individual schools and classrooms.

Power distance index The power distance index (PDI) is the degree of acceptance that less powerful individuals will accede to in the unequal distribution of power. For example, in high PDI educational cultures such as may be found in Asia, or in traditional academic schools, teachers will be treated with great respect by compliant learners, whereas in low PDI educational cultures as found in schools in Scandinavia, they are likely to be treated as partners and facilitators of learning. Building on Hofstede’s discussion (1991: 23–48), Table 6.1 lists some likely educational characteristics at opposite poles of the power distance dimension. Table 6.1 Educational characteristics of power distance Low power distance cultures

High power distance cultures

View teachers and learners as partners Are student-centred Expect students to take the initiative Promote active learning Grant student autonomy Require broad-based approach Accept parental involvement

View teachers as the ones in charge Are teacher-centred Expect students to be compliant Promote receptive learning Require teacher approval Require a top-down approach Discourage parental involvement

Educational implications In low PDI cultures the emphasis will be on everyday creativity. Educationally this is likely to lead to methods which enhance and celebrate the creativity of learners and allow for their self-expression through a rich environment, the provision of adequate resources and opportunities for self-selected projects. There are many opportunities in low PDI cultures for everyday creativity and for learners’ self-expression through alternative and counter-cultural forms, such

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as graffiti art or popular music. The boundaries between high and low cultures can be diminished however, as shown by the English Creative Partnerships Scheme, which brings together schools and professional performers (Creative Partnerships 2011). Stereotypically, high PDI cultures will be more hierarchical, elitist and likely to espouse a construct of creativity as attached to genius or the person of exceptional abilities. Such cultures may promote and celebrate the products of high culture as expressed in major prizes or cultural products such as the Nobel Prize for Science or the Priz Goncourt for literature. In terms of the classroom, the culture is likely to be teacher-centred and highly regulated.

Individualism index The individualism index (IDV) is the degree to which the individual is more important than the group. At a macro-level, some societies such as in the USA are highly individualistic, whereas CHCs consider conformity to group values more important. CHCs tend to value a sense of group belonging and loyalty over the individual, which is why ostracism or being cast out of the group is such a powerful punishment or deterrent. Freedom of speech is valued in the USA, but is curtailed in many traditional cultures. At the same time, within the USA, San Francisco is likely to allow a wider latitude of self -expression than mid-western American states. A high IDV educational culture would promote individual discovery learning such as that recommended by the Swiss scientist Jean Piaget (1972), who considered that teachers intervened unnecessarily in children’s conceptual development. A low IDV educational culture would stress collaborative group learning. Building on Hofstede’s discussion (1991: 49–78), Table 6.2 lists some likely educational characteristics at opposite poles of the individualist spectrum.

Table 6.2 Educational characteristics of individualism Individualist cultures

Collectivist cultures

Aim for individual self-actualization Prepare learners to be themselves Teach learners how to learn Promote lifelong, life-wide learning Prefer context-free communication Favour learning over relationships

Aim for collective harmony Prepare learners to adapt to group norms Teach learners skills Promote socially normative learning Prefer subtle, context-related talk Favour relationships over learning

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Educational implications Individualistic cultures have the overall development of the individual as a major educational aim, with creativity presented as the peak of self-fulfilment (see also Chapter 19). There is also a link to everyday creativity, which suggests that learners should be free to express themselves in their own way, and to ‘Big C’ creativity which suggests that creative people need to have a good sense of their individuality. Learner individualism also taps into the construct of creativity as genius or exceptionality, and suggests that risk-taking and resilience are important qualities which teachers should support. Collectivist cultures emphasize the social aspects of creativity and the relevance of creativity to society. They will see a role for education in the transmission of traditions and values. In the classroom, collaboration rather than competition is stressed. Popular approaches include group work, peer learning, collaborative enquiry and strong links to the community of which they are a part.

Uncertainty avoidance index The uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) is the degree to which cultures feel threatened by situations that are uncertain or ambiguous, or alternately, show a preference for clear rules, predictions and boundaries. Hofstede differentiates between ‘uncertainty avoidance’ which is the avoidance of anxiety, and ‘risk-avoidance’ which is the avoidance or fear of specific risks. Primitive cultures in danger of natural disasters are likely to develop strong rituals to decrease uncertainty. More developed societies interpret events in a wider variety of ways and have a greater tolerance of uncertainty. The poles of this index are neatly summarized by Hofstede in relation to xenophobic cultures which ‘see what is different as dangerous’ as opposed to ‘weak uncertainty’ or non-xenophobic cultures which ‘see what is different as curious’ (1991: 119). Hofstede found that high UAI educational cultures prefer clear school rules and procedures, whereas low UAI educational cultures prefer more relaxed and flexible procedures. Table 6.3 lists some likely educational characteristics at opposite poles of the uncertainty avoidance dimension, based on Hofstede’s discussion (1991: 109–38).

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Table 6.3 Educational characteristics of uncertainty avoidance Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures

Weak uncertainty avoidance cultures

Establish tight school structures Apply unambiguous rules Reward accuracy Categorize students Demand teacher expertise Limit discussion or divergent views Prefer questions with one correct answer Discourage parental and external input Require ‘idea champions’ for creativity Require official approval for innovation

Tolerate loose school structures Reward originality Permit vague and lenient guidelines Favour non-streaming Accept teacher limitations Promote discussion and interpretation Prefer open-ended questioning Encourage parental and external input Allow creativity to arise naturally Innovate freely

Educational implications Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures prefer predictability in education and are unlikely to tolerate ambiguity, which may be a condition favourable to creativity as a process. Despite this, creativity can sometimes arise in the classroom through a challenge to subject boundaries and constraints. There is unlikely to be any creativity where there are no boundaries at all. In strong uncertainty avoidance cultures, the teacher needs to stress the value of the outcomes of creativity. Even in creativity, there are criteria and rules. Weak uncertainty avoidance cultures lead to flexible school structures, schedules and classrooms which allow for the development of creative ideas. A loosely-structured educational environment may foster original thinking and expression.

Masculinity index The masculinity index (MI) is the degree to which a culture favours a masculine, inflexible and competitive style over a feminine, flexible and collaborative one. The reference here is to gender roles rather than to biological roles. In education, a highly masculine educational culture would stress results and achievements, whereas a feminine culture would be more concerned that students are happy and socially engaged. Table 6.4 lists some likely educational characteristics at opposite poles of the masculinity index, building on Hofstede’s discussion (1991: 79–107).

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Table 6.4 Educational characteristics of masculinity Masculine educational cultures

Feminine educational cultures

Adopt a competitive approach Focus on the best Favour streaming Prefer brilliant teaching Employ didactic methods Relate subject choice to gender Require women to teach younger children

Adopt a collaborative approach Focus on the average Favour non-streaming Prefer empathic teaching Employ facilitative methods Ignore gender subject choice Use both sexes to teach all ages

Educational implications In masculine educational cultures, schools emphasize achievement and learner outcomes, and can be linked to a construct of creativity as product and innovation. Such an outcomes-based approach requires an evaluation of the creative output. This leads to considerations of who will evaluate, and according to what criteria. Feminine educational cultures focus much more on the construct of creativity as process, so the outcomes become less important than learner involvement or engagement. This leads to consideration of the extent to which processes are amenable to evaluation and the tension between creativity as process, and creativity as product.

Long-term orientation index The long-term orientation index (LTOI) is the degree to which a culture favours longterm virtues such as perseverance and thrift over more immediate short-term qualities such as saving ‘face’ and observing social obligations. For example, in a long-term orientation educational culture, learners would be prepared to postpone gratification, whereas in a short-term culture, learners would expect quick results. Table 6.5 (see p. 74) lists some likely educational characteristics at opposite poles of orientation, building on Hofstede’s discussion (1991: 159–74).

Hall’s cultural dimensions Another theorist who examined cultural constructs was Edward T. Hall, who proposed two dimensions: high-context versus low-context and monochronic versus polychronic time (Hall 1969).

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Table 6.5 Educational characteristics of orientation Long-term orientation cultures

Short-term orientation cultures

Conserve resources Defer results Favour goals over self Insist upon academic integrity Concentrate on deep learning Promote understanding Require strategies and methods Prioritize processes

Consume resources Expect quick results Favour self over goals Accept educational short-cuts Concentrate on surface learning Provide knowledge Require answers Prioritize products

High- and low-context This dimension is based on the way in which information is exchanged by means of: The content The context

Actual words and symbols being used typically Background circumstances and shared understandings

In a low-context culture such as North America, nothing ‘goes without saying’ so a teacher needs to be literal and direct because the entire message has to be contained in the actual words spoken. In a high-context culture such as Japan however, the context of the authority of the person speaking is an important component of the message, so the communication can be more subtle. Typical differences are presented in Table 6.6. Table 6.6 Typical characteristics of high- and low-context cultures Low-context educational cultures

High-context educational cultures

Ignore the context of classroom communication Are comfortable with short-term school relationships Disregard teacher authority Are very literal Are accessible to all

Incorporate the context of communication Prefer long-term school relationships Emphasize teacher authority Are subtle Require insider knowledge

Monochronic and polychronic time The dimension of monochronic (M) and polychronic (P) time is based on the way time is perceived in a certain culture. M-time cultures view time as precise, objective, inflexible and valuable, whereas P-time cultures view time as vague, subjective, flexible

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and contextual. The stereotypically M-time school is very serious about timekeeping, with exact timetables, schedules and strict deadlines. On the other hand, in a P-time educational culture, punctuality is not so important. Typical differences are shown in Table 6.7. Table 6.7 Characteristics of M- and P-time cultures M-time educational cultures

P-time educational cultures

Stress punctuality Have strict timetables Prefer time constraints and tasks Enforce rigid deadlines Address one thing at a time Dislike diversions and delays

Are indifferent to punctuality Work to tasks rather than timetable Stress relationships over time Have more aspirational goals Address issues holistically Expect and work with diversions and delays

Although the high- and low-context dimensions and the M- and P-time dimensions are distinct, it is clear that M-time would be more associated with low-context cultures and P-time with high context ones.

Multiculturalism Many societies are now multicultural, with many concurrent benefits to creativity. For example, exposure to more than one language may be beneficial to creativity (Lubart 2010: 275). Flexibility of thinking is possible through the dual or multiple coding of objects and interpretations of meaning. This links with a constructivist teaching approach which stresses individual meaning-making. Research on bilingual immigrants versus monolingual native speakers shows that Russian-English immigrants have higher levels of divergent thinking than monolingual native speakers (Baker 2011: 14). At a societal level, those societies near or at the crossroads of contrasting cultural centres appear to have a higher creative output than more insular cultures. According to Csikszentmihalyi (1996: 8–9), centres of creativity tend to be at the intersection of different cultures, where beliefs, lifestyles and knowledge mingle and allow individuals to see new combinations of ideas. Historiometric studies show that cultures and societies characterized by political fragmentation or multiple sources of political and economic power tend to be more creative (Simonton 1999). Cities like Istanbul or Jerusalem which have historically been at the centre of multiple confluences exemplify this trend.

Educational implications While there are many generalizations about culture, they give rise to questions about how spaces for creativity can be located or recreated educationally. The culturally-aware teacher should:

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r r r r r r r

consider learners’ cultural boundaries in gender expectations, power distance and individuality; locate with learners the cultural boundaries of creativity, and inbetween spaces; explore aspects of culture that can be colonized or transgressed; extend learners’ awareness of dominant and alternative cultural norms; examine how creative products and processes can be recognized and evaluated within a culture; use multiple cultural stimuli to facilitate individual or collective creativity; exploit opportunities for multiple connections with other cultures.

Teaching in different cultural settings This section considers the cultural implications of creativity in education from the perspectives of teachers working in different cultural settings: Monocultural Heterocultural Multicultural

Within their own cultural setting Within a different cultural setting Within a multicultural setting

The monocultural teacher To build upon the potential of the society for creativity, the teacher should:

r r r r r r r r

draw on the rich variety of creative expressions from the culture; provide examples and models of creative processes in the society; cite examples drawn from alternative or countercultures; consider how cultural constraints can be used for creative opportunities; recognize ‘small c’ examples of creativity from within the culture; use examples of creative mistakes and risk-taking from the culture; explore disciplinary subcultures; provide opportunities for interdisciplinary work.

The heterocultural teacher To make the most of teaching in another culture, teachers should:

r r

display sensitivity to the host culture; become aware of the major cultural dimensions of that society;

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demonstrate their own culture’s styles and achievements; celebrate a range of different cultures; encourage multiple cultural interpretations of the same event; look for opportunities for creative synthesis between cultures; encourage the evaluation of diverse cultural products; mirror aspects of the host culture back to its members.

The multicultural teacher To make the most of their classroom’s cultural diversity, the teacher should:

r r r r r r r

learn as much as possible about students’ cultural backgrounds; encourage students from diverse cultural backgrounds to present creative products or model creative processes; recognize and celebrate cultural rituals, holidays and forms of expression; create project teams and group work from different cultures; encourage creative collaborative work both inside and outside the classroom; merge and synthesize creative contributions from different cultures; illustrate multicultural connections and social networking tools to support creative self-efficacy by providing training and motivation.

Conclusion The ideas of different theorists presented in this chapter provide a set of lenses through which an educationalist can view a particular culture. They also provide a set of mental constructs which can be used to think about and discuss a particular culture. Based on this theoretical underpinning, the chapter has explored ways in which these cultural factors influence the perception and performance of creativity in an educational context. Although we are aware of the challenges presented by a pervasive culture, we have drawn out some implications for the teacher and attempted to offer practical pedagogical advice for the promotion of creativity in a range of cultural contexts.

References Baker, C. (2011) Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5th edn. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Craft, A. (2001) Little c creativity, in A.C. Craft, R. Jeffrey and M. Liebling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Craft, A., Jeffrey, R. and Leibling, M. (eds) (2001) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum.

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Creative Partnerships (2011) www.creative-partnerships.com, accessed October 2011. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. Gardner, H. (2009) Lectures on creativity at the Creativity Conference, University of Burdur, Turkey. Hall, E.T. (1969) The Hidden Dimension: Man’s Use of Space in Public and Private. London: Bodley Head. Hofstede, G.H. (1991) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hofstede, G.H. (2001) Culture’s Consequence: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kasulis, T. (1981) Zen Action, Zen Person. Honolulu, HI: Hawaii University Press. Kozbelt, A. (2010) Theories of creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Li, J. (1997) Creativity in horizontal and vertical domains, Creativity Research Journal, 10(2–3): 107–32. Lubart, T. (2010) Cross-cultural perspectives on creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paletz, S.B and Peng, K. (2008) Implicit theories of creativities across cultures: novelty and appropriateness in two product domains, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39: 286–302. Piaget, J. (1972) To Understand is to Invent. New York: Viking Press. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Simonton, D.K. (1999) Talent and its development: an emogenic and epigenetic model, Psychological Review, 106: 435–57. Spencer-Oatey, H. (2000) Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk Across Cultures. London: Continuum. Tobin, J., Hayashi, A. and Zang, J. (2011) Approaches to promoting creativity in Chinese, Japanese and US preschools, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. Abingdon: Routledge. Wallas, G. (1926) The Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Chapter 7 Creativity and technology

Introduction Audiences in modern cinemas are presented with a stunning visual and auditory experience incorporating sophisticated three-dimensional (3D) computer generated imagery (CGI) and digital surround sound, unimaginable to early cinema-goers. The development of cinema from slides to moving black and white pictures to sound and colour to CGI and 3D has been led by technological advances to the extent that anything screenwriters can imagine can be produced on screen. In this chapter we begin with an examination of the role of technology in creativity from a general perspective. This is followed by an examination of the ways in which technology supports creative teaching and learning. Finally, we discuss the role of education in helping learners to become more aware of some of the broader implications of the use of technology in education.

Creative technology Definition The word ‘technology’ is related to the Greek word techne, which means the rational craft or skill in producing something or achieving a goal. Technology provides the means for creativity to be realized by way of physical objects, ideas or techniques. In alignment with the concept of techne, the construct of creativity as a process also views it as the ability to act, perform or emerge in a particular way towards the achievement of some goal.

Cultural technology For Vygotsky, man’s creativity is developed through the techne of cultural tools, the most important of which is language (Vygotsky 1987). This can be illustrated both in evolutionary terms and in human life-cycle development. For example, in the latter, the progression of the infant from undifferentiated awareness of the world to the use of language in a social context leads to an ability to categorize, conceptualize and creatively interpret experience, and prepare for future roles. Looking at this same process in evolutionary terms, we can see human creativity in primitive man’s trajectory from gesturing to refer to objects, to the formation of linguistic concepts to communicate thought, action and intention to others.

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The next creative move was to visual depiction and writing. This enabled a creative dissemination of ideas beyond the limits of speech, and reduced the burden on memory. The development of printing and moveable type allowed for a broader dissemination, exchange and modification of ideas. In modern times, the internet is highly creative in reducing the necessity for linear or causal sequences of semantic memories and in developing non-sequential methods of reading and accessing information. The World Wide Web is a technology that can act as a form of ‘bricolage’, gathering together diverse scraps of ideas (Pope 2005).

Technologically-enhanced creativity The extent to which technology is related to creativity varies, depending upon how creativity is construed. Although the construct of creativity as pure possession precludes the banal support of technology, creativity as personal genius does leave room for technological support. For example, although composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were occasionally assisted by students or copyists, they might have produced much more music with the benefit of music notation software such as ‘Sibelius’ or ‘Finale’. Technology has assisted creativity in countless ways, of which Table 7.1 shows just a small sample. Table 7.1 Examples of technology-enhanced creativity Area

Technology

Creativity enhanced

Science

Optical instruments Calculators and computers

Astronomy and microscopy Space exploration

Industry

Shipbuilding and navigation Roads Agricultural technology Weapons

Exploration Economic Food production Warfare

Arts

Digital imagery Cement Plastics Electronic instruments Metallurgy

Animation and CGI Architecture Furniture design Music composition Steel structures

The role of technology in creativity has not been confined to that of a tool however. While some creative artists have incorporated technological developments in their work – for example, in the manipulation of digital images – others have responded by trying to do something that technology cannot – as for example in the reaction of artists to the development of photography. Technology need pose no threat to individual creativity. For example, the creativity of chess players is assisted by the use of a computer to check the accuracy of their ideas. The chess player is no less diminished by the computer than a runner is diminished by the motor car.

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The relationship between creativity and technology is two-way. The creativity of writers and artists has led to technological developments. Science-fiction writers such as Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov predicted and arguably influenced the technology of submarines, space flight, satellites and robotics. The website Bookride (2011) describes an English translation in 1994 of Jules Verne’s Paris in the Twentieth Century written in 1864, but unpublished because it was deemed ‘too fantastical’ at the time. In it Verne predicted pocket calculators, petrol-powered vehicles and a ‘worldwide telegraphic communications’ network.

Modern technologies In the 1970s there were many extreme expectations of the power of technology, as in the claim that computers could create a self-stabilizing society in an interconnected world, without politics or global conflict (Curtis 2011). The technology of a serial information-processing machine was invoked by cognitivist theory in the 1980s to explain mental processes. Although useful in examining simple specific functions such as long- or short-term memory stores, this was not very helpful when examining complex creative ideas. The individual mind was emphasized and social interaction was largely ignored (G¨ardenfors and Johansson 2005). However, social interaction can be a powerful creative force and new technologies facilitate communication and collaboration, which are essential to the creative process. This has achieved hitherto unimaginable dimensions of scale with the advent of the internet, the World Wide Web and social media of many kinds. The new information and communication technologies are the modern equivalent of the printing press, which was responsible for the transformation of literacy in the sixteenth century. Such technological developments − in computers, the internet and mobile phone technology, for example − now have the power to challenge or bypass established communicative conventions in the worlds of media and publishing. For example, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites have been used in unexpected and highly creative ways such as the formation of ‘flash mobs’, where a large group of people assemble in a public place and carry out some bizarre or amusing act for a brief time, and then disperse as quickly as they appeared. Flash mobs have engaged in massive pillow-fights, stood as statues or staged silent discos as they danced to the music of their iPods. This, for the pure fun of doing something silly. However, there can be a dark side to this, as was seen in the London riots of August 2011.

Technology and the democratization of creativity Modern technology supports the idea of creativity as process, forming part of a democratizing trend that is most obvious in an everyday construct of creativity. Technology is particularly valuable in enhancing ‘small c’ creativity as it can assist the expression of individual creativity by providing an easy way to transform an idea into reality. Although it does not provide the ideas, technology can complement skills by providing a means of experimentation and exploration. For example, the technology of the digital camera has enhanced people’s visual creativity and the sophistication of home digital recording equipment has enabled people to create, manipulate and publish music to a

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standard superior to that of professional recording studios from not so long ago. ‘Print on demand’ publishers on the internet also make possible the publication of a vast range of books, many of which are of the highest quality but not commercially viable because they are intended for a select and specialist audience. Technology is a powerful support to creativity – particularly in the convergence of technology in smartphones and similar hand-held devices that enable people to construct their own lives and identities in a creative way. The rapid rate of change associated with technological development is itself a driver for individual creativity, and everyday creativity is now manifested unceasingly in the way ordinary people use the internet and social media.

Technology for creativity in education Teachers have always availed themselves of any technology they can find to help them in their task. The twentieth century saw the appearance of slide projectors, radio, film and video in the classroom. Although none of these lived up to their promise, the educational community remained determinedly optimistic. For example, teaching machines in the 1960s and 70s caused great excitement and expectations that they would replace standard pedagogies. The American behaviourist B.F. Skinner stated ‘there is no reason why the schoolroom should be any less mechanized than the kitchen’ (1968: 27). Although the early use of computers and video in education was less effective than was hoped, more recent digital technology seems to hold out more promise. This is because the technology is cheaper, more powerful, more flexible and more interactive than before, and because it enjoys the support of government funding in many countries, where it is seen as an investment in the knowledge economy. In addition, digital technology has lost its exotic and forbidding image, and is in widespread use outside the classroom by learners of all ages − particularly by the young. For example, Marc Prensky (2001) gives the analogy of ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ to describe the generation gap separating twenty-first-century students from their teachers: ‘The application of new technologies to support and develop teaching and learning has fundamentally altered the ways in which teachers and students are able to work’ (Fautley and Savage 2007: 84). In particular, modern technologies have the potential to transform learners’ mind-views. As Avril Loveless (2002) argues, they open up new and authentic ways of being creative because the features of information technology include provisionality, interactivity, capacity, range, speed and automatic functions. In a similar vein, John Biggs (1999) argues that developments in twenty-first-century tools can encourage higher levels of engagement, in turn promoting higher-order learning.

Technology supporting teaching Administration Teachers make wide use of information and communication technology in their everyday work in researching and preparing classes, and in their assessment and

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administrative duties. Other supports that need little explanation include a wide range of well-known, widely available commercial and free software for writing, making presentations, drawing, desktop publishing, creating databases and project management.

Classroom Teachers also use information technology in the classroom. In the past there was a tendency to teach ‘information and communication technology’ (ICT) as a subject in its own right and this is still legitimate, but it is as a tool for other subjects that its creative use is most likely to have an impact. For many cultural and practical reasons this is not easy: ‘A major shift in culture and established practice is involved in the introduction of ICT within subject teaching’ (DfES 2002: 19). Interactive whiteboards offer many opportunities to enrich and enhance creative teaching and learning in schools, and are claimed to be more effective in this than the conventional computer (Lee and Wizenreid 2009). Many classroom computers and interactive whiteboards are internet-enabled, and teachers can download and display a wide range of support material or present cultural performances via live streaming. The term ‘edutainment’ was initially coined by the Disney Company for material that both entertains and educates. Although they do not offer much assistance in initial creation of ideas, all of these technological tools are useful in presenting, managing and manipulating information as the raw material for creative activity in the classroom.

Technology supporting learning and creativity Creativity involving the conceptualization and manipulation of ideas via technology can assist the learner in relation to data manipulation, communication, collaboration, experiential learning and self-expression, and can also address physical or intellectual disability.

Data manipulation The World Wide Web offers access to information that allows for greater self-directed learning and the use of multiple sources of information. However, this information is largely unmediated, unedited and unevaluated. It has somehow to be integrated, processed, understood and synthesized. One of the minds described by Gardner in his book Five Minds for the Future is the synthesizing mind: ‘The ability to knit together information from disparate sources into a coherent whole is vital today’ (Gardner 2008: 460). Students need to be creative in the way they organize and synthesize the wealth of information they will access on the Web. Many computer applications are ‘mind tools’ which allow for the manipulation of mundane information, leaving time for more imaginative or demanding activities (Jonassen et al. 1998). For example, word processing programs allow for freedom because they alleviate the initial fear of facing a blank page and of later rewriting, because they provide ‘provisionality’ − everything is a draft and can be changed, rewritten and

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moved about at will. Similarly, computer spreadsheets allow freedom to explore different scenarios and their consequences. Electronic calculators can move the focus away from arithmetical technique to that of mathematical meaning and so can support more creative mathematical approaches. Computers have even made possible the proof of completely new theorems such as the ‘four-colour theorem’ (Appel and Haken 1977). This states that four colours are always enough to colour all the regions of a map so that no two adjacent regions have the same colour. The proof is long and complex and includes the testing of almost 2,000 different possibilities with the help of a computer which had the speed and ‘patience’ to check them all. A simple Google search will reveal many websites and software packages that complement the above technology in supporting creativity.

Communication Learning involves communication of ideas and of personal relationships. Communication technology removes hierarchies and permits learners to access creative people at the leading edge of knowledge all over the world. It collapses space and time. This can be seen in the use of Skype for international educational collaboration and mentoring. The ‘Skype in the classroom’ initiative (Skype 2011) connects teachers and learners with like-minded partners who can share projects, resources and expertise. Even within the classroom or lecture theatre, technology can assist communication. Presentation software is particularly useful in group creativity, where ideas can be shared and explored and the use of ‘clickers’ − resembling TV remote controls − can permit students to respond anonymously to questions from the teacher. Results are instantly available on the teacher’s laptop so that the lesson can be continuously adjusted, depending on the feedback.

Personal experience Teachers have always recognized the benefits of taking students on field trips but have been constrained by expense, safety and practicality. Virtual environments can be provided digitally for learners to explore in an immersive way. Such virtual sites may consist of the Roman Forum or Colosseum, for example, or may be fantastical, imaginative environments of students’ or teachers’ own design. More fanciful but conceivable experiences could involve the use of artificial intelligence to create a virtual Napoleon or Socrates with whom learners could interact.

Physical and cognitive disability Technologies such as spectacles, prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs have been used to address physical disability for centuries but modern technology takes this to a new level of sophistication. The iconic image of the physicist Stephen Hawking in his motorized wheelchair, using his speech generation technology, is an exemplar. Technology allows his creative genius to be expressed.

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Cognitive disabilities such as dyslexia and dyscalculia are addressed routinely by means of technology. Laptops, touch screens, voice recognition and voice generation support many learners who need them. An interesting example of technologicallysupported creativity is the ‘Eyewriter’, reported by Kayla Webley (2010). Designed initially for well-known graffiti artist Tony ‘Tempt’ Quan, who is ‘locked in’ by Lou Gehrig’s disease, the Eyewriter uses eye-tracking spectacles to enable paralysed people to write and draw on a screen by means of eye movements. Recent developments in technology now permit a direct brain computer interface, by which thoughts can be used to control devices.

Self-expression Technology in education can be used as a tool for supporting creativity but can itself be an expression of creativity. Consider, for example, the ability of mobile phones to record and send images and to track words and images to create word-scapes that facilitate the dynamic development of language in small children. Other new technologies may also allow for the expression of creativity – a number of successful school-based experiments engage teenagers in creative writing through blogging. Students report that they are engaging in highly creative activities on social networking sites, including writing and art, whether or not these activities are related to schoolwork (Lee and Wizenreid 2009). The new technologies also allow for alternative forms of self-expression, the adoption of virtual identities through ‘avatars’, and immersive experiences through simulations and gaming (Jonassen 1999).

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Educational implications The above discussion has many implications for educationalists. In order to utilize technology to enhance creativity, teachers should:

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familiarize themselves with the available technology; model use of the technology on a regular basis; create a technologically friendly environment in the classroom; encourage learners to use a range of data manipulating programs; share information on suitable websites and software; link learners to international peers and mentors; showcase work with interactive media posters; install, teach and use presentation software; arrange virtual field trips for immersive experiences.

In order to use technology to enhance creativity, learners should:

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create and maintain web pages; engage in blogging; play simulation games; research and use creativity tools; produce student ‘wikis’ based on school projects; share reviews; engage in asynchronous teamwork; follow educational newsfeeds; collaborate worldwide using Skype, email and messaging systems; undertake virtual field trips.

Educating learners to use technology Educating learners to use technology means more than inculcating technological skills and promoting its use for creativity in an unquestioning way. It also means examining underlying assumptions and values, considering educational implications of technological progress, and responding appropriately.

Examining assumptions, values and purposes Technology is not value-free and does not occur in a vacuum. There are many driving forces resulting from stakeholders such as the global economy, consumers, society in general and education itself, each of which bring their own assumptions and values.

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Global economy Technological development and innovation is now a key instrument of all modern economies, central to economic competitiveness and the ‘knowledge society’. The spread of globalization and a global economy is supported technologically in terms of processes and products. For example, the global financial crisis of 2011 was fuelled by computer and communications interconnectivity, enabling global stock-market trading.

Consumers Consumers who buy the latest smartphone or iPad also drive technological creativity. As noted earlier, researchers have categorized consumers as early adopters who buy the latest gadgets the moment they come on the market, the majority, who purchase technology once it has been proved useful and reliable and laggards, who do not buy into a technology until it is almost outdated and redundant (Rogers 2003). Particular consumers dealing with physical and mental disabilities have benefited from assistive technology whose designers display great creativity in addressing specialized needs.

Producers Obviously, producers of technology are significant drivers in the creation of a need for technology. For example, there is constant updating of products to encourage people to buy the latest model, whether or not it is strictly necessary. As well as legitimate businesses, there are also exploitative forces seeking to take advantage of gullible consumers through online deceit, resulting in a subsequent erosion of trust.

Society Societal forces value and promote technological literacy. Socially advantaged groups with easy access to technology are able to use it creatively, in a way that is denied to the more disadvantaged sector. However, even minimal communicative technology has empowered oppressed societies and aided recent popular uprisings. Countercultures the world over have embraced the internet and related technologies to spread their message, and governments have responded with increased surveillance and control using the same technology. For example, the Chinese government routinely blocks sites such as Google, Twitter and Facebook by what is amusingly referred to as ‘the great firewall of China’.

Education The education industry is a prominent driving force for the creative use of technology. However, there is a tension between the desire to make use of whatever is available

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and the need to be sure of its educational value. For example, in the latter part of the twentieth century, teachers were excited by the potential of TV and video, but worried that they would themselves be replaced by technology as world experts were ‘beamed’ into the classroom. Although such fears were ungrounded, the dissemination of expertise took an unpredicted turn in the development of the TED talks series (TED 2011) – highly topical and entertaining talks of varying lengths and topics offered on the internet. A more academic version of TED is seen in the OpenCourseWare (OCW) shared without cost on the internet by many universities. While education can critique technology, technology challenges education − because technology can supplement or replace some of its functions. Such functions could include virtual learning environments, virtual classrooms, distance learning and the personalization of learning. However, although technology can offer vast amounts of information, the motivating effect of intellectual and emotional interactions between teachers and students in a real classroom are not easily replaced. It is difficult to imagine an inspiring computer.

Considering implications of technological progress Educationalists need to keep up to date with developments in technology in order to examine the implications for education and for creativity. Here we offer a range of examples.

Neuroscience Technological progress in neuroscience holds out the possibility of very early identification of cognitive abilities and neurological conditions. It is now possible to identify newborn babies who can be expected to experience reading difficulties later in life (Tommerdahl 2011: 279). Perhaps creativity may someday be predictable also.

Changed nature of knowledge The instant availability of data in a disorganized and fractional way has had an impact on learning and on creativity. For example, learners do not seem to have the same capacity for sustained attention as those of a bygone age. Teachers have to select or adapt materials appropriately.

Access to expertise The internet has the potential to remove intermediary gatekeeping institutions between experts and learners. Experts can offer their services directly via their web pages. This can be beneficial provided the expertise is genuine and the enquirer knows what to ask

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about. An educator as intermediary could validate the expertise and help the learner to frame appropriate questions.

Miniaturization of creativity The ‘bite-sized’ presentation of material to fit on tiny screens has had an impact on creative products which are becoming shorter and more direct. For example, the internet is filled with high-quality short films made possible by digital technology. Modern trends in children’s fiction are for shorter and more accessible stories, such as those produced by children in the ‘Creative Writing Centre’ set up by the novelist Nick Hornby in London’s East End (Ministry of Stories 2011).

Democratization of creativity Technology gives people the power to create what might appear to be works of art in the form of books, music and film. However, technology does not confer artistic sensibility, so the proliferation of ersatz ‘art’ may cause some confusion for the audience and overwhelm or damage the genuine article.

Changed nature of reading Much of modern young people’s reading is not from a page in a linear fashion as in the past, but from a screen following hyperlinks of interest in a meandering fashion. There are many obvious implications for reading, writing and language learning linked to this (Scrivener 2011).

Changed perception of originality Postmodern aesthetic trends utilize allusiveness, intertextuality and borrowings from multiple sources as forms of creative playfulness. In the music industry, the practice of musicians borrowing and re-synthesizing pieces of music is commonplace. This is facilitated by technology that permits the downloading and appropriation of material, challenging concepts of originality and intellectual property. Many internet sites are not clear about ownership and students nowadays see little problem with ‘lifting’ and combining material without acknowledgment of their sources. All colleges are concerned about the numerous cases of blatant student plagiarism. However, emphasis on detection of plagiarism is not the answer. There is a need for teachers to change the tasks they require students to undertake so that plagiarism is ‘harnessed’ – for example, in the form of ‘curatorship’ where students collect, evaluate and compare sources rather than copy and reproduce them.

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Responding appropriately to technology Education’s response to technology needs to be sophisticated. Students must be encouraged to critique, analyse and evaluate technological experience and become aware of the differing values and forces at work. Technology can be a cornucopia of exciting and enriching experiences but it is can also be a conduit for financial, intellectual and physical hazards. Censorship and control are not the answer; people need to be able to protect themselves. A major role of education is to help learners to discriminate and to develop standards of evaluation and judgement. In the past there were many gatekeepers who took on this role, and to be published implied peer review and expert acceptance of the creative product. Today, even well-known literary prizes like the Booker now feature the judgement of the public. There is a role for education in helping learners to discriminate and develop standards when evaluating creative products. New technologies and social media permit anyone to be a producer as well as a consumer of creativity, and to communicate this creativity to larger and more diverse audiences. It therefore provides multiple opportunities for self-expression, displays of talent and assertions of identity. We claim that that creativity is not simply a characteristic of the creator but of the reader, the viewer, the listener or the audience. Such creativity requires cognitive qualities such as attention, engagement, perception, interpretation and evaluation.

Potential problems with technology in the classroom Although technology can be a huge resource for teaching and creativity, educators need to be aware of a number of potential problems in dealing with it. These include barriers, complexity, ‘deskilling’, guidance and real versus virtual experience.

Barriers In spite of the many pedagogical and administrative uses of computers in schools, learners’ direct use of technology is still not routine. Hammond (2011: 375) mentions the following barriers to the creative use of technology in education:

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insufficient access to machines; absence of technical support; lack of appropriate teacher training; the timetabled, routine nature of the school day.

Complexity Sometimes the technology may be too complex or too difficult to understand, such that the task becomes mastering the technology rather than the topic itself. Avril Loveless argues against the school use of technology which can involve repetitious skill training

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in various packages, or alternately using tools and techniques for their own sake in digital creations (Loveless 1999: 40).

Deskilling Technology is misused when it deprives people of learning through repetition and the fine-tuning of skills. The smart machine may separate learners from skilled incremental hands-on learning so that conceptual human powers suffer (Sennett 2008: 39).

Guidance Technology and the freedom to use it without constriction do not together confer creativity. For example, Shakuntala Banaji et al. (2006: 48) describe a study of digital technology in the classroom which found that teachers perceived creativity as freedom from constraint, convention and teacher control. However, the most effective work resulted from carefully structured tasks, specific pedagogic practices and an awareness of the cultural properties of the medium.

Real versus virtual experience Students can be led astray by their acceptance of a ridiculous answer produced by accident on a simple electronic calculator. Similarly, at higher levels, powerful statistics packages can carry out more analyses than the researcher can comfortably comprehend. In the study of architecture, powerful imaging tools may give a false impression of three-dimensionality, leading to a distortion of the architect’s perception of the real environment. Architects need to experience real physicality by walking through the space. On a more philosophical level, creative technology may become so powerful that the student is overwhelmed and distanced from the underlying reality. As the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard (1998) claims, it becomes difficult to separate the simulacra from reality. Educators need to alert learners to the dangers of disassociation from reality, addiction, solipsism and narcissism.

Conclusion Technology is increasingly used in education where it can facilitate creativity for both teacher and learner. However, creative activity and the use of tools and technology are both natural human characteristics and so do not need education. Nevertheless, we have argued that education does have a role in promoting discernment and critical judgement. This is something that it has always done by providing examples, examining models and developing criteria. In this way education can help learners not only in the creativity of production, but equally importantly in the creativity of appreciation.

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References Appel, K. and Haken, W. (1977) Solution of the four color map problem, Scientific American, 237(4): 108–21. Banaji, S., Burn, A. and Buckingham, D. (2006) Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature. London: Arts Council England. Baudrillard, J. (1998) Selected Writings, ed. Mark Poster. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. Buckingham: Open University Press/SRHE. Bookride (2011) Collecting technological predictions in literature 2, http://www. bookride.com/2011/08/collecting-technological-predictions-in.html, accessed August 2011. Curtis, A. (2011) All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, BBC2 documentary, 10 May. DfES (Department for Education and Skills) (2002) Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of ICT in the Home, School and Community. London: DfES. Fautley, M. and Savage, J. (2007) Creativity in Secondary Education. Exeter: Learning Matters. G¨ardenfors, P. and Johansson, P. (eds) (2005) Cognition, Education and Communication Technology. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gardner, H. (2008) Five Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Hammond, M. (2011) Technologies and learning, in J. Arthur and A. Peterson (eds) The Routledge Companion to Education. London: Routledge. Jonassen, D.H. (1999) Computers as Mindtools for Schools: Engaging in Critical Thinking. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Jonassen, D.H., Carr, C. and Yueh, H-P. (1998) Computers as mindtools for engaging learners in critical thinking, TechTrends, 43(2): 22−32. Lee, M. and Wizenreid, A. (2009) The Use of Instructional Technology in Schools. Melbourne: Acer Press. Loveless, A. (1999) A digital big breakfast: the Glebe School Project, in J. Sefton-Green (ed.) Young People, Creativity and New Technologies: The Challenge of Digital Arts. London: Routledge. Loveless, A. (2002) A Literature Review in Creativity, New Technologies and Learning: A Report for Futurelab. Bristol: Futurelab, www.futurelab.org.uk/litreviews. Ministry of Stories (2011) www.ministryofstories.org, accessed November 2011.

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Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants, On the Horizon, 9(5), October. Rogers, E.M. (2003) Diffusion of Innovation. New York: Free Press. Scrivener, J. (2011) Hyperlink heroin: the new science and skills of reading, Macmillan ELT Workshop, Dublin, September. Sennett, R. (2008) The Craftsman. London: Allen Lane. Skinner, B.F. (1968) The Technology of Teaching. New York: Appleton-CenturyCrofts. Skype (2011) Skype in the classroom, http://education.skype.com, accessed November 2011. TED (2011) TED Talks, www.ted.com, accessed July 2012. Tommerdahl, J. (2011) Neuroscience and education, in J. Arthur and A. Peterson (eds) The Routledge Companion to Education. London: Routledge. Vygotsky, L. (1987) Thinking and Speech, Vol. 1, trans. N. Minickf. New York: Plenum Press. Webley, K. (2010) Eyewriter, Time Online, 11 November, http://www.time.com/ time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029497_2030618_2029822,00.html, accessed August 2011.

Chapter 8 Creative curriculum planning

Introduction The curriculum covers all planned and guided learning, whether carried out in groups or individually, and whether internal or external (Kelly 1983: 10). It is not simply the syllabi or subjects taught. It can encompass the values of the educational provider and other stakeholders. The curriculum may be laid out and codified in formal documentation; alternatively it can be everything that happens in an educational setting − not simply the ‘enshrined’ but the ‘lived’ curriculum. It also includes less visible aspects − the ‘hidden curriculum’. The key question for this chapter is the extent to which creativity, with its capacity for ‘effective surprise’ (Bruner 1979: 22), can be accommodated within the curriculum. The relationship between curriculum planning and creativity is dependent upon the ways both creativity and curriculum are construed. For example, process models of creativity fit neatly with process models of curriculum. We have already discussed the constructs of creativity as:

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possession; product; personal genius; process; exceptional attributes; cognition; innovation; social; everyday.

The relationship between curriculum and creativity will become clearer as the chapter progresses. In the following section we discuss a number of well-known curriculum models which fall broadly into four groups: Product models Process models Process-product model Dynamic models

Liberal-humanist Technical-rational Child-centred ‘Stenhouse’ approach Teaching for understanding (TfU) Lived Hidden

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Curriculum models Product models Liberal-humanist model This is the oldest of the curriculum models, encapsulated in traditional secondary and tertiary education, in which teachers induct students into the distinctive ways of knowing in seven major knowledge domains (Hirst 1974):

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mathematics; physical sciences; human sciences; history; religion; literature and the fine arts; philosophy and moral knowledge.

The desired product is the cognitive development of the whole person. With the growth of mass education, this model came under attack for its perceived elitism and lack of vocational relevance. The constructs of creativity most compatible with the liberal-humanist model are those of cognition, product, exceptional attributes and genius. Educational creativity requires domain knowledge (Csikszentmihalyi 1997), however the organization of the curriculum into separate subjects may inhibit the creativity of crossing subject boundaries. James Beane (2011: 197) argues for greater interdisciplinary integration. This may occur in projects which draw on several domains as would, for example, work on climate change or sustainability. Such integration raises the possibility that some domain knowledge could be ignored.

Technical-rational model Derived from behaviourism, this model has spread from the training and competency world to most levels of education. It breaks down curricular topics into a sequence of aims, objectives, assessment, methods and evaluation, with an emphasis on learner outcomes (Tyler 1947). It assumes centralized control of teaching and learning enshrined in a prescriptive set of procedures to be implemented and outcomes to be pursued. The learner is assumed to be passive and the teacher is assumed to be acting diligently in line with prescribed curricular goals. In extreme cases the ideal curriculum would be ‘scripted’ and ‘teacher proof’ (Beghetto and Kaufman 2010: 191). The constructs of creativity as product and innovation are most compatible with the technical-rational approach. The model has been accused of leaving no room for deviation from predetermined objectives, teacher artistry or learners’ autonomous decision-making − all important for creativity.

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Implications of product models for creativity A curriculum designer promoting creativity within a product model should:

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organize themes or current issues as learning experiences; plan schedules, syllabi and activities around integrative themes; use the domains and disciplines as resources for integration; demonstrate the potential for creativity within every subject domain; clarify criteria for creative outcomes; determine evidence required to meet criteria; explore students’ understanding of creativity; negotiate learning outcomes with students; provide supportive formative assessment; encourage self and peer assessment.

Process models Child-centred model This model is derived from the ‘romantic’ view of childhood promoted by Rousseau in the eighteenth century and was embraced by early childhood and primary education in the 1960s and 70s, influenced by concepts of children’s discovery of the world by their own actions (Piaget 1926). In a child-centred curriculum, the role of the teacher is to facilitate play and release imagination in a caring environment that mirrors that of the home. It involves individualized learning depending on the needs of the child, rather than the subject. These ideas were adopted by other levels of education in the form of learner-centred approaches, often presented in opposition to teachercentred ones. The child-centred curricula of the 1960s fell into disrepute because they were too unstructured and casual to lead to deep learning. However, a Vygotskian perspective sees play as a vital tool for the development of imagination and reasoning (Karpov 2003). The constructs of creativity as process and cognition are most compatible with the child-centred model. Creative potential can be released by the freedom provided by a child-centred curriculum. There are direct links between the views of Abraham Maslow (1973) concerning fulfilment and agency − the capacity and creativity to take charge of your own life − and everyday ‘small c’ creativity (Richards 2010: 193). Anna Craft (2002) has called this ‘life-wide’ creativity’.

‘Stenhouse’ approach In the late 1960s, the English educationalist Lawrence Stenhouse advocated a process model in which the classroom was a laboratory and the curriculum an experiment to be adapted by altering ingredients or methods, depending on the context and resources

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(Stenhouse 1975). The role of the teacher was that of a researcher in the classroom trying out different approaches. Learners were to be co-collaborators in evaluating the success of the curriculum. Apart from the general difficulty of separating processes and products, two particular problems arise with curriculum as process. At one extreme, the term ‘process’ becomes all-encompassing and interchangeable with education; at the other extreme, processes may be reduced to the acquisition of skills. However, this model shows a potential for creativity at many stages, and it is unsurprising that the change in curricular emphasis suggested by the process model mirrored the change in emphasis in creativity research, from the construct of creativity as a product to that of a cognitive process.

Case study: the Humanities Curriculum Project The 1970s English Humanities Curriculum Project for less academic 14- to 16-year-olds integrated English, history, geography, religious education and social studies. It focused the curriculum around themes drawn from practical life or controversial or contested topics such as ‘racism’. The aim was to meet the actual needs of the individual and the community, and to stimulate divergent thinking and debate, with teachers adopting a neutral position. The curricular treatment of racism in this project showed a high level of racist attitudes among English adolescents. The findings and methodology were not endorsed by the sponsoring agency, and the project was suspended (Stenhouse 1971).

Implications of process models for creativity A curriculum designer promoting creativity within a process model should:

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evaluate the process and the expected outcomes with learners; provide an enriched classroom environment; incorporate play and imaginative activity into the curriculum; acknowledge and celebrate ordinary and everyday creativity; look for opportunities for students to pursue their own interests; model creative thinking; view the classroom as a unique site for testing approaches; consult and collaborate with learners; plan activities in association with learners; experiment with collaborative curricular plans of action.

Process-product model This model is a compromise position between the two major approaches of process and product as discussed above.

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Teaching for understanding The ‘Teaching for Understanding’ (TfU) movement, developed by the Harvard Project Zero in the latter part of the twentieth century, is based on constructivist theory which stresses learning as understanding. The curriculum is built around a number of goals of understanding drawn from disciplinary knowledge, which must be demonstrated in performance. It is has led to a recent secondary and tertiary curriculum model, which emphasizes disciplinary knowledge (Wiske 1998). The teacher’s role is to orchestrate varied, complex and often collaborative student performances, displaying increased sophistication of understanding. Some concepts vital to progress within a disciplinary area may cause students difficulty, because they are counter-intuitive. These have been called ‘threshold concepts’ (Land et al. 2007). Once acquired, they are irreversible and transform a student’s way of knowing. Most of the constructs of creativity are relevant to this curricular model. Disciplinary knowledge and performance are both central to current views of creativity (Sawyer 2010: 368−72), and the way that threshold concepts reveal the hidden connections between aspects of a subject is often integrative and creative.

Implications of a TfU model for creativity A curriculum designer promoting creativity within a TfU model should:

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relate understanding to performance; orchestrate learner performances of understanding; vary the nature of creative performances (making, solving, explaining); reward varied, collaborative and public performances; interrogate disciplinary areas in terms of purposes and values; demand integrated performances of knowledge, skills and values; encourage improvisation and extension of standard techniques; challenge conventional thinking with counter-intuitive aspects of subjects; be aware that sophisticated performance needs time to develop; require performance to be realistic, complex and authentic.

Dynamic models Lived This is the curriculum as it is experienced in dynamic classroom interactions between students, teachers, the environment and the enshrined curriculum. The role of teachers is one that is responsive to events: ‘You’ve got to improvise –it’s like a performance in a way. One in which the audience can heckle and change the ending. You just have to prepare as best you can and then cope’ (Edwards et al. 2006: 60). According to the Canadian curriculum theorist Ted Aoki (2005: 362), the lived curriculum shows that teaching is not primarily a rationally planned activity. Creativity can arise at any stage and moment in the classroom as a response to its contingencies: ‘You have to fall back

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on your own creative processes’ (Edwards et al. 2006: 64), and curriculum design is a creative act in its own right. A possible weakness of the dynamic nature of a lived curriculum is that it is reactive to events rather than proactive. Creativity assessment may present a problem. On the one hand, pre-existing assessment criteria may dampen dynamic interactions or new possibilities; on the other, students’ creative work may lack credibility unless it is assessed and recognized (Edwards et al. 2006: 67).

Hidden The hidden curriculum comprises all those tacit rules and conventions about the curriculum that participants share by ‘knowing how to play the game’. It includes the view that the curriculum always has an ideological aspect which mirrors the structural relationships in society, and thus reproduces social disadvantage (Apple 1979). The hidden curriculum includes expectations about power relationships, classroom practices, assessment regimes and student conformity. Student expectations of the curriculum may be manifested in ‘conservative’ strategies intended to maximize their success in summative assessment. For example, a higher education teacher found that innovative assessment techniques were not welcomed by final year students who expected the final examination paper to be similar to that of previous years (Edwards et al. 2006: 68−9). Student complacency should be challenged at a much earlier stage to accommodate creative pedagogy.

Implications of dynamic models for creativity A teacher promoting creativity within a dynamic curriculum model should:

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be aware that the prescribed curriculum will be enacted in a unique way; accept departures from the curriculum as creative opportunities; be responsive to students’ interests and enthusiasms; grasp opportunities as they arise; be aware of the influence of class and social structures on the curriculum; balance proactive planning with responsive pedagogy; make expectations about creativity explicit from the start; expect creativity from the intersection of influences and environment; investigate the tension between curricular structure and creative agency; take calculated risks in the classroom.

A summary of all the curriculum models discussed in this section is given in Table 8.1.

The trajectories of curriculum policy In this section we briefly discuss the recent trajectories of curriculum policy, focusing on the national approaches of the West and East through an examination of curriculum policy of the UK, USA and China.

Interaction between learners, teachers, environment and enshrined curriculum Tacit rules, common-sense assumptions and conventions

Hidden

Lived

Dynamic models

Children’s discovery of the world Classroom experimentation

Constructivist understanding in performance

Stenhouse

Child-centred

Ways of thinking in the domains Aims and objectives for learner outcomes

Characteristics

Process-product Teaching for model understanding

Process models

Liberal-humanist

Product models

Technicalrational

Type

Curriculum model

Table 8.1 Summary of curriculum models

Contingent curriculum design itself creative

Need for alignment of teacher and student creativity

Behaves in accordance with conventions and supports accepted ideology

Integrative effect of acquiring threshold concepts

Creative processes rather than product

Imaginative play

Essential domain mastery Creativity specified in outcomes

Creative potential

Improvises response to events as they occur

Orchestrates learner performance

Facilitates play and imagination Acts as a researcher

Models subject expertise Follows set procedures

Teacher role

Mismatch between teacher and student ideas of creativity May reproduce inequality

Creativity constrained by success criteria

Threshold concepts within disciplinary areas

Difficult to separate process and product All-encompassing process Reduced to skill acquisition

Lack of structure

Perceived as elitist and lacking vocational focus Removes teacher and learner autonomy

Possible problems

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Creativity forms part of many national and transnational educational policies, intended to raise educational achievement, generate higher employment and strengthen economic performance. However, some creativity researchers have argued that a globalized market-driven approach to creativity in education, based on western capitalist individualism, has questionable ethical, ecological and cultural consequences (Craft 2007; Gardner 2008).

The UK Craft (2007: 6−14) identified three waves of creativity in the 1960s, 1990s and 2000s.

1960s The 1967 Plowden Report promoted a child-centred ‘discovery’ curriculum, with selfexpression, play and creativity seen uncritically as ‘good things’. In the 1980s, in reaction to this laissez-faire approach, the English National Curriculum demanded an emphasis on prescribed subjects.

1990s The 1999 All Our Futures report warned that the existing national school curriculum hindered creativity, taking the democratic view that everyone is capable of creative achievement. Creativity was seen as a cross-curricular transferable skill, though this view of creativity as a form of thinking skill is challenged by John White (2004). The fostering of pupil creativity was linked with culture and social integration – for example, in the collaborations between schools and arts practitioners.

2000s Creativity is considered to be vital for everyone at a critical time in history, and this view is enshrined in a plethora of English national policies emanating from educational organizations which address different aspects of creativity and the curriculum.

Trajectory The policy-making in relation to creativity can be considered in terms of structure and agency. Structure

Agency

The extent to which social structures determine people’s lives; predetermined curricula can be viewed as social structures The extent to which people are free to act as they wish

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UK Agency

Structure

1960s: child-centred education Plowden Report Subject emphasis in schools 1980s: National Curriculum 1990s: democratization of creativity NACCE report Standards in higher education 1990s: Research Assessment Exercise

2000: government reports Creative Partnership Scheme Literacy and numeracy 2006: Primary National Strategy

Figure 8.1 Policy trajectory in the UK with respect to structure and agency Creativity can be viewed as a feature of agency and the oscillation between these two emphases in UK curriculum policy is shown in Figure 8.1.

The USA 1960s Despite being the home of creativity research, the influence of creativity on curriculum was intermittent, perhaps due to concerns about educational standards in a multiethnic society.

1970s–80s In this period, creativity was addressed in gifted education programmes, in Harvard’s Project Zero and in the radical Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE). However, America’s low ranking in international league tables (Wiggins 2011: 322) explains why the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 sidelined curricular activities not leading to gains in literacy and numeracy.

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2000s The important 2004 Innovate America Report argued that creativity contributes to national economic goals. Recently, there have been calls for curricula promoting creativity in public school education, especially for those schools that had adopted narrow curricula ‘in response to external accountability mandates’ (Beghetto 2010: 459). Twelve states working with technology leaders in The Partnership for 21st Century Skills have identified the essential skills of the twenty-first-century school curriculum as follows (Hargreaves 2011: 340):

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creativity and innovation; critical thinking and problem-solving; communication and collaboration; information, media and technological literacy; flexibility and adaptability; initiative and self-direction; social and cross-cultural skills; leadership and responsibility.

In 2010 the Obama Administration pioneered a federal education policy, ‘Race to the Top’, aiming to enforce more rigorous standards in the secondary curriculum. It is difficult to see how creativity fits into this programme.

Trajectory The oscillation in curriculum policy in the USA between structure and agency over the course of time is shown in Figure 8.2.

China A distinction between creativity in the East and the West is that the East sees creativity as a reinterpretation of tradition, whereas the West sees creativity as breaking from it (Leong 2011: 58).

Pre-communism Until the advent of communism in the mid-twentieth century, the Chinese official core curriculum was determined by the centralized ‘Imperial Examination’, which venerated the classical Confucian canon (Leong 2011: 55).

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USA Structure

Agency

Concern about standards 1960s: Head Start Programme 1972:

Gifted children Marland Report

2006: Reaction against accountability Chicago Arts Partnership 2000s: National economic goals Council for Competitiveness 2000s: Concern about standards No Child Left Behind 2010: Rigorous standards Race to the Top

Figure 8.2 Policy trajectory in the USA with respect to structure and agency

1980s In the 1980s, after the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping spearheaded Chinese economic reforms and modernization (Tobin et al. 2011: 155). In order to participate successfully in the global economy, he believed that China required citizens who would be more creative, risk-taking and adaptive (Tobin et al. 2011: 157).

2000s China adopted a new western-style curriculum reform policy in 2001, beginning with a more child-centred preschool curriculum. The importation of western constructivist teaching and learning methods had five tenets:

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student-centeredness; local devolution of educational decision-making; international understanding; environmental responsiveness; a shift from content focus.

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China Agency

Structure Pre-communism: Traditional imperial examination Confucian Heritage

1980s: Global competitiveness Need for Creative People

2001: Western constructivist methods Curricular reform 2006: Eastern virtuosity combined with western learner focus Hybrid pedagogy

Figure 8.3 Policy trajectory in China with respect to structure and agency The national goal of promoting creativity is closely tied to the domains of science, mathematics and business. China is ahead of Japan, and both are ahead of the USA in supporting mathematical thinking in young children. Some western countries are now attempting to raise mathematical standards by means of eastern teaching methods (Hoven and Garelick 2007). There is now a resurgence of Confucian values in mainland China and Singapore. The period of borrowing from western sources appeared to change in 2006, with the emergence of a hybrid pedagogy that combines eastern values of virtuosity and learning as self-perfection, with western child-centred pedagogies (Tobin et al. 2011: 157). The oscillation in curriculum policy in China between structure and agency over the course of time is shown in Figure 8.3.

Curriculum and creativity at different levels Preschool Early childhood educators such as Pestalozzi in Switzerland saw the role of the educator as a holistic one: ‘to teach children, not subjects’ (Maxim 1985: 38), and creativity is now embedded explicitly in early years’ curricula. For example, the English Foundation Stage curriculum (2000−7), identifies creativity as one of six key areas, with accompanying strategies and staff development (Craft 2007: 5). Preschool should also address the development of reasoning, self-regulation and interpersonal relationships (Banaji et al. 2006: 56).

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Modern early childhood curricula also acknowledge the importance of environment and resources. The Italian Reggio Emilia schools see the environment as the ‘third teacher’, after parents and teachers, and claim that preschool children should have the following (Gandini 1998: 177):

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some control over their own learning; the chance to learn through physical experience; relationships with others and with materials; endless opportunities for self-expression, not simply through the arts.

Primary level Teachers are responsible for teaching children to read, write and get along with others. Primary curricula need to develop and support not only literacy and numeracy skills, but also many other subjects, ranging from citizenship education to emotional intelligence, as the school takes responsibility for major social concerns. Developing creativity may be hindered because time for unstructured activities is driven out of the classroom since core skills take priority. Rather than teaching creativity on its own, embedding it in the curriculum can develop pupils’ curiosity, ingenuity and thinking. The basic curriculum may be temporarily suspended to allow for integrated or interdisciplinary projects. In the USA Alane Starko analysed creative elementary classroom products and found different ways of doing sums, drawings based on stories and interactive questioning in science lessons (Starko 2005). In another example, the integration of literacy skills transformed an English school playground into a poetry space, with poems written by pupils on display for reading aloud (Chamberlain 2007: 74).

Secondary level The secondary curriculum introduces learners to a range of subject discourses. For example, the English National Curriculum specifies 12 subjects of which 8 are specifically identified as creative: English, mathematics, science, design technology, information technology, art and design, music and physical education, while the remainder refer to divergent thinking. All subjects have the potential for creativity. For example, in Benjamin Bloom’s revised Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives, ‘synthesis changed places with evaluation and was renamed “create”’ (Krathwohl 2002: 213). The All Our Futures report (NACCCE 1999) warned that the existing national school curriculum hindered creativity, taking the democratic view that everyone is capable of creative achievement; creativity was seen as a cross-curricular transferable skill. However, crowded timetables and pressure from national assessment systems limit the space for creativity. As Julian Sefton-Smith claims, ‘despite the enthusiasm generated, the organisation of the school day with its narrow subject disciplines, short

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working periods and heavy assessment load are opposed to the principles of digital art work and inhibit the success of such projects’ (in Banaji et al. 2006: 48). Typical extrinsic motivators for creativity include science fairs, art exhibitions, poetry and story-writing competitions. Intrinsic motivation can be provided by celebrating small acts of student creativity that are new to the person, not new to the world (Boden 2004: 11) though, as Starko (2005: 114) maintains, creativity is not always expressed and expressible in school-appropriate ways.

Vocational sector National policies emphasize the transferable skills necessary to develop an adaptable workforce. These generic skills include creativity in the form of entrepreneurship, and innovativeness. The vocational curriculum should help learners to diagnose and build on their strengths, and be aware of career opportunities and pathways − for example, in the creative industries, which now account for a quarter of all new jobs in the USA (Florida 2004). Andy Hargreaves (2011: 340) identifies essential cross-curricular skills that adolescents should possess:

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critical thinking and problem-solving; collaboration/leadership across networks; mental agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurship; effective communication; accessing and analysing information; curiosity and imagination; self and group expression; exploration of identity and ambitions; self-determination and direction.

Partnerships with external partners are important for entry into a community of practice and for the development of expertise through a mentoring process with more experienced practitioners (Lave and Wenger 1991).

Higher education Undergraduate Higher education is concerned with subject mastery and advanced understanding, and graduate status acknowledges membership of a community of practice. It indicates the graduate’s ability to pose and solve problems within a specific domain. The UK’s Imaginative Curriculum Project (Jackson et al. 2006) presents many instances of creative practices and opportunities to build creativity into a range of disciplines. Recommendations include the provision of spaces within the curriculum for

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students to try new things and the extension of teaching approaches beyond traditional lectures and seminars. More flexible approaches to assessment include the incorporation of group work into traditional essays (Edwards et al. 2006: 67), and opportunities for formative assessment. However many professional bodies dislike imaginative alternatives to traditional examinations. Other barriers to creativity in higher education include the perception that it is the prerogative of arts courses, and the time constraints of modular structures and semesterization. Commentators on HE curricula projects stress light touch accountability and a culture which welcomes diversity, accepts multi-disciplinarity, and tolerates risk-taking and failure (Edwards et al. 2006: 73; Costello 2007).

Postgraduate Postgraduate qualifications denote expert status, with an ability to evaluate the work of peers. Students at this level must be at the cutting edge of their subject. Doctoral students create new knowledge, so originality is central. Estelle Phillips and Derek Pugh (2005) document 15 ways of achieving originality in research. In the past, postgraduate study involved private self-directed research. Structured programmes now complement original contributions with personal transferable skills such as collaboration, team working and self-management, which contribute to creativity (Carlile and Jordan 2010).

Conclusion At first glance, there appears to be a fundamental incompatibility between planned curricula and unpredictable creativity. In reality, there is potential for creativity in all curricular models. National policies and directives now place a high premium on creativity and, as the chapter has shown, creativity can be a major aspect of all educational levels.

References Aoki, T.T. (2005) Curriculum in a New Key: The Collected Works of Ted T. Aoki, ed. W.F. Pinar and R.L. Irwin. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Apple, M.W. (1979) Ideology as Curriculum. London: Routledge. Banaji, S., Burn, A. and Buckingham, D. (2006) Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature. London: Arts Council England. Beane, J.A. (2011) Curriculum integration and the disciplines of knowledge, in J. SeftonGreen, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. Abingdon: Routledge.

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Beghetto, R.A. (2010) Creativity in the classroom, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beghetto, R.A. and Kaufman, J.C. (2010) Broadening conceptions of creativity in the classroom, in R.A. Beghetto and J.C. Kaufman (eds) Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. Boden, M.A. (2004) The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Bruner, J.S. (1979) On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Carlile, O. and Jordan, A. (2010) Personal Development Planning. Sligo: Irish Research Alliance. Chamberlain, L. (2007) Creativity and literacy, in A. Wilson (ed.) Creativity in Primary Education, 2nd edn. Exeter: Learning Matters. Costello, N. (2007) Some challenges for higher education, paper presented at the WIT, NUIM and TSPU Creativity Conference, Dublin, May. Craft, A. (2002) Creativity and Early Years Education: A Lifewide Foundation. London: Continuum. Craft, A. (2007) Changes in the landscape for creativity in education, in A. Wilson (ed.) Creativity in Primary Education, 2nd edn. Exeter: Learning Matters. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. Edwards, M., McGoldrick, C. and Oliver, M. (2006) Creativity and curricula in higher education: academics’ perspectives, in N. Jackson, M. Oliver, M. Shaw and J. Wisdom (eds) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. London: Routledge. Florida, R. (2004) The Rise of the Creative Class and How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, & Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books. Gandini, L. (1998) Educational and caring spaces, in C. Edwards, L. Gandini and G. Forman (eds) The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education − Advanced Reflections. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Gardner, H. (2008) Five Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Hargreaves, A. (2011) Twenty-first century skills are from Mercury: learning, life and school reform, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. London: Routledge. Hirst, P.H. (1974) Knowledge and the Curriculum. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Hoven, J. and Garelick, B. (2007) Singapore math: simple or complex? Educational Leadership, 65(3): 28−31.

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Jackson, N., Oliver, M., Shaw, M. and Wisdom, J. (eds) (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. London: Routledge. Karpov, Y.V. (2003) Development through the lifespan: a neo-Vygotskian approach, in A. Kozulin, B. Gimdis, V.S. Ageyev, and S.M. Miller (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kelly, A.V. (1983) The Curriculum: Theory and Practice. London: Paul Chapman. Krathwohl, D.R. (2002) A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: an overview, Theory Into Practice, 41(4). Land, R., Meyer, J.F. and Smith, J. (eds) (2007) Threshold Concepts Within the Disciplines. Abingdon: Routledge. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leong, S. (2011) Creativity and the arts in Chinese society, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. London: Routledge. Maslow, A.H. (1973) Creativity in self-actualising people, in A. Rothenberg and C.R. Hausman (eds) The Creative Question. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Maxim, G.W. (1985) The Very Young: Guiding Children from Infancy Through the Early Years, 2nd edn. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture And Education. Sudbury: DfEE. Phillips, E. and Pugh, D.S. (2005) How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors, 4th edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Piaget, J. (1926) The Language and Thought of the Child. London: Routledge. Richards, R. (2010) Everyday creativity: process and way of life − four key issues, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sawyer, R.K. (2010) Individual and group creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Starko, A.J. (2005) Creativity in the Classroom: Schools of Curious Delight, 3rd edn. New York: Lawrence Elbaum. Stenhouse, L. (1971) The Humanities Curriculum Project: the rationale, Theory into Practice, 10(3). Stenhouse, L. (1975) An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London: Heinemann. Tobin, J., Hayashi, A. and Zang, J. (2011) Approaches to promoting creativity in Chinese, Japanese and US preschools, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and

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L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. Abingdon: Routledge. Tyler, R.W. (1947) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. White, J. (ed.) (2004) Re-thinking the School Curriculum: Values, Aims and Purposes. London: Routledge-Falmer. Wiggins, G. (2011) Creative learning, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. London: Routledge. Wiske, M.S. (ed.) (1998) Teaching for Understanding. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Chapter 9 Assessing creativity

Introduction People prefer one pop star to another, or like certain paintings and dislike others. Book clubs discuss the merits of various authors, and newspapers regularly contain reviews of opera, ballet, plays and films. Creativity is being assessed all the time in a casual way. We often hear people refer to someone else as ‘a creative person’ and there are generally accepted examples of creative geniuses such as Mozart, Picasso or Einstein. However, the situation becomes more complex when we try to assess creativity in a formal systematic or scientific manner that is of relevance and use to education. In assessing creativity, the usual problem of definition arises. As Jonathan Plucker and Matthew Makel (2010: 48) point out: ‘Despite the abundance of definitions of creativity and related terms, few are widely used and many researchers simply avoid defining the relevant terms at all’. However, avoiding explicit definitions just means that they will be implicit. Different assessment methods based on such implicit definitions are likely to be mutually inconsistent. This slippery slope leads to the view that creativity is either too difficult to assess or too ambiguous to be useful. If creativity cannot be assessed in an objective or consistent manner, then creativity assessment could be reduced to a matter of opinion – saying something is creative is praising it rather than measuring an objective quality. From an educational point of view, teachers may even legitimately ask what the point would be of measuring creativity. One defensible purpose is formative, to provide feedback, to motivate or to encourage learner autonomy. However, if the purpose is summative, to categorize or predict academic success, this is already being served effectively by intelligence testing. There is a parallel with intelligence tests in the way that the tests and the definition have a tendency to form a closed loop. Edwin Boring’s (1923) ironic definition of intelligence as the thing that intelligence tests measure could be applied to creativity as the thing that creativity tests measure. In considering assessment it is useful therefore to look at the constructs we have already identified, presented in Table 9.1. Different constructs lead to different assessment methods. Although some straddle a number of methods, they can be grouped into four categories for assessment as: creative environments, containing creative people who undertake creative thinking to produce creative products. Possession is an outlier when it comes to assessment. As Plucker and Makel (2010: 49) remark: ‘If creativity is inspired by a muse, then it falls beyond the scope of scientific investigation’. However it can be assessed by means of its results in the form of products. Table 9.2 illustrates the way the constructs lead to a different assessment focus.

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Table 9.1 Constructs of creativity Possession Product Genius Process Attributes Cognition Innovation Social Everyday

The taking over of individuals by some outside spirit The production of an identifiable creative product The inexplicable personal preserve of uniquely outstanding people The identifiable activities and processes from which creativity emerges Exceptional but explicable qualities and patterns of behaviour A form of thinking resulting from particular brain processes The novelty and originality of some product or process Creativity shaped by a range of personal, social and cultural contexts The normal creative engagement with the environment

A modern systems approach would examine the complex mutual interaction of these four components, but in accordance with the way creativity assessment developed historically, we will consider them as discrete entities. Table 9.2 Assessment focus and creativity constructs Assessment focus

Constructs of creativity

Creative thinking Creative people Creative environments Creative products

Process, cognition, everyday Genius, attributes Social Product, innovation, possession

Creative thinking From the 1950s onwards, there was a surge of interest in a psychometric approach to creative thinking. J.P. Guilford (1950) drew attention to two kinds of thinking. Convergent thinking involves finding the single best ‘correct’ answer to a problem. A typical simple mathematics test or logical puzzle involves convergent thinking focusing on a single solution, and is generally not considered very creative. Divergent thinking involves finding as many different ideas as possible. A typical design problem would require the generation of multiple possible solutions to a given brief. This is considered to be creative. This divergent thinking phase would be followed by a convergent thinking phase of evaluation and selection of the preferred option.

Creativity testing Guilford (1988) developed a complex structure of intellect (SOI) model which led to categorizations of different types of divergent thinking and resulting products, and the

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design of a number of psychometric tests to measure creative thinking. Another US psychologist, Ellis Paul Torrance (1974) built on the work of Guilford to produce the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). These come in two different forms that can be alternated. One requires creative thinking in the form of words and the other in the form of pictures.

Verbal In the verbal form of the tests, participants are requested to:

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ask questions about a given image; guess how a certain situation might have arisen; speculate on what might happen next; suggest improvements to a toy; suggest unusual uses for an everyday object such as a cardboard box; speculate about an unusual situation such as people no longer requiring sleep.

Figural In the figural form of the tests, participants are asked to:

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make a picture out of a given stimulus shape; complete and title an unfinished picture; convert a set of lines or circles into a picture.

The tests evaluate creativity in terms of fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration (Cropley 2001: 106; Plucker and Makel 2010: 51–6). Fluency Flexibility Originality Elaboration

The number of ideas produced The extent to which ideas can change direction The extent to which ideas are novel The extent to which details are added to a particular idea

For example, in planning a school trip, a teacher could display fluency by thinking of a large number of possible destinations, flexibility by thinking of different kinds of school trips, originality by thinking of things that had never been done before and elaboration by thinking of many variations on an activity holiday. Torrance’s paper and pencil tests are carried out under strict psychometric conditions that might inhibit creative thinking. To counteract this, Wallach and Kogan (Cropley 2001: 107) designed tests to be carried out in a more relaxed game-like atmosphere.

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Educational implications There has been an enormous amount of research interest in creativity assessment since the 1950s and many different psychometric instruments have been developed. The assessment of creative thinking is particularly suited to education since classroom tests can meet the requirements of standardized conditions and the results can permit the direct comparison and ranking of students. Combined with intelligence testing, creativity assessment can be used as a starting point for:

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remediation programmes (Meeker and Meeker 1982); intervention for gifted students (Renzulli 1978); talent spotting and developing (Renzulli 1994); problem-solving programmes (Isaksen and Treffinger 1985).

On the other hand, it is important for teachers to treat results of divergent thinking tests with caution: ‘Most psychologists now agree that divergent thinking tests do not predict creative ability and that divergent thinking is not the same thing as creativity’ (Sawyer 2010: 180). However, although cognitive skills such as problem-solving and divergent thinking are not creativity per se, they are related to it. An argument can be made for assessment of these skills in schools, but teachers need to exercise caution if they propose to test their students for creativity and need to justify the testing on the basis of what is to be done with the results. Teachers who wish to assess the creative thinking of learners should:

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explain the nature and uses of convergent and divergent thinking; relate creative thinking to disciplinary content; show the potential for creative thinking in different subjects; encourage divergent thinking through interdisciplinary approaches; explain the value of psychometric testing for creative thinking; treat tests as fun, non-threatening and formative; present tests as self-assessment exercises; assist learners to interpret formative assessment; encourage discussion and counter-argument; show how creative thinking can be developed using specific techniques.

Creative people Another approach to creativity assessment is based on the extent to which a person is deemed to be creative in terms of personality, motivation and behaviour.

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Personality Creative people have been found to possess certain personality traits (Davis in Plucker and Makel 2010: 56):

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awareness of their creativity; originality; independence; risk-taking; personal energy; curiosity; humour; attraction to complexity and novelty; artistic sense; open-mindedness; need for privacy; heightened perception.

Plucker and Makel (2010: 56) cite research evidence to suggest that the characteristics of a creative personality are developmental, ‘with the potential for greatest change occurring during adolescence and young adulthood’.

Motivation Creative people display particular motivations or attitudes (Cropley 2001: 124):

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goal-directedness; fascination for a task or area; resistance to premature closure; risk-taking; preference for asymmetry or irregularity; preference for complexity; willingness to ask many unusual questions; willingness to display results; willingness to consult other people (but not to simply to carry out orders); desire to go beyond the conventional.

It is clear that a person can have all the creativity skills in abundance but may not be motivated to use them, due to a lack of self-esteem or efficacy, risk-aversion, strong self-regulation, perfectionism or conservatism. A number of creativity self-assessment tests are described in Table 9.3.

Behaviour Since the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour, it stands to reason that if a person has been creative in the past then they are likely to continue to be so. However,

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Table 9.3 Creativity self-assessment tests Creator

Year

Name

Description

Byrd

1986

Creatrix Inventory of Byrd

Integrates cognitive and motivational dimensions of creativity

Basadur and Hausdorf

1996

Basadur Preferential Scale

Contains statements to which respondents express their degree of agreement

Schaefer

1971

Creativity Attitude Survey

Contains 30 self-rating items to be answered by a simple yes or no

Tierney and Farmer

2002

Creative Self-efficacy Test

Measures the extent to which particular individuals believe they can be creative

some research has found that people who make a creative breakthrough early in their careers may be constrained by that success in any future projects (Goncalo et al. 2010). A number of activity checklists allow the recording of past creative behaviours by participants or observers. For example, the Creativity Achievement Questionnaire, described by Shelley Carson et al. (2005), asks respondents to rate their own creative achievements in drama, music, humour, visual arts, dance, invention, science and cooking. In the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS) described by Joseph Renzulli et al. (2002), parents or teachers rate a child’s creative behaviour.

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Educational implications If creativity is viewed as a personal attribute, then assessment of personality can be used as a measurement of creative potential. However, assessing personality is a very sensitive issue; it can be argued that teachers should be assessing academic achievement rather than students’ personalities. Schools are aware of the dangers of going too close to personality. As Woody Allen quips: ‘I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me’ (Allen 1999). Students’ personalities are in part genetically determined and not amenable to substantial educational intervention. Many of the creative personality traits listed above are not suited to whole group class teaching nor are they likely to attract teacher approval. However, although schools cannot create creative risk-takers, they have a role in exposing them to a broad range of challenging experiences and a stimulating environment. In responding to personalities, motivation and behaviours, teachers should:

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demystify creativity to lessen fear and insecurity; be aware that young adulthood is a critical period for identity creation; resist understandable antipathy to non-compliant creative personalities; focus formative assessment on creative potential rather than personality; develop learners’ intrinsic motivation by recognizing small creative acts; reward more than the naturally talented; develop self-efficacy through opportunities for creative endeavour; challenge learners’ assumptions and expectations with new experiences; model creative behaviours and practices; celebrate everyday modest creativity and past creative behaviour.

Creative environments The environment is very important and can be physical or social and psychological, and includes the environmental culture and climate shaped by a range of personal, social, cultural and technological contexts. For example, the Renaissance took place in a physical environment which included a confluence of Mediterranean, Asian and Northern European influences. Italy itself had a range of intersecting and competing territories and jurisdictions. There was even a surprising amount of international travel resulting in cross-fertilization of ideas and styles. The social and cultural environments

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of the Church and wealthy patrons supported creative individuals who fulfilled commissions for patrons with a competitive drive for status. More recently, the creativity displayed by the computer industry is facilitated by contexts such as California where the warm physical and cultural climate encourages communication and relaxed interaction. The social and psychological climate of mobility and flexibility encourages openness to new ideas and formal and informal exchanges. The culture of openness facilitates creativity in a paradoxical combination of relaxation and obsession. What the above examples have in common are physical and social environments conducive to interaction and a critical mass of creative individuals, coming together under circumstances offering them the flexibility, time and creative space to share and develop ideas. In assessing creative environments we draw on the work of Amabile and her colleagues (1996b) who developed the KEYS ‘Assessing the Climate for Creativity’ instrument which assesses the organizational environment for creativity. Major environmental supportive factors identified include:

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encouragement of risk-taking; encouragement of idea generation; supportive evaluation of ideas; collaborative idea flow; participative management and decision-making; clarity of team goals; managerial support; open interaction; team supports integrating diverse members; freedom to select methods to achieve ends; sufficient but not unlimited resources; constructive challenge.

Amabile et al. also identified the major environmental obstacles presented by:

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control of decision-making; control of information flow; control of rewards overemphasizing external motivation.

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Educational implications Whereas thinking and personality rely largely on people as causative agents, the many elements of the environment are outside the control of the educator. However, the assessment of the environment in relation to its potential for creativity is important, as many commentators such as Amabile argue. Educational environments tend to be physically similar and uniform with buildings, classrooms, laboratories and so on. It is therefore difficult to achieve the diversity and flexibility displayed in, for example, the Renaissance and in Silicon Valley. However, flexibility may be possible at a micro level in adapting learning spaces. Inspirational educational leaders and individual teachers have greater autonomy in creating exciting and flexible social and cultural environments, as described in Susan Rowe and Susan Humphries 2001. Amabile’s work can be adapted easily to an educational setting where corresponding supports and impediments to creativity can be identified. Creative environments can be assessed in terms of the extent to which they:

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identify physical spaces that can be utilized flexibly; encourage risk-taking in teaching, learning and curriculum; encourage open and collaborative sharing and evaluation of ideas; involve learners in management decision-making; set and support clear team goals; look for ways of supporting and expanding learner creativity; give everyone freedom to select methods to achieve curricular ends; provide sufficient but not unlimited resources to encourage creativity; challenge assumptions and orthodox expectations; avoid inhibiting individual creativity with external summative rewards; identify and seek to counteract constraining control mechanisms.

Creative products Creative personality traits and creative attitudes lead to creative behaviour which results in creative products. It is possible to assess the extent to which a product is creative either on the basis of certain criteria or on the basis of the consensus of experts.

Criteria-based assessment When we say a certain product is creative we are making an assessment on the basis of some criteria – often not explicitly articulated. For example, we may claim to ‘know creativity when we see it’. Moreover, it is difficult to articulate explicit criteria for creativity since different products may be creative in different ways, depending on the

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discipline or activity. However, creativity assessment may benefit from explicit and agreed criteria. A general assessment of creative products (Cropley 2001: 6, 98) will categorize them as: Novel Relevant Effective Ethical

Previously unknown Related to a particular situation Helping to solve a particular problem For a good purpose

A more formal approach to the criteria-based assessment of products is the Creative Product Inventory (Taylor and Getzels 2007: 297–325) which specifies seven criteria: Generation Reformulation Originality Relevance Hedonics Complexity Condensation

Potential fruitfulness of a product Extent to which a product causes change in a field Novelty and uniqueness of a product Appropriateness and value of a product Attractiveness or popularity of a product Intricacy or comprehensiveness of a product Amount of unification a product exhibits

The above criteria depend on the context of their field. Sternberg (1999) claims that a creative product ‘propels’ a field or knowledge domain in a number of ways, as shown in Table 9.4. Table 9.4 How creative products ‘propel’ a field Conceptual replication Redefinition Forward incrementation Advanced forward incrementation Redirection Reconstruction and redirection Re-initiation

Applies an existing idea to a new field Sees something in a new way Extends knowledge in an already existing direction Extends by exceeding what is currently tolerable Takes a known approach in a new direction Resurrects a previously abandoned approach Goes in a new direction from a radically new point

Consensus of experts Just as the proof of the pudding is not in the baking but in the eating, proof of creativity is also in the evaluation of others: ‘The most common approach to assessing creative products is to use the ratings of expert judges’ (Fleenor and Taylor 2004: 81). Nobel Prize committees exemplify this approach. Amabile suggests that a product can be considered creative if suitable independent observers agree on its creativity. This is known as the Consensual Assessment Technique

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(CAT) (Amabile 1996a) and has been called the ‘gold standard’ of creativity assessment (Baer 2010: 325) because it:

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is independent of definitions of creativity; is based on complete products or performances rather than elements; uses the comparative ratings of experts, as is standard in most domains.

Educational implications Because of the constraints of formal educational settings, it is difficult for learners to produce complete products. This presents a challenge to teachers who are responsible for assessment. Whereas most subjects value imaginative thinking and processes, subjects dealing with art and design oblige students to produce tangible creative products which need to be assessed. Teachers must make it clear however, that their expectations are for creative products that will be limited in scope and relevance in order to be realistic. Teachers who wish to assess the creative products of learners should:

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be aware that even imaginative thinking results in some product; be explicit in stating a requirement for creativity in a product; spell out criteria by which creative products can be summatively assessed (e.g. the Creative Product Inventory – CPI); model expert judgement; provide examples of expert judgement in different domains; bring expert practitioners into the classroom to explain their methods; let students practise assessing creative products – their own and others; show how consensus is arrived at; encourage group critiques of individual products; in higher education, show how peer review mechanisms operate.

Conclusion This chapter challenges the assumption that creativity cannot be measured, by offering four reasonable approaches to the assessment of creativity in the form of thinking, people, products and environments. The assessment of creativity is valuable – it raises the issue and makes creativity real rather than rhetorical, in accordance with Lord Kelvin’s (1892) view that measuring something means you can say something about it. The assessment of creativity is important from a pragmatic point of view because, if not assessed, it will either be squeezed out by the prescribed curriculum or reduced to rhetoric. Summative assessment and testing tend to determine the teaching approach – the assessment tail wags the curriculum dog. In order to be taken seriously, creativity

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needs to be seen as a legitimate area for assessment, fighting for its place in national curricula, testing regimes and disciplinary areas. We hope that the concepts and various scales and inventories presented will provide teachers and educationalists with some concepts and tools to interrogate creativity assessment. The chapter may also aid the development of connoisseurship by providing a vocabulary of critique and analysis.

References Allen, W. (1999) Standup Comic: 1964–1968, Rhino Label Audio CD. Amabile, T.M. (1996a) Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview. Amabile, T.M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J. and Herron, M. (1996b) Assessing the work environment for creativity, Academy of Management Journal, 39(5): 1154–84. Baer, J. (2010) Is creativity domain specific? in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Basadur, M. and Hausdorf, P.A. (1996) Measuring divergent thinking attitudes related to creative problem solving and innovation management, Creativity Research Journal, 9: 21–32. Boring, E.G. (1923) Intelligence as the tests test it, New Republic, 36: 35–7. Byrd, R.E. (1986) Creativity and Risk-taking. San Diego, CA: Pfeiffer International Publishers. Carson, S.H., Peterson, J.B. and Higgins, D.M. (2005) Reliability, validity, and factor structure of the creative achievement questionnaire, Creativity Research Journal, 17: 37–50. Cropley, A.J. (2001) Creativity in Education & Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators. London: Routledge-Falmer. Fleenor, J.W. and Taylor, S. (2004) The assessment of creativity, in M. Hersen (ed.) Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological Assessment, Vol. 4. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Goncalo, J.A., Vincent, L.C. and Audia, P.G. (2010) Early creativity as a constraint on future achievement, in D.H. Cropley, A.J. Cropley, J.C. Kaufman and M.A. Runco (eds) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Guilford, J.P. (1950) Creativity, American Psychologist, 5: 444–54. Guilford, J.P. (1988) Some changes in the structure of intellect model, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48: 1–4. Isaksen, S.G. and Treffinger, D.J. (1985) Creative Problem-solving: The Basic Course. Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.

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Kelvin, W.T. (1892) Popular Lectures and Addresses (1889), Vol. 1, 73, quoted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 19: 127. Meeker, M. and Meeker R. (1982) Structure-of-Intellect Learning Abilities Test: Evaluation, Leadership and Creative Thinking. El Segundo, CA: SOI Institute. Plucker, J.A. and Makel, M.C. (2010) Assessment of creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Renzulli, J.S. (1978) What makes giftedness? Re-examining a definition, Phi Delta Kappan, 60: 180–4. Renzulli, J.S. (1994) Schools for Talent Development: A Practical Plan for Total School Improvement. Mansfield, CT: Creative Learning Press. Renzulli, J.S., Smith, L.H., White, A.J., Callahan, C.M., Hartman, R.K. and Westberg, K.L. (2002) Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students. Technical and Administration Manual, revised edn. Mansfield, CT: Creative Learning Press. Rowe, S. and Humphries, S. (2001) Creating a climate for learning at Coombes Infant and Nursery School, in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Sawyer, R.K. (2010) Learning for creativity, in R.A. Beghetto and J.C. Kaufman (eds) Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. Schaefer, C.E. (1971) The Creative Attitude Survey. Jacksonville, IL: Psychologists and Educators Inc. Sternberg, R.J. (1999) A propulsion model of types of creative contributions, Review of General Psychology, 3(2): 83–100. Taylor, I.A. and Getzels. J.W. (eds) (2007) Perspectives in Creativity. Chicago: Aldine. Tierney, P. and Farmer, S.M. (2002) Creative self-efficacy: potential antecedents and relationship to creative performance, Academy of Management Journal, 45: 1137–48. Torrance, E.P. (1974) Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Norms-technical Manual. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.

Chapter 10 Collaborative creativity

Introduction In order to create the first feature-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney assembled 300 artists and designers from all over America. Modern video games, films and cartoons are commonly the collective productions of creative teams of writers, producers, researchers, animators, painters and software designers. This chapter considers the nature and value of group collaboration in creativity, including both its positive and negative aspects. Collaborative creative processes are discussed, followed by an exploration of a range of techniques involved in creative collaboration.

Rationale There has been a polarization of views concerning creativity either as an individual or a social phenomenon. However, creativity is now firmly established as social and collaborative. Craft offers the possibility of a ‘middle c’ creativity: ‘a new idea or product emerging from a small community or from within a single organisation’ (Craft 2008: 244); ‘Creative ideas emerge from joint thinking, from significant conversations and from sustained, shared struggles to achieve new insights by partners in thought’ (Moran and John-Steiner 2003). Even when you are alone, your insights can be traced back to earlier collaborations. Any new thinking which develops in a particular domain is the result of the collaborations, reinterpretations and syntheses which have developed over time. Historical emergence is like improvised conversation: ‘small sparks gathering together over time, and multiple dead ends’ (Sawyer 2008: xi−xii). Howard Gardner describes working with Bruner in 1965 on his curriculum project, Man: A Course of Study. Although they later fell out, Gardner saw their collaboration as the most important experience of his life, which influenced his own undertaking, Project Zero, a quarter of a century later (John-Steiner 2000: 164). Creativity arises from a wide diversity of views and multiple solutions to problems, rather than from a single viewpoint.

Benefits Multiple perspectives Collaboration takes many different perspectives into account from a range of situations and contexts, counteracting unchallenged individual crusades. ‘The wisdom of crowds’ in collaborative communities is superior to that of an individual.

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Intersubjectivity Collaboration allows individuals to see the extent to which their ideas are shared by others. This acts as a form of scaffolding and support for participants, leading to a shared understanding not previously possessed (Schrage 1990: 40).

Dialogical reasoning Social engagement and exploratory talk are important in the generation of creative ideas (Barnes and Todd 1995; Craft 2008). Such talk requires rules of discussion and criteria for agreement or challenge (Habermas 1984).

Knowledge construction The construction of new knowledge is based on collaboration in a worldwide community. For example, research builds cumulatively on previous work validated through dissemination and peer review.

Emergence Creativity often arises as an emergent property of complex systems as a result of many contingencies, in everyday conversations, small group interactions and discussion seminars. Many of these processes occur without leaders or templates.

Emotional support An open emotional atmosphere can foster creativity by means of a respectful environment which offers emotional safety through its tolerance, empathy and acceptance of different viewpoints.

Risk reduction Creativity often thrives on the generation of diverse ideas, some of which may run the risk of being rejected as too extreme. Collaboration spreads the risk so that creative individuals can take more chances.

Synergy Being part of a creative group energizes individual members and frees them from their inhibitions and self-regulation as they become part of the group. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

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Liabilities Ill-formed groups Groups which are hastily formed without adequate forethought may lack clarity about their aims and objectives – or about the values which inform the group. This may result in confusion, lack of commitment and uncertainty about roles.

Poor group dynamics Ill-formed groups often lack integrative interpersonal mechanisms with which to manage interactions and power relationships. This can result in conflict, hostility, competitiveness and even psychological damage.

Paralysis The proliferation of options and postponement of critical judgement may lead to ‘the paralysis of analysis’. In overcoming such paralysis, there is the danger of adopting mediocre, uncreative, compromise solutions.

Groupthink When faced with a unanimous majority, the pressure of conformity suppresses dissenting opinions and prevents people from reflecting on, and reconsidering their views (Goncalo et al. 2010: 126).

Polarization When a group of like-minded people consider a problem, the average opinion tends to become more extreme. Such group polarization may lead to a more extreme view being put forward as a solution (Passer et al. 2009: 629).

Inappropriate techniques Popular creative techniques such as brainstorming sometimes bring together individuals to perform short-term tasks, without allowing time for trust to emerge. Creativity may be stifled by disputatious talk and power relationships.

Group precedent The track record and history of established groups may constrain their future achievements, as teams may be defined by their past successes and find it difficult to take new creative initiatives.

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Social loafing This is the tendency for individuals to act as a ‘passenger’, making little active contribution to a group. This occurs when people feel that their individual contributions are not recognized, identifiable or do not matter. A summary of the benefits and liabilities of collaboration is presented in Table 10.1. Table 10.1 Collaborative creativity: benefits and liabilities Benefits

Liabilities

Multiple perspectives Intersubjectivity Dialogical reasoning Knowledge construction Emergence Emotional support Risk reduction Group synergy

Ill-formed groups Poor group dynamics Paralysis Groupthink Polarization Inappropriate techniques Group precedent Social loafing

Educational implications Creativity is rarely an individual phenomenon. Education has been moving in the direction of collaborative learning for many years now. More recently, collaborative work in schools and colleges has been driven by theories of meaning which specify social interactions as necessary elements of knowledge construction. Thinking is now seen as a social practice which takes place within ‘thought communities’ (John-Steiner 2000: 192). It may be difficult to distinguish between the social construction of meaning and creative activity (Craft 2008: 243). For example, group work is widely used in educational settings, ranging from primary school projects to problem-based learning. However, collaboration may extend beyond the classroom to partnerships with creative ventures and industry, as in the British Creative Partnerships Scheme. The advantages of using multiple perspectives, intersubjectivity and dialogical reasoning are recognized in a number of educational projects described by Craft (2008). These show that teachers should encourage collaboration in order to:

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benefit from the range of perspectives in a class; use the shared history of the group as a resource; explore perspectives from outside the classroom;

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encourage shared understanding and the co-construction of meaning; promote discussion as a reasoning and creative tool; demonstrate the way that knowledge is constructed in a group context; facilitate the emergence of new and unexpected insights and outcomes; provide mutual psychological support for members; reduce individual risk by sharing responsibility; engage learners and help them to realize their creative energy.

Elements of collaborative creativity Collaboration exhibits some specific elements of creativity. Sawyer (1992) illustrates how, in an improvised performance by the Chicago Theatre group Jazz Freddy, the creative process became the product. From this, he identified four key elements of collaborative creativity:

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deliberate ambiguity as dialogue unfolds; contingency as a scene changes direction; expanding combinatorial possibilities as actors make choices; retroactive meaning which emerges after the performance.

These can be transferred from the theatrical to the educational sphere:

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Deliberate ambiguity: the teacher’s individual perspective should not be imposed on a creative group. Ambiguity or bewilderment should not be avoided as they offer a creative space for the development of collective meaning. Contingency: the ‘lived curriculum’ (Aoki 1993), as it is determined collaboratively, is an educational example of contingency where the needs of a particular situation drive the curriculum – often in more creative directions. Expanding combinatorial possibilities: although group creativity emerges from individual creative acts, it cannot be understood by analysing members of the group individually, since one person’s ideas are often transformed and reinterpreted by the ensuing thought processes of the group. Retroactive meaning: learning events and their interpretation and meaning are not necessarily simultaneous. The significance of an event in a collaborative environment often only emerges in retrospect.

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Collaborative communities According to Lave and Wenger (1991), collaboration entails participation in a ‘community of practice’. Midwives, tailors and butchers exemplify traditional communities of practice. Nowadays, software developers form distributed communities, exchanging and developing creative ideas through a range of web-based networking mechanisms such as Facebook, Twitter and discussion fora. In distributed communities, tasks can be divided among the members, while still maintaining a common purpose. Gavriel Salomon (1993) refers to ‘distributed cognition’ where cognitive tasks are shared among the group, seeing it as a form of ‘situated learning’. This suggests that learning and cognition are contextual and socially constructed within a community of practice. The creative process therefore combines individual action and group participation. In collaborative communities, participants share knowledge about their activities, and what it means for their lives and communities (Lave and Wenger 1991: 98). Learners progress from novices to experts through a form of ‘cognitive apprenticeship’ under the guidance of master practitioners or expert performers. In traditional apprenticeships, the novice was only permitted to be creative after having acquired the necessary skills, culminating in the production of a ‘masterpiece’. In a more modern ‘transformation of participation’, members may exchange roles when necessary (Rogoff 1990: 213). No senior member has all the responsibility for knowing and directing, and no junior member is totally passive.

Educational implications In order to encourage collaborative educational communities, teachers should:

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create specific collaborative communities based on tasks or goals; encourage learners to identify their own collaborative communities; engender a sense of group identity through shared history; emphasize that expert knowledge will be valued from every source; use wikis and web fora to create distributed communities; encourage collaboration through social networking; allow expertise to emerge within groups; defer to greater student expertise when appropriate; encourage flexibility of roles in collaborative groups; celebrate milestones as members progress in expertise and achievement.

Collaborative processes Four types of group collaboration have been identified, and a group can stay within one of these or move among them as collaboration develops over time. Each type is described below, and they are summarized in Table 10.2.

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Table 10.2 Types of group collaboration Type

Values

Roles

Methods

Distributed

Similar interests

Informal and voluntary

Spontaneous and responsive

Complementary

Overlapping values

Clear division of labour

Expertise-based approaches

Family/friendship

Common vision and trust

Fluid

Dynamic integration of expertise

Integrative

Visionary commitment

Interwoven roles

Transformative co-construction

Source: based on John-Steiner (2000: 197)

Distributed Distributed collaboration is the most loosely-connected form. The participants’ level of involvement, commitment and ownership of a project may vary greatly. For example, The Open University’s History of Architecture and Design student projects in the 1980s and 90s became an important source of data on the history of English buildings. Ten per cent of all students in this creative collaboration made a ‘strikingly original’ contribution to the discipline (Henry 1994: 148).

Complementary Complementary collaborations involve a division of labour between participants with overlapping values. A well-known, complementary collaboration was that of the husband and wife team Pierre and Marie Curie. Marie was the practical organizer and chemist, Pierre the physicist and theorist. Together they contributed different strengths which they were able to bring to their discovery of radioactivity (John-Steiner 2000: 198). The Curies are also an example of a family collaboration.

Family/friendship Family/friendship collaboration occurs where the common values and relationships of the partnership are most important, the group roles are less rigidly defined and the psychological security and safety of the group depends on members pulling together. The collaborative work is often characterized by personal companionships, as in theatre groups or artistic movements like the Cubists in painting. They may merge or become integrated collaborations.

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Integrative Integrated collaborations are the most intensive form, based on commitment to a shared vision. Such collaborations thrive on dialogue, risk-taking, shared vision and a common set of beliefs. Such ‘great groups’ do not last, ‘if only because of their intensity, they cannot be sustained indefinitely’ (Bennis and Biederman 1997: 216). Eventually, these passionate collaborators start to attend to their own individual needs and even begin to compete with each other.

Educational implications The different types of collaboration can lend themselves to diverse educational settings and purposes. Consideration should be given to the ways in which groups have related in the past, and how they might productively relate to each other in future. How groups view and explain their creativity is important – attributing it either to individual contributions or to the group as a whole. Groups that attribute their success to the individual members generate more divergent ideas than groups that attribute success to the group as a whole (Goncalo and Duguid 2008: 8). At an immediate level, teachers can form ‘buzz groups’ or distributed groups to provide instant feedback on classroom topics or discussions on a topic. Another form of distributed collaboration involves learners communicating with widely dispersed collaborators over the internet. Complementary collaborations are very common in school project work. For example, in a project on ancient Egypt in a fifth-year mathematics class in a primary school, participants’ skills were balanced, so that someone with a talent for drawing was complemented by someone with a talent for figures (Moore 2009: 35). For a secondary school project, students could be asked to rate themselves on a set of skills or learning styles which are used as a basis on which to constitute the group. In family/friendship collaborations children can choose their peers in order to put on an improvised dramatic performance. There can be strong ownership of a project when students select each other, but they may be too similar to be creative. There is a danger that self-selecting high- and middle-ability students may leave those of lesser ability alienated and unable to contribute to the group outcome. With integrative collaborations it is unlikely that school students or undergraduates will form long-term collaborative relationships, though a sports group or drama group may have a continued purpose and existence. More long-term integrative collaborations are possible as students move up the ladder to PhD and post-doctoral levels, working in a particular domain or with an established group under a recognized leader.

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To encourage different types of creative collaboration, teachers should:

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explore the implications of group size and composition; ensure group composition balances complementary skills; deal explicitly with issues of group membership and identity; create norms promoting tolerance of differences; establish ground rules for decision-making in larger groups; consider the likely power relationships within a group; encourage groups to articulate shared values that bind them; utilize problem-based and enquiry-based learning models; promote cooperative and reciprocal learning techniques; treat group conflict as a creative resource.

Collaboration management In an educational setting, collaborative groups can be managed by means of the group composition, group size and ‘group methods’.

Group composition The selection of group members has many implications for creativity in terms of processes and outcomes. Table 10.3 shows a range of group compositions and the main implication of each for creative collaboration.

Group size Group size also influences the potential creativity of the overall group, as individuals reach beyond their habitual ways of learning, working and creating. Table 10.4 lists a number of implications.

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Table 10.3 Group composition and creativity Composition

Characteristics

Creativity implications

Friendship

Self-selection

Positive/motivating atmosphere Appropriation of ideas

Location

Proximal clusters

May inhibit diversity

Alphabetical

Name-based

May restrict diversity

Numerical

Random permutation

Encourages diversity

Class-list rotation

Class members labelled A, B, C, D Groups of all As Bs etc,

Disrupts friendship groups

Crossover

One person from each group moves to another

Disrupts established patterns

Performance-related

Different ability ranges

Improves group balance and resources

Skills-based

Different skill ranges

Balances skills

Source: based on Race (2001: 144−8) Table 10.4 Classroom creativity: group sizes and functions Size

Characteristics

Creativity implications

Pairs

Encourages participation Difficulties if one absent or uncooperative

Suits small-scale creativity tasks

Threes

Popular group size Two participants may dominate

Suits small-scale creativity Prevents stand-offs

Fours

Can be split into pairs for sub-tasks Opportunities for delegation and collaboration

Creates a good critical mass Creative tasks can be subdivided

Fives

Range of perspectives is possible Danger of ‘passenger’ behaviour Leadership important Can subdivide into two and three

Preferred group size for many creative tasks because of casting vote

Sixes

Possible increase in ‘passenger’ behaviour Strong group leadership necessary

More difficult to ensure equivalences of creative tasks for individual members

Sevens to tens

Skilled facilitator necessary to manage Creative contribution of shyer the psychological climate members may be diminished Social loafing and ‘passenger’ behaviour more likely

Source: based on Race (2001: 142−4)

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Educational implications As group size increases, group leadership becomes more important. A leader can foster a spirit of participatory collaboration by highlighting the importance of both maintenance and strategic roles in group interactions. A leader can also move a group forward by mediating conflict and reconciling different views.

Group methods Specific group methods can help to develop creativity by enhancing motivation and raising participants’ interest levels. The active trial and error learning involved in group work allows students to gain feedback from each other and provides practice in discriminating and evaluating creative products. These aid students in the construction of meaning. A key educational interest in recent years has been the view that methods can be generalized in the form of transferable skills. Collaborative generic skills considered necessary for creativity include:

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idea generation; managing interpersonal interactions; empathic listening and turn-taking; building on existing ideas and those of others; self-regulation through group work; utilizing all the resources of the group; problem-solving strategies; decision-making strategies.

The following techniques can be used to promote collaborative group working in the classroom.

Rounds Students are asked to state or write down what they want to know or feel about the topic being explored. Rounds tend to work in explicit, brief sessions with fewer than 20 participants to prevent boring repetition. Comments can be written on a Post-it note and stuck on a chart to indicate that all contributions are equally valued. Rounds encourage creativity by accessing everyone’s ideas and setting up an atmosphere which can help a facilitator become aware of the mood or key ideas of the group.

Buzz groups Small groups talk quickly or ‘buzz’ together as they work, or in a very short break in a lecture. The results can then be shared with the whole group though feedback.

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Students need to be trained when to stop talking and resume full-class activities. Creativity is enhanced when people are buzzing about several different things at once to provide diverse opinions. Small buzz groups may be combined through the process of snowballing described below.

Snowballing/pyramiding Students can undertake individual tasks such as listing features or asking questions. They can then work in pairs to combine ideas and continue to threes and fours so that the ideas ‘snowball’ in larger groups to form a creative synthesis. Responsibility for individual elements increases interest and engagement and a shared sense of ownership in the resulting creative combination.

Fishbowls A small group of participants undertaking a creative task sits in the middle of a larger circle of observers who then provide feedback on the creative process. The participants and observers may inhabit a virtual rather than physical space and video recording could permit self-observation. This enables a group to see collaborative creativity as a process rather than an event and reveals the group dynamics and features that promote or inhibit creativity.

Syndicates These are activities undertaken by groups of students working to a brief but under their own direction. Such activities may include literature searches, the design of an artefact or the exploration of a piece of text or image. They generally need an explicit task and ‘the freedom of a tight brief’ (Craft 2005: xv). However, there may be creative ways for participants to display the outcomes of syndicates.

Brainstorming Many ideas are generated rapidly while postponing evaluation, in order to reduce inhibitions and allow participants to build on each other’s contributions (Osborn 1953). The mass of ideas is then scanned and evaluated. Modern brainstorming studies measure creativity by the extent to which groups are able to generate large numbers of divergent ideas. However, the effectiveness of traditional brainstorming has been questioned, as discussed in Chapter 16.

Problem-based learning Problem-based learning (PBL) is a curriculum development and delivery mechanism where a specially designed problem drives the learning. PBL educates learners by presenting them with ill-structured, complex, real-world problems to solve creatively. It encourages learners to solve these problems by actively engaging in the learning

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process using their existing knowledge, previous successful problem resolutions and by consulting any materials or resources – including the teacher (Delisle 1997; Duch et al. 2001).

Creative problem-solving Sometimes called ‘the thinking skills model’, creative problem-solving (CPS) was invented by Alex Osborn in 1953 and is one of the earliest and most thoroughly researched creative process models. It contains a number of steps (Baillie 2008: 143−4):

Preparation Divergent and convergent phases Generative phase Development of solutions

Pace, resources, prior reading Question formulation and clarification Brainstorming to generate ideas Idea clustering and action planning

TRIZ TRIZ stands for Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch which is Russian for ‘theory of inventive problem-solving’. It was devised by Genrich Altshuller, who claimed that technological change is predictable and that future trends of evolution can be identified. TRIZ is described more fully in Chapter 16.

Educational implications In order to use group work methods for creativity, teachers should:

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provide precise parameters for the creative task; ask students to select the most appropriate group work method; encourage problem-posing or redefinitions of the problem; require groups to generate multiple ideas building on those of others; create frequent opportunities for short buzz groups; require and note contributions from all members; ask students to identify and analyse their group thinking methods; sequence PBL problems in order of increasing complexity; use case studies to derive principles of creative thinking; provide opportunities for self and peer evaluation.

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Conclusion There is now a consensus that creativity is collaborative, communal and social. Collaboration takes account of multiple viewpoints and social interactions in the coconstruction of meaning. However, it is important that appropriate methods are used in order to counteract poor group dynamics. A key current educational interest is in distributed cognition and situated learning, which draw on collaborative processes. A range of collaborative patterns emphasize different aspects of creativity and are promoted by different methods. This chapter has considered the implications for education and has offered a range of practical techniques that can be used to foster collaborative creativity.

References Aoki, T.T. (1993) Legitimating lived curriculum: towards a curricular landscape of multiplicity, Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 8(3): 255−68. Baillie, C. (2008) Enhancing students’ creativity, in N. Jackson, M. Oliver, M. Shaw and J. Wisdom (eds) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. London: Routledge. Barnes, D. and Todd, F. (1995) Communication and Learning Revisited: Making Meaning Through Talk. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. Bennis, W. and Biederman, P.W. (1997) Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Craft, A. (2005) Creativity in Schools: Tensions and Dilemmas. Abingdon: Routledge. Craft, A. (2008) Commentary: studying collaborative creativity, implications for education, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 3: 241−5. Delisle, R. (1997) How to Use Problem-based Learning in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Duch, B.J., Groh, S.E. and Allen, D.E. (2001) The Power of Problem-based Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Goncalo, J. and Duguid, M.M. (2008) Hidden Consequences of the Group Serving Bias: Causal Attributions and the Quality of Group Decision Making, Organizational Behavior, Human Decision Processes, 107: 219–33. Goncalo, J.A., Vincent, L.C. and Audia, P.G. (2010) Early creativity as a constraint on future achievement, in D.H. Cropley, A. Cropley, J.C. Kaufman and M.A. Runco (eds) The Dark Side of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Henry, J. (1994) Teaching Through Projects. London: Kogan Page.

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John-Steiner, V. (2000) Creative Collaboration. New York: Oxford University Press. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moore, H. (2009) Where do I come from? History linked to mathematics, geography and language, in C. Rowley and H. Cooper (eds) Cross-curricular Approaches to Teaching and Learning. London: Sage. Moran, S. and John-Steiner, V. (2003) Creativity in the Making: Vygotsky’s Cultural Contribution and the Dialectic of Creativity and Development, http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/ Paper/CreativityintheMaking.pdf, accessed February 2012. Osborn, A. (1953) Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. New York: Scribner. Passer, M., Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremner, A., Sutherland, E. and Vliek, M. (2009) Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Race, P. (2001) The Lecturer’s Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Learning, Teaching and Assessment, 2nd edn. Abingdon: RoutledgeFalmer. Rogoff, B. (1990) Apprenticeship in Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press. Salomon, G. (1993) No distribution without individuals’ cognition: a dynamic interfactional view, in G. Salomon (ed.) Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sawyer, R.K. (2008) Group Genius: the Creative Power of Collaboration. New York: Basic Books. Sawyer, R.K. (1992) Improvisational creativity: an analysis of jazz performance, Creativity Research Journal, 5(4): 253−63. Schrage, M. (1990) Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration. New York: Random House.

Chapter 11 Creativity and the domains

Introduction Albert Einstein was a keen but, by all accounts, fairly average violinist. His creativity in music came nowhere near his creativity in physics. Although a certain amount of interdisciplinarity is a factor in creative thinking, multiple-domain creativity like that of Leonardo da Vinci is extremely rare. In this chapter, we examine arguments that creativity is domain-specific, discuss the implications of addressing a range of different subject domains in terms of their creative potential, and consider the benefits of integrating the domains.

The creative domains Characteristics A ‘domain’ can be defined as the rules, practices and language of a recognized area of action, or as ‘a set of symbolic rules and procedures’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1996: 26). Domains are therefore broad entities. Cropley (2001: 17) identifies four dimensions to describe a domain:

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impersonal versus emotive; objective versus subjective; structured versus unstructured; formal versus informal.

Though these distinctions may be challenged, they are useful in drawing attention to some key domain features. Science exemplifies an impersonal, objective, structured and formal domain, using the scientific method which tests hypotheses by amassing evidence. The arts may exhibit the opposite characteristics, displaying subjective, personal, often emotive experience, with no overarching structuring principle, but not without rules.

Values Domain knowledge reflects the values held by a particular society, at a particular period of history. The European Renaissance set a high store by artistic knowledge and the

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interpretations of experience drawn from canonical texts. Periods from the Enlightenment on have prioritized formal scientific advances and discoveries. The traditional educational curriculum emphasized the classics, including its languages. More modern curricula place much more emphasis on all aspects of the scientific domain, while a recent preoccupation with creativity has led to a search for the creative potential of domains, fields and subjects.

Metaphors When considering the possibilities for creativity in the domains, geographical metaphors can be helpful. Domains can be navigated or explored, and, as discussed later in this chapter, creativity involves exploratory knowledge. Physical domains are large territories which may expand, contract, be colonized or secede. Analogous changes in disciplinary domains have creative potential. For example, the domain of psychology emerged from, and eventually ‘declared independence’ from mental philosophy.

Fields Broad geographical domains contain discrete physical fields with delineated boundaries. Similarly, academic domains can be broken down into fields where more specific activities take place. For example, the scientific domain contains the separate fields of physics, biology, chemistry, etc., each with their laws and principles. Just as an agricultural field may be divided into sub-plots, academic fields are divisible into specific subjects. The field of chemistry divides into organic and inorganic, analytical and physical. Just as real fields have gates, academic fields have gatekeepers such as teachers and subject experts who control entry to a field and preserve its boundaries. Creativity often occurs at the boundaries or intersections of fields. For example, bioengineering draws on the fields of biology, genetics, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, engineering, systems theory and entrepreneurship. According to Csikszentmihalyi (2006: 3): For creativity to occur, a set of rules and practices must be transmitted from the domain to the individual. The individual must then produce a novel variation in the content of the domain. The variation then must be selected by the field for inclusion in the domain.

Domains and creative gradation Three distinct types of creativity have been identified (Gardner 2004: 132; Richards 2010: 193; Simonton 2010: 174). Big C creativity

Radical domain change (e.g. the development of quantum theory in physics which overturned the domain of classical physics)

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Middle c creativity

Small c creativity

An intermediate change in a field brought about by a group (e.g. the French Impressionists changed the academic presentation of landscape to construct an atmospheric composition) A more limited and personal creativity (e.g. an individual personalizing their appearance, activities or environment)

Table 11.1 contains a summary showing the level to which creativity changes, depending on the subject, field and domain. Table 11.1 Magnitude of creativity Site

Agent

Change

Creativity

Subject

Ordinary individuals

Limited personal

Small c

Field

Motivated groups

Intermediate field change

Middle c

Domain

Extraordinary individuals and groups

Radical domain shift

Big C

Generalized versus domain-specific creativity In terms of creativity in education we need to consider whether it is a general and transferable skill, or whether it is domain-specific.

Creativity as a general skill People often refer to themselves or others as ‘creative’ without specifying particular areas or the limits to that creativity. The assumption is that a creative person has skills and dispositions that contribute to creative performance in whatever activities that individual undertakes. Regardless of domain, creative people are open to new experiences, are less conventional and conscientious, more self-confident, self-accepting, driven, ambitious, dominant, hostile and impulsive. Leonard Mlodinow claims that successful people in every field are almost universally members of a certain set – ‘the set of people who didn’t give up’ (Baer 2010: 335). Creativity can be thought of as similar to intelligence, a general ability that can affect all individual performances. On this view, there are generic cognitive skills, dispositions and personality traits which transfer across the domains. The cognitive skills are those of divergent thinking, fluency in thinking, skills in problem-solving, analogy and abstraction. Well-established creativity tests, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) mentioned in Chapter 9, assume that performance in a particular test, such as the different uses of a brick, is indicative of general creative performance (Baer 2010: 332).

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It is an article of faith for many teachers that skills developed in the classroom can be transferred to the real world, so they are attracted to the idea of creativity as a teachable and transferable skill. The European Universities Association (EUA) Tuning Education report (Gonzalez and Wagenaar 2003: 85−6) promotes creativity as a key generic transferable skill. However, there is no strong evidence that those who score highly in creativity tests progress to creative performances or products. White (2007: 21) talks of the danger in considering creative and independent thinking as general skills: It is quite possible to be open to new ideas within mathematics but totally closed to them in religion or politics. It is a truism that maths is a good vehicle for promoting independent thinking within maths; but there is no reliable evidence that it promotes it in non-related fields. Creativity cannot be achieved without domain knowledge. To improve creative thinking in a given domain, students must acquire an understanding of factual content and develop a variety of domain-specific skills. If creativity were domain-general, an individual recognized as creative in one domain would be likely to be creative in others. However, when 50 American adolescents were asked to write a poem, tell a story, make up a mathematical problem and produce an interesting equation, there was little correspondence in the level of creativity displayed in each when measured using Amabile’s Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) (Baer 2010: 326).

Creativity as domain-specific Howard Gardner (2006: 223) claims that creativity is domain-specific, meaning that it requires prior mastery of the domain and time for the development of expert performance. In ‘order to think outside the box [the domain], you need a box’: The better the person’s grasp of the conceptual space in a domain − that is the organising principles that structure a given domain and its thinking − then the better the ability to create and judge the worth of new ideas. (Boden 2001: 98) It is obvious that what counts as creativity in engineering is very different from what counts as creativity in fashion design. Research has found that the more closely related the tasks in a particular domain, the stronger the relationship. For example, an art student who is creative in both drawing and collage (which rely heavily on spatial awareness) may not be equally creative in oil painting which incorporates more tactile qualities (Baer 2010: 327−8).

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The work of cognitive psychologist Kevin Dunbar and his colleagues shows that scientists’ use of heuristics and of analogy may have a generic element which can be taught, and the skills transferred to other learners. This reinforces the view that while creativity can be generalized, this may be within, rather than across, domains (Dunbar and Fugelsang 2005: 712).

Educational implications While creativity is domain-specific, there may be some generic skills and personality traits that transfer between similar domains. It is likely that ‘things are neither wholly domain-general nor wholly domain-specific’ (Sternberg 2005: 305). Amabile’s (1983) Componential Model of Creativity includes as components both domain-specific and general skills, with task motivation as the third element. In order to consider issues concerning domain creativity, teachers should:

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be aware of the debate about generic and domain-specific creativity; discuss the nature of domain knowledge and skill; interrogate the values inherent in domains; explore with students the ways of thinking in different domains; provide training which promotes domain-specific skills; identify similar skills within a domain; analyse the language and symbolism of a domain; share and celebrate the stories of ‘Big C’ creativity in a domain; set group creativity projects to encourage ‘middle c’ creativity in a field; encourage students to extend their personal creativity within a subject.

Individual domains A useful guide to the identification of the disciplinary domains is provided by Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences, which delineates the varied strengths that learners may possess across a spectrum of abilities. His initial seven intelligences offer a framework in identifying the domains to which each is linked, as shown in Table 11.2. As well as having a close correspondence to particular domains, Gardner’s multiple intelligences also lead to the idea of approaching a particular domain using the metaphor of a room with a number of possible entry points, as shown in Table 11.3. Any particular domain can be approached creatively through one or more of these entry points, reflecting the preferences of the teacher and the learners.

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Table 11.2 Multiple intelligences and the domains Gardner’s multiple intelligences

Disciplinary domain

Interpersonal/intrapersonal Logical-mathematical Naturalistic Linguistic Bodily/kinaesthetic Spatial Musical

Social science Natural science Environmental Language and literature Performative Visual Music

Source: based on Gardner (1999) Table 11.3 Entry points to a domain Entry point

Approach

Narrational Quantitative Logical Intrapersonal Aesthetic Experiential Interpersonal

Story or narrative Use of numbers Use of reasoning and argument Reflections on meaning and purpose Appreciation of form and beauty Practical investigation Social experience and collaboration

Source: based on Gardner (2000)

The potential for creativity in domains Margaret Boden (2004: 95−101) suggests that creativity in a domain can result from combinatorial knowledge, exploratory knowledge and transformational knowledge.

Combinatorial knowledge Combinatorial knowledge involves combining two or more different ideas in creative ways. A classic example would be the development of opera, which combined music, drama, dance and visual art. In science, analogy is a common combinatorial technique. This is particularly effective when the comparative items share common analogous features that are sufficiently close to permit transferability. For example, in microbiology, the behaviour of particular pathogens can lead to the hypothesis that an unknown organism might behave in a similar way (Dunbar and Blanchette 2001: 336).

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Exploratory knowledge This is knowledge gained by exploring domain knowledge, including how far its rules can be changed or stretched. This requires knowledge of the rules and what the rules in a domain allow, in order to push against them. However, the freedom of creative thought is not the absence of rules. According to a primary school headteacher speaking on BBC Radio 4, ‘When you give children boundaries they are at their most creative’ (BBC 2011).

Transformational knowledge Transformational creativity involves a significant alteration of one or more of the domain rules. It enables ideas to be generated which would not have been possible before the rules were changed. The more fundamental the rule, the more shocking or impossible the new ideas will initially seem to be. In the nineteenth century, changing the style of painting from a brush stroke to sets of dots created the new Impressionist style of pointillism.

Educational implications Combinatorial, exploratory and transformational knowledge can be used to analyse and explore creativity within and across domains. The three types of knowledge can form three different lenses through which to view domains and to explore the potential for creativity within them. Teachers who wish to use combinatorial, exploratory and transformative knowledge to increase creativity in a domain should:

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consider ways in which combinations of ideas are possible; force connections using techniques described in Chapter 16; explore the nature of analogous thinking; articulate the existing rules and boundaries of a domain; encourage the use of imagination in investigating possibilities; use guided discovery techniques to explore topics; encourage questioning and problem-posing; create situations that disrupt habitual thinking; teach reflective techniques to identify moments of personal insight; help students to identify concepts that they find difficult to understand; accept and encourage multiple and alternative answers; analyse and discuss ‘wrong’ answers in order to explore thinking.

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Social sciences domain Social science is concerned with society and human behaviour, and is interested in all areas of human activity. Because of this wide range of disciplines, there are plenty of opportunities for creativity in the form of interdisciplinary activities, and for the development of combinatorial, exploratory and transformational knowledge. At primary-school level, subjects such as history, social, personal and health education, citizenship and religious education offer many opportunities for creative engagement and interdisciplinary activities in the form of project work. At secondary and tertiary levels, the domain broadens to incorporate more sophisticated human transactions in the form of sociology, politics, law, psychology, economics, archaeology, anthropology and education.

Social science case study A primary school in northern England organized a week-long activity for 7-year-old pupils to investigate the life of a Muslim woman, Noor Inayat Khan, who worked as a spy for the British in France during the Second World War and eventually died in Dachau concentration camp. This project involved history, religious education, numeracy and literacy. The children made prayer mats and learned about the Koran, Ramadan and fasting. University lecturers, museum curators and members of the local community told them about the Second World War. The children undertook spying activities using codes and also had a sleepover at the local museum where they were involved in a dressingup activity and had time to reflect on Noor’s values and their own views on her life and death (Temple and MacGregor 2009: 91−108).

Natural sciences domain This domain encompasses physics, chemistry and mathematics, which share a logical, abstract and symbolic approach to knowledge. These subjects are often not considered creative because they emphasize abstract-convergent over divergent thinking and involve teaching methods that rely on repetition and rote learning. In the earlier stages of learning, the motivation to do science can be encouraged through the development of exploratory knowledge, where children investigate the world around them. In order to be creative in the natural sciences, the gradual acquisition of domain knowledge is important. This need not be a chore. For example, in China, even though taught in an expository manner to large classes, mathematics is regarded as an enjoyable subject at all school levels, second only to foreign languages as a favourite subject (Watkins and Biggs 2001).

Natural sciences case study The 2012 BT Irish Young Scientist of the Year competition was won by two 17-yearold students who addressed a problem dating back to 1760 concerning the motion of

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planets and the ‘three body problem’. Their approach built on the work of a professional mathematician who developed a solution. The young scientists developed a faster and more efficient computer algorithm that increased the accuracy of the calculation to determine the precise location of satellites (BT 2012).

Environmental domain This domain encompasses a broad range of subjects dealing with the natural and constructed environment. It studies ‘the Earth, its inhabitants and the interrelationships between them in the context of place, space and environment’ (NCCA 1999: 2). This is a dynamic and developing area with high potential for combinatorial creativity at every stage. This domain tackles current and future issues and contains both problem-posing and problem-solving. At primary level, this domain focuses on subjects such as geography, which can integrate creatively with subjects such as science, mathematics, social and personal education and visual art. The environmental domain diversifies and specializes as learners progress to more advanced levels. Biology may subdivide into the fields of botany, zoology and physiology. Geography divides into geology, meteorology, ecology and alternative energy. The artificial environment is approached thorough design technology, the built environment, civil engineering and construction studies. The integrative approach demanded by all of these subjects can lead to fruitful creative outcomes. Ecologist Nalini Nadkarny teaches the importance of the rainforest tree canopy through creative dance, rap music, the distribution of tree-top Barbies and collaboration between scientists and artists (Schwietert 2010).

Environmental case study Chris Rowley (2009) describes a two-year project based on the involvement of children in classes 4, 5 and 6 from two primary schools in the planning of an ‘eco-friendly’ building created for the National Trust’s Footprint Project in the UK. The project developed key concepts in environmental education through a cross-disciplinary approach which focused in one school on geography, art and technology, and in the other school on science, art, literacy and information technology.

Languages domain Language is a pre-eminent form of human symbolic communication with numerous manifestations. Domain subjects include native and foreign language acquisition, use and interpretation. Language is inherently creative, with vast combinatorial potential, since every utterance is original and built upon metaphor and analogy (Lakoff and Johnson 2003). Creative language use has developed informally through collaborative communication via social media, which are in themselves creative outcomes of language use. At primary level, speaking, reading and writing are emphasized in the form of storytelling, in order to embed language codes while encouraging self-expression,

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imagination and creativity. Storytelling and interpretation develops into a study of the major literary genres such as poetry, drama and narrative. Graves (1983) describes a creative initiative where primary-school children from a number of classes collaborated on the production of the world’s biggest newspaper, which was eventually displayed publicly in the school hall. At advanced levels the languages domain may develop into study and production of creative literature, or more formal and systematic linguistic studies. .

Languages case study The American novelist and short story writer Dave Eggers (2008) describes how he set up his 826 Valencia project in San Francisco. The aim was to create a writing community where local children could bring in their written homework and get writing help from volunteer tutors and writers. As a ‘front’ for the operation, a retail store was set up selling supplies for pirates. Behind this was a writers’ workshop and a publishing company. Local students who came in for help got one-to-one attention, often working alongside professional writers and publishers. This became a transformative experience for many students, who were helped to rewrite and polish their work to a publishable standard. The project spread to other American cities and to Dublin and London. It has drawn in professional writers such as Isabel Allende and Roddy Doyle, volunteer tutors, funders and the educational community. The Once Upon a School Foundation, which grew from this initiative, invites people to become involved with their local schools and to disseminate their experiences and stories.

Performative domain This domain relies on movement and physical expression and includes physical and kinaesthetic activities such as gymnastics, swimming, outdoor activities, drama and dance. There is creative potential in the body as the most basic expressive medium and room for exploratory, transformational and combinatorial creativity in association with domains such as music, literature, visual arts and drama. In the early stages of learning the emphasis is on play, natural movement and selfexpression. This develops into solo and collaborative performance in dance, drama and team sports. Advanced performance in this domain has dimensions of both exploratory and transformative creativity. Professional sport involves more exploratory creativity, which pushes beyond what has already been achieved and is only possible as a result of intense and prolonged skill development (Syed 2011). Dance and drama on the other hand, although also requiring immense skill, involve more transformative creativity that is aesthetic, expressive and holistic.

Performative case study A high school in the English Midlands, which is one of 55 schools of creativity nominated by the Creative Partnerships Scheme, worked with a local nightclub and a

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number of other secondary schools to launch their annual ‘Safe Night Out’ project for the city’s 17-year-olds. This involved workshops in two parts. The first part was held in the nightclub on the dance floor, in the girls’ toilets and at the bar, and used professional actors to create authentic scenes followed by facilitated discussion. The second part involved pupil-led performance of dance and music, supported by a professional team of technicians. This was transformative, exploratory, collaborative and integrative (Creative Partnerships 2012).

Visual domain This domain incorporates all forms of visual art production and appreciation. Artistic creativity lies not in its power to imitate but to transform experience. Creativity and art have always been seen to have a special relationship and are almost synonymous in popular perception: ‘Every art form involves communication on the part of one person (or subject) to another, by means of a symbolic object that the first subject has created, and that the second is able in some way to understand, react to, or appreciate’ (Gardner 1973: 30). In early education there is a common view that all children are artistically creative and should be offered opportunities to express their interests, feelings and preoccupations. Art at this stage tends to be interdisciplinary and contributes to every subject area. At later levels the visual arts may be become more specialized, moving into painting and drawing, pottery, sculpture, architecture, photography, multimedia, film, graphic and fashion design.

Visual case study Eighty-eight part-time students studying art history in an adult continuing education department of a university were exposed to a ‘slow looking’ rubric. This focused on slowing down the activity of looking at pictures in order to encourage students to reflect mindfully by thinking and writing about their understanding of art history, while drawing on their personal experiences. This was enacted through the reading of a painting by Hans Holbein in the National Gallery in London, and students were encouraged to pause and revisit this through a number of cycles of observation. The author claims that a ‘silent pedagogy’, where the teacher uses frequent interventions and pauses, encourages a type of critical reflection which can be applied in any subject (Cronin 2009).

Musical domain The musical domain comprises performing, listening to and responding to music, both alone and with others, as well as creative improvisation and composing. This involves exploratory creativity in the development of instrumental skill, transformative creativity in composing and responding, combinatorial creativity with literature and drama, and collaborative creativity in ensemble music-making. Music is a form of communication as well a form of life enhancement.

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In early education, there is exploration of sound and development of musical and rhythmic awareness through nursery rhymes and sing-song. The rhythmic qualities of music are also used pedagogically with learning rhymes and repetition. At more advanced levels many students learn a musical instrument and create group music. The subject becomes, on the one hand, an elite academic pursuit with a body of theory and skills, and on the other a form of expression linked to ‘small c’ creativity and personal identity for all students, facilitated by technological support. At the highest levels, musical creativity is expressed by concert and popular performers and composers.

Musical case study An international music education project entitled ‘The Toy Symphony’ was developed by composer and inventor Tod Machover (2008) in association with Media Lab. It involves specially designed music toys that allow untrained players to participate in music performance. The toys detect touch and expressive gestures and convert them to music. A special software program called Hyperscore converts lines, shapes and colours into musical compositions. This short-circuits the ‘tedium’ of music skill learning and goes directly to performance and creativity. It allows collaboration between unskilled children and professional performers. In particular, the music toys and Hyperscore promote creative inclusivity by permitting physically challenged musicians to create and perform music.

Integrated domains Integrative work has always been important to creativity. For example, the design of exo-skeletons to help carry heavy equipment or allow wheelchair users to stand and walk combines biology and robotics (Bender 2011). There have been many calls for a curriculum which integrates the domains in a manner that goes further than placing them alongside each other as, for example, when learners pursue a particular theme using different subject areas (Rowley and Cooper 2009: vii). Instead, what is sometimes proposed is a cross-curricular approach which transcends domain distinctions and subsumes them into an integrated single educational purpose such as the study of authentic real-life problems. Nevertheless, James Beane, an advocate of curricular integration, does not reject disciplines: ‘they are a useful and necessary ally’ (Beane 2011: 193).

Integrated case study A teacher and a university researcher brought 10-year-olds from Stepney to Leigh-onSea to consider their experience of place. The task required the children to consider the past, present and imagined future of Leigh-on-Sea. The project incorporated a number of powerful ‘experiences’ such as digging on the beach, exploring a nature reserve, visiting cockle sheds and taking a train journey to view the industrial landscape. The children then produced a number of PowerPoint presentations highlighting their experiences and impressions of Leigh-on-Sea (Wheatley 2009).

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Conclusion The debate concerning the nature of creativity in domains has not been resolved. There are arguments in favour of both domain-specific and generic creativity. They are not necessarily incompatible however, although the educational centre of gravity oscillates between the two positions depending on the sociocultural and intellectual climate. This chapter has taken an intermediate position that discusses the particularity of each domain, but creativity is often to be found in overcoming domain boundaries through inter- and cross-disciplinarity. Different domains draw on different aspects of combinatorial, exploratory and transformative creativity. Although the central part of the chapter stressed the uniqueness of domains, it concluded with an integrative compromise.

References Amabile, T.M. (1983) The Social Psychology of Creativity. New York: Springer-Verlag. Baer, J. (2010) Is creativity domain specific? in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. BBC (2011) Start the Week, 11 April. Beane, J.A. (2011) Curriculum integration and the disciplines of knowledge, in P. Sefton-Green, K. Thompson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. Abingdon: Routledge. Bender, E. (2011) Eythor Bendor demos human exoskeletons, TED talk, http://www.ted. com/talks/eythor_bender_demos_human_exoskeletons.html, accessed February 2012. Boden, M.A. (2001) Creativity and knowledge, in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Boden, M.A. (2004) The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. BT (2012) Synge Street leaving cert students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly announced as winners of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012, www.btyoungscientist.com, accessed February 2012. Creative Partnerships (2012) Deansfield High School launch ‘Safe Night Out’ project at Oceana nightclub in Wolverhampton, www.creative-partnerships.com/in-yourarea/schools-of-creativity, accessed March 2012. Cronin, J.G. (2009) ‘Slow looking’ as a tool for reflective practice in the study of art history in adult and continuing education. Poster presentation at All Ireland Society for Higher Education Conference, Dublin. Cropley, A.J. (2001) Creativity in Education & Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators. Abingdon: Routledge-Falmer.

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Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2006) A systems perspective on creativity, in J. Henry (ed.) Creative Management and Development, 3rd edn. London: Sage. Dunbar, K. and Blanchette, I. (2001) The in-vivo/in vitro approach to cognition: the case of analogy, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(8). Dunbar, K. and Fugelsang, J. (2005) Scientific thinking and reasoning, in K.J. Holyoak and R.G. Morrison (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. New York: Cambridge University Press. Eggers, D. (2008) Once upon a school, TED Talk, www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html, accessed February 2012. Gardner, H. (1983) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Gardner, H. (1973) The Arts and Human Development: A Psychological Study of the Artistic Process. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Gardner, H. (1999) Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books. Gardner, H. (2000) The Disciplined Mind: Beyond Facts and Standardized Tests, the K-12 Education that Every Child Deserves, 2nd edn. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Gardner, H. (2004) Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Gardner, H. (2006) Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons. New York: Basic Books. Gonzalez, J. and Wagenaar, R. (eds) (2003) Tuning Education Structures in Europe: Final Report, Pilot Project Phase 1. Bilbao: EC Socrates. Graves, D.H. (1983) Writing: Teachers and Children at Work. London: Heinemann Educational. Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (2003) Metaphors We all Live By, 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Machover, T. (2008) Tod Machover and Dan Ellsey play new music, TED talks, http://www.ted.com/talks/tod_machover_and_dan_ellsey_play_new_music.html, accessed February 2012. NCCA (1999) Geography: Social, Environmental and Scientific Education Teacher Guidelines. Dublin: Department of Education and Science. Richards, R. (2010) Everyday creativity: process and way of life − four key issues, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Rowley, C. (2009) Thinking through environmental values: planning for a long-term cross-curricular theme using local change and partnership – geography, art and science, in C. Rowley and H. Cooper (eds) Cross-curricular Approaches to Teaching and Learning. London: Sage. Rowley, C. and Cooper, H. (2009) (eds) Cross-curricular Approaches to Teaching and Learning. London: Sage. Schwietert, J. (2010) 6 Inspiring TED talks about the environment, matadornetwork. com/change/6-inspiring-ted-talks-about-the-environment, accessed February 2012. Simonton, D.K. (2010) Creativity in highly eminent individuals, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (2005) The domain generality versus domain specificity debate: how should it be posed? in J.C. Kaufman and J. Baer (eds) Creativity Across Domains: Faces of the Muse. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurance Erlbaum. Syed, M. (2011) Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice. London: Fourth Estate. Temple, S. and MacGregor, L. (2009) Challenging my preconceived ideas: an alternative to Florence Nightingale for a history-focused cross-curricular theme with RE, in C. Rowley and H. Cooper (eds) Cross-curricular Approaches to Teaching and Learning. London: Sage. Watkins, A. and Biggs, J.B. (eds) (2001) Teaching the Chinese Learner. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre. Wheatley, R. (2009) Learning to value another place: promoting cross-curricular learning with geography and ICT through a local school link, in C. Rowley and H. Cooper (eds) Cross-curricular Approaches to Teaching and Learning. London: Sage. White, J. (2007) What Schools Are For And Why? London: Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.

Chapter 12 Talent, expert performance and creativity

Introduction In everyday life, we come across many experts – from medical specialists and scientists to political pundits and musical virtuosi. In the academic arena, expertise is recognized by a doctorate. This chapter examines the development of expertise and delineates ways in which the markedly different strategies displayed by experts in a discipline can be considered forms of creative thinking. The chapter considers the nature of expert performance from three complementary perspectives – talent, cognitive skill and superior performance – all of which have different implications for education and for creativity.

Talent In the past, talent was considered to be different from other types of superior performance, and most frequently associated with ‘genius’, with special gifts, and closely allied to creativity. The concept of ‘giftedness’ is still in use, as can be seen in the renowned US report, Education of the Gifted and Talented (Marland 1972). Before the nineteenth century, talent and experience were not connected. According to Edward Young in 1759, talent ‘rises spontaneously, it grows; it is not made’ (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 727). A century later, in 1869, Galton identified three factors in his study of eminent men and their families – innate ability, inherent motivation and aptitude for effort. He thought that although teaching and instruction were necessary, they could not account for the achievements of eminent men (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 727). Although there remains a populist view of talent as emerging from nowhere, as seen in numerous television programmes, much modern research focuses on motivation and effort, having mainly dismissed claims for innate ability. The creativity researcher Simonton has studied the characteristics, background and context of the genius. According to his research (2010: 174–88), the creative genius:

r r

has a family background that contributes to success: ◦ artistic geniuses – family dysfunction or orphanhood; ◦ scientific geniuses – family stability; ◦ generally first-borns or last-borns; has an IQ of more than 120;

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has energy, drive and persistence; is found in all domains and fields of activity; benefits from a variety of mentors; is highly productive; has at least one recognized masterwork; produces work of significance within the culture; passes the ‘Big C’ creativity test of public acclaim.

Innate talent Savants There are many arguments in favour of talent being innate. Savants display exceptional performances on highly specific tasks despite their generally low IQ. For example, George and Charles Finn, the severely impaired ‘calendar calculator’ twins from the New York Bronx, could instantly and accurately state on what day of the week any date from 1700 fell (Horwitz et al. 1965).

Child prodigies The existence of child prodigies similarly indicates that talent is innate. Mozart produced sophisticated music even when still a child (Colvin 2010) and the Chinese artist Wang Yani produced 4,000 paintings before the age of 6 (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 725).

Multiple intelligences Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, discussed in Chapter 11, suggests that people have a range of personal potentialities or strengths. In discussing ‘musical intelligence’, Gardner points out that outstanding musicians are discovered at a very early age, even in households where little music is heard. Marked differences are found among children, and training seems to have little effect in reducing these differences (Gardner 1983: 188). The possession of a musical intelligence means that an individual does not have to work hard at learning new musical patterns: ‘He learns them so readily it is virtually impossible for him to forget them’ (Gardner 1983: 385–6). Many of Gardner’s ‘intelligences’ have been discussed in the past by psychologists and researchers who referred to them as ‘abilities’ or ‘talents’.

Developed talent Training Counter-arguments have been made that talent is acquired. Unlike Mozart, most child prodigies rarely achieve exceptional levels of performance as adults. Instead, most exceptional adult performers started instruction early and gradually improved their

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performance over the years. Shinichi Suzuki, the pioneer of the Suzuki violin method for young children, rejected a view of inborn musical talent and claimed that every child could be accomplished in music, given the proper training (1981).

Parents Parental influence and immersion in an appropriate environment are also important. Mozart’s father had published the first German manual on violin teaching in 1756, the year that his son Wolfgang was born (Solomon 1995). Picasso’s father, Jose Luiz y Blasco, was an art teacher who actively supported his son’s art education from a very early age (Weisberg 2006). In the 1970s the Hungarian educational psychologist Laszlo Polgar deliberately raised his three daughters to become chess champions as an educational experiment in talent development. Judit, the youngest, became the greatest female chess player of all time (Syed 2011: 64–5).

Practice Studies have found that child prodigies actually spend a great deal of time practising. Mozart had undertaken 3,500 hours of practice before he was 6 years of age (Colvin 2010). There are even suggestions that musical savants acquire their skills through practice and cannot memorize a tonally unconventional piece of music, despite their exceptional musical memories (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 729). Intelligence researcher Charles Binet found that experienced shop-cashiers consistently outperformed calculating prodigies in calculations (Syed 2011: 67). An extensive study of violinists at the Music Academy of West Berlin compared the super-talented destined to become international soloists, the very good who would join famous orchestras and those who would become music teachers. By the age of 20, the talented had spent ‘more than 2,000 hours more than the good violinists and more than 6,000 hours more than the violinists hoping to become music teachers’ (Syed 2011: 12). There were no exceptions. Nobody had reached the elite group without devoting that time, and nobody who put in the time failed to succeed.

Rising standards Another observation that undermines the view of talent as an innate quality is that standards are rising in most domains including music, sport and academia. Syed notes that the double somersault in diving was nearly prohibited as too dangerous in the 1924 Olympics, but is commonplace in diving today (2011: 14). Even general intelligence, as measured by IQ, is rising, and this would not be the case if IQ, like talent, was innate (Flynn 2007).

Case study The US psychologist Carol Dweck claims that the idea of talent is corrosive. It robs learners of the incentive to achieve expertise through effort and may lead to lower

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standards on the grounds that expertise is unattainable. She asked 330 11- and 12year-olds in America about their beliefs concerning intelligence and talent. She then presented them with two sets of problems to solve: the first set easy, the second very difficult. The children who thought that intelligence is related to fixed innate talent denigrated their own abilities when they could not solve the difficult problems. They abandoned their efforts with comments like ‘I’m not very smart’. However, the children who subscribed to a view of intelligence as effort persevered with the difficult problems, showing an overall higher level of performance (Syed 2011: 115–16). It could be argued that this is an example of a ‘fundamental attribution error’ where people attribute their failures to outside forces and their success to their own efforts (Weiner 1986).

Educational implications If talent is innate then it does not need education, so it presents the teacher with a slight dilemma. Added to this is a politically correct agenda contending that all learners have the potential to be whatever they wish, given sufficient opportunity. Although the needs of the academically gifted are addressed by initiatives such as the International Mathematical Olympiad and the Centres for Talented Youth, by and large talent tends to be viewed with suspicion as it confers exceptional status and goes against the democratizing agenda of the age. Nevertheless, teachers are well aware of talent in their classrooms and there is a substantial literature on the nurturing of the talents of high-performing youngsters by providing appropriate experiences. In order to nurture and develop innate talent, teachers should:

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allow gifted youngsters to explore their special interests; create independent projects to suit all abilities; identify academic competitions for talented learners; plan enriched learning activities that stretch learners; assess in a way that allows for talent; tap outside expertise and suitable mentors and coaches; avoid turning the talented learner into a teacher’s aide; use and explain analysis, synthesis and evaluation; incorporate multiple intelligences strategies into lessons.

Expertise as a cognitive skill A view of expertise as talent was replaced in the mid-twentieth century by a cognitive, skill-based view of expertise closely associated with problem-solving strategies. This was aided by the capacity of the computer for rapid information-processing and associated research into artificial intelligence. The computer was even considered as a general

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problem-solver (GPS) machine which could cope with any type of formal or symbolic problem, such as those found in chess or mathematics (Newell and Simon 1963). By means of a set of logical inference and algorithmic procedures, computers could tackle any well-defined problem. It was claimed that even ill-defined problems like writing a symphony or designing a house could be broken into a set of well-defined problems, which could then be solved in familiar ways. In reality, the computer’s expertise was limited, and it was unable to solve real-world problems because of the huge amount of combinatory elements required. However, the problem-solving approach to expertise lived on, with the awareness that ill-defined problems and contexts were better addressed by strategies such as the use of analogy (Gentner et al. 2001). Expertise is still viewed as a form of problem-solving skill, and many creative strategies and heuristics have been developed, such as the Geneplore model (Finke et al. 1992). This sees creativity as arising from the interplay between idea generation and exploration in a pre-inventive and subsequent exploratory phase, as described in Table 12.1. Table 12.1 Idea generation process Process

Activity

Information Analogy Association

Retrieval from memory or exemplars Comparing one domain to another Combining of concepts

Abstraction Analysis Modification Elaboration Extrapolation Evaluation

Essentializing the idea Breaking the idea into separate parts Changing aspects of the idea Expanding the idea Drawing out the consequences of the idea Weighing up the feasibility of the idea

Pre-inventive phase

Exploratory phase

Source: based on Ward and Kolomyts (2010: 94)

Expertise as a combination of diverse thinking skills Creative thinking is now associated with the highest form of cognitive skill in Bloom’s revised Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain, where ‘to create’ involves putting elements together to form a novel, coherent whole, or making an original product, with subcategories of ‘generating’, ‘planning’ and ‘producing’ (Anderson et al. 2001). According to Cropley (2001: 36–42), creative expertise has been associated with the skills of:

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constructing far-reaching associations; re-coding information;

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combining different categories; producing new configurations; unconscious or internalized processing.

Kevin Dunbar observed how discoveries actually occurred in scientific research laboratories – rather than looking at how the process was reported after the event. He found that creative cognition arose from a process of ‘cognitive tinkering’ and distributed reasoning at the weekly laboratory meetings where new analogies, analyses and inductive thinking were proposed, rather than the new insights arising from one type of cognitive skill (Ward and Kolomyts 2010).

Expertise as problem-posing Problem formulation is an independent process that is as important to creative expertise as problem-solving. It can contribute more to creativity in explaining how a problem exists in the first place, how it can be defined and how people can be motivated to investigate it. It involves an expert sensitivity to discovering hidden problems and even inventing problems where no one else has seen them, as Einstein did in developing his theory of special relativity. Experts appear to spend more time than others on formulating problems, where they must attempt to encode their problem into a category, and they spend less time on solutions, since these may be implicit in the problem reformulation (Cropley 2001: 48). Time spent on problem formulation may be one indicator of subsequent creativity. For example, when American art college students were observed in an open-ended task of drawing a set of objects, those students who engaged in preliminary problem-finding, by handling the objects or modifying their sketches, were more successful as artists in the art world years later (Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi 1976).

Expert mental representations The way a problem is mentally represented explains one of the major differences between experts and novices. It has been extensively studied in ‘insight’ solutions, shown by highly creative scientists like the German chemist August Kekul´e, who famously dreamed of a snake biting its own tail to represent the ring structure of benzene. Representational skills (Wallas 1926) involve:

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a process of preparation or immersion in the problem; a period of incubation where the problem is put aside; sudden illumination or insight.

The game of chess has been used to demonstrate changes in mental representation. Chess masters rapidly familiarize themselves with the position, its strengths and weaknesses in order to identify the best move. The very best chess players differ from

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others in their ability to find and explore the most promising moves, suggesting that their internal representation of chess positions is more flexible (de Groot 1965). Robbie Case (1978) identifies three stages of cognitive schemata or mental representations. Figural Operational Executive

A concrete representation of available information General or abstracted aspects of the information Leading to transformations of data

Figural schemata provide experts with accuracy of information. Operational schemata categorize its properties. Finally, the flexible, complex and differentiated executive schemata in experts can lead to novel creative transformations. In this way, experts’ cognitive structures are grounded in reality, but can be at the same time novel (Cropley 2001: 31).

Expertise and domain knowledge Deep knowledge of a domain is a necessary condition for expertise. Cropley (2001: 45) cites Robert Weisberg who claims that creativity arises when experts construct chains of ideas in extended logical steps. An example once again is that of Einstein who developed his special theory of relativity after lengthy considerations of the inadequacy of existing theories of electrodynamics. However, expertise can constrain creativity, producing a form of ‘tunnel vision’ that cuts off divergent thinking and leads only to conventional results (Cropley 2001: 46). This shows that apart from deep knowledge and domain skills, creative thinkers require meta-cognitive abilities and an ability to show flexibility, demonstrating the ‘novice effect’ – that is, the curiosity and enthusiasm of newcomers to a field.

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Educational implications There is a clear role for education to develop expertise in cognitive skills. If we can understand how experts have developed their expertise, we can show the less skilled how to become more skilled. In order to develop creative expert performance, teachers should:

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ensure that students are immersed in domain-specific ways of thinking; identify the different types of thinking involved in experts’ creativity; explain to students the different stages and types of mental representations; model and articulate their own mental representations; show learners how to separate idea-generation from ideaexploration; ask learners to devise problems, as well as seeking solutions; encourage open-ended association of disparate ideas; allow time for exploration and incubation of ideas to produce insight; promote ‘cognitive tinkering’ and distributed reasoning in group work; provide formulas or heuristics that will help students to be creative; require students to reflect on their creative thinking processes; invite experts into the classroom to share their ways of thinking; get learners to explore ideas deeply without the pressure to be creative.

Superior performance The interest in cognitive development discussed above has been complemented by a more detailed interest in holistic performance of increasing expertise. The move from novice to expert entails a progression to a more sophisticated understanding, displayed in performance, through stages which range from total ignorance to creative mastery. To achieve this sophistication takes time. Almost all of the great composers studied by John Hayes had undergone at least 10 years of musical study before they produced their masterworks (Weisberg 1999: 230). It has been estimated that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world expert (Levitin 2008). Formal education accounts for much of this time. For example, it usually takes 10 years from school matriculation to PhD status and an original contribution to knowledge. Historically, the development from total ignorance to professional mastery was recognized by a number of intermediate stages (Hoffman 1998):

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Table 12.2 Progression through competence levels Learner stage

Performance

Concepts

Student view

Validation

Na¨ıve

Intuitive

Seen as directly available and unproblematic

School is not connected with life

No ownership No reflection

Novice

Based on habit

Simple rehearsed concepts seen in performance

Knowledge is mechanistic and step-by-step

External authority

Apprentice/ journeyman

Based on imitation and modelling

Emerging concepts Follows the procedures of domain experts

By domain experts and mentors

Expert

Based on disciplinary knowledge

Seen as complex

Mastery of knowledge and skills

Self-assessment and judgement of others

Master

Integrative, creative and critical

Flexibly related to criteria and purposes

Complex Emerging from Driven by conflicting public frameworks argumentation of practitioners

Source: adapted from McCarthy (2009) Na¨ıve Novice Apprentice Journeyman Expert Master

Total ignorance of the domain New probationary member with minimal expertise Student immersed in the domain for 1–12 years Experienced but with limited proficiency Great experience and reliable proficiency Qualified to teach and produce creative masterpieces

This journey towards mastery entails a gradual progress through competence levels as illustrated in Table 12.2. In the latter part of the twentieth century, researchers looked closely at the characteristics of renowned experts in their fields. The cognitive psychologist K. Anders Ericsson claims that expertise results not from talent, generalized thinking or experience, but from deliberate and purposeful practice in a domain, with the aim of pushing beyond the boundary of present capacities (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 725). This venture into new territory is also characteristic both of everyday and exceptional creativity. Superior performance involves:

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extended practice and daily schedules; feedback on performance; repetition and anticipation; imitation of skilled performers; motivation and self-belief;

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specific perceptual and representational characteristics; memory and expertise; automatic performance; physiological and neurological changes; expert performance over the life span.

Daily practice Expert performers spend about four hours practising every day, including the weekends. They engage in practice sessions of an hour, followed by rest (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 741). With extended practice, it is possible to improve performance to a certain extent, but extended practice on its own does not lead to expertise (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 735). Driving your car to work every day does not necessarily make you an expert driver. Creative innovation emerges from purposeful practice, where the intention is to improve on specific aspects of present performance (Syed 2011: 91).

Feedback on performance Feedback is important in all skills – for example, in steering a car in order to adjust your position on the road, and adjusting your speed in accordance with weather conditions and other road users. Self-regulation and awareness are important in monitoring individual performance and practice and in knowing optimal times and conditions for practice. According to Syed, championship skiers regularly attempt to jump beyond their current capabilities since failure is a vital feedback mechanism and not to be avoided: ‘Landing on your butt twenty thousand times is where great performance comes from’ (Syed 2011: 78). He quotes the Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett’s words from Worstward Ho: ‘Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better’ (p. 119).

Repetition and anticipation According to Richard Sennett, in his book The Craftsman, repetitive practice is not simply mindless activity. Doing something over and over again can be stimulating and creative when it is goal-driven (Sennett 2008: 175). He cites the example of an American glassblower who kept a reflective log of her experiences in trying to blow a traditional Italian wine glass: ‘She was engaged in a process of bodily anticipation, always one step ahead of the material as a molten liquid, then a bubble, then a bubble with a stem’ (p. 173).

Imitation of skilled performers There has been much recent interest in the claim that domain knowledge is situated and distributed within communities of practice, with novices as ‘legitimate peripheral

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participants’ who are gradually inducted into communal ways of knowing and acting (Lave and Wenger 1991). A significant element of such induction is in the novices’ imitation of, and being coached by, skilled performers (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 739). One reason for asking expert performers to decipher their implicit performances and explain what they are doing is that such ‘think-aloud protocols’ (Oh and Wildemuth 2009: 178–88) may be used to accelerate the development of novice practitioners in ambiguous situations.

Motivation and self-belief Effortful activity is hard work, so not inherently motivating, and does not lead to immediate rewards. The majority of individuals do not spend their time in deliberate practice once they have reached an acceptable and pleasurable level of performance (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 738). The question is why do people practise if it is not inherently pleasurable? At the highest level, individuals must go beyond any available knowledge to make a unique and creative contribution to the field (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 740). Self-efficacy, the belief an individual has in his or her ability, based on previous effort, is implicated in creative performance and is linked to self-regulation. People who possess self-efficacy are not put off by failure, and are more likely to persist in tasks (self-efficacy is also discussed in Chapter 19). Carol Dweck (2006) shows in her study of teachers’ praise of children that praise for aptitude or intelligence is less effective in maintaining motivation than praise for trying.

Specific perceptual and representational characteristics An expert experiences a domain in an entirely different way from a novice (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 732). For example, chess experts can visualize chess positions in their heads, without a chess board (‘blindfold chess’). This is not due to a photographic memory, but to an ability to perceive patterns that novices do not see (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 735). Moreover, experts can form an immediate representation of the problem that gives access to their knowledge, whereas novices lack this efficient access and need to recycle all their knowledge. Studies of the diagnostic abilities of experienced medical clinicians show that experts develop ‘X-ray vision’ in being able to spot patterns that novices cannot see (Syed 2011: 203–17).

Memory and expertise Expert performers acquire methods and skills which allow them to bypass the standard physiological limits and those of working memory in order to store information directly in long-term memory (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 735). Memory skill in a domain is integrated with flexible skills in organizing the knowledge they have acquired, and the refining of their procedures and strategies. Memory need not be confined to the brain. In physical activities such as sport or dance, the muscles grow accustomed to certain kinds of movement and ‘muscle memory’ becomes an unconscious part of expertise.

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Automatic performance Rapid automated performance is an aspect of expertise and of potential creative performance (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 736). This is common knowledge to any car driver who, having acquired the basic skills of starting the car, engaging the clutch and putting it into gear, does so without having to think about it. Once the driver has to think about this sequence the automaticity is disrupted, performance falters and becomes prone to mistakes, and there is a return to novice driving behaviours.

Physiological and neurological changes The process of building knowledge transforms the neurological hardware in which the knowledge is stored and operated (Syed 2011: 87). Brain plasticity research shows that learning three-ball cascade juggling was associated with an increase in brain grey matter in the motion-sensitive occipito-temporal cortex (Driemeyer et al. 2008). Similarly, intense and prolonged physical training can lead to the obvious changes in physiology displayed by dancers and elite athletes.

Expert performance over the life span Children show the ability to acquire certain skills like perfect pitch and fluency in a second language in early childhood, whereas these skills are much more difficult

Stage

Example

Skill becomes honed, perfected and tacit

Autonomous

Advanced drivers display knowledge and skill without thinking

Associations made between critical elements of the task

Associative

Competent drivers can use clutch, change gears and steer

Performance

Rules and procedures can be stated

Figure 12.1 Expertise development Source: based on Anderson (1983)

Declarative

Novice drivers can explain how and when to change gears

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to acquire in adulthood. In chess masters, the frequency of outstanding performance declines with age. This is in line with the general decline of expertise in old age, however experts are able to maintain their level of performance longer than others, but only in those domains in which they possess expertise (Ericsson and Charness 1994: 742). The development of expertise can be seen as learning progressing from declarative, to associative and autonomous performance, as illustrated in Figure 12.1.

Educational implications There are numerous implications in the above for the role of education in developing expert performance. Motivation, focused practice, imitation of experts and feedback are very familiar pedagogical techniques. The development of expertise is an exciting area in which research reveals clear links between domain mastery and creativity. There are other benefits too – for example, in the link between intense practice in music and increased cognitive performance in other tasks (Schellenberg 2004: 511–14). In order to develop expertise, teachers should:

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provide many opportunities for practice in a domain; design effective practice sessions and encourage repetition and rehearsal; create shorter, more effective feedback cycles for learners; be specific in providing feedback on performance; require learners to identify and focus on areas where they need feedback; provide models and examples of skilled performance; articulate the tacit dimensions of superior performance; aid mental representations by pointing out patterns; encourage changed mental representations by visualization techniques; praise sustained effort rather than talent or achievement.

Conclusion In considering the nature of talent and its relationship to expertise, this chapter has shown how earlier views of talent, allied to genius as a mysterious or innate force, have been replaced by a view of creative expertise as a form of cognitive skill involving problem formulation displayed in superior performance. This more nuanced and detailed explanation involves problem formulation and solving as well as a more diverse range of skills and mental capacities, as expertise develops through progressive stages of increasing sophistication in a trajectory from novice to expert. Talent, cognitive skill and superior performance all have obvious implications for pedagogical practice.

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Levitin, D. (2008) This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession. New York: Penguin. Marland, S.P. (1972) The Education of the Gifted and Talented: Report to the Congress of the United States by the US Commissioner of Education. Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education and Reform. McCarthy, M. (2009) Teaching for understanding: what has it to offer in the context of SoTL? Educational Developers of Ireland Network Symposium: University of Limerick, February. Newell, A. and Simon, H.A. (1963) GPS: a program that simulates human thought, in E.A. Feigenbaum and J. Feldman (eds) Computers and Thought. New York: McGraw-Hill. Oh, S. and Wildemuth, B.M. (2009) Think-aloud protocols, in B.M. Wildemuth (ed.) Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Schellenberg, E. G. (2004) Music lessons enhance IQ, Psychological Science, 15: 511–14. Sennett, S. (2008) The Craftsman. London: Allen Lane. Simonton, D.K. (2010) Creativity in highly eminent individuals, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Solomon, M. (1995) Mozart. New York: HarperCollins. Suzuki, S. (1981) Discovery of the law of ability and the principle of ability development: proof that talent is not inborn, in E. Hermann (ed.) Shinichi Suzuki: the Man and his Philosophy. Athens, OH: Ability Development Associates. Syed, M. (2011) Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice. London: Fourth Estate. Wallas, G. (1926) The Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Ward, T.B. and Kolomyts, Y. (2010) Cognition and creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Weiner, B. (1986) An Attributional Theory of Motivation and Emotion. New York: SpringerVerlag. Weisberg, R.W. (1999) Creativity and knowledge: a challenge to theories, in R.J. Sternberg (ed.) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Weisberg, R.W. (2006) Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Arts. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Chapter 13 Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship

Introduction There is a famous scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in which prehistoric apes use bones as weapons to defeat their enemies. One of the victorious humanoid apes flings the bone in the air in triumph and, as it rotates it transforms into an orbiting space station to the strains of Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube waltz. A few seconds communicate the result of millions of years of human development and invention. Ever since they started to walk upright and use tools such as stone axes, spears and bows and arrows, humans have been using their creativity for the purpose of invention and innovation. In this chapter we examine the characteristics of productive creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and consider the influences by which they are promoted or constrained. The underlying values are teased out and the implications for education discussed.

Historical roots Creative invention has a long history. Some prehistoric inventions seem to have been creative works of great genius – for example, the strung bow which converted the kinetic energy of the archer’s slowly drawing back the string into the potential energy stored in the bent bow, and finally into a sudden release of kinetic energy transferred to the arrow. Other technologies such as agriculture developed by means of incremental improvement through trial and error over the course of time. We do not propose to give a history of invention, but to point out its prevalence at all times in history. In general each development from hunter gathering to agriculture to city-based civilizations to great nation states and extensive empires required ever-increasing numbers of inventions and innovation to sustain them. There have been innumerable technological inventions over the centuries in agriculture, architecture and everyday life, developed by great ancient civilizations such as China, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Rome. The growth of cities made necessary engineering developments for transport, building, water and waste management. Weapons of war were always high on the agenda. This continues to the present day, with many innovations such as the internet having their roots in military strategy.

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Productive creativity

Innovation

Entrepreneurship

Figure 13.1 Relationship between productive creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship We now consider the concepts of productive creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship which, as Figure 13.1 illustrates, are all interlinked, since any two are implicit in the other.

Productive creativity The constructs of creativity most applicable to innovation and entrepreneurship are those of creativity as ‘product’ and ‘process’. ‘Personal attributes’ are also relevant since entrepreneurs display qualities such as independence, self-confidence and determination. Cropley and Cropley (2010) outline the development of thinking about creativity over the course of the twentieth century. They describe a move from the practical, to the personal, to the social (see Table 13.1). Although Cropley and Cropley (2010: 304) argue that ‘useful, novel products that solve concrete problems in real life should be studied in their own right’, educationalists are more comfortable with the psychological and self-actualization approach since that Table 13.1 Shift in focus from practical to personal Focus

Example

Practical products of creativity Psychology of creative thinking The creative personality Self-actualization and personal growth Social and environmental factors

Rossman Guilford Barron Maslow Amabile

1931 1950 1969 1973 1996

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is their ‘home territory’. Educationalists cannot ignore the pressure from educational policy-makers to bear in mind the knowledge economy and the creative economy; on the other hand, education has to find a balance between meeting the needs of the individual and the needs of the state.

Aspects Chance versus hard work Although hard work is undoubtedly important, for successful creative production chance may also play a part. Austin (1978) identifies a number of different forms: Blind chance Serendipity Luck of the diligent Self-induced luck

The creator has nothing to do with the discovery apart from co-location The creator finds something novel while looking for something else Hard worker finds what is being sought in an unexpected place Meticulous diligent hard work and knowledge support ‘luck’

Instantaneous versus gradual There are several famous instances in the history of science going all the way back to Archimedes’ famous ‘Eureka!’ moment when ideas seem to have arrived all at once. Similar stories are told about Pasteur, Fleming, Becquerel and many others. However, although they make nice stories, the truth is that these moments were preceded by a lot of thinking. Productive creativity is likely to be a result of a combination of hardwon expertise and determined application of effort over a long period. For example, Ericsson and Charness (1994) refer to the necessity for 10,000 hours of work to achieve mastery. Chance may then be a factor but only when there is a prepared mind ready to capitalize upon it. ‘Preparing the mind’ is precisely what teachers like to think they are doing and ‘hard work’ is the means by which they think it can be achieved.

Stage approach Although Glover et al. (1989) report that many notable creative people are unaware of a step-by-step process, Cropley and Cropley (2010) refer to several descriptions of products being created in a staged way. The sequences variously labelled in Table 13.2 involve different phases of the creative process which are qualitatively different as the processes and products of each stage may vary. For example, producing ideas may require divergent thinking whereas evaluation is convergent. Also, the process is not necessarily strictly sequential and progressive. For example, Shaw (1989) refers to ‘loops’ in the process.

‘Precising’

Illumination

Incubation

Preparation

Hadamard (1945)

Source: based on Cropley and Cropley (2010: 309–12)

Testing for usefulness

Persuasion

Formulating candidate solutions

Incubation

Analysing the solutions

Surveying information

Concentration

Identifying novelty

Analysing the problem

Preparation

Verification

Awareness of problem

Encounter

Illumination

Rossman (1931)

Wallas (1926)

Table 13.2 Stage approach to productive creativity

Evaluation

Synthesis

Incubation

Ideation

Analysis

Preparation

Orientation

Osborn (1953)

Bringing up the baby

Parturition

Gestation

Conception

Barron (1988)

Evaluating

Implementing

Selecting

Ideating

Defining

Analysing

Accepting the challenge

Koberg and Bagnall (1991)

Validation

Communication

Verification

Illumination

Generation

Activation

Preparation

Cropley and Cropley (2010)

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Educational implications

The importance to society of generation of useful practical products in technology, business, administration, production and delivery systems, and so on implies that vigorous attempts need to be made to foster their production, especially in school-level and higher education. (Cropley and Cropley 2010: 313) This is easier said than done however. Primary and secondary school pupils are too young to have enough experience to create products that are of value to society in general. They may be creative in their own personal context in the way that the ideas are new to them but in many cases they are ‘reinventing the wheel’. Schools are organized into timetable slots that deny students the extended periods of time needed to work on creative projects and curricula are structured into separate disciplinary areas that deny students cross-curricular, interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approaches that could lead to creative production. Often the materials are not present to produce significant or substantial objects or products. Most seriously however, schools are generally concerned with the intellectual, social and physical development of students. Teachers induct students into the culture of their discipline so the focus is on the student, not the product of the student. To the extent that products are of interest it is often merely as an indication of the ability and personal characteristics of the student. Training in trades such as plumbing or hairdressing has generally been carried out through an apprenticeship model. Although technical or vocational schools or institutes of higher education have drifted into this area, there is still a perception among teachers that school teaching is about general transferable, mostly intellectual, skills. Finally, school assessment is most convenient in the form of examination under controlled conditions that allow standardized tests. Although there is constructive alignment in some practical subjects, such that assessment involves a product such as a piece of woodwork, metalwork or art, most assessment is in written form. In order to promote productive creativity teachers should:

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consider and address classroom constraints on creativity; explain and give examples of a staged approach to productive creativity; allocate sufficient time to allow for productive activity; provide resources of equipment and materials to create products; ensure that creativity results in the creation of actual products;

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consider the products that the pupils produce as well as intellectual achievement; incorporate cross-curricular, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches; create multidisciplinary collaborative projects for group productive creativity; recognize the legitimacy of practical as well as theoretical knowledge; encourage experiential learning and the invention of new products; ask students to evaluate existing products with a view to improvement; assess practical work on the basis of products produced; distinguish between products that are simply new and those that are new and useful.

Innovation Definition Modern definitions of innovation stress the creation of products that are not simply novel or original, but are useful (Cropley and Cropley 2010: 302). Innovations only enter the public domain because they have been recognized as being of value to society. For example, Richard Arkwright’s ‘spinning jenny’ paved the way for the cotton mills of eighteenth-century England’s Industrial Revolution. Invention on the other hand means making a new product which may or may not be of value, and which may or may not be recognized as useful – such as the elaborate, whimsical machines of Heath Robinson. Innovation need not necessarily involve a new product however – it can also be related to a novel process or new way of doing something. For example, the famous ‘Fosbury flop’ was an innovation in high-jumping seen at the 1968 Olympics where athlete Dick Fosbury won the gold medal by jumping over the bar on his back, facing skywards. In the industrial arena one can similarly categorize the development of the assembly-line method as an innovation in manufacture from the previous method of individual rather than serial production. Much innovation is incremental and just improves or extends an existing product. For example, many household appliances such as washing machines, television sets and vacuum cleaners have experienced modest incremental innovation over many years. On the other hand, ‘disruptive innovation’ (Christensen 1997) helps create a new market that has the effect of disrupting the existing market for the product. For example, the Les Paul solid body electric guitar overturned the prevailing notion that a stringed instrument needed to be hollow in order to amplify the sound.

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Rationale Drivers Innovation has always taken place, but it has become more important in modern society because of globalization and the rate of change. Governments now consider innovation and creativity as crucial to a country’s success in the international competitive environment, and a primary indicator of competitive advantage, performance and survival (Hazelkorn 2002). The world’s fastest growing economies are no longer in the western world but in developing countries and continents. For example, Google Insight reports that one of the highest number of requests for information on innovation comes from India (Shaughnessy 2011). Countries such as Africa now offer enormous untapped markets and opportunities for innovation. Many high-tech firms are establishing themselves in Africa to cater for that continent’s ‘lightning pace’ adoption of technology. The ‘Afripad’, which was developed by the Nigerian Saheed Adepoju, is aimed specifically at a vast African consumer market (Arlidge 2012). In the commercial world, there are constant pressures to innovate in order to increase market share by encouraging consumers to buy new ‘improved’ products such as laptops, smartphones and iPads.

Constraints One of the constraints to creative innovation is the success of previous products, making it harder to develop innovative models without vast research and investment which may not result in increased market share. If innovation is incremental, there comes a point where there is a plateau at which improvement can only be made at too high a cost. Disruptive innovation is then needed. However, research and development is very expensive and it may be difficult to find people with the necessary creative skills. Moreover, it becomes more difficult to compete in an environment which may be affected by political events, financial market fluctuations and economic instability. The timing of innovation may also be problematic. For example 3D television got off to a bad start when it was brought to market prematurely and was still expensive, and when there were still flaws in the design. Sophisticated consumers are now more sceptical of marketing, and less reliant on official company press releases. Instead, they rely on shared evaluation on web forums and are less likely to be impressed by innovative claims.

Monitoring Two ways in which innovation can be monitored are by economic indicators and legislation.

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Economic indicators The rate of innovation in a country is a very important economic indicator. There are several ways that this can be established (Shaughnessy 2011). The rate of innovation can be measured by:

r r r r r

number of patent filings; number of mathematics and engineering graduates; investment in research and development; industry clusters; innovation indices: ◦ Global Innovation Index (BCG and NAM 2011) ◦ Innovation Metrics Project (BESTA 2009) ◦ Insights for Search (Google 2012).

Legislation A wide range of creative products such as inventions, literary and artistic works, films and computer programs have associated intellectual property rights for their creators. Intellectual property law acts as a deterrent to copying or exploiting these works. Intellectual property, like any other property, is something that is legally owned by a particular person or company and can be sold, assigned, mortgaged or licensed. In particular, patent law gives the owner a monopoly with regard to a particular invention, so it requires very rigorous standards to be met. Accoding to Bainbridge (2007: 4) some intellectual property rights include:

r r r r r r

copyright; performance rights; patents; trademarks; registered and unregistered designs; ‘passing off’.

There have been attempts to enforce the intellectual property rights of innovators – for example, with regard to the creative products of musicians, but these attempts have not always been successful, as shown in the ongoing battle between music publishers and music-sharing websites. The World Trade Organization has designated education as a tradable commodity and there is an increasing commodification of ideas and appropriation of knowledge. Educational ideas have become commercial and marketable. On the other hand, there is an opposing movement that shares intellectual and educational material without cost. Copyright is waived in movements such as Creative Commons in publishing, open sourceware in programming and OpenCourseWare (OCW) in academia.

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Other forms of monitoring include national and international regulatory frameworks, such as those governing the pharmaceutical and food industries. All of these constrain or limit some aspects of innovation. For example, the expense and time involved in drug testing and approval may limit the creativity of some drugs researchers and their companies.

Values Innovation is not value-free and there can be a more sinister, criminal or malign side to creativity. For example, the huge death toll in the Second World War has been attributed to the innovative use of strategic bombing of industries and cities rather than military targets: ‘It may rank as the most destructive innovation of all time – so far’ (Jasper 2010: 100). The biomedical domains and new technologies hold great potential for innovation with numerous ethical implications. An ethically reprehensible innovation based on genetic engineering is portrayed in Kazuo Ishiguro’s recent novel Never Let Me Go where humans are cloned in order to harvest their body parts for transplantation. The internet, originally intended as a military communication device, has been appropriated by a wider global community in the form of the world wide web, where information is shared freely for the general good. At the same time, the internet provides the anonymity that acts as a cover for deception, cyber crime and predation. The ethical consequences of this innovation were not foreseen. Different cultures prioritize different values in the innovation process. For example, Asian societies tend to stress family relationships, obligations and a respect for authority, while western values tend to be more individualistic. Consequently, attitudes to intellectual property, plagiarism and ‘patent theft’ in the East may be more communal rather than individualistic as in the West.

Educational implications In economic and political circles, education is seen as a means of stimulating innovation. Governments worry about the uptake in science and technology subjects, for example, and initiatives are undertaken to popularize and promote them. A highly skilled workforce is seen as vital in order to attract investment by high-tech companies. Higher education may be regarded as an ‘engine’ of innovation in alliance with the business community, to carry out research and development which can be translated into commercial entities that exploit intellectual assets. Curiosity and inventiveness can be fostered at all levels in education. The UK National Curriculum expresses a desire for young learners to make a positive contribution to society through enterprise and change for the better.

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In order to promote innovation in the classroom, teachers should:

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encourage experiential learning (e.g. the invention of new products); ask students to evaluate existing everyday products with a view to improvement; create multidisciplinary, collaborative projects for group innovation; distinguish between products that are simply new and those that are new and useful; provide examples of innovative products and processes; introduce students to the concepts of incremental and disruptive creativity; ask students to provide examples of different kinds of innovation; justify teaching innovation in curricular and wider policy documents; consider classroom constraints on creativity (e.g. timetabling or teaching methods); stimulate discussion on the values underpinning innovation; discuss issues in relation to intellectual property in higher education.

Entrepreneurship Definition Entrepreneurship involves the starting up and running of an enterprise. There are two types of entrepreneurial activity. One is commercial and seeks to maximize profit; the other is social and seeks to maximize the public good. Of course, commercial entrepreneurs have also engaged in philanthropic activities. The Scottish American businessman Andrew Carnegie used the wealth generated by his business activities to build thousands of libraries all over the world: ‘The man who dies rich dies disgraced’ (Carnegie 1901: 19). In more recent times, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation engages in a range of philanthropic activities such as global development and health, for example by fighting infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS in poor and developing countries.

Commercial A commercial entrepreneur is a person who starts and grows his or her own new, initially small, business venture (OECD 1998: 41). This definition can be widened to include dynamic entrepreneurial ways of thinking and behaving within already established companies. For example, Google, which started as a small-scale garage-based venture in 1998, attempts to maintain that small-scale culture by actively encouraging innovation and diversity in its now very large workforce (Battelle 2005).

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What differentiates entrepreneurs from everyday business managers is their role as innovators in bringing novel products into existence. Companies now growing fastest are those selling ideas, not those with the most assets (Enriquez 2005). Wickham (2006) suggests that entrepreneurs are creative; seek and discover niches for market innovations; bear risks; are growth-oriented; and are driven to maximize profit or investors’ returns. The requirement for novelty therefore suggests that entrepreneurship involves disruptive innovation. Governments now regard entrepreneurs as essential change agents in market economies. Entrepreneurship is not confined to technologically advanced first-world countries. Some African examples are mentioned in Chapter 4.

Social Social entrepreneurs create enterprises that aim to improve the quality of social life rather than to make a profit. Unlike philanthropists of the past, social entrepreneurs do not see money as the necessary engine for change (Stanhope 2012). Instead they are interested in social capital in the form of community engagement, small-scale activities and not-for-profit enterprises. Unlike commercial entrepreneurship’s ‘disruptive innovation’ social entrepreneurship can incorporate small-scale cumulative action. The British We Are What We Do company seeks to help people to do ‘more small, good things’ by collecting and presenting lists of numerous small suggestions that come from the community – for example, bringing your own bags to the supermarket or paying more than recommended in the charity shop (We are What We Do 2012).

Personality Both commercial and social entrepreneurs share certain personality characteristics. They are ‘persistent, innovative problem-solvers, who are opportunity-focused, calculated risk-takers, comfortable with change and frustrated by the status quo’ (Henry and McGowan 2007). Cognitive creativity skills and the complementary personality traits of risk-taking and drive are characteristics of the entrepreneur. Because of its risky nature, entrepreneurial activity inevitably results in a certain degree of failure. Entrepreneurial personalities therefore must have a steely optimism and robust imperviousness to failure – ascribing it to the business rather than to themselves, so that they immediately start to plan their next venture.

Rationale Drivers The global financial meltdown and rapid rate of change have cast aside old certainties and highlighted the need for entrepreneurial activities that constantly innovate and renew. Entrepreneurship is inherently optimistic and can be a vital catalyst for change.

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Governments are increasingly interested in entrepreneurial activity as one way of meeting the challenges of global competition and the needs of the labour market. For example, the Lisbon Strategy (2000) called on European Union (EU) countries to emphasize knowledge and innovation, citing entrepreneurship as one of the new basic skills that should be provided through lifelong learning. Another type of driver is that of internet and digital technology which offers valuable support to entrepreneurial activities, permitting very small-scale business startups, while at the same time allowing for practically infinite growth.

Constraints The external regulatory framework, bankruptcy laws, health and safety constraints, punitive tax regimes and lack of financial cushions may all act as disincentives to entrepreneurial activity. Government can sometimes be preoccupied with supporting ailing manufacturing industries in order to avoid the consequences of closure and resulting unemployment. This may result in a preference for propping up ultimately doomed enterprises at the expense of entrepreneurial start-ups. Times of financial crisis may make companies slow to invest too heavily in the type of risk-taking involved in entrepreneurship. Thus entrepreneurship may be starved of the necessary investment to grow and become a viable business and confined to small-scale activity. Within companies, rigid structures, tight procedures and conservative union stances may discourage entrepreneurial activity. The safety of the status quo may outweigh the risk of forging an independent path.

Values Entrepreneurs often show scant regard for the rules, like to follow their own passions and are likely to transfer allegiance if they recognize an opportunity they can pursue. These ‘disruptive’ values are unlikely to be endorsed by traditional companies which prefer loyalty, respect for company culture, management, norms and procedures. Workers are expected to be dedicated and compliant. The values of entrepreneurs may clash not only with those of the company, but also with general ethical norms. Their quick-witted opportunism can lead to the exploitation of people and situations and to the stereotype of the entrepreneur as a ‘wheeler dealer’. On the other hand, social entrepreneurs tend to be more explicit about their values which may be presented as ‘causes’. They are generally committed to a broad vision of social change and action in responding to actual human needs. The values they endorse include those of commitment and service to the community, respect for people’s autonomy and trust among partners. More recently, in response to environmental change, social problems and business scandals, there has been a change of emphasis in the value perspectives of commercial entrepreneurs. Michelle Benjamin (2012), the chief executive of a large US security and distribution company, explicitly states that the overarching values of her company are those of corporate, social

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and environmental sustainability. Among the attributes of her company values are those of:

r r r r r r r

bravery; vision; respect for self and for others; truth; honesty; generosity; fortitude.

Tim Brown, the designer and chief executive of the IDEO company, which promotes the concept of ‘design thinking’, epitomizes this change of perspective. In his view, designers have merely served narrow marketing interests by prettifying luxury objects that people may not need. He recommends that designers begin to think ‘big’ and deal with the social problems that people actually encounter, using design to serve this broader public interest (Brown 2009).

Educational implications In economic and political circles, education is seen as a means of stimulating entrepreneurship, with the promotion of entrepreneurial attitudes by educational means central to the EU’s political agenda. It has been claimed that the earlier students are exposed to entrepreneurship and innovation, the more likely they will be to consider entrepreneurial careers in the future (Wilson 2008). Entrepreneurship is a combination of personal attributes and business skills. Although education cannot confer personal attributes, it can provide the necessary technical skills to support and supplement natural entrepreneurial talent. Such skill development is suited to the educational setting although it could be argued that the lack of a realistic commercial context may be a weakness. Social entrepreneurship is much easier to address in an educational setting than is commercial entrepreneurship. For example, the ‘Historypin’ project run by We Are What We Do demonstrates the important role schools can play in their local communities. The project involves conversations between older people and schoolchildren about specific places they know. The older people contribute memorabilia, images, texts and memories; the young find ways to digitize these and blend them, forming ‘columns’ of history brought to life in a new form, to create ‘dynamic mapping tools’ (Stanhope 2011). The teaching of entrepreneurship is usually concentrated in higher and postgraduate education, having begun at the Harvard Business School in 1947,

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as an element of an MBA programme. Such educational programmes take many forms (Katz 1991), including:

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r

new venture creation; entrepreneurial finance; small business; family business; free enterprise; private enterprise; high technology business; new product development; microenterprise development; applied economic development; professional practice studies; women’s entrepreneurship; minority entrepreneurship; ethnic entrepreneurship.

More generic educational initiatives include an awareness of the types and values of entrepreneurship, knowledge exchange and linkages with enterprises, curriculum provision and the development of an enterprise culture. Richard Florida and Wesley Cohen (1999) see a role for higher education as a primary knowledge provider, since knowledge workers, equipped with entrepreneurial talents, are the most crucial resource for an economy. Such workers have become the new production resource upon which companies can achieve competitive advantage. As an extension of entrepreneurship, a number of business schools, such as the INSEAD Global Business School, with branches in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, have been teaching social entrepreneurship since 2005, with the aim of developing corporate strategies to tackle unmet social needs (INSEAD 2012). However, there is a lack of consensus on what entrepreneurship students should be taught, and therefore little consistency in the entrepreneurship courses offered in higher education. Moreover, there is scant empirical research to support the assumption that entrepreneurship education generates subsequent entrepreneurial activity (Brockhaus 1994). Although entrepreneurial education is primarily aimed at higher education, there are opportunities at secondary level for students to engage in work experience and mini-company formation as a form of commercial entrepreneurship and service learning in order to experience social entrepreneurship. In order to develop entrepreneurial skills, teachers should:

r r

integrate the concept of entrepreneurship into all levels of the education system; promote appropriate skills such as independence and innovation;

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r r r r r r r r

increase linkages between industry and the education system at all levels; challenge students to move outside their comfort zones; equip students with the requisite skills to act on entrepreneurial intentions; develop personal generic transferable skills programmes for PhD students; form changing and transient multidisciplinary teams; nurture analytical mind-sets; expose students to the possibility of an entrepreneurial career; allow flexibility in the running of entrepreneurial-type programmes in higher education.

Conclusion One of the problems for educationalists is the way that the creativity continuum has been appropriated at one end by those who see it as a means of self-expression, and at the other by those who see it as a commercial tool. As well as being harnessed for the purpose of increasing innovation, creativity itself has become a commercial product, as discussed in Chapter 16. Education itself is therefore in the innovation business. This chapter has shown that innovation and entrepreneurship are very important; commercially on the global scale and socially on the human one. Education has a clear part to play in both.

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Katz, J.A. (1991) The institution and infrastructure of entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 15(3): 85–102. Koberg, D. and Bagnall, J. (1991) The Universal Traveler: A Soft Systems Guide to Creativity, Problem-solving and the Process of Reaching Goals. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications. Maslow, A.H. (1973) Creativity in self-actualizing people, in A. Rothenberg and C.R. Hausman (eds) The Creativity Question. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) (2009) The Innovation Index: Measuring the UK’s Investment in Innovation and its Effects. London: NESTA. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) (1998) Fostering Entrepreneurship. Paris: OECD. Osborn, A. (1953) Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. New York: Scribner. Rossman, J. (1931) The Psychology of the Inventor. Washington, DC: Inventors Publishing. Shaughnessy, H. (2011) Measuring innovation, Irish Times Business Magazine Innovation, June. Shaw, M.P. (1989) The Eureka process: a structure for the creative experience in science and engineering, Creative Research Journal, 2: 286–98. soleRebels (2012) Our ethos, www.solerebelsfootwear.co, accessed February 2012. Stanhope, N. (2011) Mapping in the 4th dimension, TED Talks, www.TED.com/talks. Stanhope, N. (2012) Too important to make lots of money, Nick’s Blog, http://wearewhatwedo.org/, accessed February 2012. Wallas, G. (1926) The Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt Brace. We Are What We Do (2012) http://wearewhatwedo.org, accessed February 2012. Wickham, P.A. (2006) Strategic Entrepreneurship, 4th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education. Wilson, K. (2008) Entrepreneurship education in Europe, in OECD, Entrepreneurship and Higher Education. Paris: OECD.

Chapter 14 The creative teacher

Introduction At various points in the film Dead Poets’ Society the inspirational and charismatic English teacher gets his students to tear out the front pages of their textbook, walk on the teacher’s desk and kick footballs while reciting poetry. This stereotypical image of the creative teacher is very daunting to the average teacher who lacks the dramatic talents or script of Robin Williams. This chapter begins with a consideration of the purposes of creative teaching and the constraints it needs to overcome. The characteristics of the creative teacher are then considered in terms of personality, paradigm and performance, and the pedagogical implications for practice. The second half of the chapter considers creative teaching in the specific contexts of preschool, primary, secondary, practical and higher education, and the implications for the creative teacher in each.

Creative learning From a constructivist perspective, both learning and teaching are concerned with the co-construction of meaning, so can be considered as creative acts. Although teaching is of necessity creative, there are different degrees of creativity and intentionality. Creative teachers teach in creative ways in order to stimulate creative learning in their students. This involves ‘using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting and effective’ (NACCCE 1999: 6). The purpose here is to promote ‘learning’. Creative teaching may also be for the purpose of promoting creativity for its own sake, or within a particular disciplinary area. Teachers who believe in creative teaching need to identify which version of creative teaching they espouse, so that the roles they play and the strategies they employ are consistent with their values. Such clarity also assists in making the case for, or against, particular curricular strategies or initiatives. For example, whereas creative teaching has its focus on the creativity of the teacher, teaching for creativity has its focus on the creativity of the learner (Craft 2005: 42). It is clear that a teacher’s personal creativity is very important since ‘teachers cannot develop the creative abilities of their pupils if their own creative abilities are suppressed’ (NACCCE 1999: 90). In creative disciplinary learning there are three components – the discipline, learning and creativity. Although the reality may be complicated by teacher, learner and disciplinary characteristics, the complex dynamic relationship between these can

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Learning

Creativity Discipline A

(A) Disciplinary knowledge not yet learned

(B) Non-creative disciplinary learning

C

B

(C) Disciplinebased creativity

D

E

(D) Generic creativity

(E) Non-disciplinary non-creative learning

Figure 14.1 Elements involved in creative disciplinary learning

be described with the help of the Venn diagram shown in Figure 14.1. Even though the process of learning is by its nature a creative act, the content of that learning may or may not be expressly creative. Creativity can thus be considered as a subset of learning. When learners are studying a particular subject, part of the disciplinary knowledge not covered (A) will be outside the range of their current learning. Some of the disciplinary learning may not be particularly creative (B), but some of it will be creative (C). Apart from these three elements there may also be non-disciplinary generic creativity skills (D) and non-disciplinary learning (E). Table 14.1 shows how the regions, A, B, C, D and E in Figure 14.1 might apply to young primary school children learning to read and write.

Table 14.1 Example of primary pupils learning to read and write

A B C D E

Region

Literacy example

Disciplinary knowledge not yet learned Non-creative disciplinary learning Discipline-based creativity Generic creativity Non-disciplinary, non-creative learning

They will not yet be reading literature They will be learning to spell They will be writing little stories They will be developing their imaginations They will be learning how to behave

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Purposes of creative teaching Having clarified the different learning components described in Figure 14.1 it becomes easier to consider the purposes of creative teaching. Table 14.2 illustrates how these purposes relate to creativity and learning, each of which can be either generic or related to a specific discipline. Table 14.2 Purposes of creative teaching Specific

Generic

Learning Teaching disciplinary knowledge Teaching good habits of learning Creativity Teaching creativity within a discipline Teaching creativity skills and techniques

Learning in a discipline One of the purposes of teaching in a discipline is to help learners to increase their disciplinary knowledge. The pedagogy may be creative but will focus on core subject knowledge rather than on creativity per se.

Creativity in a discipline Creative teaching could also be aimed at encouraging creative approaches within a particular discipline. The pedagogical role therefore would involve modelling disciplinary creativity and encouraging learners to adopt creative approaches to a particular subject and its ways of thinking.

Generic creativity Another purpose of creative teaching can be to help learners to develop generic creativity attitudes and skills that can be useful, regardless of discipline. The pedagogical role in this case is to encourage creative attitudes and to teach creativity tools, techniques and processes such as those described in Chapter 16.

Generic learning Although a byproduct rather than an explicit goal, an important purpose of teaching is the inculcation of good habits of learning in general. The pedagogical role for the teacher in this case is that of modelling good practice for learners to emulate. These different possible approaches and the pedagogical role adopted are summarized in Table 14.3.

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Generic

Specific

Table 14.3 Teaching intentions and pedagogical roles Intention

Role

Teaching for learning in a discipline

Teaching subject content

Teach the subject itself

Teaching for creativity within a discipline

Encouraging creative disciplinary approaches

Model and facilitate disciplinary creativity

Teaching creativity per se

Teaching creativity as a generic skill

Teach creativity, techniques and processes

Teaching as an embodiment of virtue

Teaching good habits of learning

Model good practices in learning

Constraints on creative teaching The creative teacher may have the best of intentions as discussed above, but may have to deal with a number of constraints. Not least of these is a teacher’s own wariness in the face of creative student responses because of the disruption of the lesson plan, the desire for an orderly classroom and the fear of classroom chaos (Kennedy 2005: 264). Convergent teaching practices and an ‘initiate, respond and evaluate’ (IRE) pattern of teacher talk may present a barrier to small c creativity (Hall and Walsh 2002). Teachers may also hold a mistaken view that creativity can be enhanced by external motivators rather than by internal motivation (Amabile 1999). The familiar pedagogical road has its attractions when compared with creative approaches which demand much preparation, energy and enthusiasm. Management policies with rigid structures, modular systems, strict timetables and scripted curricula also inhibit creative approaches. Parental attitudes and student preferences for the familiar can present additional barriers. Assessment is a particularly strong constraint. If it is not recognized or rewarded, then creativity will fall by the wayside.

Characteristics of the creative teacher In order to overcome the constraints and perform the roles discussed earlier, a creative teacher requires a combination of personality, paradigm and performance.

Personality In any formal educational context, teachers are crucial to the learning process because of the power they wield over the curriculum and the learning environment. Added to

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this is the personal effect of teachers as models and mentors. Therefore the personal characteristics, values and attitudes of the teacher are very important. At the present time when creativity and self-expression are so much in vogue, it would be difficult to argue for teaching in an uncreative way, or in a way that did not promote creativity, so the personal qualities of a creative teacher include those of a good teacher in general. Typical properties such as confidence, warmth, empathy, enthusiasm and openness are likely to produce a classroom atmosphere that is encouraging and nonthreatening, so that pupils will feel free to express their creativity without fear of ridicule or negativity. Other desirable traits include those of flexibility, adaptability and resourcefulness in order to respond appropriately to the unexpected consequences of creative activity. Teachers with the above personality characteristics are likely to ‘allow greater choice in the selection of topics, welcome unorthodox views, reward divergent thinking, express enthusiasm for teaching, interact with their students outside of class, and generally conduct classes in an informal manner’ (Renzulli and De Wett 2010: 33).

Paradigm An important factor in determining creative teaching is the way teachers perceive themselves, and the way they are perceived by others. Geoffrey Squires (1999) suggests seven paradigms of teaching through which it is perceived by teachers, learners, management, students, parents and other stakeholders. The seven paradigms and their creativity consequences are presented in Table 14.4. The paradigm within which a particular teacher operates affects his or her attitude to creativity. Teachers therefore need to consider the particular paradigm or mixture of paradigms within which they themselves operate, and might even consider ones with which they are less familiar, in order to broaden their repertoire.

Performance Having an appropriate personality and creative mindset is not enough. Creative teachers need to be able to perform their role effectively. This involves being value-driven. As well as the many moral and pedagogical values of good teaching, creative teachers need to value creativity in themselves, in their students and in their disciplinary domains. Role performance has within it a set of underlying abilities to perform teaching tasks which require the coordination of simpler teaching actions necessitating a range of skills and knowledge. The cumulative performance is illustrated in Figure 14.2.

Teaching strategies Creative teaching is a part of good teaching in general. The following suggestions assume therefore that sound classroom management practices are in place and good

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Table 14.4 Paradigms of teaching and their consequences for creativity Paradigm

Nature and creative consequences

Common sense

Teaching involves common-sense everyday activities such as organizing, planning, explaining, asking and answering questions, guiding and encouraging. There is little need to learn creative teaching as it is a matter of common sense.

Art

Teaching is subtle and mysterious and requires special, personal, intuitive, empathic qualities that are innate and cannot be acquired. This places a value on creative teaching but offers little advice since it is a mysterious gift.

Craft

Teaching is a straightforward objective craft that can be demonstrated and passed on by appropriate training of the set of appropriate skills. This views creative teaching as the transmission of particular creative thinking techniques.

Applied science

Teaching involves the application of scientific psychological principles such as behaviourism and cognitivism to the task of causing learning to occur. This views creativity from the perspective of cognitive science.

System

Teaching is a rational process with particular goals pursued by means of certain inputs, processes and outputs controlled and adjusted by feedback loops. This views creative teaching as an input transformed to a creative output.

Reflective practice

Teaching involves a continuous cycle of ongoing reflection on experience, in order to develop, improve and refine practice. This sees the need for reflecting on the purposes, methods and results of creative teaching.

Competence

Teaching is a set of things that teachers can do, rather than personal qualities or knowledge. To the craft paradigm it adds attitudes, stamina and the matching of skill to task. This view is interested in what creative teachers can actually do.

Source: based on Squires (1999: 2–22) relationships have been established. That said, the following suggestions may address the four purposes of creative teaching discussed earlier: disciplinary learning, disciplinary creativity, generic creativity and generic learning.

Disciplinary learning In order to promote learning in a discipline, teachers should:

r r

relate disciplinary learning to the learners’ interests; identify disciplinary threshold concepts and help learners to cross them;

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Competence

193

Role Integrated with values

Abilities

Tasks Coordinated with knowledge

Skills

Actions

Figure 14.2 Creative teaching as performance

r r r r r r r r

encourage deep study of a subject beyond what is prescribed; teach and model ways of acting and thinking in a discipline; challenge students to exceed accepted disciplinary norms; encourage self and peer assessment in the discipline; provide challenging rather than simplified disciplinary data; vary the site of learning from the classroom; encourage collaborative meaning-making; engage with subject specialists or professionals to demonstrate expertise.

Disciplinary creativity In order to promote creativity in a discipline teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

allow learners to influence classroom decision-making; support student curiosity and individual student projects in a discipline; provide a wide-ranging and eclectic knowledge base; explore linkages and seek multiple connections across the curriculum; use multi-sensorial material – visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile; provide open-ended disciplinary tasks; ask questions that allow for many different answers; accept multiple answers and second-best alternatives; use technology to promote individual creativity learning in a discipline; experiment with novel forms of self and peer assessment.

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Generic creativity In order to promote creativity as a generic skill teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

differentiate idea generation, exploration, evaluation and dissemination; teach a range of creative thinking tools and techniques; use problem-based learning as an overall pedagogical strategy; explore the possibilities of group creativity with group projects; make remote associations between different knowledge areas; adopt a playful attitude and be adventurous in approaching tasks; allow sufficient time for creative ideas to develop; create a rich and varied physical environment; display and discuss examples of learner creativity; recognize creative thinking in assessment.

Generic learning In order to promote learning in general, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

collaborate with students in planning learning; model commitment and persistence; hold high expectations of students; draw attention to metacognitive skills; redirect focus from achievement to playful engagement; foster critical and analytical skills; expect more than the minimum response from students; accept emotional as well as intellectual responses; react positively to unexpected events; align assessment with desired learning.

This is a generic treatment of creative teaching. We now turn to consider creative teaching in the particular context of primary, secondary, vocational and higher education.

Primary teacher The main function of the creative primary school teacher is to motivate children to learn alone and with others, and to develop literacy and numeracy. There are generally fewer formal assessment pressures than at the other educational levels, so teachers are less constrained in what they can do. Apart from some specialist areas, classes generally have the same teacher for all subjects, making possible the use of creative interdisciplinary approaches and integrative project work. On the other hand, in some countries, standardized testing and inspection can put pressures on primary teachers to achieve standards. Parents too may have high

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expectations of academic excellence. Rigidity of scheduling associated with national curricula sometimes limits the flexibility that is required for creative approaches. Even if parents are in favour of extracurricular enrichment, their enthusiasm may result in children becoming jaded from extra out-of-school activities: sport, music and drama classes without a minute to spare. Similarly, the never-ending stream of digital entertainment eats into children’s time.

Teaching through play At this stage, the emphasis is on the use of play to stimulate the imagination – the preferred term. Play is an important pedagogical tool – particularly when teaching younger learners. Teachers can mediate play by presenting and explaining roles and making space for play and imagination. However, play should not be ‘micro-managed’. Teachers who guide play too rigidly, or intervene too much, do not allow creativity to develop. Wood (2009: 47) stresses that ‘it is essential that teachers should sustain the magical, mythical and metaphorical qualities of play that draw on children’s creativity, inventiveness and imagination’. Unlike rule-based board games for example, creative play is usually unstructured initially, although the children often create their own rules as the game develops. When children are playing in a truly creative way it brings to mind the idea of ‘flow’ as described by Csikszentmihalyi (1996: 110). From the point of view of the teacher therefore, instead of the tired old child-centred versus teacher-centred debate, a far better approach is to consider the continuum of relative involvement of learner and teacher, and see the possibilities in imaginative play for a co-construction of creativity that does not interfere with ‘flow’. Table 14.5 suggests an integrated combination of strategies. Table 14.5 Play strategies Child responsive

Adult responsive

Child initiated Free play, flexible, spontaneous; children make all the decisions about the creative play

Adult observes and responds with appropriate resources to help support the creativity

Adult initiated Teacher may create a structure (e.g. suggests a story or scenario) to which children respond

Non-play: adult retains all control but there may be an imaginative dimension to the activity

Source: based on Wood (2009) As well as imaginative play, there are many opportunities for creativity in the primary setting. Most obvious is the element of creative expression afforded by arts, crafts, music, drama and literature. These are discussed in the Chapters 8 and 19. A range of publications offer advice in this area. For example, Wilson (2009) contains a

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good collection of chapters on creativity in primary education and includes suggestions for a range of subjects. In order to support creative play, teachers should:

r r r r r r r r r r

provide rich and varied environments; supply materials that can be interpreted flexibly; encourage the transformation of play experience into learning; present and explain adult roles and functions; offer different opportunities for sociodramatic play; encourage social interactions through play; permit play to develop without too much constraint; allow conflicts generated in play to be resolved by participants; insert a playful element – games, competitions etc. – into all teaching; observe opportunities for self-regulation.

Secondary teacher At the secondary level, the disciplinary dimension is more prevalent, so creative teaching needs to be underpinned by subject expertise. The greater knowledge base offers many possibilities for exploring and developing creativity within each disciplinary area. Secondary pupils have a more sophisticated cognitive grasp than primary pupils, so communication and discussion can be at a higher level and more challenging work undertaken. For example, in history, pupils could speculate creatively about what might have happened if the Nazis had won the Second World War (Sternberg 2010: 395). Against these positive factors, state examination systems and parental and societal expectations combine to put pressure on teachers to focus solely on forms of academic success, which may offer little reward for creative work. The school timetable with its class periods of inexorable and unyielding regularity further constrains original approaches. Finally, secondary students are often inclined to be blas´e about school, under the influence of a combination of teenage hormones and peer pressure, so that creative activity might be deemed ‘uncool’. In order to teach creatively under these circumstances, teachers need to challenge the standard teacher role. Traditionally, this standard role involves a preponderance of directive talk, explaining ideas, often ‘translating’ the more difficult textbooks or ideas into user-friendly everyday language. Beghetto (2010: 450) describes a large-scale research project which found that 75 per cent of class time was devoted to instruction and 70 per cent of that was ‘talk’ with the teacher out-talking the whole class group by a ratio of three to one. The main occasions when secondary students speak in class are when they are asked specific questions that require convergent thinking in the form of ‘deducing’ the answer that the teacher already has in mind. In contrast to this sterile approach, teaching creatively means encouraging students to create, invent, discover, imagine, fantasize, suppose and predict (Sternberg 2010: 402). Below, shortened and simplified, are some of the practical strategies Sternberg offers within subject areas:

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r r r r r r

197

create an alternative ending to a short story; invent a dialogue in a foreign language; discover the physics principles underlying particular problems; imagine how a particular political situation will evolve; suppose that you had to design a new orchestral instrument; predict future changes in a particular language.

In order to teach creatively within a discipline, teachers need to be aware of:

r r r r r r r r r

the creative potential of particular disciplines; the need for explicitness and strong heuristics in explanations; the history of Big C creativity within disciplines; examples of creative disciplinary teaching; boundaries between disciplines where creative potential often lies; the types of creative space that foster creativity; opportunities for interdisciplinary engagement; resources to foster creative teaching; developments in digital multimedia and gaming.

Entry points A subject such as physics might not appear to have the creative potential of a subject such as English, history or geography. One way to approach a new topic in physics might be to use different ‘entry points’: ‘We might think of the topic as a room with at least five doors or entry points into it’ (Gardner 1991: 245). These entry points and associated examples are illustrated in Table 14.6. Table 14.6 Entry points to a subject Entry point

Responding to

Physics example

Aesthetic

Beauty of structure, design or form

Exploring the colour spectrum and the physics of colour in light and pigment

Narrative

Story or history involved

The stories of great physicists such as Heisenberg or Hawking

Logical quantitative

Deductive or numerical reasoning

The clarity of Einstein’s simple deductive reasoning

Foundational

Philosophical or meaning dimension

The nature of reality described by quantum theory or cosmology

Experiential

Personal physical interaction

The gymnastic, sporting or practical relevance of physics

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Practical teacher Creativity in this area is found in the making of artefacts and practical products, or in novel processes. This has been termed ‘functional creativity’ to differentiate it from solely aesthetic creativity such as the production of an artwork (Cropley and Cropley 2010: 301). The design process is now well-established in education through the subject of design technology although it is often viewed as technical rather than creative. Teachers of practical subjects need to go beyond knowledge of materials and mastery of processes and tools, to pursue more subjective goals including creative insight and ‘open-endeness’ (Lewis 2005: 43). Cropley and Cropley suggest that teachers present more open-ended problems which can reveal creative potential. They give as one example, ‘Design and build a device capable of lowering an uncooked egg from a height of at least 1 meter, without using any ropes, chains, wheels or pulleys’ (Cropley and Cropley 2010: 314). Table 14.7 lists a sequence of teacher activities in support of students’ functional creativity.

Table 14.7 Teacher support of students’ functional creativity Process

Teacher action

Preparation Activation Generation Illumination Verification Communication Validation

Prepare students by building up their specialized knowledge Train students to identify as well as solve problems Encourage students to generate multiple ideas Help students to recognize possible solutions Show students how to evaluate possible solutions Encourage dissemination of acknowledged solutions Help students to deal with external feedback

Source: based on Cropley and Cropley (2010: 310–12)

Higher education teacher In higher education, students gain the opportunity to specialize in disciplines in which they have a particular interest and facility, and will thus possess a greater knowledge base. That knowledge base will have a high degree of complexity and subtlety that will have greater potential for the emergence of creativity. Students may be operating intellectually at an advanced stage of epistemological development, as discussed in the ideas of Marcia Baxter Magolda (1992) (see Chapter 17). At undergraduate level, course requirements frequently include small-scale and guided research activities such as group or individual presentations. At postgraduate level, research is integral to all programmes. All of these require the display of some element of creativity. Many lecturers will have a PhD for which they had to display

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creativity in making a new contribution to knowledge, and are often active in research so that they are at the cutting edge of their discipline. Against this are the usual examination pressures on lecturers to complete programmes and on students to achieve high grades. Moreover, professional bodies and employers make demands for prescribed targets to be met. There are also the administrative constraints of learning outcomes, modularization and semesterization that limit the flexibility, time and other resources necessary for creative activities. Creativity is not necessarily part of the academic ‘game’ that students learn how to play. Oliver et al. (2006: 51) quote a student who says: ‘Our course is widely known to be academic, consult the literature, base your practice on the evidence, bang, bang, tick all the boxes, thank you very much’. If creativity is not specifically assessed, then it will not be a priority for students and may even be considered risky, although lecturers still hope for creativity and exult when they see it, but always with the proviso that it is soundly based. Academics generally believe that creativity is recognized in disciplinary contexts and is often deemed necessary for practitioners in their discipline. However, they also feel that there is more rhetoric than reality, and suggest that this may be due to the mismatch between the contexts of undergraduate learning and real professional practice. Nevertheless, they identify efforts being made: ‘most disciplines value project/assignment work, personal/interpersonal skills, and personal development planning/reflection, but tend to neglect open-ended problem solving, negotiated and experiential learning and negotiated, self and peer-assessment’ (Jackson and Shaw 2006: 104). Creativity is an international policy objective of higher education. In 2007 the European University Association (EUA) produced a report on creativity (2007: 36–8) which recommends that higher education institutions should:

r r r r r r r r r r

mix talents and experiences among students and staff; arrange exchanges between different disciplinary areas; engage in outreach activities and cooperation locally and beyond; develop internal quality processes without over-bureaucratization; create a cultural milieu that favours creativity; create safeguards that encourage risk-taking; allow staff and students to contribute towards development; encourage a sense of university community; maintain ethical standards; be proactive in identifying future issues.

Conclusion By clarifying the issues involved, this chapter should help a teacher who wishes to be creative. Such clarity enables teachers to suggest and defend creative curricular initiatives and to select appropriate classroom strategies. For example, the different purposes of creative teaching in relation to disciplinary and generic creativity have been outlined. The chapter considered the personal

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characteristics of teachers and how these combine with values and skills to develop competence in teaching. The pedagogical implications that arise in creative teaching were also considered and the barriers to such teaching discussed. The second half of the chapter focused on specific creative dimensions at different educational levels. At primary level the importance of fostering imagination and of play was stressed; at secondary level consideration was given to teaching the disciplines creatively. In practical education suggestions were made concerning the use of the design process to develop creativity and in higher education the emphasis was on the possibilities of creativity that arise from being at the cutting edge of a discipline.

References Amabile, T.M. (1999) How to kill creativity, in Harvard Business Review on Breakthrough Thinking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Baxter Magolda, M. (1992) Knowing and Reasoning in College: Gender-related Patterns in Students’ Intellectual Development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Beghetto, R.A. (2010) Creativity in the classroom, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg, (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Craft, A. (2005) Creativity in Schools: Tension and Dilemmas. Abingdon: Routledge. Cropley, D. and Cropley, A. (2010) Functional creativity: products and the generation of effective novelty, in J.C. Kaufman and R. J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. EUA (European Universitiy Association) (2007) Creativity in Higher Education: Report on the EUA Creativity Project 2006–2007. Brussels: EUA. Gardner, H. (1991) The Unschooled Mind. New York: Basic Books. Hall, J.K. and Walsh, M. (2002) Teacher-student interaction and language learning, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 22: 186–203. Jackson, N. and Shaw, M. (2006) Developing subject perspectives on creativity in higher education, in N. Jackson, M. Oliver, M. Shaw and J. Wisdom (eds) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. London: Routledge. Kennedy, M. (2005) Inside Teaching: How Classroom Life Undermines Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lewis, T. (2005) Creativity – a framework for the design/problem solving discourse in technology education, Journal of Technology Education, 17: 35–52. NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. Sudbury: DfEE.

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Oliver, M., Shah, B., McGoldrick, C. and Edwards, M. (2006) Students’ experiences of creativity, in N. Jackson, M. Oliver, M. Shaw and J. Wisdom (eds) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. London Routledge. Renzulli, J.S. and De Wett, C.F. (2010) Developing creative productivity in young people through the pursuit of ideal acts of learning, in R.A. Beghetto and J.C. Kaufman (eds) Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. Squires, G. (1999) Teaching as a Professional Discipline. London: Falmer Press. Sternberg, R.J. (2010) Teaching for creativity, in R.A. Beghetto and J.C. Kaufman (eds) Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. Wilson, A. (ed.) (2009) Creativity in Primary Education, 2nd edn. Exeter: Learning Matters. Wood, E. (2009) Conceptualizing a pedagogy of play: international perspectives from theory, policy and practice, in D. Kuschner (ed.) From Children to Red Hatters: Diverse Images and Issues of Play. Westport, MD: University Press of America.

Chapter 15 Managing creativity

Introduction Brian Epstein and Stig Anderson may not be very well known but they were crucial to the creativity and success of The Beatles and Abba. They were the managers who allowed creativity to flourish by carrying out a range of administrative activities that provided the freedom for their charges to concentrate on creative music writing and performing. In the educational sector, management demands strategic planning, policy formation, prioritizing, time and resource management, public relations, networking, financial control and motivational activities, while at the same time responding to unexpected events as they arise. In this chapter we concentrate the discussion on managerial activities that support creativity in an educational institution. Good educational management in general is beyond the scope of this brief chapter, but is assumed as a prerequisite for creativity management. Traditionally, creativity was more of a concern in business organizations, where there was (and is) a need for innovation and new products, than it was in educational organizations which were more interested in learning standards and staff motivation. This chapter therefore makes considerable use of the research into the management of creativity in business organizations and applies it to an educational context. Now however, the management of creativity is increasingly seen as key to the success of all large and complex organizations, including educational institutions. Considerations of organizational creativity from a systems perspective examine dynamic interactions between leadership, people, products, processes and environment. Although there is a clear relationship with good organizational management, this chapter concentrates on the particular parts of management that relate to creativity. After a brief discussion of the rationale for the management of creativity in organizations, the chapter considers the management of creativity at leadership, policy, group and individual levels. Each level culminates in a series of suggestions that might offer some guidelines to educational leaders who wish to encourage creativity in their organizations. For simplicity of language, we will refer to school principals and their teaching staff, with the understanding that we are talking about principals, heads of department, policy-makers, and administrators at all levels in education. It must be remembered, however, that management is not teaching, so the language of the chapter is necessarily more managerial than pedagogical.

Rationale Educational policy-makers need to respond creatively to the rapid rate of change in the overall national and international environment, with competition for resources

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and students at all educational levels. Schools need to change in order to meet the expectations of increasingly sophisticated and demanding students, and parents who see schools as providing a service that fulfils their own and their children’s needs. Technological developments have had an enormous impact on educational institutions: in the technology available in the classroom, in the delivery of online and independent learning and in the technology available to many students. Libraries have had to change from their old image as reverential repositories of reading, to dynamic centres of knowledge, information and entertainment, using multimedia and information technology. Schools similarly need to respond in creative ways – although they will always be slightly behind the times because of their role as guardians and transmitters of cultural values. In responding to change, educational organizations need to be proactive in terms of administrative course structures and curricular innovation, using all the resources they can muster ‘especially the most creative – the human resource’ (Hitt 1975: 284).

Creativity in an educational organization There is a relationship between the creativity displayed at classroom level and the overall creative environment of the educational organization. Research into organizational creativity has investigated the relationship between individual, team and organizational creativity (Woodman et al. 1993), and between individual creativity and organizational innovation (Amabile 1997). Some of the factors that affect the creativity of an educational organization are shown in Table 15.1. Table 15.1 Organizational factors affecting creativity in education Factor

Nature

Overall climate Leadership style School culture Resources and skills School systems

General atmosphere or mood of the school or college Extent to which leadership is participative and distributed Shared values and norms affecting teacher and staff behaviour People, time, money, space, materials and processes Rules, procedures and conventional school practices

Source: based on Andriopoulos (2001: 834) Management behaviour is crucial to each of the factors and requires action at four levels, which will be considered in detail in the rest of the chapter. Leader level Policy level Group level Individual level

How an educational leader manages for creativity Policies that support creativity Ways to encourage group and team creativity Supporting creativity in individual teachers and students

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Leader level The school leader has an enormous influence on everything that goes on in a school – including creative activity. An educational leader needs to have a personal conception of creativity and a vision for the school: ‘Vision is a transcendent goal that represents shared values, has moral overtones, and provides meaning; it reflects what the organisation’s future could and should be’ (Andriopoulos 2001: 834). A leader needs to think this through, and communicate it to others through leadership and management functions which are focused on different but complementary areas, as shown in Table 15.2. Table 15.2 Comparison of school leaders and school managers School leaders

School managers

Focus on purposes Establish the values and goals Articulate the vision Communicate the mission Create the school culture Secure staff commitment Take a long-term view Emphasize effectiveness

Focus on outcomes Accomplish the values and goals Realize the vision Carry out the mission Monitor the school culture Direct the staff Tackle immediate and practical issues Emphasize efficiency

Leadership and management also have complementary roles to play in relation to creativity. Just as Chapter 14 on the creative teacher distinguished between teaching for and the teaching of creativity, so also one can have leadership for and management of creativity, as illustrated in Figure 15.1.

Transformational leadership The leadership style most appropriate to fostering creativity is that of ‘transformational leadership’. This involves an educational leader helping staff to develop fully by Generating the conditions that will encourage creativity

LEADERSHIP

for Creativity

Controlling creativity in order to meet broader educational needs

MANAGEMENT

Figure 15.1 Leadership for and management of creativity

of

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inspiring rather than coercing them. A transformational school leader seeking to foster creativity will do the following (based on Bannon et al. 2002):

r r r r r r r r r r

share a vision of creativity; distribute leadership for creativity tasks; focus on all members of the school community; engage in open dialogue with them; establish commitment to creativity goals; build creative teams; manage collaborative creative networks; promote school improvements to facilitate creativity; reflect critically on plans and accomplishments; support individuals in their creativity.

Although transformational leadership is the approach we advocate in this chapter, it is culturally weighted towards individualistic societies, and may not apply everywhere; more collectivist societies might prefer a greater amount of autocratic direction (Hofstede 2001).

Symbolic roles Transformational leaders cannot be everywhere in the school, influencing every action. In order to have an effect, they need to create a culture that promotes creativity. Table 15.3 shows how this can be achieved by the leaders acting in eight symbolic roles. A school leader needs to be aware of opportunities to take on the above roles in ways that strengthen and shape desirable creative culture. For example, many school activities are theatrical: there are awards nights, opening ceremonies, meetings, routines, rituals and procedures. The way a school leader performs his or her role as an actor at these events can celebrate creativity. The leader may make a speech at a Nobel Prize-type school ceremony where innovation and creativity by staff and students are recognized and rewarded. Table 15.3 Symbolic roles of school leaders Historian Anthropologist Visionary Symbol Potter Poet Actor Healer

Records and communicates the story of an exemplary school past Analyses current school practices for signs of the culture Defines and shares an evolving value-focused ideal school future Embodies school culture through personal dress, behaviour and routines Shapes school culture through rituals, traditions, ceremonies Expresses school culture through language that reinforces values Performs in the ongoing school drama Heals conflict and wounds in overseeing school transitions and change

Source: based on Deal and Peterson (1999: 207)

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Ideally, leaders should be able to model creativity in their own activities since ‘employees are unlikely to believe a leader who says one thing and does another’ (Andrew et al. 2007: 27). Even if school leaders feel themselves not to be particularly creative, they can play an important role in assuming personal responsibility for risk, so that their staff are protected from fear of failure. School leadership is more about who you are than what you do, so mindset is important. The mindset that supports creativity is open to new ideas and is willing to give people credit for creative inputs. It assumes people want to be innovative. In promoting creativity, leaders need to share ideas and power. John Politis (2005) refers to ‘dispersed leadership’ as a predictor of the work environment of creativity. Andrew et al. (2007) identify leadership qualities that are particularly related to promoting creativity. These include the ability to:

r r r r r

embrace change; tolerate ambiguity; assess and accept risk; assess an individual; balance passion and objectivity.

Puccio and Cabra (2010: 164) cite Amabile’s descriptions of leader behaviours that support or undermine the creativity of employees. Supportive behaviours include:

r r r r r r

showing support for actions; addressing negative feelings; giving constructive feedback; maintaining contact; providing guidance; asking for ideas and opinions.

Undermining behaviours include:

r r r r

checking on work too often; being unclear about a task; changing objectives frequently; being indifferent.

Educational implications Leaders and managers who wish to promote creativity in their schools should:

r r r r

identify creativity as an educational goal; model creativity; share power and delegate responsibility for creativity; challenge staff appropriately;

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r r r r r r

207

accept responsibility for risk and protect staff from fear of failure; be open to ideas, actively seek them out, share and disseminate; assume others want to contribute creative ideas; give credit where it is due; monitor and recognize creative inputs; allow for creative outliers.

Policy level Educational institutions like predictability and dislike uncertainty and ambiguity which are the seed beds of creativity. A creativity policy might therefore appear to be an oxymoron. However, having a creativity policy shows that creativity is valued and expected in an organization. Policies legitimize interaction that otherwise might not take place between people at different levels. Without an explicit policy, an inexperienced teacher may not be inclined to seek help with a creativity problem, because it might be seen as inappropriate activity. At the same time, an experienced colleague might be slow to offer help because they might not wish to appear patronizing. A creativity policy makes the interaction acceptable. Over and above these explicit school policies, there needs to be a school culture of creativity. Individuals need to be comfortable and open with each other concerning creative activity, so that interaction is productive. Nothing happens unless you have made time for it. For example, in a school timetable there could be a policy for allocating time for individual or group creativity activities. It is also important to have a policy for evaluating such activities: ‘One of the worst things that can take place is for the leader to call for everyone’s ideas and then not have a process in place to handle the submissions’ (Wood 2003: 26). An aspect of evaluation is the issue of reward or incentive. This is not a straightforward matter. For example, Wood (2003: 26) cautions against large individual rewards because:

r r r

they are not good for teamwork; they do not recognize sufficiently those who implement the idea; they give the impression that a worthwhile idea must be very big.

At a classroom level also, there is debate concerning the motivational benefit of policies that offer extrinsic reward and recognition for students’ creativity. Such creativity is most likely to flourish as a result of intrinsic motivation and suffer as a result of extrinsic rewards (Beghetto 2010: 456): Intrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation

Personal interest, involvement, challenge and enjoyment External rewards, incentives and competition

On the other hand, external competition can sometimes be beneficial for both team and individual creativity in motivating everyone towards a specific goal (Amabile 1996). An appropriate policy on external creative competition can legitimize the distribution of

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responsibility so that more people are involved. For example, there could be a policy in support of teachers entering their students in national and international competitions in crafts, science and mathematics. The policy of an educational organization should endorse and promote continuous professional development of teaching staff. Tom Sergiovanni (1996: 142) suggests that such a policy should:

r r r r r r

encourage teacher reflection; support collaborative teacher learning; acknowledge teacher differences; prioritize conversation and dialogue; include a moral dimension; encourage the concept of creative learning communities.

Having a formal policy on creativity is a balancing act however, as creative processes are generally ‘messy’, fluid, and not suited to formal policies. An example of ‘messiness’ is what Augsdorfer (2008) calls ‘bootlegging’, which is the carrying out of private creative work in company or school time. Bootlegging is unlikely at primary level, but could occur in secondary and higher levels when teachers or students carry out their own research or creativity projects. This may be tolerated if the activity is in accord with the organization’s objectives. In higher education the issue of intellectual property rights arises. For example, policies may need to address ownership of materials developed for online tutoring or, more controversially, books written as an academic. The formal policy that ownership of work carried out in the employer’s time belongs to the employer is often waived or stated more loosely, since rigid formal structures can be an impediment to productive creativity (Amabile et al. 1996).

Educational implications Policies to promote creativity in schools should:

r r r r r r r r r r

include creativity in the overall mission or policy statement; link specific policies to wider policy statements; maintain a relatively flat organizational structure; employ creative people and draw on a variety of staff talents; allocate time for creative activities; justify resources for creative activity; support staff professional development in creativity; draw on outside creative expertise; acknowledge and reward creativity; develop a flexible policy on intellectual property rights that does not debar creativity.

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Group level Group creativity is not wholly distinct from individual creativity since a group is made up of individuals. It also works the other way: Hargadon and Bechky (2006: 495) point out that group interactions provide insights, methods and ways of looking at things that individuals can bring back to their own creativity. ‘Relatively little attention has been paid to team creative synergy, in which ideas are generated by groups instead of being generated by one mind’ (Kurtzberg and Amabile 2001: 285). James Surowiecki (2004) draws attention to the fact that collective decisions arrived at by a group are superior to those of individual members. He claims that a diverse group of individuals can make better decisions and predictions than individual members, even experts. He has identified the qualities of the group that contribute to sound decision-making. Managers involved in the establishment of creative teams should ensure diversity, independence, decentralization and aggregation, as defined in Table 15.4. Table 15.4 The wisdom of crowds Four aspects that form a wise crowd Diversity Independence Decentralization Aggregation

Each person should have their own opinion Group members are not unduly influenced by others People are able to contribute their specialized insights A way to transform private judgements into collective ones

Source: based on Surowiecki (2004) There are several aspects of teamwork that relate to management of a creative team. The leader needs to create a climate that will enable team members to think in divergent ways and share and explore ideas freely. Puccio and Cabra (2010) describe the Team Climate Inventory (TCI) of Anderson and West (1998) that measures the extent to which the climate in a team is conducive to creativity. The TCI has four climate factors, as described in Table 15.5. Table 15.5 TCI factors Climate factor

The extent to which there is

Vision Participative safety Task orientation Support for innovation

Clarity about shared goals and vision Shared decision-making and a non-threatening environment Shared focus on the excellence of performance Practical support for new approaches

Source: based on Puccio and Cabra (2010: 156) Having established the value of teams and the environments in which creative teams can flourish, we now move to the activities of teams that result in collective creativity. Table 15.6 shows four interrelated activities that present opportunities for creativity. Consultation and brainstorming sessions with staff must be followed up with action and feedback. If these sessions are carried out merely to fulfil policy or as a requirement of some review process then participants are likely to become cynical and the process will be counterproductive.

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Table 15.6 Activities that support collective creativity Help-seeking Help-giving Reflective reframing Reinforcing

Seeking assistance from others Devoting time and attention to assist others Listening to and building upon ideas of others Rewarding interactions that support the organization’s values

Source: based on Hargadon and Bechky (2006: 490) Leadership of groups and teams requires that the team members are helped to engage in self-development. Table 15.7 presents the Self-Management Leadership Questionnaire (SMLQ) developed by Charles Manz and Henry Sims (1987). It contains six dimensions of team member development which can be encouraged by leaders. Table 15.7 Leaders supporting team member development Dimension

Leaders encourage team members to

Self-observation Self-goal setting Self-reinforcement Self-expectation Rehearsal Self-criticism

Manage their performance Set performance goals Recognize and reward performance Have high expectations Practise before performing Be critical

Source: based on Manz and Sims (1987) Apart from these ‘soft’ strategies that create a good climate for creativity in a group, there is a need for ‘hard’ skills in the form of specific creative thinking tools such as lateral thinking or the ‘six thinking hats’ which are explained and described in Chapter 16.

Educational implications Leaders and managers who wish to promote group creativity should:

r r r r r r r r r r

establish and support communities of practice; express high expectations of creative teams; encourage, train and support creative teams; include people from different levels and with different expertise; provide training on group creativity techniques; encourage internal and external collaboration; delegate real responsibility and power to teams; provide time, space and other resources for teamwork; provide incentives and rewards for creative action; follow up on team recommendations.

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Individual level Clearly, an organization is made up of individuals, so organizational creativity must be founded upon the creativity of individuals. As Amabile (1998: 150) states: ‘It is individual creativity that provides the raw material for organizational innovation and, therefore, individual creativity must be central to the organizational model’. Cummings and Oldham (1997: 22) offer simple advice to managers: first you hire creative people, and then you make the environment conducive to their creativity – either individually or in teams. However, to do this, leaders need to be able to recognize creativity, so the first thing they need to consider is how they perceive individual creativity. Contextual factors make a difference. For example, the approaches of business leaders and educational leaders may differ. James Lichtenberg et al. (2008) compared the ranking assigned to a range of employee creativity skills by school leaders and business employers. The results are shown in Table 15.8. It is noticeable that employers placed ‘problem identification’ in first place while school leaders ranked it ninth. Also, employers ranked ‘problem-solving’ eighth while school leaders ranked it first. This would suggest that employers expect employees to be proactive in identifying problems to be addressed, whereas school leaders prefer staff to be more reactive in responding to pre-existing problems. Overall, the table illustrates the importance of the context in which creativity is manifest. For example, there may be differences in the rankings between different educational sectors.

Table 15.8 Views of school leaders and business employers on creativity Which best demonstrates creativity? (1 = most popular) Problem-solving Integration of knowledge across different disciplines Ability to identify new patterns of behaviour actions Originality and inventiveness in work Ability to communicate new ideas to others Ability to originate new ideas Tolerance of ambiguity Ability to take risks Problem identification or articulation Fundamental curiosity Comfort with the notion of ‘no right answer’ Source: based on Lichtenberg et al. (2008)

School leaders

Business employers

1 2

8 3

3

2

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

7 11 4 9(t) 9(t) 1 6 5

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Motivation Motivation is a crucial component and good management has a role in motivating people. Amabile (1998) includes motivation as one of three necessary components of creativity: Expertise Creative thinking skills Motivation

Technical, procedural and intellectual Flexibility, imagination, perseverance Inner passion to solve problems

Although it is not such a good idea to ‘force’ people to be creative, school leaders need to be aware of the reasons why some staff members are not motivated to become involved in creative programmes and projects (Wood 2003: 23). Staff members may not participate because of:

r r r r r r r r r r

lack of managerial support; lack of awareness, arising from a poor dissemination of ideas; lack of assistance in articulating ideas; lack of confidence that they have ideas; fear of ridicule or rejection by others; fear that their ideas will be stolen or that others will implement them; perception by group culture that it is not ‘cool’; belief that recognition or rewards are not worth the effort; slow response time for evaluation; belief that ideas will not gain the approval of management.

Some of these reasons relate to policies and procedures which are often under the direct influence of management; others relate to the school culture which the manager has a hand in shaping. Therefore good leadership and management are crucial to the fostering of individuals who can solve problems in an innovative way. Cummings and Oldham (1997) state that an individual with an innovative problem-solving style:

r r r r r r r r r r

prefers creating to improving; has fresh perspectives on old problems; copes with several new ideas simultaneously; is not methodical and systematic; rejects strict order; dislikes precise instructions; seeks to bend or break rules; risks doing things differently; stands out in disagreement in a group; is proactive.

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They suggest that creative individuals need complex, challenging jobs providing:

r r r r r r r r r

freedom; autonomy; variety in skills; constructive feedback; opportunity to complete a whole piece of work; support; chance to participate in decisions; competition; rewards for ideas.

Individual creativity is thus more than personal. A certain set of personal characteristics are necessary but not sufficient conditions. The environment and context need also to be right. Social psychology research suggests that supportive behaviour of co-workers and managers enhances the creativity of employees (Amabile et al. 1996). Creative acts may be likened to a crime that requires a motive, a means and an opportunity (Ford 1995: 21). Analogous to Søren Kierkegaard’s dictum that life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards, is the problem that creativity can only be evaluated afterwards by its product, but must be created forwards. There is therefore a great deal of faith involved in permitting someone to spend time on creative projects. One must accept that there will be a proportion of wasted effort that leads nowhere. It is a good idea for school leaders to allow creative individuals certain amounts of ‘wriggle room’, free from constraint. For example, Google engineers are allowed to spend 20 per cent of their time experimenting with their own ideas (Elgin 2005). In particular, people need to be protected from the fear of failure as it is a feature of organizational life that ‘those who sponsor winning ideas are often forgotten, but those who sponsor failure are never forgotten’ (Wood 2003: 25).

Educational implications Leaders and managers who wish to promote creativity in individuals should:

r r r r r r r r r r

encourage multiple interactions between individuals; provide opportunities for individual projects; allow self-started activity; include individual creative contributions in performance reviews; provide mentoring and coaching to individuals; accommodate difference in individual working styles; celebrate the creative teaching of individuals; forgive individual failure; provide resources for individual use; grant individuals time to pursue their own projects.

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Conclusion There is an inextricable link between leadership and creativity because both bring about change. The chapter has emphasized the important role that management carries out in promoting creativity in an organization. We hope that it will provide managers with a range of ideas on the management of creativity that can be put to practical use. It should also be useful to classroom teachers because it will help them view creativity from a managerial perspective and so will assist in their interactions with management.

References Amabile, T.M. (1996) Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Amabile, T.M. (1997) Motivating creativity in organizations: on doing what you love and loving what you do, California Management Review, 40(1): 39–58. Amabile, T.M. (1998) How to kill creativity, Harvard Business Review, September– October: 76–87. Amabile, T.M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J. and Herron, M. (1996) Assessing the work environment for creativity, Academy of Management Journal, 39(5): 1154–84. Anderson, N.R. and West, M.A. (1998) Measuring climate for work group innovation: development and validation of the Team Climate Inventory, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19: 235–58. Andrew, J.P., Sirkin H.L., Hannæs, K., and Michael, D.C. (2007) Innovation 2007: A BCG Senior Management Survey (BCG Report), August. Boston, MA: Boston Consulting Group. Andriopoulos, C. (2001) Determinants of organisational creativity: a literature review, Management Decision, 39(10): 834–40. Augsdorfer, P. (2008) Managing the unmanageable, Research Technology Management, July–August: 41–7. Bannon, S., Flood, P., and O’Connor, E. (2002) Leadership Development for Schools: School Leadership – A Profile. Ennis: Clare Education Centre. Beghetto, R.A. (2010) Creativity in the classroom, in J.C Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummings, A. and Oldham, G.R. (1997) Enhancing creativity: managing work contexts for the high potential employee, California Management Review, 40(1): 22–38. Deal, T.E. and Peterson, K.D. (1999) Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Elgin, B. (2005) Managing Google’s idea factory, Business Week, 3 October: 88–90.

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Ford, C.M. (1995) Creativity is a mystery, in C.M. Ford and D.A. Gioia (eds) Creative Action in Organizations: Ivory Tower Visions & Real World Voices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hargadon, A.B. and Bechky, B.A. (2006) When collections of creatives become creative collectives: a field study of problem solving at work, Organization Science, 17(4): 484–525. Hitt, M.A. (1975) The creative organization: tomorrow’s survivor, The Journal of Creative Behavior, 9: 283–90. Hofstede, G. (2001) Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kurtzberg, T.R. and Amabile, T.M. (2001) From Guilford to creative synergy: opening the black box of team level creativity, Creativity Research Journal, 13: 285–94. Lichtenberg, J., Woock, C. and Wright. M. (2008) Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce? The Conference Board, Research Report 1424. New York: Conference Board Inc. Manz, C.C. and Sims, H.P. Jr (1987) Leading workers to lead themselves: the external leadership of self-managing work teams, Administrative Science Quarterly, 32: 10–29. Politis, J.D. (2005) Dispersed leadership predictor of the work environment for creativity and productivity, European Journal of Innovation Management, 8(2): 182–204. Puccio, G.J. and Cabra, F. (2010) Organizational creativity: a systems approach, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sergiovanni, T.J. (1996) Leadership for the Schoolhouse. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Surowiecki, J. (2004) The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economics, Societies and Nations. New York: Little, Brown. Wood, A. (2003) Managing employees’ ideas: from where do ideas come? The Journal for Quality and Participation, 26(2): 22–6. Woodman, R.W., Sawyer, J.E. and Griffin, R.W. (1993) Toward a theory of organisational creativity, Academy of Management Review, 18(2): 293–321.

Chapter 16 Tools for creativity

Introduction When tackling a problem and attempting to come up with a creative solution or come to a decision, you may find yourself doodling on a sheet of paper or drawing diagrams and making lists of pros and cons. In a group situation you may hear people say, ‘We need to brainstorm about this.’ These are all examples of ‘tools’ that can be used to assist problem-solving and to enhance creativity. After an initial brief survey of the genesis of creativity tools, this chapter describes a representative sample of methods that have been developed and how they might be used in the classroom. Problematic aspects of some tools are also touched upon.

Genesis Specific creativity tools were developed as part of a widespread twentieth-century belief that there could be a rational approach to thinking creatively that could be encapsulated in a series of techniques. Notwithstanding the awareness that the current attitude to creativity techniques is now more contextual and nuanced, these techniques are still very much in use. Terms like ‘brainstorming’ (Osborn 1953); ‘mind maps’ (Buzan 1977) and ‘lateral thinking’ (de Bono 1970) have now entered everyday language. These tools were much promoted for commercial ends, resulting in a range of books, products and courses concerned with practical techniques for coming up with ideas to solve problems or create innovative products. These are popular examples of a wide range of creativity and problem-solving tools which have migrated from the worlds of psychology, business and advertising to that of education. This transfer became very apparent the middle of the twentieth century, particularly in the USA when a necessity for creativity was associated with meeting ‘the challenge of accelerating changes of an unprecedented magnitude’ arising from ‘scientific discovery, technical invention, commercial competition and military rivalry’ (Pope 2005: 19). Just as the attempt to use computers to model human thinking led to thinking being conceptualized as a form of data processing (Jordan et al. 2008: 37), the view that creativity can be a means of accelerating technical solutions led to the reciprocal idea that technical solutions can be a means of accelerating creativity. This also linked in neatly with a systems approach to problem-solving and to thinking, encouraged by the development of computers and the technical-rational approach to problem-solving at about the same time. Guilford is credited in his 1950 Presidential Address to the American Psychological Association with highlighting the close link between creativity and learning. Guilford argued that ‘We are in a mortal struggle for the survival of the world, the

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military aspect of this struggle with its race to develop new weapons and strategies has called for a stepped-up rate of invention’ (Pope 2005: 20). Torrance subsequently developed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) which are still widely used in creativity testing (Smith and Smith 2010: 252). These tests are discussed in Chapter 9. In the educational world, creativity and learning became increasingly merged, and then linked to the development of study skills, problem-solving and metacognitive strategies. A simple Google search will provide a wide range of sites offering general creativity and problem-solving techniques while King (2002: 137–40) contains a list of software and websites specifically suited to postgraduate research. However, whereas in industry the tools were used to achieve particular ends, in education they often became enshrined in curricular programmes with a discrete identity. Here they were codified and structured, and linked with thinking skills, study skills and memory techniques, to create ‘stand-alone’ thinking programmes which could then be applied across the board. This is an inevitable consequence of creativity being ‘tamed’ by an educational setting, so that it fits into the ‘system’ of curricular programmes, subjects, classrooms and timetables. The idea that general thinking skills can be transferable across different domains is challenged by John White (2004). Such decontextualized creativity techniques have had limited success in education because they are not embedded within subjects and disciplines. A modern view sees creativity as contextual in relation to particular values, social demands and purposes which would vary in different disciplinary areas where subjects have their own ‘threshold concepts’ (Meyer and Land 2003), requiring subjectspecific epistemologies and techniques. For example, brainstorming − a technique for generating many ideas − is potentially useful in developing divergent ideas such as in advertising. It would be far less useful where convergent thinking is required, such as in a court of law. So: tools of creativity are products of a late twentieth-century educational paradigm that values a rational approach, practical techniques and measurable outcomes. This philosophy is played out elsewhere in education in the popularity of learning outcomes, learning styles and multiple intelligences. Despite the limitations of the artificial lack of context, a technical approach to creativity has an obvious attraction for teachers who like to see themselves as not merely imparting knowledge but helping learners to take responsibility for their own learning. We consider that education is by its nature decontextual, and needs general tools to be used in a classroom without sustained reference to purposes, values or context. A technical rational approach to creativity makes the assumption that creativity is a problem-solving process. This makes it ideally suited to the educational endeavour because such a process is teachable. This approach does not ‘chime’ with creative individual geniuses such as Einstein who are in the realm of ‘Big C’ and do not only solve existing problems, but pose new, hitherto unconsidered ones. Although these creative people are beyond the reach of education, the tools of creativity attempt to model their behaviour in an artificial way. Therefore, despite the contested nature of their effectiveness and relationship to creativity, these tools can still be useful in the classroom. We now describe a

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representative number of techniques as exemplars that can be used to assist in the attempt to generate and evaluate creative and novel ideas in an educational setting.

Stage approach to creativity Many approaches to creative thinking such as TRIZ (Altschuller 2001) and Geneplore stress the idea of components or stages. TRIZ is a complex and highly structured approach which involves selecting suitable approaches distilled from patterns noted in patents. Altschuller used a form of reverse engineering to identify common patterns from thousands of patents, which led to 40 principles of invention. If a specific problem can be framed in a generic way, then the TRIZ tool can be employed to come up with creative ideas (Puccio and Cabra 2010: 162). It has been used in education by undergraduate students in design technology, computing technology and product design. The Geneplore descriptive framework (Finke et al. 1992) suggests that creativity results from a combination of generative processes that produce ideas, and exploratory ones that expand and develop them. One useful way to categorize thinking tools, therefore, is in terms of the stage of the creative process to which they might be best suited. The teacher can provide learners with strategies or tools appropriate for different stages: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Assumptions and attitudes. Conceptualization. Creation of ideas. Exploration of ideas. Evaluation of ideas.

Assumptions and attitudes form a context for all the stages of the process, and the movement from conceptualization to creation of ideas involves divergent thinking (Guilford 1950), which produces multiple ideas to be explored. After the exploratory Stage 4 a convergent phase of evaluation leads to the narrowing down of the possibilities to the one that is actually implemented. These stages are illustrated in Figure 16.1.

Assumptions and attitudes

Divergence

Exploration

Convergence

Creation of ideas

Exploration of ideas

Evaluation of ideas

Conceptualization

Figure 16.1 Stages of the creative process

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Assumptions and attitudes Assumptions are notions which are taken for granted and not questioned. Students have all sorts of assumptions that go without saying. For example, they may have the assumption that school is a place where the teacher has all of the knowledge and responsibility for learning and will always have the correct answer. Attitudes are manifestations of assumptions which are their intellectual backdrop, so the above assumption may lead to a passive attitude on the part of the pupil. Assumptions and attitudes form a contextual backdrop to the creative process. In teaching students how to apply creativity tools, the first issue that the teacher needs to address is the assumptions and attitudes that learners have towards creativity. One can have all the necessary tools, but without the appropriate attitude one may not be inclined to make use of them. Furthermore, as discussed in Chapter 6 on creativity and culture, attitudes are open to the influences of cultural context, history, parents and peers that are far stronger, pervasive, older and longer-lasting than the school (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Thus there are great difficulties for a teacher in accessing and causing attitudinal change in learners. However, attitudes do not simply precede behaviour; they are embedded in behaviour and are changed by it (Bandura 1977). Thus attitudinal change may occur as a result of a change in behaviour rather than the other way around. For example, school rules that insist upon punctuality may lead students to develop an attitude that values timekeeping. A teacher may take a behaviourist approach which accepts that assumptions and attitudes are inaccessible, but seeks instead to shape behaviour by using a range of creativity tools that scaffold creativity. Learners who are taught how to use tools to produce results that are patently creative may go on to develop an attitude that recognizes the possibility that they could be creative. According to Claxton (2002), one of the important ‘individual learning dispositions’ of creative individuals is resilience. In a classroom situation, many learners will fear ridicule from their classmates, so resilience is necessary in order for creative people to have sufficient self-confidence to share their ideas without fear of rejection. Tools of creativity artificially create conditions that mimic resilience by offering a safe space where the expression of creative ideas is expected and legitimized.

Provocative operation In the conceptualization of a problem there may be a necessity to challenge assumptions in order to permit a more creative solution. A tool that systematically challenges assumptions is called Provocative Operation (PO) (de Bono 1996: 131). De Bono has been at the forefront of many ideas in developing thinking tools – in the business and educational fields − and many of the following tools are attributable to him. While PO stands for provocative operation, de Bono suggests other derivations relating to hypothesis, possible, suppose or poetry, showing that the idea may be extended to many alternative possibilities. In a classroom situation the teacher can tell the class that the word ‘PO’ can be used in three ways, as shown in Table 16.1.

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Table 16.1 Three ways of using PO Use

Intention

1

PO makes an idea immune from ridicule or dismissal

Permit an apparently silly idea to be developed into a good one

2

PO allows two random ideas to be placed together

Permits unlikely combinations that would not normally be considered

3

PO challenges the attitudes and assumptions of the status quo

Provokes change

Example Consider how a class might think creatively about the issue of school attendance, applying the three ways of using PO described in Table 16.1. 1.

2.

3.

‘PO: students should be forced to stay away from school’: r distance learning, web-based learning, learning by text; r students must earn the right to come to school. ‘PO: school attendance cardigan’: r children may have some uniform feature indicating attendance level; r uniforms have bar-code that can be monitored for attendance. ‘PO: why is school attendance necessary?’ r What is special about being present? r How is group collaboration used? r What parts of learning require attendance and what parts do not?

In practical use, PO needs extensive preparatory work. Students are used to conformity, and the usual work in a classroom is opposed to ridiculousness and randomness. It is not surprising that students are taken aback if the technique is suddenly ‘sprung’ on them without preparation.

Opposites and distortions In order to come up with new ideas learners’ assumptions may need to be challenged. In using this tool a teacher can get learners to articulate their assumptions and then challenge each assumption in a systematic way: Opposites Distortion

The opposite of each element is examined Elements are magnified, minimized or altered

Creative alternatives could be developed using other tools discussed later.

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Example Typical orthodox assumptions about a classroom include the ideas that it:

r r r r r r r r r r

is in a building; occupies a discrete space; is private; is devoted to one activity; contains chairs and tables; has display systems such as blackboard, whiteboard; uses technology; is occupied by one teacher and several students; is used by a particular homogenous class; is suited to lecturing.

Consider the assumption that a classroom occupies a discrete space: Opposite Distortion

Not in one place, distributed as in a social network, non-existent A classroom in motion, changing shape

Many educational innovations such as distance learning, blended learning, OpenCourseWare (OCW), discovery learning, teacher as facilitator, multiple intelligences, autonomy in learning, negotiated learning and workplace learning can be construed as challenges to orthodox educational assumptions.

Conceptualization The way an issue is conceptualized creates a context for thinking and will suggest ingredients that need to be addressed. One of the differences between subject or disciplinary areas is in the way they conceptualize ideas. The resulting symbolic representation influences the manipulation possible. Einstein’s approach to the photoelectric effect, considering light as particles instead of waves is a classic example of reconceptualization leading to creativity. An everyday classroom example is the conceptualization of a problem in numerical, algebraic or graphical form, each of which opens up different mental processes and creative possibilities. Cross-disciplinary activities can be particularly effective because different disciplinary areas force learners to conceptualize in different ways and so provoke creativity.

Diagrams Diagrams offer a means of visualizing a situation that can assist creativity by literally ‘presenting the bigger picture’ in a way that reveals structure and relationships. In order to stimulate more creative forms of conceptualization, a teacher can encourage learners

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Trend graphs Histograms Data

Scatter and box plots Bar and pie charts Fishbone diagrams

Ideas

Forcefield diagrams Mind maps Radial maps

Diagrams

Flow charts Processes

Gantt charts Timelines Cycles

Relationships

Matrices Concept maps Hierarchical lists Venn diagrams

Figure 16.2 Radial map of diagrammatic representations to use a range of symbolic representations – particularly ones that would be atypical for that particular idea. For example, an English teacher could require a class to come up with a graphical representation of a literary idea.

Example Figure 16.2 presents a radial map of diagrammatic techniques that can be used to analyse, manipulate or present data, ideas, processes and relationships. Table 16.2 Random metaphors that could be applied to teaching and learning Committing a murder Building a house Sailing a ship Cooking a fancy meal Going fishing Going on a date Taking a photograph Going to a church service Spreading propaganda Having a baby Pruning a tree

Colonizing a territory Sky-diving Playing politics Running a marathon Training an animal Putting out a fire Dress-making Going on a diet Negotiating a contract Getting a divorce Conducting an orchestra

Camping in a wilderness Prospecting for gold Surfing the web Starting a revolution Renting a DVD Fighting a disease Doing stand-up comedy Performing a magic trick Planting a garden Flower-arranging Producing a TV programme

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Metaphors An interesting way of conceptualizing a problem is in the form of a metaphor which is a way of thinking about one thing in terms of another. Teachers are generally wellused to using metaphors in their efforts to simplify and explain complex ideas in understandable ways. While it is reasonable to select a metaphor intentionally for teaching purposes, a randomly generated metaphor may be more likely to create novel links and parallels when seeking creative outcomes.

Example 1: random metaphor Table 16.2 presents a selection of metaphors which could be selected at random and applied to any situation. For example, the first metaphor, ‘committing a murder’ applied to learning could suggest a forensic approach to assessment in which a student needs to amass evidence in order to make a convincing case that the ‘crime’ of learning has occurred.

Example 2: synectics Instead of a random metaphor, synectics uses selected metaphors. In this technique, developed in the 1960s by the inventor-psychologist William Gordon, a facilitator helps a client to tackle a problem in a creative way by suggesting analogies that may be direct, personal, symbolic or fantastic:

Direct analogy Personal analogy Symbolic analogy Fantasy analogy

Compares similar situations in technology or biology Imagines the person as the problem Symbolizes the problem with some image Identifies outrageous perfect solution

(based on Puccio and Cabra 2010: 162)

Generation of ideas One way to have a good idea is to have many ideas. However, people are often focused on arriving at a single solution as quickly as possible and are uncomfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity or delay. Ideas, once produced, are often rejected too quickly and dismissed because they are impractical or even ridiculous at first glance. Tools have been created that increase the number of ideas generated by postponing evaluation so that alternatives are explored, and ideas have time to develop.

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Table 16.3 Brainstorming technique 1. Preparation

The class or group get together and are put at ease with relaxation exercises and bonding activities

2. Process

The leader writes out the subject for brainstorming and explains the rules: Ideas generation Ideas are called out Suspension of judgement No commenting on merits of ideas Piggybacking Ideas may build on previous ideas Quantity not quality Number of ideas is most important Recording Scribe writes out ideas on flipchart

3. Evaluation

The written ideas are evaluated using one of the methods described later

Brainstorming The classic example of idea creation is that of brainstorming, as described in Table 16.3. This is a group process with individuality subsumed. Everyone becomes involved in suggesting ideas and building on the ideas of others. There is no criticism allowed at the early stage and way-out ideas are welcomed. It is important that an atmosphere is created that permits free associations and sharing of ideas without fear of ridicule or rejection.

Example Brainstorming could be used in a classroom situation as a way of identifying learners’ preconceptions and knowledge of a topic before it is studied, or as a means of considering alternative creative approaches to a problem. Criticisms of brainstorming are that it has not been found to be as productive as multiple ideas gathered from individuals, and that individuals’ contributions are vulnerable to group influences and relationships. Findings show that individual idea generation may be superior to the team generation of ideas (Diehl and Stroebe 1987). Web-based brainstorming where individuals contribute initial ideas remotely can be more productive than the face-to-face variety.

Lateral thinking The ‘lateral’ thinking described by de Bono (1970) refers to the idea of thinking ‘sideways’ to multiple alternatives rather than following one idea more intensely. The metaphor is of digging for treasure in a field. It is better to dig many shallow holes rather than a single hole deeper and deeper.

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Example In communicating with parents, an infant teacher was faced with the problem of her charges losing notes or forgetting to give them to their parents. She thought laterally and realized that their lunchboxes could also serve as post boxes. She placed the notes to parents in the lunch boxes which were guaranteed to be opened at home for refilling.

Exploration of ideas Ideas once generated are in danger of being dismissed too soon to permit creativity to emerge, so there are tools that postpone judgement and maintain the ideas to allow further exploration.

Random word association No matter how different two things may be, it is always possible to come up with some way of connecting them. Random words can be used to stimulate creative thinking by demanding relevance to a topic under consideration. Table 16.4 illustrates how the process works. Table 16.4 Random word association 1. Random word 2. Ideas generation 3. Application

Learners pick a word at random from a book or list They list all the ideas that the word brings to mind They then see how the ideas can be applied to the issue

Example Suppose the issue under consideration is classroom design. Random noun Ideas generation Application

Buttercup Growth, roots, colour, seasonal, temporary, organic, clusters, weeds, wild, fertilization, decay, regrowth Classrooms could vary with the seasons and could be temporary; could grow and decay and pop up in suitably fertile locations; could be clustered spaces where ideas are also clustered

Morphological forced connections Table 16.5 illustrates the method of morphological forced connections described by Adams (2001: 135−7). It is based on the idea of a series of columns headed by the

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Table 16.5 Morphological forced connections Analysis

Learners analyse and describe a process, problem or object into components, elements or attributes

Tabulation

They then make a table with an element as a heading of each column

Variation

Under each heading they write alternatives or variations of that element

Combination They randomly combine one item from each column to generate an alternative scenario Evaluation

They evaluate the scenarios generated

components of a situation under which are listed alternatives – morphologies − for each. Forced connections are then made by randomly selecting one item from each column.

Example Consider four typical elements of an educational institution – environment, teacher, pedagogy and assessment. Figure 16.3 lists variations of each element. Each column has 12 alternatives, so combining one item randomly from each column could produce 12 × 12 × 12 × 12: 20,736 scenarios to be explored. One combination illustrated in Figure 16.3 selects workplace, no teacher, problem-based learning (pedagogy) and assessment by presentation. This could mean a team in a factory, working as a group without any facilitator, investigating a problem at work and making a presentation of their findings. A more exotic example might select the elements: cage, coach, peer learning and external assessment. This could be the Roman amphitheatre of the classical world with gladiators in a cage fighting and learning from each other, subject to the external judgement of the audience and emperor, signified by thumbs ‘up’ or ‘down’.

Environment

Teacher

Room Field Aeroplane Cruise ship Workplace Walking Gymnasium Authentic Retreat centre Virtual Walking

Individual No teacher Team teaching Computer (AI) Researcher Self Guru Coach Peer Artist Craftsman Expert

Cage

Pedagogy Traditional lecture Field trips Didactic Problem-based Self-directed Experiential Work-based Peer learning Discovery learning Distance learning Case studies Project work

Figure 16.3 Example of morphological forced connections

Assessment Terminal exam Presentation Self None Peer Portfolio Performance Formative External Group Viva Continuous

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Evaluation of ideas After the divergent, value-neutral, generative phase comes a convergent one where evaluation takes place: ‘No one has ever called a new idea which he or she did not like, “creative”’ (de Bono 1982: 60). Two tools attributable to Edward de Bono are ‘thinking hats’ (1985) and PMI (‘plus, minus, interesting’) (1993).

Six thinking hats This tool is an attention-focusing device that concentrates on one aspect of evaluation at a time. The teacher can guide learners in a systematic process, using a number of different perspectives represented by the imaginary wearing of particular ‘hats’, as described in Table 16.6. Table 16.6 Six thinking hats Hat

Focus

Style of thinking

White hat

Information

Learners consider only factual information including missing information

Red hat

Feelings

Feelings are taken into account − including mixed ones

Green hat

Creativity

The creative potential of ideas is considered, leading to practical proposals

Yellow hat

Benefits

Learners express only the good aspects of an idea and logically justify the benefits

Black hat

Weaknesses

Negative aspects are considered and critically evaluated

Blue hat

Overview

Overall view of focus on process and purposes

Source: based on de Bono (1985)

Example In a typical classroom situation, a sequence for evaluating creative ideas might be: Red hat White hat Green hat Yellow hat Black hat Blue hat Black hat Red hat

To air initial feelings To consider information about the issue To generate ideas To see the strengths of these ideas To see the weaknesses To see how the hats need to be used again if necessary To assess the ideas and select the best To see how people now feel about it

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The teacher needs to be vigilant in maintaining appropriate contributions depending on the hat, as pupils will have a natural tendency to drift into other hats as they speak.

Plus, minus, interesting PMI is illustrated in Table 16.7, and is a useful, simple and straightforward evaluation method that de Bono describes as a ‘scanning tool’ that directs attention to the positive, negative and interesting aspects of an idea (de Bono 1993: 128−9). Table 16.7 PMI – plus, minus, interesting Plus

Learners list all the positive aspects and benefits of an idea while ignoring any drawbacks

Minus

Learners list all the negative aspects and drawbacks of an idea while ignoring the benefits

Interesting

Learners list observations that are neither good nor bad but are of interest

Source: based on de Bono (1993: 128–9)

Example For young learners PMI can be effective in directing them to make clear judgements about the good, the bad and the interesting. More sophisticated users such as undergraduate or postgraduate students in a university setting, and engaged in critiquing academic articles, could begin with a PMI approach – perhaps making a table of these aspects. This could then be followed by a more discursive integrative account where the evaluation is synthesized and a final judgement made.

Conclusion We have considered a selection of the most well-known and popular tools and have attempted to show how they could be used in an educational setting. The tools clarify and articulate thinking methods that have often been tacit and acquired contingently. Different tools can be used for different purposes depending on the topic, the discipline, the educational level and the sophistication of students. There are two cautionary notes that need to be borne in mind however. ‘Standalone’ thinking skills programmes which concentrate on generic thinking tools are of little use without disciplinary knowledge. Also, learners need to be helped to overcome ingrained conservative attitudes and convergent thinking habits. However, it is our experience that, with proper preparation, learners enjoy using these creative thinking tools as they are fun, simple to apply and useful.

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References Adams, J.L. (2001) Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, 4th edn. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing. Altschuller, G. (2001) And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, trans L. Shulyak. Worcester, MA: Technical Innovation Center. Bandura, A. (1977) Self-efficacy: towards a unifying theory of behavioral change, Psychological Review, 84: 191−215. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Buzan, T. (1977) Make the Most of Your Mind. London: Pan Books. Claxton, G. (2002) Building Learning Power: Helping Young People Become Better Learners. Bristol: TLO. de Bono, E. (1970) Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step. New York: Harper & Row. de Bono, E. (1982) de Bono’s Thinking Course. New York: Harper & Row. de Bono, E. (1985) Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management. New York: Little, Brown. de Bono, E. (1993) Teach Your Child How To Think. London: Penguin. de Bono, E. (1996) Teach Yourself To Think. London: British Broadcasting Corporation. Diehl, M. and Stroebe, W. (1987) Productivity loss in brainstorming groups: towards the solution of a riddle, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53: 497−509. Finke, R.A., Ward, T.B. and Smith, S.M. (1992) Creative Cognition: Theory, Research, and Applications. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Guilford, J.P. (1950) Creativity, American Psychologist, 5: 444−54. Jordan, A., Carlile, O. and Stack, A. (2008) Approaches to Learning: A Guide for Teachers. Maidenhead: Open University Press. King, R. (2002) Software and websites for creativity, in T. Greenfield (ed.) Research Methods for Postgraduates. London: Arnold. Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2003) Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines, Occasional Report 4. Edinburgh, Coventry, Durham: Universities of Edinburgh, Coventry and Durham ETL Project. Osborn, A.F. (1953) Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. New York: Scribner. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

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Puccio, G.J. and Cabra, F. (2010) Organizational creativity: a systems approach, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smith, J.K. and Smith, L. (2010) Educational creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. White, J. (2004) Re-thinking the School Curriculum: Values, Aims and Purposes. London: Routledge-Falmer.

Chapter 17 The creative learner

Introduction A comic book or cartoon image of a school classroom may show some keen ‘nerds’ in the front row in rapt attention. In other parts of the room however, you may see students ‘doing their own thing’. Some may be doodling in their exercise books or looking out of the window. Others may be engaged in a range of more nefarious activities. All could be deemed creative learners in their own ways. The first part of this chapter discusses the constructivist perspective which sees learners actively making meaning. We then consider ‘multiple creativities’ – different ways that learners can be creative, depending on personality traits, supported by the necessary ability, knowledge, skills and attitudes. The implications for education are explored with respect to personality traits, in an overall context of resources, class climate and group dynamics. The second part of the chapter discusses the creative learner in the contexts of primary, secondary, post-compulsory and higher education.

Constructivist learning theory Constructivist learning theory claims that learners make sense of the world by actively constructing knowledge on the basis of personal experience (Jordan et al. 2008: 57). From this point of view, all learning is creative since learners are creating their own meaning as they attempt to understand the world: ‘In a constructivist frame, learning and creativity are close, if not identical’ (Craft 2005: 61). Personal constructivism suggests that learning is different for each individual. This differentiation is exemplified by Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory outlined in Chapter 11 (Table 11.2), which describes a range of intelligences possessed to different degrees by different learners, giving them a ‘jagged intelligence profile’. This might suggest that learning is a totally private affair. However, Vygotsky (1978) and other theorists explain learning as a social and contextual act: ‘Decontextualized learning activity is a contradiction in terms’ (Lave 1993: 6). In the important learning context of the classroom, the teacher, group and individual student engage in the ‘co-construction’ of meaning (Carlile and Jordan 2011). This co-construction occurs in a different way depending on the age, sophistication and personality of the learner. We now consider learner personality and its relationship to creativity.

Multiple creativities Creative learners have the potential to develop different types of creativity. Their creativity can be expressed in different ways, and to different degrees depending on learner

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personality and its formation. It is possible to classify these different creativities in terms of their dominant personality traits:

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creativity of non-conformity; creativity of curiosity; creativity of expressivity; creativity of receptivity.

Creativity of non-conformity A small percentage of learners demonstrate creative potential in the form of disruptive innovation or ‘Big C’ creativity. Such individuals benefit from satisfying a powerful drive for autonomous, independent activity, and society benefits from a reservoir of talent that can supply novel ideas and products. Non-conformity may be shown by rebelliousness, risk-taking, unconventional behaviour and independence. It is assisted by an environment which does not quash it, so it is likely that the formative background of non-conformists is either so authoritarian that it provokes rebellion, or not rule-bound at all. For example, Csikszentmihalyi noted the absence of a father figure with a strong normative influence in the lives of many of the eminently creative people he studied (Csikszentmihalyi 1996: 167−72). Non-conformist learners are motivated to challenge authority and conventions, and in many cases to open up new territory. They may be obsessively interested in a specialized area, which may or may not be in alignment with the curriculum, or with the interests of their peers.

Educational implications Non-conforming learners are often not comfortable under the constraints of formal education. The question of how much school contributed to the accomplishments of Einstein, Picasso or T.S. Eliot is answered by Csikszentmihalyi who concludes that ‘the record is rather grim, especially considering how many hopes go into our formal educational system’ (1996: 173). The individuality of non-conformist learners, and their unwillingness to play the game, also present management difficulties in a typical classroom. It has been found that even teachers who claim to value creativity still prefer compliance and conformity (Beghetto 2010: 454). Moreover, teachers may hold problematic attitudes about creativity, associating it entirely with non-conformity and impulsivity. In order to support non-conforming creative learners, teachers should:

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negotiate agreed individual learning plans; support independent activity; consider specific programmes for gifted and talented learners; control the habitual temptation to clamp down on their disruptive influence; accept that some conflict is inevitable and may even be necessary.

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Creativity of curiosity This is the potential to display creativity by researching, combining and explaining elements. It is a type of ‘middle c’ creativity falling between ‘Big C’ ground-breaking creativity and ‘small c’ self-expressive creativity. Creativity of curiosity is strongly constructivist in making sense of the world, and in mapping its salient physical, intellectual and cultural features. It is primarily communicative rather than self-expressive. The curious learner benefits from personal meaning-making and the group and the larger society benefit from the diversity provided by the insight, reinterpretation and transmission of knowledge. These creative learners are strongly curious, bright and inquisitive individuals who like to synthesize ideas and make sense of the world. It is likely that their parents provided an enriched environment in which exploration was encouraged.

Educational implications Curiosity is a very welcome personality trait in a learner because it exceeds mere reproduction, and is active and self-perpetuating in its interpretation and critique of knowledge. It may be dampened or stifled in an educational context by convergent teaching practices. One of these has been identified in teacher questioning and a dominant Initiate, Respond and Evaluate (IRE) pattern of teacher-learner interactions which emphasizes convergent thinking and the appropriate answer (Beghetto 2010: 450). In order to support the creativity of curious learners, teachers should:

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build up their self-belief and intrinsic motivation; promote investigative project work; invite ideas to address local or global topics; encourage evaluation and critique of learning; provide a forum for communicating what has been discovered.

Creativity of expressivity This is the ‘small c’ creativity displayed by learners in the way they express their individuality. Paul Willis talks of: the multitude of ways in which young people humanize, decorate and invest with meanings their common and immediate life spaces and social practices – personal styles and choice of clothes, selective and active use of music, TV, magazines, decoration of bedrooms . . . the style, banter and drama of friendship groups, music-making and dance. (Pope 2005: 12)

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According to Boden (2004: 2), all learners have the potential to carry out acts of ‘small c’ creativity which are ‘new to them, but not new to the world’. These small acts of creativity may be performed outside and within the school setting, where the creative manifestations may be in products made for art, design or craft projects, in creative writing, music-making or performance. The individual benefits from the satisfaction of self-expression and selfactualization. Society benefits in a number of ways too. Learners’ creative and emotional energies are channelled into non-disruptive and acceptable expressive activity. The resulting diversity strengthens the group and society, acting as a reservoir upon which disruptive ‘Big C’ creativity may draw, and may lead to emergent ‘middle c’ creativity through group activity and social networks. Expressive learners are motivated by a wish to assert their interests and identity. A desire for self-expression may be particularly associated with a western cultural perspective of self-actualization, so we need to remember that other cultures may put more emphasis on the group. However, most students will display this trait to some extent since they want to be themselves and express their own identity, but not to the extent of ceasing to be a member of their peer group. Expressivity is supported by a home environment in which self-expression is encouraged within the limits of family expectations and conventions.

Educational implications The majority of learners display receptivity, which makes them willing to engage with education that lets them discover new ways to express themselves. Barriers to self-expressive creativity in education may lie in over-rigid timetabling, scheduling, or an examination focus which does not allow learners the opportunity to pursue their individual interests. Innovative educational institutions and systems are developing curricular strategies that can allow for ‘small c’ and expressive creativity. For example, a secondary school in Norway divides the school year into six-week periods in order to focus on particular themes, and within that framework, one week is allocated to a self-selected topic on which the learner can work intensively (CERI 2012). In order to support learners’ creativity of expressivity, teachers should:

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express their own individuality in teaching; help learners to become aware of their expressive styles; apply a flexible dress code to permit individuality; encourage learner expressivity by providing learning choices; assess in ways that permit a wide variety of methods.

Creativity of receptivity This is ‘small c’ creativity in the form of a learner’s unique personal attentiveness and response to experience. There is also potential for a group creative response in the form

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of an audience for an appreciation of performance. Receptive learners are motivated by the aesthetic enjoyment of, and response to, experience. Receptive individuals benefit from the self-fulfilment that comes from the expansion of their experience. Society benefits from the creation of community through shared cathartic and bonding experiences such as those of sport, arts, theatre, music and religion. Such learners are likely to have had an enriched background, with parents providing a range of play and cultural experiences.

Educational implications Receptive learners are open-minded and willing to engage, so they make excellent students. They are participative and responsive in class, paying attention and enjoying different experiences, either individually or in a group. Bloom’s taxonomies place receptive learners in the ‘affective domain’, which is concerned with attitudes, values and discriminatory powers (Krathwohl et al. 1973). Educational barriers to creative receptivity include a utilitarian view of education, a lack of resources and rigid, inflexible timetabling. Many educational strategies have been developed to encourage creative receptivity and aesthetic appreciation. For example, in one Finnish city, a cultural programme for 7- to 16-year-old pupils entitled ‘The Nine Paths’ (K9) ensures that students visit at least one local cultural institution every year. These include theatres, libraries and museums. After eight years on the culture path, K9 students receive a free card entitling them to avail themselves of all cultural services in the city (CERI 2012). In order to support learners’ creativity of receptivity, teachers should:

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encourage performances of learning in the classroom; provide opportunities for authentic experiential learning; take learners to theatres, libraries and museums; show learners how to discriminate and articulate judgement; promote curatorship as a learning and assessment method.

Co-existence The above discussion of different types of creativity shows that there is a range of learner personality traits, illustrated in Table 17.1. Although one trait may be particularly dominant, it is likely that a number of traits may coexist to different degrees within an individual. It is certainly the case that they will coexist within a group.

Conscientiousness Not all learners are drawn to creative action, and there are merits in their conservative stance. They may not display much non-conformity, curiosity, expressivity, or receptivity. However they can lay claim to a valuable personality trait – conscientiousness.

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Table 17.1 Multiple creativities and personality traits Creativity

C

Form

Personality trait

Non-conformity

Big

Disruptive, radical groundbreaking innovation

Rebelliousness, risk-taking, and independence

Curiosity

Middle

Creative synthesis and communication

Curiosity, inquisitiveness and making sense of the world

Expressivity

Small

Self-presentation within accepted limits

Expressivity in identity, lifestyle and allegiances

Receptivity

Small

Unique personal response to experience

Openness and responsiveness to experience

Conscientious learners uphold and preserve accepted values. They are reliable, hard-working, convergent thinkers. Such learners are generally comfortable with the status quo and distrust change for its own sake. They may come from family backgrounds culturally disposed to conformity and conventional attitudes. These learners may have an unquestioning acceptance of the status quo, or may be motivated by a desire to preserve what they see as good and trustworthy knowledge and values. They may be accepting of historical well-accepted creativity, but suspicious of unproven novelty.

Educational implications If the transmission of accepted values is the major aim of education, then conscientious learners are ideal students (Durkheim 1972). Despite their dislike of open-ended tasks, they can learn, reproduce, and get better at what they are taught. Moreover, some disciplinary ways of thinking require convergence and one correct answer. Conscientiousness is also an asset to groups where ‘team-workers’ and ‘company workers’ who play essential roles in getting on with the task and promoting stability and harmony (Belbin 1981). In order to support these learners who are wary of creativity, teachers should:

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accept that creativity is not always required; show the value of tradition and precedence in creativity; show the place of convergent thinking in disciplines and processes; discuss the values associated with convergent and divergent thinking; demonstrate the value of conscientiousness in group decisionmaking.

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Table 17.2 Learner personality traits and creative potential Personality trait Creativity type Creativity potential

Educational activity

Non-conformity Curiosity Expressivity Receptivity Conscientiousness

Independent action Interpretation and critique Expressive participation Appreciative engagement Confirmation of values

Big C Middle C Small C Small C Conventional

Disruptive innovation Creative synthesis Self-expression Response to experience Conservative

Table 17.2 adds the trait of ‘conscientiousness’ to the four creative traits already discussed, and suggests corresponding educational activities.

Jagged creativity profile Individual level Any individual learner will display a combination of personality traits in different proportions, giving a ‘jagged profile’ of traits, analogous to their ‘multiple intelligences’ profile. There is no guarantee that a certain combination of traits will result in worthwhile creativity without the necessary motivation, ability, knowledge and skills.

Class level In any undifferentiated class group there is likely to be a spectrum of personalities whose ‘jagged profile’ contains peaks of dominance in some personality traits. A territorial analogy of the personality type corresponding to a dominant trait may be useful: Nonconformity Curiosity Expressivity Receptivity Conscientiousness

Explorers who go their own way to discover new territory Map-makers who interpret and explain the terrain Gardeners who design a personal plot in this new land Tourists who experience the culture in this new land Farmers who conserve and reproduce what is already there

The majority will possess a combination of intellectual and emotional traits such that most of the creativity will take the form of curiosity, expressivity and receptivity. There are likely to be only a small number of non-conformists and a small number of loyal conservatives. Specific types of learners may also demonstrate a differential distribution of these personality traits with different implications for creativity. For example, a group of gifted students is more likely to display the character traits of non-conformity or curiosity, leading to forms of disruptive creativity, while a group of children with special needs may be likely to display traits of expressivity and loyalty, leading to forms of ‘small c’ expressive creativity which are new to them.

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Educational implications It is clear that the differentiated groups of learners discussed above will need extra support in terms of resources and time in order to permit them to reach their creative potential. However, there are certain basic requirements for all types of creative learning.

r

r

r

Resources: as well as the usual art, craft and drama materials, creative learning has many additional resource requirements. Creative performers and people with skills and expertise have to be brought into the classroom. Sometimes students must be brought to the creativity outside the classroom. There has to be transport and supervision arranged in order to attend circuses, art galleries, ballet, theatre, opera, cinema and other cultural events. Class climate: the overall classroom climate needs to be open, positive, good humoured, and tolerant of difference. Rules and regulations need to be flexible enough to create a communal atmosphere that allows playful exploration of ideas. The climate also needs to have permeable boundaries to people and ideas so that all are welcome in the classroom. Physically, the classroom itself needs to be creatively expressive with creative work celebrated and displayed. Group dynamics: the affective domain cannot be ignored in pursuit of the cognitive. In order for creative learning to flourish in a classroom context, it is important that group dynamics are conducive. The group needs to be respectful of everyone’s opinions, and offer emotional support through empathic listening and turn-taking, such that an atmosphere of trust is built up where diverse views are accommodated without ridicule.

Teachers who wish to support appropriate creativity in learners should:

r r r r r r r r

r

reflect on their own personality traits with respect to creativity; be aware of different learner personality traits concerning creativity; take into account gender influences on creativity traits; demonstrate ways group diversity enhances creativity; consider environmental, sociocultural influences on learner creativity; explain and provide examples of different types of creativity; devise exercises to help students identify their learner traits; provide resources to address the needs of specialized groups of learners: ◦ adults; ◦ gifted; ◦ special needs; ◦ disadvantaged; assess learners in ways that accommodate different traits.

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The creative learner Primary level At primary level, pupils are young, vibrant and generally trusting and positive. They are unsophisticated academically, and the traits of curiosity and receptivity have not yet become jaded, as they might be in older learners. Children display ‘small c’ creativity in their everyday lives and are unselfconscious about sharing their creative efforts. They are open to experience and are engaged in an intense process of experimentation and exploration – particularly in the form of creative play and imagination.

Play Play is not something ‘extra’ or peripheral. Vygotsky stresses the importance of play as ‘the leading activity of pre-schoolers: the child’s work’ (Bodrova and Leong 2003: 161) since it ‘opens up a zone of proximal development’ where children can behave beyond their current ability (Lantolf 2003: 355). Play is not unstructured. There are rules that need to be followed, and children are generally insistent upon the game being played correctly, as evident by cries of ‘that’s not fair’ when the rules are broken. It also allows self-regulation and the beginnings of symbolization in which some objects stand for others, preparing the way for creative substitutions (Karpov 2003: 147). Role-play provides an immersive experience in which children explore adult roles and boundaries with emotional, social and cognitive dimensions. Play provides a safe setting where children can ‘be themselves in a real world or in an imaginary world. Or they can be imaginary people in that world, or imaginary people in the real world’ (Meek 1991: 108).

Imagination As children get older and more able, there are increased opportunities for them to engage in a range of activities that foster imagination and facilitate self-expression in the form of art, drama, music, dance and play. Pamela Smyth (2008) describes the use of AKTEV (auditory, kinaesthetic, tactile, emotional and visual imagination repertoire) to support the creative learning of 5–11-year-olds, as shown in Table 17.3.

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Table 17.3 Methods for fostering imagination Imagination

Fostered by

A

Auditory

Poems, chants, rhymes, music, discussion, story-telling, drama, listening, role-play and puppetry

K

Kinaesthetic

Dance, mime, drama, visits, wonder-walks, maps, sculpture trails, drawings, making things, mobiles, puppets, kites and outdoor play

T

Tactile

Paper and textile collage, sculpting malleable materials, printmaking, weaving, felt-making, painting, sorting and classifying collections, gardening, block-play and construction

E

Emotional

Jokes, poetry, correspondence, biography, literature circles, talk teams, serialized novels, character study, role play, philosophy, history, writing partners, play buddies and mentors

V

Visual

Responding to images, buildings, landscapes, objects and texts, making artworks, curating, designing symbols, calligraphy, photography, descriptive writing and computer graphics

Source: based on Smyth (2008: 109–10)

Secondary level Imagination becomes fantasy Adolescent fantasy is the successor to child play. According to Vygotsky, ‘The child now builds castles in the air and creates daydreams’ (1931: 270). Such subjective fantasizing, which has both a cognitive and emotional element, can be harnessed by education. In subjects such as creative writing and art, the richness of the fantasy world becomes the source of the creativity (Hall et al. 1990: 12).

Subject-based creativity In secondary education there is more emphasis on subject knowledge. It is a common misconception to associate creativity with subjects such as art, music, drama and literature. The creative learner can display creativity within any domain: ‘One can be a creative carpenter, cook, composer, chemist, or clergyman because the domains of woodworking, gastronomy, music, chemistry, and religion exist and one can evaluate performance by reference to their traditions’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1999: 315).

Self-belief Because adolescence is a difficult time emotionally, the extent to which secondary learners will display creativity is very much influenced by their self-belief. The Canadian

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social psychologist Albert Bandura argues that this can help individuals see risks as challenging opportunities: ‘Innovativeness requires an unshakeable sense of efficacy to persist in creative endeavours’ (1997: 239). Creative learners can be helped to develop healthy self-efficacy by teachers who provide positive feedback. Beghetto found that positive teacher feedback was the strongest predictor of middle- and secondary-school students’ self-beliefs about their own creativity (2010: 459).

Motivation Since they have so many other things on their minds, adolescents often have difficulty in being motivated in school, and creativity has extra dangers of ‘uncoolness’. This is a very tricky area for teachers. For example, although competition can sometimes be helpful, Amabile (1996) describes negative effects of extrinsic motivation including competition with others. Thus, displaying the best work on the walls may have the opposite motivational effect to what was intended. What is necessary is intrinsic motivation training which can protect students from the negative consequences of reward expectations (Hennessey and Zbikowski 1993). Using rewards and incentives to motivate students can divide their attention and take away the concentration, risk-taking and task involvement necessary for creative expression. Calling something a ‘game’ rather than a ‘test’ can improve creativity (Beghetto 2010: 456−7).

Post-compulsory level Learner creativity at this level can be productive, problem-solving or a personal transferable skill.

Productive Productive or functional creativity, such as the design and construction of a piece of pottery or furniture, has purposes that are both expressive and aesthetic. Learners need to develop fluency and automaticity in psychomotor skills – often in an apprenticeship under the guidance of expert performers. Sennett (2008) argues that there is a deep satisfaction in physical craftsmanship, rooted in material reality, with an engagement which incorporates submerged processes of thought and feeling.

Problem-solving Creative learning may also take the form of problem-solving and problem-posing, where the learner may acquire a set of useful heuristics which are context-dependent – for example, in electronic engineering. Techniques of problem-based learning (PBL) may be creative in drawing on the resources of a whole group, and in utilizing peer teaching and learning.

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Personal transferable skills Policy-makers at local, national and international levels are interested in learners’ generic transferable skills. Creativity may be one such generic skill, but this is debated by those who claim it is context-dependent (Csikszentmihalyi 1999). Creativity can develop as an emergent quality from ‘soft skills’ such as communication, timemanagement, information technology, team-working and interpersonal relationships. It can also manifest itself in innovative group projects where learners can engage in creative activities. For example, the European Community’s Leonardo da Vinci programme (2009) highlights recent case studies in circus education and training to improve the language competencies of truck drivers.

Higher education level The learner who has reached higher education is more sophisticated intellectually, emotionally and creatively. Marcia Baxter Magolda (1992) investigated student epistemological development, and identified four stages which we apply to creative learning, explained further here and summarized in Table 17.4. Table 17.4 Stages of epistemological development and creativity Stage

View of creativity

View of learning

Teaching

1 Absolute knowing

A mysterious quality possessed by creative individuals

Creativity cannot be learned

Prizes competence over creativity

2 Transitional

Creativity is possible by adaptation of precedent

Examining precedent in order to adapt it

Presents examples of creativity

3 Independent All can be creative in knowing their own fashion

Learning creativity means doing own thing

Supports students’ individual creative efforts

4 Contextual knowing

Learning is Teacher is a partner constructing a creative in the creative approach in context endeavour

Creativity is originality in a disciplinary context

Source: based on Baxter Magolda (1992)

Absolute knowing At this stage, learners consider that a discipline contains a body of knowledge or set of true facts to be handed down to them. Student thinking consists in knowing the subject parameters and key threshold concepts, and is not really creative. Teachers

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concentrate on teaching the subject material, but can challenge learners’ prejudices by adopting a flexible and open-minded approach.

Transitional At the transitional stage, the learner notes that the views of authorities differ and so there is some ambiguity and uncertainty. At this stage, it is important that divergent thinking is explicitly promoted − for example, by the use of deliberate creative tools such as those described in Chapter 16.

Independent knowing At this stage, knowledge is uncertain and learners must identify their own knowledge and beliefs and proceed to develop and defend their own position. This is a stage of more relativistic and independent thinking − students have developed a repertoire of creative strategies and techniques which they can harness to develop projects and negotiate the criteria by which achievement can be judged. Teachers should encourage learners to generate their own questions and hypotheses and let them assess their own creativity.

Contextual knowing The fourth stage involves the awareness that knowledge is socially constructed and contextual, and students need to engage with the knowledge and articulate their own values in relation to this context. Students are able to critique and contextualize their own creative achievements. They will also have a stronger sense that knowledge is constructed within communities. Teachers should encourage students to relate creativity to the disciplinary context and emphasize consciousness of personal creativity measured against the field.

Conclusion The idea of ‘multiple creativities’ may be a useful way of looking at learners’ potential to be creative in different ways, depending on their personalities and background. The educational level – primary, secondary, post-compulsory and higher − also has implications for creative learning. Young creative learners have a natural proclivity for play and imaginative activity. For secondary learners, the emphasis shifts to supporting creative self-efficacy and providing motivational encouragement. The post-compulsory level emphasizes creativity as functional, problem-solving or transferable. Finally, creative learners in higher education are discussed in terms of stages of epistemological development leading to the creative expertise of independent self-regulated creativity within a scholarly discourse. The above approaches may provide teachers with a way of viewing creative learners and addressing their individual needs.

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References Amabile, T.M. (1996) Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman. Baxter Magolda, M.B. (1992) Students’ epistemologies and academic experiences: implications for pedagogy, Review of Higher Education, 15(3): 265−87. Beghetto, R.A. (2010) Creativity in the classroom, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Belbin, R. (1981) Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann. Boden, M.A. (2004) The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Bodrova, E. and Leong. D.J. (2003) Learning and development of preschool children from the Vygotskian perspective, in A. Kozulin, V.S. Ageyev, S.M. Miller and B. Gindis (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carlile, O. and Jordan, A. (2011) Learning, in J. Arthur and A. Peterson (eds) The Routledge Companion to Education. New York: Routledge. CERI (2012) Innovative Learning Environments: The Innovative Cases Strand. Paris: OECD, http//www.oecd.org/document/21/0, 3746, accessed March 2012. Craft, A. (2005) Creativity in Schools: Tensions and Dilemmas. Abingdon: Routledge. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999) Implications of a systems perspective for the study of creativity, in R.J. Sternberg (ed.) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Durkheim, E. (1972) Selected Writings, ed. and trans A. Giddens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. EC Leonardo da Vinci Vocational Education and Training (2009) Creativity and Innovation: European Success Stories. Luxembourg: Office of the Official Publications of the European Communities. Hall, E., Hall, C. and Leech, A. (1990) Scripted Fantasy in the Classroom. London: Routledge. Hennessey, B.A. and Zbikowski, S.M. (1993) Immunizing children against the negative effects of rewards: a further examination of intrinsic motivation training techniques, Creativity Research Journal, 6: 297−307.

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Jordan, A., Carlile, O. and Stack, A. (2008) Approaches to Learning: A Guide for Teachers. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Karpov, Y.V. (2003) Development through the lifespan: a neo-Vygotskian approach, in A. Kozulin, B. Gimdis, V.S. Ageyev, and S.M. Miller (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S. and Masia, B.B. (1973) Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook II: Affective Domain. New York: David McKay. Lantolf, J.P. (2003) Intrapersonal communication and internalization in the second language classroom, in A. Kozulin, V.S. Ageyev, S.M. Miller and B. Gindis (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J. (1993) The practice of learning, in S. Chaiklin and J. Lave (eds) Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context. New York: Cambridge University Press. Meek, M. (1991) On Being Literate. London: Bodley Head. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Sennett, R. (2008) The Craftsman. London: Allan Lane. Smyth, P. (2008) Using the AKTEV imagination repertoire to support the creative learning of 5–11 year olds, in A. Craft, T. Cremin, and P. Bernard (eds) Creative Learning 3–11 and How We Document It. Stoke-on-Trent: Trent Handbooks. Vygotsky, L.S. (1931) Imagination and creativity in the adolescent, Soviet Psychology, 29. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chapter 18 Creativity and cognition

Introduction In most newsagents, one can see glossy magazines with articles about the brain, how it works and how it can be enhanced in order to improve learning, strengthen memory, or stave off dementia. Popular psychology has embraced neuroscience and presents simplified naive versions of theories such as ‘left-brain and right-brain thinking’. This chapter explores creativity from a cognitive perspective, and tries to summarize a range of complex ideas in a way that can be of practical use to the teacher and learner. After a brief description of the nature of cognition, it considers neurobiological creativity factors such as brain-hemisphere differentiation and disinhibition as well as the place of intelligence and the influence of cognitive frameworks such as culture and discipline. The latter part of the chapter then discusses elements of creative cognition such as combinatorial thinking, divergent and convergent thinking, problem-solving, analogical thinking and insight.

The nature of cognition Cognitive processes All human mental activity involves a set of interrelated processes as described in Table 18.1. Table 18.1 Cognitive processes Mental process

Nature

Attention Perception Memory Categorization

The ability to focus exclusively on salient features or aspects The way that reality is perceived Different forms, working or long-term, episodic or semantic How sensations or ideas are identified, grouped and conceptualized

Mental representation Associative networks Transfer

How schema, knowledge or cognitive frameworks are considered Linking or combining different brain modules How representations or moods transfer to other brain regions

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Table 18.2 Cognitive style theories

Name

Theorist

Verbalizerimager

Paivio 1971

Adaptioninnovation theory

Kirton 1994

Cognitive emphasis

Features

Instrument

Sensory dual-coding theory

Preference for visual or linguistic modes

VAK

Problem-solving

Preference for doing things better versus doing them differently

AdaptionInnovation Inventory

Myers-Briggs Myers and Type Indicator McCaulley 1985

Multidimensional Wholist-analytical model Verbal imagery

Big Five

Personality traits

Costa and McCrae 1985

Assimilators or Kaufmann and Problem-solving explorers (AE) Martinsen strategies 1991

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cognitive style Analysis

Extraversion Big Five Openness Inventory BFI Conscientiousness NEO-PL Agreeableness Emotional stability

Assimilation versus accommodation

AE Inventory

Source: based on Cassidy (2010: 419–44)

Cognitive styles Developed from work in the 1960s on personality traits and abilities, cognitive style theories claim that individuals use mental processes in different ways, depending on their personality traits, background, moods, abilities and reasoning. Some of the most popular cognitive style theories are shown in Table 18.2 along with the well-known instrument derived from them. No overall organizing theory has been developed to draw them all together.

Learning styles The concept of cognitive styles has become simplified and popularized to become ‘learning styles’ with many theories promoted educationally. Some theories identify a creative component. The most prominent learning style theories are shown in Table 18.3. The main benefit of cognitive and learning style theories is their emphasis on individual differences in thinking, and the fact that they all contribute to creativity by stressing diversity. Problems with cognitive and learning style theories arise from their variability and lack of a clear definition. Moreover, they often employ dubious forms of popular

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Table 18.3 Learning style theories

Name

Theorist

Learning styles

Cognitive emphasis

Features

Instrument

Honey and Thinking styles Mumford 2000

Reflector, pragmatist, activist and theorist

Learning Styles Questionnaire

Fleming’s visual, auditory, read-write and kinaesthetic

Fleming 2001

Similarities to Paivio, dual-code theory

VARK

Learning Style Inventory

Dunn and Multidimensional 20 elements: Dunn 1978 VAK model environmental, emotional sociological, physiological psychological

LSI

Left-brain, Right-brain dominance theory

Herrmann 1999

HBDI

Preferential sensory modes

Neural patterns and dominance

Identification of dominant analytical, sequential, interpersonal and imaginative thinking

psychology such as ‘right-brained, left-brained’ thinking, individuals or cultures, described by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as an example of a ‘neuromyth’: ‘Classifying students or cultures according to a dominant brain hemisphere is highly dubious scientifically, potentially dangerous socially, and strongly questionable ethically’ (OECD 2007: 117).

Creative cognition Creative cognition has been defined as the sequence of cognitive operations that gives rise to original ideas (Kaufman et al. 2010: 216). It is either the highest form of cognition and therefore closely associated with intelligence (see following section) or it forms part of every aspect of cognition where novelty is involved.

Neurobiological factors It is now accepted that cognition is biological, arising from the activation of neurons in the different neural networks and modules of the brain. Neuro-imaging makes it possible to identify precisely where this activation occurs, what stimulates it, and even

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some of the genetic mechanisms that are at work. Unless there is injury or inherited abnormalities, everyone’s brain works the same way. For example, there is no evidence that people preferentially use one side of their brain to the detriment of the other. Apart from the suggestion that synaesthesia is a cause of creative thinking, two main hypotheses are suggested for the way that creativity arises in the brain: Right-brain thinking Disinhibition

It is a property of the right hemisphere It is a relaxation of the frontal lobe’s control mechanism

Right-brain thinking A once popular extreme treatment for epileptic seizures involved the severing of the corpus callosum connecting the left and right brain hemispheres. This allowed experimenters to determine that the right side of the brain is primarily responsible for parallel and holistic thinking, whereas the left specializes in logical processing. Further confirmation has come from controlled experiments, using brain imaging to observe which parts are activated in creative and non-creative tasks. This has led to the naive, claim that individuals are either ‘left-brained’ – uncreative and unimaginative, or ‘rightbrained’ – creative and imaginative. This may be an attractive idea but it goes too far. Russian research shows the involvement of both sides of the brain in creative activity (Kaufman et al. 2010: 220). The British neuroscientist Susan Greenfield points out that there is no one centre or hemisphere in the brain for creativity. Instead it involves an ability to override existing personalized neural networks encompassing the entire brain (Greenfield 2012).

Disinhibition The cognitive disinhibition hypothesis claims that in creative states there are low levels of regulatory activity in the brain’s frontal lobe whose role is to prevent activation of regions leading to impulsive or unconsidered action. Alcohol is a well- known drug that inhibits cortical regulation, leading to disinhibition. However it is hardly permissible in the educational setting as it has other less creative side-effects. Charles Limb (2011) used brain scanning to explore the creativity of rap artists and jazz musicians. When these artists depart from the music to play riffs, the area of the brain associated with self-monitoring switches off, and the expressive area is turned on. Such disinhibition may also facilitate creative cognition in other brain regions, such as those for sensory integration. Recent thinking proposes that the two hypotheses occur sequentially in the cognitive process. There is a reduction of cortical regulation, which allows greater activity within the right hemisphere, which leads to new associations from which creativity arises as an emergent phenomenon.

Stress Whereas disinhibition is associated with relaxed, non-stressful situations, the biological response to stress leads to enhanced cortical control which has an inhibiting effect on creativity.

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Creativity involves a process of ‘defocused attention’ – a state of relaxed attentiveness or distraction – in which multiple representations arise. For example, people who score highly on creativity tests tend to have longer reaction times to stimuli, and are easily distracted (Kaufman et al. 2010: 223). Another paradoxical feature is for creative people to isolate themselves and yet have a craving for novelty and stimulation. It has been suggested that creativity might be both avoidance of stress followed by novelty-seeking (Kaufman et al. 2010: 222).

Affective disorders Creativity can also arise from the disinhibition displayed by some individuals with reduced cortical regulation due to bipolar and attention deficit disorder (ADD) syndromes. Children with these affective disorders had 91 per cent higher creativity scores than other children when tested on the Barron-Welsh Art Scale (Simeonova et al. 2005).

Dyslexia Susan Greenfield refers to the creative abilities of dyslexics related to their capacity to develop a different system of connectivity in the brain, and a talent to ‘see the whole picture’ (Greenfield 2006: 4). It is for these reasons that such disorders and schizotypy – an openness to strange influences and stimuli – have been called enhancers of creativity and may ‘act as genetic reservoirs from which genes or genius is drawn’ (Kaufman et al. 2010: 226).

Educational implications Older learners may enjoy the identification of their own learning and creative styles and be able to use them as a way of asserting their own individuality. Learning styles have become very popular in educational settings, although there are now concerns about the practicality of the teacher adapting to all learners’ styles, and the dangers of self-labelling in younger learners which may act as a constraint (Coffield et al. 2004). However, teachers should attempt to consider the different stages of creative activity and the need for unstressful experiences and a positive atmosphere which will relax learners and motivate them to engage in creative activity and creative tasks, resulting in multiple and free-ranging connections being made. Allowance can also be made for the different insights that can be offered by learners who have some form of affective brain disorder.

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Intelligence and creativity Intelligence Intelligence can be defined as the ability to understand complex ideas, adapt to the environment, learn from experience, and engage in reasoning to overcome obstacles. It is operationally defined in education as ‘cognitive abilities’, as measured by IQ (intelligence quotient).

Creativity To be considered creative, on the other hand, an idea must be original as defined within a particular sociocultural field, because what may be original in one society or culture may be common in another (Simonton 1999). The original idea or product cannot be considered creative unless it has social value and appropriateness (Runco and Charles 1993).

Relationship Figure 18.1 illustrates five potential ways in which Sternberg and O’Hara (1999) suggest creativity and intelligence can be related. In a review of research on the creativityintelligence relationship they concluded that the relationship between the two depends largely on how each is defined and measured (Plucker and Makel 2010: 49). There is a lack of consensus about the relationship between creativity and intelligence. Tables 18.4 and 18.5 summarize some of the evidence on both sides. As is often the case with such complex relationships, much depends on definition and measurement. For example, the correlation between creativity and IQ measures increases when creativity tests are serious rather than fun (Kim et al. 2010: 402). There are

Creativity is a subset of intelligence

Intelligence Creativity

Intelligence is a subset of creativity

Creativity and intelligence are overlapping sets

Intelligence and creativity are essentially the same

Intelligence and creativity bear no relationship to each other

Figure 18.1 Possible relationship between intelligence and creativity

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Table 18.4 Arguments in favour of a relationship between intelligence and creativity Theorist

Year

Idea

Creativity

Guilford

1967

Structure of intellect (SOI) model

Creativity includes divergent thinking abilities such as ideas production, fluency, flexibility and originality

Cattell

1971

gC crystallized and gF fluid intelligence

Creativity is determined by a combination of fluid fast processing and a specific personality type

Gardner

1993

Multiple intelligences

Creativity is the highest level of application of an intelligence but not of ‘g’ general intelligence

Sternberg

1985

Triarchic model Componential Contextual Experiential

Creativity is one of the elements of the componential aspect

Sternberg and Lubart

1995

Investment theory of creativity

Intelligence is an element of creativity along with knowing, thinking styles, personality, motivation and environment

also other factors involved. For example, Silvia (2008) found that personality variables such as openness to experience predict both IQ and creativity.

Verbal connection Verbal facility may be both an indicator of intelligence and of creativity. For the cognitive linguists, Steven Pinker (2007) and Noam Chomsky (2006), the use of language itself is a creative activity where the interplay between grammatical rules and vocabulary gives rise to the vastly expressive powers of language. For these linguists, verbal creativity is an aspect of mental creativity (Pope 2005: 55). Table 18.5 Arguments against a relationship between intelligence and creativity Theorist

Year

Idea

Argument

Torrance

1998

Correlation

Low correlation between creativity and intelligence

Batey et al.

2009

Fluid intelligence (gF)

gF related to divergent thinking and fluency rather than intelligence

Kim

2005

Meta-analysis

Negligible relationship between creativity and intelligence

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Educational implications The intelligence versus creativity debate alerts teachers to the idea that creativity requires a certain level of intelligence, but there is no guarantee that the most intelligent are the most creative. Above an IQ of 120 there is no correlation between measured creativity and intelligence (Kim et al. 2010: 401). Exceptions to this rule are savants who display extreme abilities despite some degree of autism or other developmental disorders. However, their skills are in performance and reproduction rather than in original creativity and interpretation. Teachers also need to reflect on their preference for intelligence over creativity. School systems are ‘thrown’ by unexpected activity, which is understandable since, if opened carelessly, the Pandora’s Box of creativity may release classroom chaos. Many highly creative students have trouble in traditional school environments (Amabile 1989; Cramond 1995). Finally, teachers may utilize learners’ verbal facility as a useful indicator of both intelligence and creativity. Verbal facility is a legitimate and effective component of creativity and intelligence testing.

Cognitive frameworks Intelligence and creativity do not exist in a vacuum. They are constrained and shaped to a certain extent by their environment, consisting of the cognitive frameworks created by the prevailing culture and by the disciplinary context.

Cultural frameworks Cultural influences on cognition can influence creativity. Larry Samovar and Richard Porter (2004: 242–3) identify four cognitive styles that are influenced by culture. These are described in Table 18.6. Table 18.6 Culturally influenced cognitive styles Field independence Ignore context and focus on topic

versus

Field sensitivity Awareness of broader social context

Competition Inclined to work competitively alone

versus

Cooperation Inclined to work cooperatively in a group

Trial and error Attempt, fail, try again, improve

versus

Watch then do Observe others before attempting

Intolerance of ambiguity Prefer clear aims and outcomes

versus

Tolerance of ambiguity Value vagueness and ambiguity

Source: based on Samovar and Porter (2004: 242–3)

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It is easy to see how these cultural frameworks will affect cognition and creativity. For example, one can imagine the left-hand column of Table 18.6 applying to stereotypical western cultures that stress directness and individuality, and the righthand column applying to stereotypical Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHCs) that stress contexts and relationships, and are more subtle.

Disciplinary frameworks Cognitive processes in art are likely to be different to cognitive processes in the sciences as they draw on different cognitive elements. In a manner similar to that for culture, Table 18.7 describes how cognitive styles may be influenced by the discipline. The debate concerning the domain specificity of creativity is discussed in detail in Chapter 11, but it seems likely that disciplinary thinking will affect cognitive processes. For example, cognition in the sciences is more likely to lean towards the left-hand column of Table 18.7 and the arts to the right. Table 18.7 Disciplinary-influenced cognitive styles Impersonal Ignoring the human dimension

versus

Emotive Factoring in feelings

Objective Impartial, general and detached

versus

Subjective Personal, particular and involved

Structured Well organized and systematic

versus

Unstructured Disorganized and unsystematic

Formal In accordance with convention

versus

Informal Casual and flexible

Source: based on Cropley (2001: 17) According to Thomas Ward and Yuliya Kolomyts (2010: 98), innovative thinking may even be constrained by ‘chronically accessible domain instances’. They cite the historical example of the first US railway trains in the 1830s where the conductor, following the precedents in horse-drawn transport, sat outside the train, until this resulted in a number of fatalities and the conductor then sat inside.

Educational implications The knowledge that creativity and intelligence are affected by the cultural and disciplinary environment is welcome news for educationalists since schools are designed to provide good learning environments. Teachers need to bear in mind the sociocultural influences of the home and of the classroom itself on learners’ cognitive processes. The subject being studied will also have its own discourse and ways of communicating which will require different cognitive processes such that a learner may be creative in one domain but not in another.

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Characteristics of creative thinking Having examined creative brain processes from an objective neurobiological perspective, we now consider the more subjective elements of cognition in terms of a number of characteristics that allow us to identify it as creative thinking. We will discuss the following, along with some practical pedagogical implications:

r r r r r

combinatorial thinking; divergent and convergent thinking; problem-solving; analogical thinking; insight.

Combinatorial thinking Creativity can arise from combining disparate ideas. This does not just result in a larger number of attributes, but in unpredictable emergent properties (Ward and Kolomyts 2010: 102). Premature categorization impedes creativity. More creative outcomes result if categorization of the separate ideas is delayed until the merger is complete (Finke 1990). Discrepant combinations of ideas offer the most potential, because people are forced into novel explanations. Ward and Kolomyts (2010: 103) cite the case of college students presented with the discrepant combination of a ‘healthy illness’. They came up with the idea of vaccinations, which cause a minor version of an illness, to which the body develops immunity.

Educational implications Teachers who wish to promote combinatorial thinking should:

r r r r

ask learners to consider random or discrepant associations; for discrepant associations, choose startling discrepancies; delay first suggestions and look for further explanations; postpone categorization until the idea or visualization is complete.

Divergent and convergent thinking Convergent thinking is discussed in Chapter 9 where we define it as focusing on one appropriate solution to a problem. Conversely, divergent thinking or ‘ideation’ (Runco 2010) involves the generation of many different ideas and has several elements. It was initially thought that divergent thinking was indicative of creative performance, but we have already indicated that tests of divergence do not in fact measure creativity. While high test scores are not strongly predictive, they are evidence of some

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potential for problem-solving (Runco 2010: 439). Different patterns of brain activity are produced in divergent and convergent thinking tasks. A highly divergent group showed a wider distribution of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity across brain areas, whereas a highly convergent group showed more intense cooperation between brain areas. When engaged in creative problem-solving, the ‘high divergers’ showed less mental activity than the convergers (Molle et al. 1999). Divergent thinking requires a personality style open to experience. Research with multinational cultural groups found more divergent thinking in students from the West, whereas Middle Eastern students had difficulties in considering problems from different perspectives, possibly because of cultural restraints (Runco 2010: 438).

Educational implications Teachers who wish to support divergent thinking should:

r r r r

model and encourage open-mindedness; use different tests of divergent thinking for different purposes; teach divergent thinking tools such as lateral thinking; create a positive mood as a preparation for problem-solving.

Problem-solving Problem-solving is probably the most investigated of the cognitive strategies for creativity and there are many models of the problem-solving process. The four-stage model developed by Wallas (1926) shown in Table 18.8 is valuable in stressing problemsolving activity taking place beneath conscious awareness. Table 18.8 The four-stage problem solving model Stage

Process

1. Preparation 2. Incubation 3. Illumination 4. Verification

Focus is placed on the problem and its dimensions Problem is internalized into the subconscious A sudden moment of insight occurs Ideas are elaborated, validated and applied

Source: based on Wallas (1926) The creative problem-solving (CPS) model developed by Osborne and Parnes (see Daupert 1996) shown in Table 18.9 is another popular approach. The steps can be used in a linear fashion, though this is not necessary. For example, in the case of an

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undefined problem, the process could begin at ‘mess finding’. Each step has a divergent thinking phase of a broad search for alternatives, followed by a convergent thinking phase of evaluation and selection. Table 18.9 Creative problem-solving (CPS) model Stage

Steps

Process

1. Explore the challenge

Objective finding Fact finding Mess finding

Identify the objective Gather the relevant data Clarify the problems to be solved

2. Generate ideas

Idea finding

Generate ideas to solve problem

3. Prepare for action

Solution finding Acceptance finding

Move from idea to a solution Plan for action

Source: based on Daupert (1996)

Educational implications Teachers who wish to promote creative problem-solving should:

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set the scene for problem-solving with a positive atmosphere; encourage problem-finding as well as problem-solving; consider the benefits of problem formulation to increase options; teach the stages of the CPS model.

Analogical thinking The central idea of an analogy is that the structure normally applied in one domain can be applied to another. It conveys a system of connected knowledge, not simply an assortment of independent facts (Gentner 1983: 162). For example, the essence of the analogy between electric wiring and water pipes is that both move something from one end to the other because of a difference between the two ends. Different domains have different ways of using analogy. Kevin Dunbar has observed that the majority of analogies used by a group of molecular biologists came from similar domains. For example, the genetic structure of a known virus was utilized to investigate the genetic structure of an unknown virus (Dunbar 1997). In a different domain however, design engineers chose distant analogies as much as close ones when communicating and problem-solving (Ward and Kolomyts 2010: 105).

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In an analogy, the simple understandable part (e.g. water) is called the base domain and the difficult concept (e.g. electricity) is called the target domain. Glynn (2004) details a six-step process for teaching with analogies: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Introduce target concept. Recall base concept. Identify similar features of the concepts. Map similar features. Indicate where the analogy breaks down. Draw conclusions about the concepts.

Educational Implications Teachers who wish to promote analogical thinking should:

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use analogy when the target domain is difficult conceptually; ensure that the base domain is familiar to learners; ask very able learners to create their own analogies for concepts; provide and explain analogies for less able learners.

Insight Insight is linked to inspiration and intuition, as they are creative processes not reliant on conscious control. They can be contrasted with trial and error thinking, where a conscious sequence of operations is undertaken in order to arrive at a solution. Insight provides solutions that appear to come out of the blue, suddenly, with sharpness and clarity – which is valuable in an emergency – whereas intuition involves slow, semi-tacit developing awareness (Richards 2010: 201). Brain imaging can predict those who will be able to solve a problem through insight since the brain appears to ‘prepare’ before the insight occurs. Brains show a ‘signature’ of preparatory activity with alpha waves flooding a specific area – the anterior cingulate cortex – some seconds before the insight occurs (Lehrer 2012). Neurons in this area are active when people widen or narrow their attention. In insightful problem-solving, the brain widens its attention, making itself more open to distraction. Insightful thinking is more relaxed than conscious concentration. Martindale (1999) found low cortical activation accompanied by right hemispheric activation which led to defocused attention, associative thought and multiple representations. De-focused attention has been found to be strongly associated with positive moods. For example, researchers have found that college students who watched a clip of a comic routine by Robin Williams solved more problems by an insight task (Carey 2010).

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Educational implications Teachers who wish to support learner insight should:

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provide historical examples of intuitive thinking; create a positive atmosphere that supports insight; create situations where learners must tolerate ambiguity; encourage learners to recognize and have confidence in intuition.

General creative thinking tools To supplement the suggestions above, Table 18.10 lists appropriate mind tools that are to be found in Chapter 16 which can be used to support the five types of creative thinking described above. Table 18.10 Mind tools for creative cognition Creative cognition

Mind tool in Chapter 16

Combinatorial thinking

Random word association Morphological forced connections

Divergent and convergent thinking

Opposites and distortions Brainstorming Lateral thinking

Problem-solving

Plus, minus, interesting (PMI) Diagrams

Analogy

Metaphors

Insight

Six thinking hats Provocative operation (PO)

Conclusion Many creative processes are related to special cognitive activity. Educationalists have always been quick to make use of developments in psychology and neuroscience. In this chapter we have attempted to explain some complex ideas from cognitive science in a straightforward and comprehensible manner. This has necessitated some simplification for which we hope we will be forgiven. Our focus has been on the practical implications of cognition for creativity, and for its pedagogical support.

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References Amabile, T.M. (1989) Growing Up Creative: Nurturing a Lifetime of Creativity. Williston, VT: Crown House Publishing. Batey, M., Chamorro-Premnzic, T. and Furnham, A. (2009) Intelligence and personality as predictors of divergent thinking: the role of general, fluid and crystallised intelligence, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 4: 60–9. Carey, B. (2010) Tracing the spark of creative problem-solving, New York Times, Science Feature, 6 December. Cassidy, S. (2010) Learning styles: an overview of theories, models, and measures, Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, www.tandfonline.com, accessed May 2012. Cattell, R.B. (1971) Abilities: Their Structure, Growth and Action. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Chomsky, N. (2006) Language and Mind, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E. and Ecclestone, K. (2004) Learning Styles and Pedagogy in Post-16 Learning. London: Learning and Skills Research Centre. Costa, P.T. and McCrae, R.R. (1985) The NEO Personality Inventory Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. Cramond, B. (1995) The Coincidence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Creativity. Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut. Cropley, A.J. (2001) Creativity in Education & Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators. London: Routledge-Falmer. Daupert, D. (1996) The Osborne Parnes Creative Problem Solving Manual, www.Kaplans. com/Daupert/Daupert, accessed March 2012. Dunbar, K. (1997) How scientists think: online creativity and conceptual change in science, in T.B. Ward, S.M. Smith and J. Viad (eds) Creative Thought: An Investigation of Conceptual Structures and Processes. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Dunn, R. and Dunn, K. (1978) Teaching Students Through their Individual Learning Styles: A Practical Approach. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing Company. Finke, R.A. (1990) Creative Imagery: Discoveries and Inventions in Visualization. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Fleming, N.D. (2001) Teaching and Learning Styles: VARK Strategies. Christchurch, NZ: N.D. Fleming. Gardner, H. (1993) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

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Gentner, D. (1983) Structure mapping: a theoretical framework for analogy, Cognitive Science, 7: 155–70. Glynn, S. (2004) Connect concepts with questions and analogies, in T. Koballa and D. Tippins (eds) Cases in Middle and Secondary Science Education: The Promise and Dilemmas, 2nd edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Greenfield, S. (2006) The key to the future: will dyslexia unlock secrets of creativity? Guardian Education, 5 December. Greenfield, S. (2012) The neuroscience of creativity, in Creativity Lecture Series 2012. Oxford: Advanced Studies Centre, Keble College, Oxford, 20 January, www. Keble.ox.ac.uk/academics/advanced-studies-centre, accessed March 2012. Guilford, J.P. (1967) The Nature of Human Intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill. Herrmann, N. (1999) Overview of the H.B.D.I., Herrmann International, www.hbdi. com/WholeBrainProductsAndServices/thehbdi.cfm, accessed May 2012. Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (2000) The Learning Styles Helper’s Guide. Maidenhead: Peter Honey Publications. Kaufman, A.B., Kornilov, S.A., Bristol, A., Tan, M. and Grigorenko, E.L. (2010) The neurobiological foundation of creative cognition, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kaufmann, G. and Martinsen, O. (1991) The explorer and the assimilator: a theory and measure of cognitive styles and problem solving, Creativity Network Newsletter, 1(4): 8–9. Kim, K.H. (2005) Can only intelligent people be creative? A meta-analysis. Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 16: 57–66. Kim, K.H., Cramond, B. and Vantassel-Baska, J. (2010) The relationship between creativity and intelligence, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kirton, M.J. (ed.) (1994) Adaptors and Innovators. London: Routledge. Lehrer, J. (2012) Imagine: How Creativity Works. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Limb, C. (2011) Your brain on improv, TED Talks, January 2011, www.ted.com, accessed March 2012. Martindale, C. (1999) Biological bases of creativity, in R.J. Sternberg (ed.) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Molle, M., Marshall, L. Wolf, B., Fehm, H.L. and Born, J. (1999) EEG complexity and performance measures of creative thinking, Psychophysiology, 36(12): 95–104. Myers, I. and McCaulley, M. (1985) Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, 3rd edn. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press Inc. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) (2007) Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science. Paris: OECD.

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Paivio, A. (1971) Imagery and Verbal Processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Pinker, S. (2007) The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: HarperCollins. Plucker, J.A. and Makel, M.C. (2010) Assessment of creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pope, R. (2005) Creativity: History, Theory, Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Richards, R. (2010) Everyday creativity – process and way of life – four key issues, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Runco, M.A. (2010) Divergent thinking, creativity and ideation, in J.C. Kaufman and R.S. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Runco, M.A. and Charles, R. (1993) Judgments of originality and appropriateness as predictors of creativity, Personality and Individual Differences, 15: 537–46. Samovar, L.A. and Porter, R.E. (2004) Communication Between Cultures, 5th edn. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Silvia, P.J. (2008) Another look at creativity and intelligence: exploring higher-order models and probable confounds, Personality and Individual Differences, 44: 1012–21. Simeonova, D.J., Chang, K.D., Strong, C. and Ketter, T.A. (2005) Creativity in familial bipolar disorder, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 39: 623–31. Simonton, D.K. (1999) Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspective in Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (1985) Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. and Lubart T.I. (1995) Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity. New York: Free Press. Sternberg, R.J. and O’ Hara, L.A. (1999) Creativity and intelligence, in R.J. Sternberg (ed.) Handbook of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Torrance, E.P. (1998) The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Norms – Technical, Manual, Figural (Streamlined) Forms A & B. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service. Wallas, G. (1926) The Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt Brace. Ward, T.B. and Kolomyts, Y. (2010) Cognition and creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 19 Creativity as expression

Introduction If you look into a typical primary school classroom you will see notice boards, walls, windows and other display places festooned with examples of children’s artwork. You may also hear the children sing songs, play an instrument, or perform some drama. Aesthetic merit is not the sole criterion: what is important is the children’s expressivity. Historically, creative self-expression was not a necessary part of childhood education until the nineteenth century when educationalists like Pestalozzi and Montessori extolled the virtues of allowing children to engage in creative activities where they could express themselves. This accords with a contemporary view of self-expression in education. The first part of the chapter considers self-expression as a form of creativity, explores the historical function of art and examines the nature of artistic creativity. This is followed by an overview of education and art, and an investigation of the place of art at different educational levels.

Creativity as self-expression The belief that individual creativity is a form of self-expression owes much to the mid-twentieth century perspectives of the US psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

Rogers Carl Rogers claimed that an absence of creativity in modern society leads to personality deficits: denial, defensiveness, rigidity in thinking, and frustration (Rogers 1954: 249–60). In order to develop integrated personalities and lead the ‘good life’ people need to:

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open themselves more to experience; respond and adapt to experience; accept their feelings fully.

These are all characteristics identified as important to creativity. Children can also develop these characteristics, so education has a responsibility to deal with the whole personality, including the desire for individual self-expression and fulfilment. Education should promote an internal ‘locus of evaluation’ and an

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ability to play with ideas (Rogers 1961). These qualities require an environment that provides psychological safety and freedom (Rogers 1954): Psychological safety Psychological freedom

The child’s trust in the ability to express emotion safely, and in the response of others The encouragement of the child’s curiosity, decisionmaking and questioning

Parents who use child-rearing practices consistent with this theory tend to have children who are more creative than those who do not (Harrington et al. 1992: 204).

Maslow Maslow’s well-known hierarchy of human needs (1943), shown in Figure 19.1, begins with basic needs which must be met before the individual moves towards the satisfaction of the higher needs. Maslow tops his hierarchy with ‘self-actualization’ or ‘self-fulfilment’, seeing it as the pinnacle of human existence. Maslow claimed that self-actualizing people are happier, more at peace, spontaneous and fulfilled, as well as being motivated towards higher existential and moral values (Maslow 1971). Maslow linked self-actualization and creativity, stating that ‘they may turn out to be the same thing’ (1971: 57). For Maslow, the aim of creativity is not creative products or achievements, nor is creativity an act of problem-solving. He thought instead of creativity as a process which developed the person, allowing self-acceptance, self-esteem, autonomy, detachment, problem-centring and the expression of emotion (1968: 145).

Self-actualization: Aspirational

Aesthetic: Cognitive: Self-esteem:

Basic

self-fulfilment

shape, order, beauty knowledge

competency, recognition

Love and belonging:

affiliation, affection

Safety: physical and psychological Physiological: air, food, water

Figure 19.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Source: based on Jordan et al. (2008)

Self-actualization Creativity in the classroom should offer the conditions which foster personal growth, creative activity and self-esteem (Hulme et al. 2011). The creativity researcher Mark

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Runco has confirmed that self-actualization is a feature of the creative personality through empirical testing of both constructs (Runco et al. 1991). Albert Bandura (1986) differentiates between self-esteem and self-efficacy as follows: Self-esteem Self-efficacy

Feeling of worth about oneself Feeling the capability to do something

Both contribute to creative activity. Self-efficacy in particular helps to maintain motivation and perseverance in creative tasks. Ideas of self-actualization and self-esteem are associated with creativity by modern researchers such as Amabile, who argue that feeling good about oneself, or possessing self-efficacy, facilitates creative thinking (Amabile et al. 2005). Feeling good about oneself has been shown to act as a form of intrinsic motivation to continue creative performance. However, it has also been claimed that the emphasis placed on personal well-being stems from a negative and deficit view of human nature which education and creativity must rectify to ensure proper human functioning (Furedi 2009).

Everyday creativity Everyday creativity is found in everyone’s daily existence – in cooking a meal, mending a piece of household equipment, finding a new route to work, or engaging in a craft or hobby. The potter Grayson Perry talks of his creativity arising from a retreat to his ‘inner shed’, the metaphor suggestive of ordinary masculine activities like gardening or pigeon-breeding (Perry 2010). While not leading to any new paradigms in a domain, everyday creativity is necessary for our continued survival as a species, and may even be part of our evolutionary adaptability (Richards 2010a: 190). There is growing evidence that expressivity can improve physical well-being and even boost the immune system. The psychologist James Pennebaker asked people to write for 15–20 minutes a day for four days about a past emotional upheaval that they felt was affecting them. Many who followed his instructions felt better and needed to visit the doctor less than usual (Pennebaker 2004). Perhaps there are links here with the ‘talking cure’ in psychoanalysis. Creativity in adults may also be an expressive response to trauma, isolation or unhappiness. As the French novelist Henri de Montherlant claimed, ‘Happiness writes white’ (1940: 157). In other words, fulfilment may not be a strong enough driver for creative expression, while lack of fulfilment may lead to the creation of alternative or envisioned scenarios. The healing and therapeutic effects of creative engagement, especially in the arts, are increasingly realized in medicine and psychiatry, as shown in the ‘Arts for Health’ movement in which many hospitals and psychiatric institutions participate (Runco 1990). Expressive writing can operate at a neural level by integrating fragmented mental structures and increasing working memory (Richards 2010a: 195). Richards also discusses the concept of ‘vicarious creativity’. She reports a large-scale Swedish research

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project conducted in the 1990s showing that older adults who were culturally active – going to the theatre, art exhibitions, etc. – lived longer than those who were not (Richards 2010a: 196). ‘Small c’ creativity can also draw on alternative ways of knowing and different states of consciousness, such as those found in meditative practices. This links with eastern and more holistic ways of knowing, such as those found in Zen Buddhism (Richards 2010a: 208).

Educational implications Teachers who wish to promote creativity in the form of expressivity should:

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create an atmosphere where learners can express their feelings; view creativity as a personal development tool of self-acceptance; support learner motivation and self-esteem; help learners to appreciate their own creative efficacy; encourage curiosity, decision-making and questioning; allow students to personalize their property; promote the use of personal blogs and journals; include learning journals as a course requirement; teach reflective writing techniques; provide models of expressive writing.

So far we have talked generally about expressive creativity in terms of everyday creativity. The next sections will discuss the role of the arts as an expressive medium.

The arts The arts include forms such as creative writing, visual art, performance, music and newer art forms such as film and multi-media. Apart from their individual expressive and therapeutic value discussed above, the arts have a transformative role in collective human experience. Much has been written about art, music, drama and literature, their roles in society and the justification for their place in education – as for example in the traditional role of literature as vicarious experience underpinned by a moral purpose. In a brief chapter it would be impossible to do justice to all of these, so we concentrate on visual art as an exemplar, beginning with an overview of the function of the visual arts in western culture.

The historical function of visual art The earliest examples of visual art – cave drawings of animals such as those found in the Lascaux Cave in France, appear to have been ritualistic and magical. Much

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later the development of technical skills in drawing and perspective aided accurate representation. The onset of photography led to the view that it would eclipse drawing and painting as a more realistic depiction of reality, but as the later Rembrandt portraits show, art has the ability to reach beyond representation to transform reality. By the early twentieth century, Matisse stated: ‘What I am after, above all, is expression’ (Harrison and Wood 1992: 73). In the mid-twentieth century there was a shift from the view that art was a professional activity to the view of the artist Joseph Beuys that ‘everyone is an artist’ (Tisdall 2010). This accords neatly with the construct of ‘small c’ creativity which suggests that art can be found everywhere and is not restricted to particular domains. The trajectory of the development of ideas about the function of art is illustrated in Figure 19.2, showing how art has moved from the mysterious and esoteric to the mundane and educational.

Place of art in society

History of art 15000 BCE

Magic Religion and ritual Iconic representation

Fifteenth century

Perspective

Nineteenth century Skilful representation Twentieth century Twenty-first century

Professional art world

Expression Art for all

Education in schools

Figure 19.2 Historical trajectory of art

Education and art The above trajectory has brought art into the realm of education. The place of art in education raises a number of issues which we now discuss separately, but it must be remembered that they are not mutually exclusive, but inextricably interlinked and interdependent:

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domestication of art; expressivity versus skill;

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high art versus popular art; role of the viewer; social role of art.

Domestication of art Art is domesticated in the sense that it has become a recognized part of the school curriculum, and a necessary element of a balanced education. Art in school is seen as particularly important for those learners whose lack of ‘social capital’ means they would not normally be exposed to it in their everyday lives. The case for everyday creativity for everybody is promoted by its American advocate Ruth Richards: ‘The arts are marvellous, and that is how I got into the field. But such a narrow view, for creativity as a whole, if it persists today, cannot help us position broader creative curricula in schools’ (Richards 2010b: 213). Art is also ‘domesticated’ in the way it is being increasingly brought into schools, instead of residing in remote and forbidding art galleries, opera houses and theatres. The English All Our Futures report (NACCCE 1999) led to the Creative Partnerships initiative between the English school sector and the Arts Council which brought artists and performers into collaboration with school students.

Educational implications Teachers interested in the domestication of art should:

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argue for the place of art in the curriculum; set up collaborative projects with working artists and performers; encourage all learners to engage with the arts.

Expressivity versus skill The ‘expressivity versus skill’ debate is important educationally because it discusses the place of the arts in the curriculum. In particular, it leads to consideration of the suitability of art as a subject for the skilled and talented, or for all. The earlier discussion concerning the importance of creative expressivity for human self-actualization would suggest that art should be an essential subject for every learner, regardless of talent. According to this view, the value of art as a subject lies in its expressive and transformative quality rather than in its technique. Part of the debate involves the traditional distinction between skill and artistry, as shown in Table 19.1. It should not be taken as dismissive of skill, however: skill and artistry are integrated in all great works of art, and there is popular agreement that art is the demonstration of advanced skills. People take aesthetic delight in an

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artist’s demonstration of mastery, and in the identification of creative skills. Viewers are sometimes puzzled by conceptual art which seems to lack technical skill. In the educational context, there is a need for a balance between skill and expression – as seen in the debate concerning English, where the need for expressive creative writing is balanced with the requirements of grammar and spelling. Table 19.1 Skills versus artistry Skill

Artistry

Psychomotor Does not require artistry Incremental Displayed by craftsman Measured Discrete Specialized

Cognitive and affective Requires skill Transformative Displayed by artists Appreciated Contextual Integrative

Educational implications Teachers interested in the expression versus skill debate should:

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consider where they stand in relation to expression and skill; explain to learners that self-expression is valuable for its own sake; teach technical skills in order to facilitate expressivity.

High art versus popular art Art education in schools and art colleges usually contains an element of art history that examines and discusses great art from past centuries. This can provide the potential artists in the class with precedents; a discourse to which they will hopefully contribute. It also provides the general class group with a set of exemplars of the work of accepted greatness to help them develop good taste and discrimination so that they can appreciate art. However, an emphasis on high art may perpetuate an elitist view that creative expression is only possible through the arts. Furthermore, students nowadays may object to the study of ‘high art’ as marginal to their experience. Against the canon of great work from the past, they may place popular art of the present day: blockbuster films, popular TV programmes, pop music and YouTube uploads. Education needs to address this apparent dichotomy. One approach is to help learners to evaluate and critique popular culture. For example, attention could be drawn to popular culture as a commercial activity, exemplifying an exploitative consumer

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culture. Another viable approach is to form a link between high and popular culture, integrating these two apparently conflicting models. For example, advertising often takes images and music from high culture – not just because it is out of copyright but because it is appealing. The excerpts could lead learners to the originals; it is possible to buy CDs of the classical music which is drawn from TV commercials.

Educational implications Teachers interested in the high versus popular art debate should:

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help learners to critique popular culture; use popular art as a means of introducing high art; explore the canon of great work to develop taste and discrimination.

Role of the viewer An important aspect of modern thinking, revived from eighteenth-century aesthetics, is an awareness of the role of the viewer or reader of the artwork. The privileged place accorded to the creator of the work of art has now given way to a broader view that the critical appreciation or judgement of the artwork is not a passive but a creative act. There is a place for education in providing the training necessary to understand the conventions of art and the power of art. The acquisition of such critical skills and vocabulary may help students to recognize good art and to say why it is good. Such ‘art appreciation’ may be an old-fashioned term but it has merits in directing learners’ attention to artistic conventions and values, and helps the process of the democratization of art. A contemporary version of art appreciation is seen in the field of neuro art history (Onians 2008) which suggests that the brain has a natural preference for certain shapes and sounds. Particular areas of the brain are activated by visual symmetries and aural harmonies. Some professional composers and artists are uncomfortable with this because it is not in alignment with modernist or postmodernist art practices, and seems to favour traditional composition.

Educational implications Teachers interested in the role of the viewer should:

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teach learners the vocabulary and methods of critique; encourage curatorship as learners select and defend their preferences; explain and discuss issues of neuro-aesthetics with students.

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Social role of art Art is part of a cultural inheritance by which society defines and describes itself. Although artists may not be aware of it consciously, they often adopt a prophetic role in holding up a mirror to society that reflects its preoccupations. Socially, art may also be a form of collective symbolic and transformational experience, such as in the cathartic role for the ancient Greeks of their great tragic play cycles in purging strong emotions and connecting them to the gods. Going from the sublime to the economic, there is a commercial role for art in society as a source of employment and enterprise. The arts also need to be recognized ‘for their contribution to other public agendas, such as education, health, home affairs, foreign policy and the economy’ (Belfiore 2011: 27). This brings up the issue of the political context of the arts in society. Education needs to draw learners’ attention to the issue of the political context of art. Art is political and contextualized, and this will hardly be unfamiliar to the art world which is often riven by discord, polarized positions and micro-political activity.

Educational implications Teachers interested in the social role of art should:

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provide examples of how art mirrors society; make students aware of the sociopolitical stance of art; draw attention to the personal and social cathartic role of art.

Art in early childhood and primary education Early childhood education In preschool, play is as an intrinsic motivator for very young children. Different types of play and the creative potential of each can be explored and combined to provide a multifaceted creative experience for young children (Wood 2009: 52). Play is discussed in detail in Chapters 14 and 17. The arts have a special place in early education, since they are more foundational than other subjects to which children are not yet exposed. Drawing, story-telling and poetry develop an appreciation for imagery, language and rhythm which allows for creative self-expression. Preschool arts can build up cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills such as listening, handling materials and social interactions. At this stage, visual imagery predominates, and the artistic activities of children are expressive rather than aesthetic.

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Primary education As education is increasingly central to all areas of life, schools take on a greater responsibility for learners’ self-fulfilment. An important factor in educational success is pupil engagement with learning, and the self-expression of artwork, music and drama can facilitate that engagement. Many primary schools have ‘mission statements’ outlining the desire to help their pupils to ‘achieve their full potential’, and these include a creative, expressive mission. For example, in the West of England, Westbury Park Primary School, which is recognized by the Arts Council for outstanding artistic involvement, sets creative targets for all children. Every school afternoon begins with children invited to stage a creative mini-performance – singing a song, playing an instrument, telling a story – to the acclaim of their peers (Fisher 2004: 165). There are also more traditional, non-expressive uses of the arts. Although a child may experience difficulty in reading and writing, artistic expression is a very comfortable activity, and children’s paintings are not normatively assessed. In infant classes, ‘colouring books’ may be used as pre-writing activities, with children encouraged to ‘keep inside the lines’ – useful in developing the motor and control skills necessary to handwriting. The curriculum should develop opportunities for inter- and cross-disciplinary thematic approaches that can utilize several art forms which are highly appropriate to the primary school setting. For example, an Australian primary school which deals with a large number of ‘at-risk’ children integrates all the subjects through a major film animation project which culminates in a yearly film festival (CERI 2012). Most teachers see the arts as an important part of the curriculum in primary school for the purpose of promoting creative expression, engagement and as an enrichment of the school experience.

Educational implications To promote creative self-expression in early education, teachers should:

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consider how all school activities can be expressively creative; plan open-ended creative tasks to encourage creative skills; allocate a place in the curriculum for optional expressive work.

Art at secondary level Subject domains Most subjects, as shown by reference to the English National Curriculum in Chapter 8, are now seen as having a creative element. However, some – drama, visual art, music,

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literature – have always been seen as expressively creative. For example, the English subject curriculum mentions ‘creative expression’, though the subject has more purposes:

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exposure to great literature, such as the plays of Shakespeare; inculcation of grammatical, discursive and linguistic skills; a vehicle for self-expression in creative writing.

English highlights many current debates involving expressivity. For example, the study of great writers from the canon of literature is queried by those who call for more contemporary forms of literature such as rap poetry or graphic novels. The two are not incompatible however. Advocates of creative writing as an expressive form have been attacked by those who see a widespread slippage in standards of grammatical English due to an overemphasis on personal development (Marshall 2001: 117–20). An introduction to the ways of thinking in a domain also involves ways of responding to its output, especially its aesthetic qualities. The development of aesthetic appreciation in school is a form of vicarious creativity, involving sensitivity and responsiveness to the experiences and emotions conveyed by the artwork. For example, schools are now more extensively involved in curatorship, asking pupils, sometimes in collaboration with professional artists, to create, select, evaluate and display artefacts and processes for different audiences.

Identity The British sociologist Anthony Giddens points out that a key feature of late modernity is the way people become their own projects – through self-embellishment, dieting regimes and lifestyle choices (Giddens 1991). Adolescence is a critical time when there is a move from the conformity of younger ages to a preoccupation with expressions of personal identity and individuality.

Adolescent preferences Vygotsky (1931: 271) claims that there is a decrease in mental visualization on the verge of adolescence, in favour of more abstract symbolic representations. This may explain why adolescents show less enthusiasm for drawing and painting and become particularly conscious of their skill or its lack, in a way that younger children do not. Music, on the other hand, helps adolescents to express emotion and create a group identity with others who share the same tastes. Music therefore can take over the role for adolescents that visual art has for infants in facilitating expression. Music may engage the educationally disengaged, so schools and teachers need to take account of this.

Critical literacy Bearing in mind the situated nature of learning, subjects need to be seen in their social and cultural contexts. Bethan Marshall (2001: 122) claims that critical literacy

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is an important and more radical aspect of education. Learners should be helped to interrogate the artwork and to expose the political and social forces which influenced it. Every artwork is political – either challenging or reinforcing existing ideologies.

Educational implications In order to promote expressive creativity in secondary school, teachers should:

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consider how the learners’ voices can be heard in all subjects; use social media as a means of developing literacy skills; use music as a means to engage disaffected adolescents.

Art at post-compulsory level This generally encompasses vocational education and skills training as a prelude to adult life and career choice. The creative industries are now very important to the economy, and provide a utilitarian rationale for skilled creative expression and the need to develop these skills in learners. The creative industries include architecture, drama, interior design, journalism, media arts, photography and visual communications. In addition to technical skills, success in these industries requires a range of transferable skills (DIT 2012) such as:

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identification of individual achievements; knowledge of cutting-edge developments in the field and cognate fields; competence in research and networking; compilation of portfolios, recordings and podcasts; communication skills; presentation and audition skills; exhibition skills; use of social media and networking; entrepreneurship, business and freelancing skills.

Educational implications In order to promote creativity in post-compulsory education, teachers should:

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provide advice on occupations and further skill development; ensure that people have relevant up-to-date software skills; get learners to reflect on their transferable skills.

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Art in higher education In higher education, learners involved in the arts tend to be those who have already reached a level of expertise and wish to channel their self-expression through their art. They have high levels of motivation and intend to pursue art as a career or way of life.

Skill versus expression In the mid-twentieth century, abstraction in modernist art led to the view in art schools that drawing skills were academic and not very relevant to art practice, since the aim of art was not representational but expressive, as shown by the Abstract Expressionist movement. Drawing skills also dropped off the agenda in subjects such as architecture where computer-aided design was thought to have replaced freehand drawing. The emphasis on self-expression led to a diminished role for teachers in the skilled techniques that had characterized art education up to the twentieth century. Students were often left to their own devices to express themselves, with both positive and negative consequences. Many of the famous rock musicians of 1960s – The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, for example – studied art rather than music. The relaxed atmosphere, room for exploration and looseness of art school provided opportunities to develop their talents in divergent ways, leading to their musical careers. More negatively, self-expression without adequate skill development may leave students at a loss, falling back on a clich´ed subjectivity, and prey to the imitation of popular trends.

Standardizing creative subjects The looseness that characterized mid-twentieth-century artistic practice did not last. Many music conservatoires, art colleges and drama schools became absorbed into generic educational institutions. This integration influenced the teaching approach to expressive subjects. For example, the compartmentalization of knowledge and skills into standardized modules and assessment regimes, called derisively the ‘McDonaldization of education’ (Hayes and Wynyard: 2002) may not suit the more incremental acquisition of skills and knowledge in expressive subjects. Additionally, the accompanying requirement of a pre-specification of learning outcomes may not suit genuinely creative responses. However, the movement is not all one-way. Visual pedagogies have a contribution to make to other disciplines. For example, the non-hierarchical aspects of studiobased subjects, derived partly from the use of space and the spontaneous interactions of learners and instructors, contribute to the freedom which is necessary for creativity. The ‘Studio Crit.’, a standard form of formative assessment in art, design and architecture, provides valuable feedback and insights for learners from their peer group and teachers in a non-threatening environment.

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Educational implications In order to promote creativity in higher education, teachers should:

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develop student skills to a high level in order to support selfexpression; ensure that the learning outcomes explicitly specify expressive creativity; extend peer evaluation to other disciplinary areas.

Conclusion Creativity as self-expression is a popular idea in education as it fits in with the educational agenda of helping all learners to reach their potential, regardless of ability. Over the course of history, the visual arts, music and drama have been assimilated by education and have come to be seen as a necessary part of the curriculum. In dealing with these expressive arts, this chapter has argued that teachers need to reflect on their stance on important debates such as expressivity versus skill and canonical versus popular art. In particular, there is a need to consider the social role of art and the importance of viewing it as a creative act. Finally, the brief consideration of different educational sectors suggests some practical implications for the classroom.

References Amabile, T.M., Barsade, S.G. and Staw, B.M. (2005) Affect and creativity at work, Administrative Science Quarterly, 3: 367–403. Bandura, A. (1986) Social Foundations of Thought and Action: Social Cognitive Theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Belfiore, E. (2011) The ‘transformative power’ of the arts: history of an idea, in J. SeftonGreen, P. Thompson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. London: Routledge. CERI (2012) Innovative Learning Environments: The Innovative Cases Strand. Paris: OECD, http//www.oecd.org/document/21/0, 3746, accessed March 2012. de Montherlant, H. (1940) Costals and the Hippogriff, trans J. Rodker. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. DIT (2012) Creative CV Guide: How to Make an Impression in the Creative Industries. Dublin: DIT Careers Service. Fisher, R. (2004) Creativity across the curriculum, in R. Fisher and M. Williams (eds) Unlocking Creativity: Teaching Across the Curriculum: Abingdon: David Fulton.

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Furedi, F. (2009) Wasted: Why Education isn’t Educating. London: Continuum. Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity. Harrington, D.M., Block, J.H. and Block, J. (1992) Testing aspects of Carl Rogers’ theory of creative environments: child rearing antecedents of creative potential in young adolescents, in R.S. Albert (ed.) Genius and Eminence, 2nd edn. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (1992) Art in Theory 1900–1990. Oxford: Blackwell. Hayes, D. and Wynyard, R. (eds) (2002) The McDonaldization of Higher Education. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Hulme, M., Menter, I. and Conroy, J. (2011) Creativity in Scottish school curriculum and pedagogy, in J. Sefton-Green, P. Thomson, K. Jones and L. Bresler (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning. London: Routledge. Jordan, A. Carlile, O. and Stack, A. (2008) Approaches to Learning: A Guide for Teachers. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Marshall, B. (2001) Creating danger: the place of the arts in education policy, in A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling (eds) Creativity in Education. London: Continuum. Maslow, A.H. (1943) A theory of human motivation, Psychological Review, 50(4): 370–96. Maslow, A.H. (1968) Towards a Psychology of Being, 2nd edn. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Maslow, A.H. (1971) The Further Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking. NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. Sudbury: DfEE. Onians, J. (2008) Neoroarthistory: From Aristotle to Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki. London: Yale University Press. Pennebaker, J.W. (2004) Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Press. Perry, G. (2010) Grayson Perry on Creativity and Imagination, BBC Radio 4, 18 July. Richards, R. (2010a) Everyday creativity: process and way of life – four key issues, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, R. (2010b) Everyday creativity in the classroom: a trip through time with seven suggestions, in R.A. Beghetto and J.C. Kaufman (eds) Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. Rogers, C. (1954) Towards a theory of creativity, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 11: 249–60. Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming a Person. Boston, MA: Houghton-Miflin.

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Runco, M.A. (1990) Creativity and health, Creativity Research Journal, 3: 81–4. Runco, M.A., Ebberseed, P. and Mroz, W. (1991) Self-actualization and creativity, Journal of Social Behavior and Psychology, 6: 161–7. Tisdall, C. (2010) Joseph Beuys. London: Thames & Hudson. Vygotsky, L.S. (1931) Imagination and the creativity of the adolescent, in Soviet Psychology, 29. Wood, E. (2009) Play and playfulness in the early years foundation stage, in A. Wilson (ed.) Creativity in Primary Education, 2nd edn. Exeter: Learning Matters.

Chapter 20 Developmental theories and creativity

Introduction If you ask a typical 5-year-old to tell you the story of Cinderella you are unlikely to be told what form of transport the Fairy Godmother used. The magic is taken for granted. But if a typical 10-year-old relates the equally fantastic story of Superman, he will want to explain that his supernatural powers come from his birth on the planet Krypton. Explanations and logic are becoming necessary. As children develop physically and intellectually, it is clear that their potential for creativity will also change. This chapter deals with a range of psychological and psychoanalytical theories which relate to the development of children and their creativity, suggesting appropriate pedagogical strategies for each stage.

Creativity in childhood If we consider creativity as the acting out of games or fantasies, or the development of crazy inventions, then children can be considered very creative. However, if we accept the standard definition that creativity involves production or processes that are ‘novel, useful and appropriate’ (Amabile 1996), it is unlikely that children will be able to meet these criteria, since they have not had enough time to develop an adequate knowledge of a domain or its evaluative standards. Vygotsky preferred the terms ‘fantasy’ and ‘imagination’ to describe the inventiveness of the young, reserving the terms ‘creativity’ or ‘creative imagination’ for the mature manifestations of such inventiveness (Vygotsky 1978). Children may however develop products that are ‘good enough for their age group’ (Runco 1996) and show many elements of thinking and personality traits that have been consistently associated with creativity. For example:

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flexibility of thought; divergent thinking; fantasy; transformation of experience; access to emotion; self-confidence; risk–taking; openness to experience.

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The above qualities do not necessarily imply creativity, however. As pointed out in earlier chapters, there is only a tenuous link between divergent thinking and creativity. Risk-taking may just indicate childish impulsivity rather than creativity, and too much ‘openness to experience’ and ‘fantasy’ could even be a cause for concern.

Theories of development We now consider how creativity manifests itself at the different life stages in terms of some major theories of adaptive, moral, psychosocial and emotional development, along with identity construction. Although cognitive and emotional creative development manifests itself throughout life, the emphasis will be on children and adolescents, since education concerns itself primarily with the young. Education has a role in providing suitable conditions for creativity within the stages of life course development. The implications of these developmental theories are explored from the viewpoint of the teacher or educationalist who needs to align teaching for creativity with the developmental stage of the learner. A number of psychological and psychoanalytic developmental theories offer insights into creativity.

Psychological theories Adaptive theory Moral development theory Psychosocial theory

Piaget Kohlberg Vygotsky

Psychoanalytic theories Drives and emotions Social identity

Freud Erikson

Psychological theories Adaptive theory: Piaget ‘Adaptation’ has been described as ‘the continuous process of using the environment to learn and learning to adjust to changes in the environment’ (Singer and Revenson 1996: 15). Jean Piaget’s theory specifies how children will think, what they will be able to do at particular age-related stages, and how they move through these different cognitive stages, achieving a balance of thinking at each stage (Piaget 1932). Movement through the stages is not reliant on instruction; in fact, didactic teaching can hinder cognitive and creative development, which can only arise from children’s individual

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interactions with the world. Although Piaget only made slight reference to creativity in talking about the process of ‘accommodation’ (Piaget 1962), possibilities for creative activity can arise at all the stages he identified. Table 20.1 shows the potential for creativity at every stage of children’s thinking up to adolescence. Such creativity ranges from the acquisition of language, to symbolic representation, to the development and testing of alternative hypotheses of the world. In the child’s cognitive development, the theory stresses intellectual autonomy which is an important prerequisite for creativity (Feist 1999). Table 20.1 Piagetian age-related creative potential Age stage

Child functions

Creativity implications

Sensori-motor 0–2 years

Experiences the world through the senses

Language acquisition

Pre-operational 2–6 years

Builds a mental model of the world

Symbolic representation in pretend play

Concrete operational 6–12 years

Generates principles or rules applicable to experience

Imaginative transformations in play and reconstruction of ideas

Formal operational 12 years +

Reasons in an abstract way and generates hypotheses

Problem-raising and solving Alternative ideas considered

Source: based on Wood et al. (2002: 52–3) The other implications for creativity in Piaget’s theory arise not from the stages, but from the processes of change which lead to the next stage in the child’s thinking. These processes include schema development, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration and disequilibration.

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Schema development entails the building of a mental representation of knowledge or action (e.g. a child having the view that a car is a vehicle with four wheels, an engine and a driver). Assimilation is the incorporation of additional confirmatory information into existing representations (e.g. the observation that there are many different makes and types of car with four wheels, an engine and a driver). Accommodation is the adaptation of existing schema to accommodate differing characteristics (e.g. cars with only three wheels). Equilibration is the balancing of the processes of assimilation and accommodation (e.g. although the number of wheels may vary, the individual is still able to maintain the schema of a car as a self-propelled wheeled vehicle with a driver). Disequilibration is the inability to maintain existing schema or mental models (e.g. the arrival of driver-less cars may challenge the exisitng schema so profoundly that the idea of a car requiring a driver may need to be abandoned).

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Educational implications Teachers who wish to support learner creativity using Piaget’s ideas should:

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be aware of the Piagetian stages of cognitive development; develop a stage-appropriate pedagogy of creativity; nurture children’s curiosity and natural playfulness; give children time for pretend or symbolic play; prioritize active and experiential learning that mimics real life; provide experiences that challenge children’s mental models; help children to relate new information to their existing knowledge; provide opportunities for children to develop their own thinking; help children to select, execute and monitor their strategies; develop children’s communication skills through discussion.

Moral development theory: Kohlberg Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on Piaget’s theory to construe moral development as a continuous process throughout the lifespan (Jordan et al. 2008). He identified three distinct stages of moral development – pre-conventional, conventional and postconventional, each stage having two sub-stages. Although he linked these stages to the ages of children he stressed that many adults never reach the post-conventional stage of moral thinking. The stages of moral development are shown in Table 20.2. Table 20.2 Kohlberg’s theory of moral development and creativity Stage

Characteristics

Creativity implications

Pre-conventional 0–8 years

Follows rules for fear of punishment Individualistic, considering only own needs

Some divergent thinking, but not very creative since unaware of conventions

Conventional 8–13 years

Focus on living up to social expectations and roles Children realize that social order requires rules

Unconventional thinking suppressed in order to ‘fit in’

Post-conventional 13+ years

Consideration of differing values and beliefs of others Personal responsibility in accordance with abstract ethical principles

Possibility of creative synthesis of previously held ideas

Source: based on Colby and Kohlberg (1984)

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At the pre-conventional stage there is an emphasis on individualism, where young children follow social rules only out of fear or self-interest. They may even demonstrate divergent thinking, but it is difficult to see this as creativity, since they are either not yet aware of social conventions, or are only aware of these through play. The conventional stage is the most interesting in terms of creativity, because the stress in middle childhood on social norms and rules suggests that unconventional and creative thinking could be suppressed. There is empirical evidence for a ‘fourth grade’ slump in creativity which occurs in children at about the age of 9 (Torrance 1968). Along with the development of reasoning, this dip may be associated with the conventional phase proposed by Kohlberg, and the latency period proposed by Freud (Baldwin 1967). The post-conventional stage of moral development allows for the internalization and self-regulation of norms and values. Such self-regulation of thinking is also identified as a feature of creativity (Kozbelt et al. 2010: 32).

Educational implications Teachers who wish to support learner creativity using Kohlberg’s ideas should:

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explain that children’s social role-play entails rules; encourage respect for other children in play, and their roles; emphasize collaborative rather than individual play; explore social norms imaginatively through stories and drama; promote openness and interest in a range of moral and belief systems; allow for debate and the expression of diverse and divergent views; encourage older children to affirm or defend their values; model tolerance and respect for minority views or beliefs; celebrate diversity of beliefs and values; ask students to look for the basic principles behind beliefs.

Psychosocial theory: Vygotsky Vygotsky’s theory accords with the modern view that cognitive development requires the involvement of a social world at every period of a child’s development (Smolucha 1992). Vygotsky shows how cognitive development has both internal and external origins. Development begins with relationships and parents’ communication with the infant, who develops perception, memory and emotional reciprocal responses. Speech,

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which is the most important tool used to represent objects and relationships, gradually becomes internalized as self-talk, which becomes self-regulated thought. Speech also allows for the representation of ideas that are not immediately present, and so has much potential for creativity (Vygotsky 1978). For Vygotsky, each age period has a ‘leading’ or dominant activity and a main motivation for the child to engage with this activity. As discussed in Chapter 17, for younger children this ‘leading activity’ is socio-dramatic play which provides a space where children can take on a number of social roles and relationships, their motivation being entry to the adult world. This play, at being a doctor, nurse or lorry driver for example, creates a ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) in which children can act beyond their current level of ability. Proper play, not simply physical activity, or the exploration of objects, has according to Bodrova and Leong (2003: 161) three features: 1. 2. 3.

Children create imaginary situations. They take on and act out roles to fit the situations. They follow a set of rules implicit in the roles.

Such role-playing in an imaginary situation requires children to carry out two different actions: Internal External

To consider the meaning of the role and situation To behave in accordance with the role

Pretend play therefore prepares the foundation for the two higher mental functions of imagination and thinking which, when brought together in the adult, form the creative imagination. Creative imagination therefore emerges from the internalization of children’s play and the interweaving of fantasy and thought (Smolucha 1992). Figure 20.1 briefly outlines Vygotsky’s ideas about the development of cognition and creativity.

Young childhood Imaginative play is a necessity and not a pastime or leisure activity in which children can do as they like. It is their natural form of work (Lantolf 2003: 354). Play is creative in recombining impressions and constructing from them new realities which address the needs of the child (Kozulin et al. 2003: 22). In the course of play, a child acts in accordance with the role, even if this role is not an attractive one – such as being ordered to perform a set of menial tasks. Playmates will strictly control the child’s behaviour by insisting on the rules implicit in the roles.

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Cognitive and creative development

Young childhood

Middle childhood

Symbols created and manipulated

Inner speech develops with the aid of schooling and culture

Roles internalized during play Objectsubstitution internalized as fantasy

Teachers and peers assist move to next level by means of zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Adolescence

Thought merges with fantasy to create selfregulated imagination Creative imagination becomes a conscious and goal-directed higher mental function

Adulthood

The social world is transformed into mind which communicates ideas, symbols and products to change society Internal creative imagination becomes externalized in art and culture

Figure 20.1 Cognitive and creative development according to Vygotsky

Middle childhood In middle childhood, education and schooling take on the role of developing ideas which are more abstract, historical or remote from experience. Teachers and peers are important in supporting and guiding learners in the ZPD, the intellectual space where the learner and more knowledgeable teachers or peers interact, and support the learner in the transition to the next stage of development (Karpov 2003: 140).

Adolescence In adolescence, creativity, influenced by inner speech (thought), becomes a more consciously regulated mental function. Thought merges with fantasy to become selfregulated imagination. Such transformation allows individuals to free themselves from present constraints and take control of their own future.

Adulthood As adults, individuals transform the social world into mind, and use this mind to communicate ideas, symbols and products which change the society around them. The English title of Vygotsky’s text Mind in Society (1978) captures this interconnectedness between these micro and macro worlds. Mature creativity involves three stages: 1.

An appropriation of understandings drawn from experience, and the socially constructed external world.

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2. 3.

An elaboration of these based on personal and idiosyncratic experience. An externalization which involves a sharing of this personal synthesis.

Vygotsky also foresaw the distinction between ‘Big C’ creativity and ‘small c’ creativity. He used the metaphor of electricity to show that, while electricity can manifest itself in huge unusual effects like thunderstorms, it is also present in the bedside lamp (Vygotsky 1930). So creativity may involve massive disruptions or small-scale everyday operations. It is an essential capability of all healthy individuals and the goal and means of personal and cultural development.

Educational implications Teachers who wish to promote creativity using Vygotsky’s ideas should:

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be aware of the importance for infants of engagement with adults; recognize the importance of talking to infants and preschoolers; provide opportunities for collaborative play in preschoolers; explain the implications of different social roles in play; help children to use and control their imaginations; use ZPD to transform everyday ideas into scientific concepts; use different forms of scaffolding to help learners construct new ideas; create metaphors and analogies to help with mental representations; use wrong answers to ascertain the mental models children are using; encourage students to seek as well as solve problems.

Psychoanalytical theories Drives and emotions: Freud Freud stressed the importance of strong emotions, often unconscious ones, as a driving force in all human thought and behaviour. Emotions provide the ‘why’ of development as well as creative action (Moran and John-Steiner 2003: 31). Freud’s psychosexual stage theory identifies five sequential childhood phases, related to physical erogenous zones and the pleasure that the child derives from these. These are the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital phases (Baldwin 1967). There are powerful emotional drives associated with every phase, which children must work through to get to the next. To become fixated on any of these stages results in neurosis and stunted emotional development. According to Freud, children learn to integrate drive-laden ‘primary process thought’ – which is often disorganized and dangerous (the kind of thinking which arises in dreams when the mind is not in conscious control) – with ‘secondary process thought’, which is controlled and logical. The defences which may be employed against being overwhelmed by primary process thought include the repression or sublimation of forbidden or dangerous material. For Freud, play is unconscious wish-fulfilment and uncontrollable primary process thinking, and play and adult fantasy have the same

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purpose. Symbols may store information about emotional events and can be manipulated in pretend play (Freud 1958). Freud (1957) considered that the repression of dangerous drives leads to general intellectual restriction. Recent researchers claim that access to primary process thought is important for creativity (Russ and Fiorelli 2010). Children must find a balance between the repression of stressful emotions and creative engagement with them. Children who are less repressed and more open to experience are better able to tolerate and express unconventional thoughts and feelings. Openness to the emotions, both positive and negative, enhances the creative process. Positive feelings are associated with flexibility and greater possibilities in thinking and in creative problem-solving. Negative feelings may be the attempt to work through the sources of destructive feelings (Rothenberg 1990).

Educational implications Teachers who wish to promote creativity using Freud’s ideas should:

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develop their own emotional intelligence; be aware that emotional trauma will interfere with creativity; understand that play deprivation can lead to depression and hostility; allow learners to express feelings using non-verbal processes; promote creative writing as therapeutic exercise; encourage children to visualize when developing imaginative ideas; allocate time for learners to daydream; create a space for safe, non-threatening emotional expression; use play and drama as safe areas to explore feelings and fantasies; draw on art and culture in the expression of ideas and emotions.

Social identity theory: Erikson This theory balances the individual’s psychological development with the different societal demands made over the life course. In Erik Erikson’s theory, each stage of a person’s life requires the working through of a key psychosocial task, which involves the resolution of an identity crisis (Erikson 1964: 247–69). Erikson identified eight crises, as shown in the Table 20.3. Resolution of crises develops ‘ego strengths’. People can then use their ego strengths to tackle future crises. The failure to acquire ego strengths results in inadequate future personal and social functioning (Jordan et al. 2008: 116–17). For example, at the third stage, a young child must have the courage to take the initiative in pretend play. Not to do so leads to frustration, regret and lethargy. The child’s intention in taking the initiative may be to imitate roles in the adult world, such as playing at being a teacher, and this purposive act provides them with a sense of autonomy and new possibilities for action. The ‘indicators of creativity’ listed in the final column of Table 20.3 are recognizable personality traits long associated with self-confidence and healthy development, but also with creative potential.

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Table 20.3 Social identity and indicators of creativity

Stage

Crisis

Acquired strength

Indicators of creativity

Infancy

Trust versus mistrust

Hope

Openness to experience

Early childhood

Autonomy versus doubt

Will

Intrinsic motivation

Play age

Initiative versus guilt

Purpose

Intentionality

School age

Industry versus inferiority

Competence

Domain-specific and domain-general knowledge/skills

Adolescence

Identity versus role confusion

Fidelity

Independence/trying out and creation of identity

Young adulthood

Intimacy versus isolation

Love

Emotional expression and commitment

Middle adulthood

Generativity versus self-absorption

Care

Broader social role – responsibility/values/ commitment

Old age

Integrity versus despair

Wisdom

Wisdom

Source: based on Sugarman (2001: 93)

Educational implications While it is usually beyond the remit of education to tackle the major life crises, particularly those at the very early and late stages of people’s lives, education plays a significant role in childhood and adolescence. Teachers who wish to support creativity using Erikson’s ideas should:

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develop children’s intrinsic motivation; strengthen self-confidence and autonomy; offer choices and let children make their own decisions; strengthen purpose by giving clear explanations/instructions; help children acquire relevant knowledge and skills; provide artistic outlets for emotional and personal expression; display an interest in what children are doing; present challenges and opportunities for engagement; allow children to gain recognition for their accomplishments; encourage adolescents’ experimentation with identity formation.

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Overview The theories discussed above arrive at similar conclusions and implications for creativity – that life course development in its early stages involves the child in acting on and responding to the environment, internalizing and transforming these in symbolic representations and preparing for social life and a contribution to society. Life development theories and creativity theories converge in stressing the need in the young for curiosity, autonomy of action, the free expression of thinking and emotions and the development and creative expression of identity as a natural aspect of existence. Consideration needs to be given to transitions between developmental stages. Many schools are now experimenting with combining learners from different developmental stages in order to create diversity and to promote peer learning. For example, the innovative Alberta Community Learning Campus in Canada contains a high school, a post-secondary college and a community education centre. All share educational resources, provide seamless transitions between stages and hold seminars that are open to all levels. These seminars are organized around the four pillars – ‘personal, knowledge, community and global’ (CERI 2012). Most of the developmental theories surveyed lead to the individual’s arriving at a synthesis or holistic summation through a transformative process that is characteristic of creativity (Runco 1991). Table 20.4 presents a brief overview of some typical features

Middle childhood 6–12

Early childhood 2–6

Table 20.4 Summary of developmental stages and pedagogical implications Typical features

Pedagogical strategy for creativity

Child discovers and engages in pretend play

Mediate play skills: guide not control

Child develops ability to think symbolically

Use maps, plans, mental imagery

Emotional expression becomes evident

Create spaces for emotional expression

Main motive of child to enter the adult world

Role-play different social roles

Play deprivation unhealthy

Make time for unscripted play

Child more reasoning and cooperative

Encourage creative group project work

Development of more formal reasoning ability

Make learners aware of mental operations

Understanding space, time, cause and effect

Scaffold development of skills

Development of perseverance

Develop internal motivation

Slump in unconventional thinking

Encourage complex play and self-regulation (continued)

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Adulthood 18 +

Adolescence 12–18

Table 20.4 (Continued) Typical features

Pedagogical strategy for creativity

Visual thinking changes to symbolic

Provide choice of expressive media

Gains in self-mastery and critique

Encourage self-evaluation and reflection

Increase in divergent thinking

Seek multiple and alternate answers

Development of loyalties: family, group, etc.

Support group work and collaboration

Mood swings

Use as impetus for creativity

Imagination and thought combine

Focus on educational products

Creativity more consciously goal-oriented

Help articulation of goals

Use of internalized inner speech

Encourage self-regulation

Social commitment

Facilitate group creativity

Transformation as end-goal of creativity

Encourage transformative reflection

of development along with some appropriate pedagogical strategies that will support creative activities at each stage.

Conclusion This chapter has presented a range of psychological and psychoanalytical models of development. There is no one model that caters for all aspects of creativity; perhaps Vygotsky’s thoroughly worked out psychosocial model is closest, and makes a major contribution to our understanding of the creative connections between the inner individual and the outer social world. It shows creativity as the end point of a lifelong developmental process of the unfolding of individual and sociohistorical potential. This is similar to Maslow’s view of creativity as the end point of a personal self-actualizing goal, as discussed in Chapter 19 (Maslow 1973). The main point of the chapter has been to describe how the developmental stage of learners affects their creative potential, so that teachers can respond in an effectively appropriate manner.

References Amabile, T.M. (1996) Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Baldwin, A.L. (1967) Theories of Child Development. New York: Wiley.

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES AND CREATIVITY

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Bodrova, E. and Leong, D.J. (2003) Learning and development of preschool children from the Vygotskean perspective, in A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V.S. Ageyev and S.M. Miller (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CERI (2012) Innovative Learning Environments: The Innovative Cases Strand. Paris: OECD, http//www.oecd.org/document/21/0, 3746, accessed March 2012. Colby, A. and Kohlberg, L. (1984) Invariance sequences and internal consistency in moral judgement stages, in W.M. Kertines and J.L. Gewirtz (eds) Morality, Moral Behaviour, and Moral Development. New York: Wiley. Erikson, E.H. (1964) Childhood and Society. New York: W.H. Norton. Feist, G.J. (1999) The influence of personality on scientific and artistic creativity, in R.J. Sternberg (ed.) Handbook of Human Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Freud, S. (1957) Repression: The Standard Edition, vol. 14. London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1958) On Creativity and the Unconscious. New York: Harper & Row. Jordan, A., Carlile, O. and Stack, A. (2008) Approaches to Learning: A Guide for Teachers. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Karpov, Y.V. (2003) Development through the lifespan: a neo-Vygotskian approach, in A. Kozulin, B. Gimdis, V.S. Ageyev and S.M. Miller (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kozbelt, A., Beghetto, R.A. and Runco, M.A. (2010) Theories of creativity, in J.C Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kozulin, A., Gindis, B., Ageyev, V.S. and Miller, S.M. (2003) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lantolf, J.P. (2003) Intrapersonal communication and internalization in the second language classroom, in A. Kozulin, B. Gimdis, V.S. Ageyev and S.M. Miller (eds) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maslow, A.H. (1973) Creativity in self-actualizing people, in A. Rothenberg and C.R. Hausman (eds) The Creativity Question. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Moran, S. and John-Steiner, V. (2003) Creativity in the making: Vygotsky’s contribution to the dialectic of development and creativity, in K.R. Sawyer, V. John-Steiner, S. Moran, R.J. Sternberg, D.H. Feldman, H. Gardner, J. Nakamura and M. Csikszentmihalyi (eds) Creativity and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Piaget, J. (1932) The Moral Judgement of the Child. London: Routledge & Keegan Paul. Piaget, J. (1962) Play, Dreams and Imagination in Childhood. New York: W.W. Norton. Rothenberg, A. (1990) Creativity and Madness. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

292

APPROACHES TO CREATIVITY

Runco, M.A. (1991) Divergent Thinking. Westport, CT: Ablex. Runco, M. (1996) Personal creativity: definition and developmental issues, in M. Runco (ed.) Creativity from Childhood through Adulthood: The Developmental Issues. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Russ, S.W. and Fiorelli, J.A. (2010) Developmental approaches to creativity, in J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Singer, D. and Revenson, T. (1996) A Piaget Primer. New York: Plume Books. Smolucha, F. (1992) A reconstruction of Vygotsky’s theory of creativity, Creativity Research Journal, 5(1): 49–67. Sugarman, L. (2001) Life-span Development: Frameworks, Accounts and Strategies, 2nd edn. Hove: Psychology Press. Torrance, P. (1968) A longitudinal examination of the fourth-grade slump in creativity, Gifted Child Quarterly, 5: 195–9. Vygotsky, L.S. (1930) Imagination and creativity in childhood, Soviet Psychology, 28: 84–96. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, ed. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner and E. Souberman. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Wood, C., Littleton, K. and Oates, J. (2002) Lifespan development, in T. Cooper and I. Roth (eds) Challenging Psychological Issues. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Author Index

Abba, 202 Adam, Robert, 27 Adams, James L., 225 Adepoju, Saheed, 176 Allen, Deborah E., 138 Allen, Woody, 118 Allende, Isabel, 149 Altschuller, Genrich, 218 Amabile, Teresa, M., 3, 27, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 143, 144, 171, 190, 203, 206, 207, 208, 209, 211, 212, 213, 241, 253, 265, 279 Anderson, John R., 166 Anderson, Lorin W., 159 Anderson, Neil R., 209 Anderson, Stig, 202 Andrew, James P., 206 Andriopoulos, Costas, 203, 204 Aoki, Ted, 98, 129 Appel, Kenneth, 84 Apple, Michael, 99 Archimedes, 172 Arkwright, Richard, 175 Arlidge, John, 176 Asimov, Isaac, 81 Augsdorfer Peter, 208 Austin, James H., 172 BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), 146 BCG (Boston Consulting Group), 177 BT (British Telecom), 147, 148 Bach, Johann S., 80 Baer, John, 122, 142, 143 Bagnall, Jim, 173 Baillie, Caroline, 137 Bainbridge, David L., 177 Baker, Colin, 75 Baldwin, Alfred L., 283, 286 Ball, O.E., 29 Banaji, Shakuntala, 10, 27, 91, 105, 107 Bandura, Albert, 219, 241, 265 Bannon, Shay, 205

Barnes, Douglas, 126 Barron, Frank, 171, 173 Barron-Welsh, 250 Basadur, Min, 117 Batey, Mark, 252 Battelle, John, 179 Baudrillard, Jean, 91 Baxter Magolda, Marcia, 198, 242 Beane, James A., 95, 151 Beatles, 202, 275 Bechky, Beth A., 209, 210 Beckett, Samuel, 164 Becquerel, Antoine Henri, 172 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 28, 80 Beetlestone, Florence, 26 Beghetto, Ronald A., 1, 2, 39, 95, 103, 196, 207, 232, 233, 241 Belbin, Meredith, 236 Belfiore, Eleanora, 271 Bender, Eythor, 151 Benjamin, Michelle, 181 Bennis, Warren, 132 Bentley, Tom, 27 Berger, Hans, 25 Beuys, Joseph, 267 Biederman, Patricia W., 132 Biggs, John B., 82, 147 Binet, Alfred, 157 Bissell, Elizabeth B., 28 Blanchette, Isabelle, 145 Blasco Jos´e Ruiz, 157 Bloom, Benjamin S., 106, 159, 235 Boden, Margaret A., 3, 7, 8, 29, 61, 107, 143, 145, 234 Bodrova, Elena, 239, 284 Booker Prize, 90 Bookride, 81 Boring, Edwin G., 113 Bourdieu, Pierre, 44, 45 Brahma, 7 Brockhaus, Robert H., 183 Bronfenbrenner, Uri, 50, 52, 53, 219 Brown, John S., 59 Brown, Tim, 182

294

AUTHOR INDEX

Bruner, Jerome S., 7, 94, 125 Buddhist, 67 Buglass, Glen, 37 Buzan, Tony, 30, 216 Byrd, Richard E., 117 Cabra, John F., 206, 209, 218, 223 Cadwell, Louise B., 50 CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnership in Education) 102 Carey, Benedict., 258 Carlile, Orison, 108 Carnegie, Andrew, 179 Carson, Shelley H., 117 Case, Robbie, 161 Cassidy, Simon, 247 Cattell, Raymond B., 252 CERI (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation) 2, 29, 234, 235, 272, 289 Chamberlain, Liz, 106 Charles, Robyn, 251 Charness, Neil, 155, 156, 157, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 172 Chomsky, Noam, 252 Christensen, Clayton M., 175 Church, Jeff, 41 Cinderella, 279 Clark, Timothy, 25 Clarke, Arthur C., 81 Claxton, Guy, 25, 219 Coffield, Frank, 250 Cohen, Don, 42 Cohen, Wesley N., 183 Colby, Anne, 282 Cole, Michael, 54 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 27 Colvin, Geoff, 156, 157 Confucian, 66, 103, 105, 254 Connor, Tim, 37 Cooper, Hilary, 151 Costa, Paul T., 247 Costello, Ned, 27, 108 Craft, Anna, 3, 7, 37, 68, 96, 101, 105, 125, 126, 128, 136, 187, 231 Craighead,W. Edward, 7 Cramond, Bonnie, 253 Creative Commons, 177 Creative Partnerships, 10, 27, 70, 128, 149, 150, 268 Creative Writing Centre, 89 Cronin, James G., 150

Cropley Arthur, J., 3, 30, 38, 39, 41, 42, 114, 116, 121, 140, 159, 160, 161, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 198, 254 Cropley, David, H., 3, 30, 39, 41, 42, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 198 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 25, 28, 30, 50, 51, 52, 54, 75, 95, 140, 160, 195, 232, 240, 242 Cummings, Anne, 211, 212 Curie, Pierre and Marie, 131 Curtis, Adam, 81 DfES (Department for Education and Skills) (UK) 83 da Vinci, Leonardo, 140 Darwin, Charles, 37 Daupert, Dennis, 256, 257 Davis, Gary A., 116 Dawson,V.L., 15 de Bono, Edward, 26, 30, 216, 219, 224, 227, 228 de Groot, Adriaan D., 161 de Montherlant, Henri, 265 Deal, Terrence E., 205 Deleuze, Gilles, 8 Delisle, Robert, 137 Dewey, John, 30 De Wet, Catharina, 191 Diehl, Michael, 224 Disney, Walt and Co., 83, 125 DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology), 274 Doyle, Roddy, 149 Driemeyer, Joenna, 166 Duch, Barbara J., 137 Duguid, Paul, 132 Dunbar, Kevin, 144, 145, 160, 257 Dunn, Kenneth, 248 Dunn, Rita, 248 ´ Durkheim, Emile, 236 Dweck, Carol, 157, 165 EUA (European University Association), 143, 199 Eagleman,David, 25 Ecclestone, Katherine, 37 Edwards, Margaret, 98, 99, 108 Eggers, Dave, 149 Einstein, Albert, 112, 140, 160, 161, 197, 217, 221, 232 Elgin, Ben, 213 Eliot, T.S, 232 Enriquez, Juan, 180

AUTHOR INDEX

Epstein, Brian, 202 Ericsson, K. Anders, 155, 156, 157, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 172 Erikson, Erik H., 280, 287, 288 Evans, Sir Ifor, 51 Facebook, 81, 87, 130 Farmer, Steven M., 117 Fautley, Martin, 82 Feist, Gregory J., 281 Feynman, Richard, 53 Finke, Ronald A., 159, 218, 255 Finn, George and Charles, 156 Fiorelli, Julie A., 287 Fisher, Robert, 272 Fleenor, John W., 121 Fleming, Alexander, 172 Fleming, Neil D., 248 Florida, Richard, 37, 38, 44, 46, 107, 183 Flynn, James R., 157 Ford, Cameron M., 213 Forster, E.M., 67 Fosbury, Dick, 175 Freud, Sigmund, 24, 280, 283, 286, 287 Fugelsang, Jonathan, 144 Furedi, Frank, 265 Galton, Francis, 28, 155 Gandini, Lella, 106 G¨ardenfors, Peter, 81 Gardner, Howard, 3, 21, 30, 39, 53, 66, 83, 101, 125, 141 143, 144, 145, 150, 156, 197, 231, 252 Garelick, Barry, 105 Gates, Bill and Melinda, 179 Gehrig, Lou, 85 Gentner, Dedre., 159, 257 Getzels, J.W., 54, 121, 160 Giddens, Anthony, 273 Gilbert, Elizabeth, 28 Gleick, James, 29 Glover, John A., 172 Glynn, Shawn, 258 Goethe, Johann W., 24, 28 Goncalo, Jack A., 41, 117, 127, 132 Gonzalez, Julia, 143 Google, 30, 84, 87, 176, 177, 179, 213, 217 Gordon, William, 223 Gould, Stephen J., 29 Gratzer, Walter, 25

295

Graves, Donald H., 149 Greenberg, Clement, 51 Greenfield, Susan, 249, 250 Guattari, Felix, 8 Guilford, Joy Paul, 29, 113, 114, 171, 216, 218, 252 Haas, Lindsay F., 25 Habermas, J¨ urgen, 126 Hadamard, Jacques, 173 Haken, Wolfgang, 84 Hall, Carol, 240 Hall, Eric, 240 Hall, Edward T., 73 Hall, Joan K., 190 Hammond, Michael, 90 Hargadon, Andrew, 209, 210 Hargreaves, Andy, 103, 107 Harrington, David M., 264 Harris, Eileen, 27 Harrison, Charles., 267 Hausdorf, Peter A., 117 Hawking, Stephen, 84, 197 Haydn, Josef, 65 Hayes, Dennis, 37, 275 Hayes, John R., 28, 162 Hazelkorn, Ellen, 176 Heath Robinson, William, 175 Heisenberg, Werner, 197 Hennessey, Beth A., 241 Henry, Colette, 180 Henry, Jane, 131 Herrmann, Ned, 248 Hinduism, 7, 67 Hirst, Paul H., 95 Hitt, Michael A., 203 Hoffman, Robert R., 162 Hofstede, Geert, H., 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 205 Holbein, Hans, 150 Honey, Peter, 248 Hornby, Nick, 89 Horwitz, William A., 156 Hoven, John, 105 Hulme, Moira, 264 Humphries, Susan, 120 IDEO Company, 182 INSEAD (Institute Europ´een d’Adminstration des Affaires, 183 Isaksen, Scott G., 115 Ishiguro, Kazuo, 178

296

AUTHOR INDEX

Jackson, Norman, 28, 107, 199 Jacobs, Jane, 47 Jasper, James M., 178 Johansson, Petter, 81 John-Steiner, Vera, 125, 128, 131, 286 Johnson, Mark, 148 Johnson,Steven, 14 Jonassen, David H., 83, 85 Jordan, Anne, 35, 108, 216, 231, 264, 282, 287 Joubert, Mathilda M., 7 Jung, Carl, 24 Kant, Immanuel, 26, 27, 28 Karpov, Yuriy V., 96, 239, 285 Kasulis, Thomas, 67 Katz, Jerome A., 183 Kaufman, Alison B., 248, 249, 250 Kaufmann, Geir, 247 Kekul´e, August, 160 Kelly, Albert V., 94 Kennedy, Mary, 190 Khafar, Wadar, 54 Khan, Noor Inayat, 147 Kierkegaard, Søren, 213 Kilgour, Mark, 30 Kim, Kyung H., 251, 252, 253 King, Rodney, 217 Kirton, Michael J., 247 Koberg, Don, 173 Kogan, Nathan, 114 Kohlberg, Lawrence, 280, 282, 283 Kolomyts, Yuliya, 159, 160, 254, 255, 257 Kozbelt, Aaron, 68, 283 Kozulin, Alex, 284 Krathwohl, David R., 106, 235 Kubrick, Stanley, 170 Kurtzberg, Terri R., 209 Lakoff, George., 148 Land, Ray, 98, 217 Lantolf, James P., 239, 284 Lave, Jean, 59, 107, 130, 165, 231 Lee, Mal, 83, 85 Lehrer, Jonah, 258 Leong, Deborah J., 239, 284 Leong, Samuel, 103 Levitin, Daniel, 162 Levitt, Ted, 27 Lewis, Theodore, 198 Li, Jin, 66 Lichtenberg, James, 211

Limb, Charles, 249 Lombroso, Caesar, 28 Lombroso-Ferrero, G., 28 Loveless, Avril, 82, 90, 91 Lubart, Todd I., 41, 65, 66, 67, 68, 75, 252 Lucas, Bill, 29 MacGregor, Lisa, 147 Makel, Matthew C., 112, 114, 116, 251 Manz, Charles C., 210 Marland, Sidney P., 104, 155 Marshall, Bethan, 1, 273 Martinsen, Oyvind, 247 Martindale, Colin, 258 Maslow, Abraham H., 96, 171, 263, 264, 290 Matisse, Henri, 267 Maxim, George W., 105 McCarthy, Marian, 163 McCaulley, Mary, 247 McCrae, Robert R., 247 McGowan, Pauric, 180 Medicis, 44 Meek, Margaret, 239 Meeker, Mary, 115 Meeker, Robert, 115 Mehra, Jagdish, 53 Meyer, Jan H.F., 217 Ministry of Stories, 89 Mlodinow, Leonard, 142 Molle, Matthias, 256 Montessori, Maria, 263 Moore, Hugh, 29, 132 Moran, Seana, 39, 40, 41, 42, 125, 286 Morell, Katie, 41 Moriuchi, Jennifer, 50 Morris, Richard, 61 Mozart, Leopold, 157 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 28, 80, 112, 156, 157 Mumford, Alan, 248 Myers, Isabel B., 247 NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) 47, 54, 106, 187, 268 NAM (National Association of Manufacturers US) 177 NCCA (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (Irl.) 148 Nadkarny, Nalini, 148 Nemeroff, Charles B., 7

AUTHOR INDEX

Newell, Allen, 159 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 39 Nika, 41 Nobel Prize, 50, 53, 61, 68, 70, 121, 205 OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) 2, 179, 248 O’Hara, Linda A., 251 Obama, Barack, 103 Oh, Sanghee, 165 Oldham, G.R., 211, 212 Oliver, Martin, 199 Olivier, Sir Lawrence, 58 Onians, John, 270 OpenCourseWare, 88, 177 Open University, 51, 131 Osborn, Alex, 136, 137, 173, 216, 256 Paivio, Allan, 247, 248 Paletz, Susannah B., 67 Parnes, Sidney J., 256 Passer, Michael, 127 Pasteur, Louis, 25, 172 Paul, Les, 175 Peng, Kaiping, 67 Pennebaker, James, 265 Perry, Grayson, 9, 265 Pestalozzi, Johann H., 105, 263 Peterson, Kent D., 205 Petroski, Henry, 41 Phillips, Estelle, 108 Piaget, Jean, 70, 96, 280, 281, 282 Picasso, Pablo, 112, 157, 232 Pinker, Steven, 252 Plowden, Bridget, 101, 102 Plucker, Jonathan A., 112, 114, 116, 251 Polgar Judit, 157 Polgar, Laszlo, 157 Politis, John D., 206 Pope, Rob, 1, 8, 25, 27, 67, 80, 216, 217, 233, 252 Porter, Richard E., 253 Post-it notes, 41, 135 Prensky Marc, 82 Prusack, Laurence, 42 Puccio, Gerard J., 206, 209, 218, 223 Pugh, Derek, 108 Quan, Tony, ‘Tempt’, 85

297

Race, Phil, 134 Rembrandt, 267 Renzulli, Joseph S., 115, 117, 191 Revenson, Tracey, 280 Richards, Ruth, 40, 96, 141, 258, 265, 266, 268 Robinson, Ken, 47, 59 Rogers, Carl, 263, 264 Rogers, Everett M., 87 Rogoff, Barbara B., 130 Rolling Stones, 275 Rossman, Joseph, 171, 173 Rothenberg, Albert, 287 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 96 Rowe, Susan, 120 Rowley, Chris, 148, 151 Runco, Mark, A., 29, 251, 255, 256, 265 Russ, Sandra W., 287 Salomon, Gavriel, 130 Samovar, Larry A., 253 Savage, Jonathan, 82 Sawyer, R. Keith, 98, 115, 125, 129 Schaefer, Charles E., 117 Schellenberg, E. Glenn, 167 Schrage, Michael, 126 Schwietert, Julie, 148 Scrivener, Jim, 89 Sefton-Smith, Julian, 106 Seltzer, Kimberly, 27 Sennett, Richard, 91, 164, 241 Sergiovanni, Tom J., 208 Shakespeare, William, 273 Shaughnessy, Haydn, 176, 177 Shaw, Malcolm, 199 Shaw, Melvin P., 172 Shelley, Mary, 26 Shylock, 58 Silvia, Paul J., 252 Simon, Herbert A., 159 Simonton, Dean Keith, 12, 28, 30, 37, 53, 75, 141, 155, 251 Sims, Henry P. (Jnr.), 210 Singer, Dorothy G., 280 Singer, Jennie K., 37 Skinner, Burrhus F., 82 Skype, 61, 84, 86 Slater, Nigel, 41 Smith, Jeffrey K., 217 Smith, Lisa F., 217 Smolucha, Francine, 36, 283, 284 Smyth, Pamela, 239, 240

298

AUTHOR INDEX

soleRebels, 41 Solomon, Maynard, 157 Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 65 Squires, Geoffrey, 191, 192 Stanhope, Nick, 180, 182 Starko, Alane, J., 46, 106, 107 Stenhouse, Lawrence, 94, 96, 97, 100 Sternberg, Robert J., 1, 25, 28, 41, 121, 144, 196, 251, 252 Strauss, Johann, 170 Stroebe, Wolfgang, 224 Sugarman, Leonie, 288 Surowiecki, James, 209 Suzuki, Shinichi, 157 Syed, Matthew, 28, 50, 149, 157, 158, 164, 165, 166 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) 88 TfU (Teaching for Understanding), 94, 98 Taylor, Irving, A., 121 Taylor, Sylvestor, 121 Temple, Paul, 61 Temple, Sue, 147 Tierney, Pamela, 117 Tiles, J.E., 30 Tisdall, Caroline, 267 Tobin, Joseph, 60, 67, 104, 105 Todd, Frankie, 126 Tommerdahl, Jodi, 88 Torrance, E. Paul, 29, 114, 142, 217, 252, 283 Tracey, Shelley, 9, 59 Treffinger, Donald J., 115 Turner Prize, 9 Twitter, 81, 87, 130 Tyler, Ralph W., 95 Verne, Jules, 81 Vygotsky, Lev, S., 1, 19, 30, 36, 46, 60, 79, 231, 239, 240, 273, 279, 280, 283, 284, 285, 286, 290

World Trade Organization, 177 Wagenaar, Robert, 143 Wallace, Alfred R., 37 Wallach, Michael A., 114 Wallas, Graham, 67, 160, 173, 256 Walsh, Meghan, 190 Ward, Thomas B., 159, 160, 254, 255, 257 Watkins, David, A., 147 We Are What We Do, 180 Webley, Kayla, 85 Webster, Mark, 37 Weiner, Bernard, 158 Weisberg, Robert W., 157, 161, 162 Wenger, Etienne, 59, 107, 130, 165 West Michael A., 209 Westby, Erik L., 15 Wheatley, Rob, 151 White, John, 101, 143, 217 Wickham, Philip A., 180 Wiggins, Grant, 102 Wildemuth, Barbara M., 165 Williams, Raymond, 8 Williams, Robin, 187, 258 Willis, Paul, 233 Wilson, Anthony, 195 Wilson, Karen, 182 Wiske, Martha S., 98 Wizenreid, Arthur, 83, 85 Wood, Andrew, 207, 212, 213 Wood, Clare, 281 Wood, Elizabeth, 195, 271 Wood, Paul J., 267 Woodman, Richard W., 203 Wordsworth, William, 50, 51 Wynyard, Robin, 275 Xiaoping, Deng, 104 Yani, Wang, 156 YouTube, 62, 269 Young, Edward, 155 Zaitseva, Maria, N., 39 Zbikowski, Susan M., 241

Subject Index

Locators shown in italics refer to figures and tables. ‘absolute knowing’ stage salience for HE creative learners, 242–3, 242 actors salience for showing creative environment interconnectedness, 56 actualisation, selffeatures as form of creativity, 264–5 see also mediums for e.g. arts, the adaptive theory as explanation for potential for human creativity, 280–82, 281 administration, teaching use of technology to support, 82–3 advantage, creative salience in relation to social creativity, 44–6, 44 age role and implications for superior performance, 166 agency element as explanation underpinning social creativity, 35 Alberta Community Learning Campus, 289 All Our Futures report (1999), 47, 106, 268 American Psychological Association, 216–17 analogical thinking, 257–8, 259 anticipation and repetition role and implications for superior performance, 164 arts, the history and role as expressive medium, 266–7, 267 place within education, 267–71, 269 role in different educational levels, 271–6 Arts Council, 268, 272 ‘Assessing the Climate for Creativity’ instrument, 119

assessment, creativity difficulty of definition and focus priorities, 112–13, 113 example of the creativity self-assessment, 117 see also methods e.g. tests and testing, creativity see also subject of e.g. environments; products and productivity association, random word as exploration creativity tool, 225, 225 assumptions importance in creativity tool application, 219–21, 220 salience of examining technological, 86–7 attitudes definition and importance in creativity tool application, 219–21, 220 attributes, exceptional characteristics of construct of creativity as, 15–16, 21–2, 22 audiences as metaphor for creative interconnectedness, 57 avoidance, of uncertainty salience of indexes of as dimension affecting creativity, 71–2, 72 behaviours role as measure of individual creativity, 116–17 belief, selfimportance to creative learners at secondary level, 240–41 role and implications for superior performance, 165 benefactors salience in social creativity, 42–3 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 179 Black Swan (film), 25

300

SUBJECT INDEX

brainstorming as method enhancing creativity, 136 definition and use as ideas generation creativity tool, 224 British Creative Partnerships Scheme, 128 ‘buzz groups’ as method enhancing creativity, 135–6 CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnership in Education), 102 ‘capital’ salience in relation to social creativity, 44–6, 44 case studies and examples creativity implications of Humanities Curriculum Project, 97 educational impact of developed talent, 157–8 random metaphor as creativity tool, 223 salience of ‘plus, minus, interesting’ notion, 228 salience of ‘six thinking hats’ notion, 227–8 salience of morphological forced connections, 226, 226 salience of random word association, 225, 225 synetics as creativity tool, 223 use and impact of creative domains, 147–50 use of opposites and distortions as creativity tool, 221 use of provocative operation as creativity tool, 220 Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2 centres, community as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 61 Centres for Talented Youth, 158 chance influence for productive creativity, 172–5, 173 checklists of individual creativity, 117 Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE), 102 child-centred model of curriculum organisation and planning, 96, 100

childhood role of creativity in, 279–80 theories of creativity within development of, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 China history and policy trajectory of curricula creativity, 103–5, 105 Classicism, period of features and transformation of creativity ideas during, 24–5, 31 classrooms as location for technology use, 83 cognition characteristics and styles of process, 246–8, 246, 247, 248 characteristics of construct of creativity as, 16–17, 21–2, 22 features and implications of expertise as skilled, 158–62, 159 see also creative cognition; intelligence; thinking, creative collaboration features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 37–8 collaboration, group benefits and liabilities for creativity, 125–9, 128 management of creativity of, 133–7, 134 types and elements enabling creativity of, 129–33, 131 combinatorial thinking, 255, 259 communication, technologies of characteristics and role in creativity, 81, 84 use for educational creativity, 82 communities definition in characteristics of collaborative, 130 salience of education within, 58–9 complementarity salience in relation to collaborative processes, 131, 131 complexity, technological potential educational problems with, 90–91 Componential Model of Creativity (Amabile), 144 composition, group salience for collaboration management, 133, 134

SUBJECT INDEX

consensus, expert role in assessing product creativity, 121–2 conceptualisation definition and use in creativity tool application, 221–3, 222 confluence, cultural features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 38 connections salience of morphological forced, 225–6, 226 conscientiousness salience and implications for creativity, 235–8, 236, 237–8, 237 constructivism features as theory of education, 231 consumers and consumption as stakeholder in social creativity, 43 salience of technological for enhanced creativity, 87 contexts high versus low as dimension of culture, 73–4, 74 salience for HE creative learners, 242, 243 convergent thinking, 255–6, 259 coping as characteristic of social creativity, 36–7 CPS (creative problem-solving) salience as group method enhancing creativity, 137 Craftsman, The (Sennett), 164 Creative Achievement Questionnaire (Carson), 117 Creative Attitude Survey (Schaefer), 117 creative cognition definition and characteristics, 248–50 frameworks constraining and shaping, 253–4, 253, 254 relationship with intelligence, 251–3, 251, 252 see also thinking, creative Creative Partnerships Scheme (UK), 10, 149–50, 268 creative problem-solving (CPS) salience as group method enhancing creativity, 137

301

Creative Product Inventory (Taylor), 121 Creative Self-Efficacy Test (Tierney), 117 creativities, multiple salience and implications for education, 231–8, 236, 237 creativity cultural understandings of, 66–75, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75 definitions, characteristics and definition difficulty, 7–9, 8 features and educational implication of constructs of, 9–22, 22 historical development of ideas about, 24–32, 31 theories of human and pedagogical development of, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 see also elements impacting e.g. cognition; environments; motivation; performance, experts; performance, superior; technology see also factors affected by e.g. advantage, creative; assessment, creativity; curricula; domains, creative; management; tools, creativity see also measures enabling e.g. collaboration, group see also outcomes e.g. entrepreneurship; expression, self-; innovation; invention; education, creative; productive see also type e.g. productive creativity; social creativity Creativity: History, Theory, Practice (Pope), 1 Creatrix Inventory (Byrd), 117 criteria as basis for product creativity assessment, 120–21, 121 criticism and criticality salience for artistic expression at secondary level, 273–4 Critique of Judgement (Kant), 26, 27–8 cultural capital salience in relation to social creativity, 44, 45–6 cultures as framework constraining and shaping creative cognition, 253–4, 253 definition, 65–6

302

SUBJECT INDEX

cultures (Continued ) understandings of dimensions and creativity involving, 66–75, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75 see also elements impacting on e.g. multiculturalism curiosity salience and implications for creativity, 233, 236, 237–8, 237 curricula and creativity at different levels of education, 105–8 models of organisation and planning of, 95–9, 100 trajectory of creativity within policies of, 99, 101–5, 102, 104, 105 Da Vinci programme, 242 Dark Side of Creativity, The (Cropley), 39 data, manipulation of technological role in enhancing creativity, 83–4 debates concerning place of art in education, 268–70, 269 democratization, creativity implications of technological advance on, 89 technology as cause of, 81–2 Department for Education, 27 deskilling, technological salience as educational problem, 91 ‘developed’ talent, 156–8 development, human features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 36 theories of creativity, pedagogy and, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 diagrams salience and use as creativity tool, 221–2, 222 dichotomies use as stereotype defining creativity, 9 diligence influence as aspect of productive creativity, 172–5, 173 directors as metaphor for creative environment interconnectedness, 56–7

disability, physical and cognitive role of technology in enhancing creativity and expression of, 84–5 importance to creative learners at secondary level, 240 salience for artistic expression at secondary level, 272–3 salience of standardisation for artistic expression in HE, 275–6 disciplines, subject as framework constraining and shaping creative cognition, 254, 254 importance to creative learners at secondary level, 240 learning and creativity of as purpose for teaching, 189 strategies enhancing learning and creativity in, 192–3 strategies enhancing learning and creativity in, 192–3 Disney Corporation, 83 disorders, affective impact on creative cognition, 250 distance, power indexes of as dimension affecting creativity, 69–70, 69 distortions salience and use as creativity tool, 220–21 distribution salience in relation to collaborative processes, 131, 131 divergent thinking, 255–6, 259 domains role in cultural understanding of creativity, 67–8 domains, creative characteristics, values and fields of, 140–41 gradation of, 141–2, 142 ideas of generalisation versus specificity of, 142–4 role of multiple intelligences in ideas of, 144–5, 145 sources and potential of, 145–6 see also type e.g. environmental domain; language domain; natural sciences domain; performance domain; social sciences domain; visual domain

SUBJECT INDEX

domestication role as outcome of art expressiveness in education, 268 drives and emotions, theory of as explanation for potential for human development creativity, 286–7 dynamic models, curricula characteristics and creativity implications, 98–9, 100 dynamics, group role of poor as liability for group creativity, 127, 128 dyslexia impact on creative cognition, 250 Eat, Pray, Love (Gilbert), 28 economics and economies indicators of as element of innovation monitoring, 177 salience of capital of in relation to social creativity, 44–5, 44, 46 salience of technological for enhanced creativity in, 87 ecosystems as element of creativity enabling framework, 53, 54 education characteristics of constructivist views, 231 salience of multiple creativities for, 231–8, 236, 237 see also factors affected by e.g. creativity see also players e.g. teachers and teaching see also tools e.g. technology education, community and workplace as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 58–9 education, creative definition, features and levels of, 187–8, 188, 239–43, 240, 242 implications of environment interconnectedness on, 58 learning as purpose for creative teaching and, 189 strategies enhancing, 194–9, 195, 197, 198 see also influences e.g. generic creativity education, higher creativity within curricula of, 107–8 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 275–6

303

stages and features of creative learners in, 242–3, 242 strategies enhancing learners and creativity in, 198–9 education, post-compulsory role of expressivity of art mediums in, 274 stages and features of creative learners in, 241–2 education, preschool role of expressivity of art mediums in, 271 education, primary creativity within curricula of, 106 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 272 stages and features of creative learners in, 239–40, 240 strategies enhancing learners and creativity in, 194–6, 195 education, secondary creativity within curricula of, 106–7 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 272–4 stages and features of creative learners in, 240–41 strategies enhancing learners and creativity in, 196–7, 197 education, technological salience of for enhanced creativity, 87–8 Education of the Gifted and Talented (Marland), 155 emergence role as benefit for group creativity, 126, 128 eminence role in cultural understanding of creativity, 68 emotions and drives, theory of as explanation for potential for human development creativity, 286–7 empowerment, creative features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 37 English Arts Council, 27 Enlightenment, period of features and transformation of creativity ideas during, 26–7, 31

304

SUBJECT INDEX

entrepreneurship definition, features, rationale and monitoring, 179–81 history and relationship with creativity, 170–71, 171 value and educational implications, 181–4 environmental domain characteristics and educational use of, 148 environments characteristics and implications of free activity, 46–7 characteristics, assessment and implications of creative, 50–52, 51, 118–20 types and relationship with creativity, 52–8, 53, 55 see also particular e.g. microenvironments European Universities Association (EUA), 143, 199 evaluation, ideas importance of evaluation of in creativity tool application, 227–8, 227, 228 ‘everyday’ characteristics of construct of creativity as, 20–21, 21–2, 22 examples, case study see case studies and examples experience, individual real versus virtual as technology educational problem, 91 role of technology in enhancing creativity and, 84 expertise, performance features and implications of superior, 162–7, 163, 166 impact of cognitive skills on, 158–62, 159 impact of talent on, 155–8 expertise, technology educational implications of access to, 88–9 experts, consensus of role in assessing product creativity, 121–2 exploration, ideas importance in creativity tool application, 225–6, 225, 226

expression, selffeatures as form of creativity, 263–6, 264 role of technology in enhancing creativity and, 85 see also mediums for e.g. arts, the expressivity salience and implications for creativity, 233–4, 236, 237–8, 237 versus artistic skill as debate in education, 268–9, 269 families salience in relation to collaborative processes, 131, 131 fantasy importance to creative education at secondary level, 240 feedback role and implications for superior performance, 164 figures, numerical role and implications as element of creativity testing, 114–15 fishbowls salience as group method enhancing creativity, 136 Five Minds for the Future (Gardner), 83 Footprint Project (National Trust), 148 frameworks see models and frameworks friendships salience in relation to collaborative processes, 131, 131 fulfilment, group features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 37 functionalism salience and pedagogy as role of social creativity, 41–2, 41 Geneplore, 218 generalization versus domain specific creativity in education, 142–4 generation, ideas importance in creativity tool application, 223–5, 224 generic creativity and learning as purpose of creative teaching, 189 strategies enhancing, 194

SUBJECT INDEX

genius, personal characteristics of construct of creativity as, 12–13, 21–2, 22 groups buzz groups as method enhancing creativity, 135–6 creativity management at level of, 209–11, 209, 210 fulfilment of as characteristic of social creativity, 37 ill-informed as liability for group creativity, 127, 128 see also collaboration, group groups, collaboration of benefits and liabilities for creativity, 125–9, 128 management of creativity of, 133–7, 134 types and elements enabling creativity of, 129–33, 131 groupthink as liability for group creativity, 127, 128 guidance, teacher as educational problem of technology, 91 Handbook of Creativity (Kaufman), 1 Harvard Project Zero, 98 heteroculturalism, teacher, 76–7 ‘hidden’ model of curriculum organisation and planning, 99, 100 higher education (HE) see education, higher Humanities Curriculum Project, 97 humans, development of features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 36 theories of creativity, pedagogy and, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 ICTs (information and communication technologies) characteristics and role in creativity, 81, 84 use for educational creativity, 82 ideas importance of evaluation, exploration and generation of, 223–8, 224, 225, 227, 228

305

identity, adolescent salience for artistic expression at secondary level, 273 imagination importance to creative education at primary level, 239–40, 240 importance to creative education at secondary level, 240 Imaginative Curriculum Project (UK), 28, 107–8 imitation role and implications for superior performance, 164–5 independence, knowledge salience for HE creative learners, 242, 243 indexes as dimension affecting creativity, 69–73, 69, 70, 72, 73 individualism index (IDV), 70–71, 70 individuals creativity management at level of, 211–13, 211 impact of culture on characteristics of creative, 68 role of creativity testing of, 115–18, 118 role of perceptions and representations of, 165 salience of examining technological purposes of, 86–7 individuals, experiences real versus virtual as technology educational problem, 91 role of technology in enhancing creativity and, 84 information role of poor as liability for group creativity, 127–9, 128 information and communication technologies (ICTs) characteristics and role in creativity, 81, 84 use for educational creativity, 82 inhibition features as element of creative cognition, 249 ‘innate’ talent features and implications for creativity and education, 156

306

SUBJECT INDEX

innovation characteristics of construct of creativity as, 17–18, 21–2, 22 definition, features, rationale and monitoring, 175–8 history and relationship with creativity, 170–71, 171 value and educational implications, 178–9 Innovative America report (2004), 103 insight features of permitting creative thinking identity, 258–9, 259 institutions, higher education role of expressivity of art mediums in, 275–6 institutions, community and workplace as environment for creativity stimulating education, 58–9 institutions, higher education creativity within curricula of, 107–8 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 275–6 stages and features of creative learners in, 242–3, 242 strategies enhancing learners and creativity in, 198–9 institutions, vocational and post-compulsory creativity within curricula of, 107 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 274 salience of technological for enhanced creativity, 87–8 stages and features of creative learners in, 241–2 strategies enhancing education and creativity in, 198, 198 integration salience in relation to collaborative processes, 132, 131 intelligence cognitive frameworks constraining and shaping, 253–4, 253, 254 definition and relationship with creativity, 251–3, 251, 252 intelligences, multiple role as element of innate talent, 156 role of ideas of in identification of creative domains, 144–5, 145

interaction, dynamic systemic role and implications for creativity interdependence, 55–8, 55 interdependence, creativity role and implications of dynamic systemic interaction, 55–8, 55 International Mathematical Olympiad, 158 intersubjectivity role as benefit for group creativity, 126, 128 invention history and relationship with creativity, 170–71, 171 knowledge, combinatorial impact on creative domains, 145–6 knowledge, domain role in implications for cognitive skill, 161 knowledge, subject importance to creative learners at secondary level, 240 role of construction of as benefit for group creativity, 126, 128 see also specific e.g. technology language domain characteristics and educational use of, 148–9 leaders and leadership creativity and implications management at level of, 204–7, 204, 205 learners and learning see education legislation as element of innovation monitoring, 177–8 Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University, 1 liberal-humanist model of curriculum organisation and planning, 95, 100 Lisbon strategy (2000), 181 ‘lived’ model of curriculum organisation and planning, 98–9, 100 loafing, social as liability for group creativity, 128, 128 long-term orientation index as dimension affecting creativity, 73 Lyrical Ballads (Wordworth), 50–51

SUBJECT INDEX

macrosystems as element of creativity enabling framework, 53, 54–5 Man: a Course of Study project, 125 management of group collaboration creativity, 133–7, 134 rationale and characteristics of creativity, 202–3 see also players e.g. leaders and leadership see also specific targets e.g. motivation; organisations manipulation, data technological role in enhancing creativity, 83–4 masculinity index (MI), 72–3, 73 Mediaevalism, period of features and transformation of creativity ideas during, 25–6, 31 memory, working role and implications for superior performance, 165 Merchant of Venice, The (Shakespeare), 58 mesosystems salience as element of creativity enabling framework, 53–4, 53 metaphors definition and use as creativity tool, 223 usefulness in defining creativity, 8–9 methods, group salience for collaboration management of creativity, 135–7 MI (masculinity index), 72–3, 73 microenvironments characteristics of creativity stimulating, 58–63 microsystems as element of creativity enabling framework, 53, 53 Mind in Society (Vygotsky), 285 miniaturisation, of creativity educational implications of technological advance, 89 models and frameworks Amaile’s Componential Creativity, 144 constraining and shaping creative cognition, 253–4, 253, 254 curricula organisation and planning, 95–9, 100

307

interacting systems enabling creativity, 52–5, 53 Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, 264, 264 see also theories Modernism, period of features and transformation of creativity ideas during, 28–30, 32, 31 monoculturalism implications for teacher creativity in settings of, 76 moral development theory as explanation for potential for human development creativity, 282–3, 282 motivation importance to creative learners at secondary level, 241 role and implications for superior performance, 165 role as measure of individual creativity, 116, 117 salience in relation to creativity management, 212–13 multiculturalism benefits for creativity, 75–6 implications for teacher creativity in settings of, 76–7 mundaneness role in cultural understanding of creativity, 68 musical domain characteristics and educational use of, 150–51 myths use as stereotype defining creativity, 9 National Gallery London, 150 natural sciences domain characteristics and educational use of, 147–8 needs, human Maslow’s hierarchy, 264, 264 neurobiology as element of creative cognition, 248–50 neurology role and implications for superior performance, 166 neurosciences technological and creativity implications of, 88

308

SUBJECT INDEX

Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro), 178 Nika (company), 41 No Child Left Behind Act (USA, 2001), 102 non-conformity salience and implications for creativity, 232, 236, 237–8, 237 Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom (Beghetto), 1 Once upon a School Foundation, 149 operation, provocative salience as creativity tool, 219–20, 220 opposites salience and use as creativity tool, 220–21 organisation, curricula models of planning and, 95–9, 100 organisations management of creativity in educational, 203–13, 203, 204, 209, 210, 211 rationale and characteristics for creative management in, 202–3 orientation, long-term salience of indexes of as dimension affecting creativity, 73 originality educational implications of technological provision of, 89 Oxford English Dictionary, 28–9 paradigms, teaching and consequence for creativity, 191, 192 ‘paralysis’, analysis as liability for group creativity, 127, 128 parents role as element developed talent, 157 Paris in the Twentieth Century (Verne), 81 participation, social features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 37 Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 103 Passage to India, A (Forster), 67 PBL (problem-based learning), 136–7 Pennebaker, J., 265 perceptions, individual role and implications for superior performance, 165

performance, automatic role and implications for superior performance, 166 performance, expert features and implications of superior, 162–7, 163, 166 impact of cognitive skills on, 158–62, 159 impact of talent on, 155–8 performance, teacher and consequences for creativity, 191, 193 performance domain characteristics and educational use of, 149 personality importance of entrepreneur success, 180 of teacher and consequence for creativity, 190–91 role as measure of individual creativity, 116 salience and implications for creativity, 231–8, 236, 237 ‘personal space’ as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 59 persons see individuals perspectives, multiple role as benefit for group creativity, 125–6, 128 ‘physical space’ as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 60 physiology role and implications for superior performance, 166 planning, curricula models of organisation and, 95–9, 100 play importance to creative learner at primary level, 239 strategies enhancing education and creativity through, 195–6, 195 ‘plus, minus, interesting’ (PMI) salience as ideas evaluation creativity tool, 228, 228 PO (provocative operation) salience as creativity tool, 219–20, 220 polarization as liability for group creativity, 127, 128

SUBJECT INDEX

policies implications and creativity management at level of, 207–8 trajectory of creativity within curriculum, 99, 101–5, 102, 104, 105 possession characteristics of construct of creativity as, 10–11, 21–2, 22 post-compulsory education see institutions, vocational and post-compulsory postgraduates creativity within curricula of, 107–8 power distance index salience as dimension affecting creativity, 69–70, 69 practice and training role and implications for superior performance, 164 role as element of developed talent, 156, 157 precedent, group as liability for group creativity, 127, 128 preferences, adolescent salience for artistic expression at secondary level, 273 Preferential Scale (Basadur), 117 preschool education creativity within curricula of, 105–6 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 271 primary education see education, primary problem-based learning (PBL), 136–7 problems, solving of features of permitting creative thinking identity, 256–7, 256, 257, 259 importance to creative learners at post-compulsory level, 241 process and processes characteristics of construct of creativity as, 13–14, 21–2, 22 definition, characteristics and implications of collaborative, 130–33, 131 versus products in understandings of creativity, 67 process models, curricula characteristics and creativity implications, 96–7, 100

309

process-product models, curricula characteristics and creativity implications, 97–8, 100 producers and production as stakeholder in social creativity, 42 salience of technological for enhanced creativity, 87 productive creativity definition, features, influences and implications, 171–5, 171, 173 product models, curricula characteristics and creativity implications, 95–6 products and productivity characteristics of construct of creativity as, 11–12, 21–2, 22 characteristics, assessment of and implications of creative, 120–22, 121 importance to creative learners at post-compulsory level, 241 versus process in understandings of creativity, 67 Project Zero (Harvard), 98, 102 provocative operation (PO) salience as creativity tool, 219–20, 220 pseudo-and quasi-creativity features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 38–9, 38 psychoanalysis and psychology role in theories of human development, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 psychosocial theory as explanation for potential for human development creativity, 283–6, 285 ‘purposive space’ salience as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 60–61 pyramiding salience as group method enhancing creativity, 136 quilts, making of use as metaphor defining creativity, 9 reading educational implications of technological provision of, 89 reasoning, dialogical role as benefit for group creativity, 126, 128

310

SUBJECT INDEX

receptivity salience and implications for creativity, 234–5, 236, 237–8, 237 regulators salience as stakeholder in social creativity, 43 Renaissance features and transformation of creativity ideas during, 26, 31 repetition and anticipation role and implications for superior performance, 164 representation, individual role and implications for superior performance, 165 representations, mental role and implications for cognitive skill, 160–61 rhizomes use as metaphor defining creativity, 8 Rise of the Creative Class (Florida), 44–5 risks, reduction of role as benefit for group creativity, 126, 128 Romanticism, period of features and transformation of creativity ideas during, 27–8, 31 rounds salience as group method enhancing creativity, 135 Scales for Rating Behavioural Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS), 117 schools as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 58–63 schools, primary creativity within curricula of, 106 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 272 stages and features of creative learners in, 239–40, 240 strategies enhancing learners and creativity in, 194–6, 195 schools, secondary creativity within curricula of, 106–7 role of expressivity of art mediums in, 272–4

stages and features of creative learners in, 240–41 strategies enhancing learners and creativity in, 196–7, 197 scripts as metaphor for creative environment interconnectedness, 57 secondary education see education, secondary Self-Management Leadership Questionnaire (SMLQ), 210 ‘six thinking hats’ salience as ideas evaluation creativity tool, 227–8, 227 size, group salience for collaboration management, 133, 134 skills, artistic salience of versus expression in HE, 275 versus expressivity as debate in education, 268–9, 269 skills, cognitive features and implications of expertise in, 158–62, 159 skills, transferable importance to creative learners at post-compulsory level, 242 SMLQ (Self-Management Leadership Questionnaire), 210 snowballing salience as group method enhancing creativity, 136 social capital salience in relation to social creativity, 44, 45–6 social creativity changing features and educational implications, 35–6 characteristics of construct of, 19–20, 21–2, 22 characteristics of environments for, 46–7 characteristics of nature of, 36–9, 38 characteristics of stakeholders of, 42–3 value, importance and roles, 39–42, 41 see also advantage, creative social identity theory as explanation for potential for human development creativity, 287–8, 288

SUBJECT INDEX

social sciences domain characteristics and educational use of, 147 society influence and impact on art in education, 271 salience of technological for enhanced creativity, 87 Space Odyssey, A (Kubrick), 170 spaces salience of conceptual as microenvironment, 62 salience of educational as microenvironment, 59–63 salience of experimental as microenvironment, 61 salience of virtual as microenvironment, 61–2 specificity versus domain generalised creativity in education, 142–4 speech relationship with intelligence and creative cognition, 252–3, 252 role and implications as element of creativity testing, 114 SRBCSS (Scales for Rating Behavioural Characteristics of Superior Students), 117 stage approach to creativity, 218, 218 stage approach to productive creativity (Glover), 172–3, 173 stages, life role of creativity in childhood, 279–80 theories of creativity in development of, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 stages, setting of as metaphor for creative environment interconnectedness, 56 stakeholders characteristics of social creativity, 42–3 standardisation, subject salience for artistic expression in HE, 275–6 standards, rising role as element of developed talent, 57 ‘Stenhouse’ approach to curriculum organisation and planning, 96–7, 100 stereotypes usefulness in defining creativity, 9

311

strategies, coping features and salience as characteristic of social creativity, 36–7 stress impact on creative cognition, 249–50 structure element as explanation underpinning social creativity, 35 subjects, study see disciplines, subject symbolic capital salience in relation to social creativity, 44, 45–6 symbolism importance as leadership style for creativity management, 205–6, 205 syndicates salience as group method enhancing creativity, 136 synergy role as benefit for group creativity, 126, 128 talent features and implications for creativity and education, 155–8 Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives (Bloom), 106 Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain (Bloom), 159 TCI (Team Climate Infantry), 209, 209 teachers and teaching characteristics of creative, 190–91 characteristics of technological support, 82–3 implications of multiculturalism on creativity, 76–7 purpose and constraints on creativity of, 189–90, 189, 190 strategies for creative, 191–9, 192, 193, 195, 197, 198 Teaching for Understanding (TfU) movement, 98, 100 Team Climate Infantry (TCI), 209, 209 technical-rational model of curriculum organisation and planning, 95–6, 100 techniques, inappropriate as liability for group creativity, 127, 128 technological education see institutions, vocational and post-compulsory

312

SUBJECT INDEX

technologies, information and communication characteristics and role in creativity, 81, 84 use for educational creativity, 82 technology and democratization of creativity, 81–2 definition, characteristics and role in creativity, 79–81, 80 educational and creativity implications, 88–9 educational problems of and response need, 90–91 importance and considerations for enhancing creativity, 86–8 use for educational creativity, 82–6 Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch (TRIZ), 137, 218 tests and testing, creativity characteristics, methods and educational implications, 113–15 role and implications of, 115–18, 118 self-assessment example, 117 TfU (Teaching for Understanding) movement, 98, 100 theatres as metaphor for interconnectedness of creative environments, 55–8, 55 theories constructivist learning, 231 creativity within human development, 280–90, 281, 282, 285, 288, 290 impact of multiple intelligences on creativity domains, 144–5, 145 see also models and frameworks thinking definition and use of lateral, 224–5 role and implications of diverse skills of, 159–60 see also tours involving e.g. ‘six thinking hats’ thinking, creative characteristics and types permitting identity of, 255–9, 256, 257, 259 characteristics, assessment and implications of, 113–15 thinking, right-brain features as element of creative cognition, 249

time and temporality influence as aspect of productive creativity, 172–5, 173 influence on history of ideas about creativity, 24–32, 31 monochromatic versus polychromic as dimension of culture, 74–5, 75 tools, creativity genesis of development, 216–18 stage approach the use of, 218, 218 see also specific e.g. association, random tool; brainstorming; diagrams; distortions; metaphors; opposites; ‘plus, minus, interesting’; provocative operation; thinking Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), 114, 142, 217 Toy Symphony (Machover), 151 training and practice role and implications for superior performance, 164 role as element of developed talent, 156, 157 traits, personality see personality trajectories, policy of creativity within curricula, 99, 101–5, 102, 104, 105 transformation historical pedigree of creativity, 24–32, 31 importance as leadership style, 204–5 transition, stage of salience for HE creative learners, 242, 243 trees use as metaphor defining creativity, 8 TRIZ (Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch), 137, 218 TTCT (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking), 114, 142, 217 tubers use as metaphor defining creativity, 8 Tuning Education report (2003), 143 uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), 71–2, 72 undergraduates creativity within curricula of, 107–8 United Kingdom history and policy trajectory of creativity within curricula, 101–2, 102

SUBJECT INDEX

313

United States of America history and policy trajectory of creativity within curricula, 102–3, 104 University of Brighton, 61

visual domain characteristics and educational use of, 150 vocational education see institutions, vocational and post-compulsory

values influence of social on history of ideas about creativity, 24–32, 31 salience of individual oil for examining enhanced creativity, 86–7 viewers, art role in debates over art in education, 270 virtual world as creativity stimulating microenvironment, 61–2

We Are What We Do company, 180, 182 West Berlin Music Academy, 157 Westbury Park Primary School, 272 Westwood Ho! (Beckett), 164 words salience of random association as exploration creativity tool, 225, 225 workplaces salience of education in, 58–9 Young Scientist of the Year award (Ireland), 147–8

Approaches To Creativity pb_Approaches To Creativity pb 27/09/2012 13:03 Page 1

Approaches to

“This book takes the complexity of creativity research and breaks it down into readable and interesting prose. Teachers – and everyone else – will enjoy and learn from this valuable contribution.” Professor J.C.Kaufman, Professor of Psychology, California State University, USA “If it is possible to pin down the lightning flash of creativity then this book is the best attempt I have read so far.” Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB Abbot of Glenstal Abbey, Murroe, Co. Limerick, Ireland. This book offers an accessible introduction and a comprehensive guide to a range of ideas on creativity in education. The book provides an overview of the major theories related to creativity and explores the implications for policy and practice. The popular topic of creativity has given rise to a large number of theoretical positions, sometimes contradictory or contested. This book clarifies and organizes these approaches so that teachers understand where particular pedagogical and curricular practices originate and can develop them coherently. Topics covered include:

• • • • •

Creativity in a social context Creativity and technology Creativity and curriculum planning Assessment and creativity Group creativity

• • • • •

Managing creativity Tools of creativity The creative learner Creativity and cognition Creativity as expression

Approaches to C R E A T I V I T Y

CREATIVITY

Approaches to Creativity is an invaluable resource for those who wish to reflect on creativity and explore and engage in the modern discourse of education. It will be of value in teacher education, postgraduate studies, curriculum design and administration.

Anne Jordan is Professor Emeritus at the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and Honorary Professor at the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University in Russia. Cover design: Phil Barker

Orison Carlile and Anne Jordan

Orison Carlile is an independent Educational Consultant and Honorary Professor at the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University in Russia.

Approaches to

CREATIVITY A Guide for Teachers

Orison Carlile Anne Jordan