Unit 1. Defining creativity
A multi-dimensional concept
Creativity is a complex and elusive concept which remains difficult to explore and define. It has been studied through the lens of different paradigms, e.g. pragmatic, psychodynamic, psychometric, cognitive, and evolutionary approaches. Some of those have brought valuable contributions to the understanding of creativity; nevertheless they do not allow for a holistic approach of the phenomenon. Hence, several theories attempted to explore its different dimensions in a comprehensive manner.
For instance, Rhodes [11] developed the four P’s model, which places creativity as the interplay of four distinct strands, i.e., process (the different stages of a creative activity), person (the characteristics of individuals), press (the qualities of the environment where creativity happens), and product (the tangible or intangible outcomes of the creative process). Rhodes’ classification has become a major framework for the holistic exploration of creativity.
A. Process
The creative process is often described as an iterative sequence of stages [12], which commonly consists of the identification of the task, a phase of preparation, and an evaluation of the obtained outcome. Nevertheless, process models present some discrepancies: some researchers consider the emergence of ideas as a sudden and intuitive process characterized by an illumination or insight, like the Eureka moment of Archimedes (e.g. [10]).
On the contrary, other theories describe a mindful process of idea generation [12]. For instance, the well-known componential model of Amabile [13] proposes a system of five phases:
a) Problem or task identification (conscious recognition of the task);
b) Preparation (building or reactivation of the information which is useful for the completion of the task);
c) Response generation (creation of possible solutions);
d) Response validation (evaluation of the possible solutions);
and e) Outcome (evaluation and diffusion of the outcome).
A. Process
In a creative process, the combination of divergent and convergent thinking is important.
Divergent thinking is crucial for the “response genration stage”, as it allows for creating and applying original ideas and solutions by forming remote associations, conceptual combinations, and approaching problems from different angles (divergent thinking). A test developed by Guilford in 1967, to measures creativity in terms of the ability to generate many ideas. It consists of thinking of as many uses as possible for an everyday object such as a chair or a cup of coffee.
Reflection:
Test your divergent thinking skills: how many uses could you think of for a paper clip?
A. Process
On the other hand, convergent thinking is useful for the “response validation stage”, at it enables to evaluate and select ideas using decision-making strategies, in order to produce the best possible answers. Psychologists use riddles to measure creative problem-solving potential or convergent thinking. The goal is to arrive at a single correct answer, like in The Hobbit’s riddle.
A. Process
On the other hand, convergent thinking is useful for the “response validation stage”, at it enables to evaluate and select ideas using decision-making strategies, in order to produce the best possible answers. Psychologists use riddles to measure creative problem-solving potential or convergent thinking. The goal is to arrive at a single correct answer, like in The Hobbit’s riddle.
B. Person
This dimension refers to the individual characteristics and personality traits of creative persons, including thinking styles, personality attributes (e.g., a positive disposition towards overcoming obstacles, taking risks and tolerating ambiguity) and intellectual abilities [14], as well as concentration, playfulness, discipline, passion and objectivity [10].
Amabile [13] brings a classification which differentiates domain-relevant skills (knowledge and skills in the domain), task motivation (extrinsic and/or intrinsic), and creativity-relevant skills (personality characteristics, like flexibility and a persistent work style).
B. Person
Csikszentmihalyi (1988, 1996) underlines the importance of motivation for the person dimension. To him, a common characteristic of creative people is flow or optimal experience, a state of complete engagement in an activity. He describes the flow state as a combination of 9 elements:
- Challenge-skill balance: feeling that the activity is challenging, and that personal skills are at the right level to handle it.
- Action-awareness merging: attention is so much concentrated on the activity that actions become spontaneous and automatic.
- Clear goals: knowing what one’s has to do and developing a feeling of certainty about their actions.
- Unambiguous feedback: immediate and clear feedback enables to know how one is performing towards their goal, and adjust actions accordingly.
- Sense of control: experiencing a sense of agency over one’s actions, which makes the activity enjoyable.
- Concentration: the attention is entirely focused on the present moment.
- Loss of self-consciousness: loosing the sense of the self as separate from the world around it, and becoming one with the activity, leaving aside the past and the future.
- Transformation of time: one's subjective experience of time is altered, as time seems to pass more quickly, slowly, or there may be a complete lack of awareness of time passing.
- Autotelic experience: the activity is done for its own sake, with no expectation of future reward or benefit.
B. Person
Reflection:
Watch the conference of Csikszentmihalyi
How do you relate the concept of flow to education and / or to your own teaching practices?
C. Press (environment)
This dimension concentrates on the characteristics of the environment which may nurture or hinder creativity. First, social, cultural, and political factors may influence on creativity (Simmonton, 1999, as cited in [15]), like family upbringing, cultural traditions, and the historical milieu [16]. In addition, Csikszentmihalyi [10] highlighted some environmental features which may foster creativity, including training, expectations, resources, recognition, and reward. Similarly, Amabile and Gryskiewicz [17] identified a series of elements of the workplace environment which may foster creativity, such as freedom, challenge and leaders’ recognition. At the contrary, some factors proved to hinder creativity, like time pressure, evaluation [17], lack of respect and competition [18].
C. Product
The last dimension focuses on the tangible or intangible outcomes of the creative process. Researchers commonly define two characteristics of creative products, namely usefulness and novelty [12–13].
- Usefulness: the adequacy of the outcome to its context of use.
- Novelty: literature distinguishes between Big-C and Little-c creativity [19]. The former refers to outstanding accomplishments of unusual people, which have wider influence in society, as they are novel and recognized in their domain (like Edison’s phonograph). The latter refers to personal creativity, which enables individuals to “find routes and paths to travel in many aspects of their lives” (p. 46). Furthermore, Moran (2010) introduced Middle-c creativity, to which the output is considered innovative for an organization or small community of people.
Unit 2 - Creative education
Context
Creativity is considered to be critical for facing the social and economic changes of today’s society [1–2], as well as for attaining personal development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment [3]. In addition, the labour market depends more and more on employees’ abilities to work with technologies, as well as to generate new ideas, products and practices [4].
In this context, digital and creative skills have gained the attention of worldwide policies, and have become important educational objectives [5].
“Education is being reconstructed, to encompass creativity in its curriculum and its pedagogy”.
CRAFT, 2005
A gap between policies and practices
Education often fails to keep pace with creative and digital economies [4, 6]. This is mainly because teachers are not prepared for adopting pedagogical strategies that foster creativity, or for fully exploiting the educational potential of digital technologies.
Beghetto [2] identified a series of obstacles to the integration of creativity in the classroom, including convergent teaching practices and teachers’ negative beliefs towards creativity. Furthermore, educators are not prepared to apply creative teaching strategies which match their institutional and curricular requirements [7].
Regarding digital technologies, the “EC report on Initial teacher education in Europe” [8] states that only half of European countries integrate digital education in teacher education. Furthermore, most teachers use digital technologies mainly to prepare their teaching, rather than to work with students during lessons. As a result, between 50% and 80% of students in Europe never use digital textbooks, exercise software, simulations or learning games.
The importance of educators
Teacher educators are key actors to ensure the quality of the teaching profession and enhance educational innovation
EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2013
Professional development is a requirement to enable teacher educators to become aware of the latest challenges in society and education, and for future teachers to respond to those challenges.
Characteristics of creative education
A review of literature in creative education allows for identifying 3 directions of creative education:
- A democratic approach: traditionally, creativity is seen as a quality reserved for exceptionally talented individuals [22]. This exclusive perspective recently changed towards an inclusive one, to which all people from all ages can be creative [16, 25]. This new angle is widely adopted in the field of education, considering that all students have a creative potential which can be fostered or hindered depending on the teaching strategies used [26].
- A focus on little-c creativity: small levels of creativity give importance to personal processes beyond outstanding accomplishments. As applied to education, this perspective encourages students to develop new and personally meaningful insights and discoveries, as well as to attain their full potential in their everyday domains [26].
- A domain-wide approach: creativity is often associated to the domain of arts [22]. Recently, this scope has been widen to other areas of everyday life [26]. Hence, in the field of education, creativity can be developed in all curricular subjects, such as languages and science [27].
Definitions
- CREATIVITY IN EDUCATION
“Purposive imaginative activity generating outcomes that are original and valuable in relation to the learner”.
CREMIN, CLACK AND CRAFT, 2012
- SOME KEY-CHARACTERISTICS
Divergent & convergent thinking, sense of initiative, motivation, imagination, curiosity, collaboration, critical thinking, creation…
Pedagogical underpinnings
To our view, four pedagogical theories are particularly suitable to the application of digital creative teaching practices.
A. Experiential education
This movement questioned the pedagogical assumptions of its time, to which education relates to an accumulation of knowledge, in favor of active student-centred methodologies based on learning-by-doing and problem-based learning. To this view, learners build knowledge on the basis of the present experience and the active interaction with their environment [34-35].
Pedagogical underpinnings
B. Critical pedagogy
This philosophy and social movement denounces the “banking concept of education” which consists of simply depositing knowledge in a de-contextualized manner [36]. On the contrary, Freire promoted the importance of developing learners’ critical awareness towards the society and viewed education as a path to empowerment and emancipation. In this line, education should directly connect to meaningful problem solving [37].
Pedagogical underpinnings
C. Constructivism
This influential paradigm considers knowledge as an experience that is developed by interacting with the world on the basis of prior knowledge. Hence, students are not passive recipients of knowledge. Rather, they make sense of the world by actively building and transforming meaning [38]; teachers become facilitators who guide students towards processing information through active exploration.
From this perspective, every learning process is creative, as learners create their own meaning as they attempt to understand the world. As stated by Craft [39], “in a constructivist frame, learning and creativity are close, if not identical” (p. 61).
Pedagogical underpinnings
D. Constructionism
Influenced by Freire and Piaget, Papert elaborated the theory of constructionism. He shares Freire’s endeavor to free the latent potential of students, by creating learning environments which connect to their passions [37]. Building on constructivism, constructionism argues that learning better occurs when students make and share tangible artefacts [40]. Hence, this theory is directly related to the maker and digital making movements.
Papert pioneered the educational use of digital technologies. More than information and communication devices, he considers technologies as powerful educational tools which allow students for concretizing and expressing their ideas by designing, building and engineering. Constructionist learning environments are usually not based on a fixed curriculum. Rather, students use technology to build their own projects, while teachers act as facilitators of the process [37]. Hence, learners become designers. The constructionist view highlights the importance of social participation in the knowledge construction process, and considers making as an inherently social activity, through which learners design artefacts that are of relevance to a larger community [41].
External resources
- TED Talk, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 2004
- TED Talk, Ken Robinson, “Do schools kills creativity?”, 2006
- Remote Associate Test (RAT)
- Guilford’s Alternative Uses Test
- Incomplete figure test
- BBC HORIZON The Creative Brain. How Insight Works
- Interview with creativity researcher Dr. Simone Ritter
- Televisie Suisse, Specimen, “Comment avoir une idée géniale” (in French)
Bibliography
[2] Beghetto R A. Creativity in the classroom. In: Kaufman JC, Sternberg RJ, editors. The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. p. 447-463.
[3] European Commission. Lifelong Learning for Creativity and Innovation. A Background Paper. Slovenian EU Council Presidency. 2008. 19 p.
[4] Sefton-Green J, Brown L. Mapping Progression into Digital Creativity - Catalysts and Disconnects: A State of the Art Report for the Nominet Trust. 2014. 147 p.
[5] Ferrari A, Cachia R, Punie Y. ICT as a driver for creative learning and innovative teaching. In: Villalba E, editor. Measure creativity: Proceedings for the conference, "Can creativity be measured?". Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. 2009;345:368.
[6] Beghetto RA, Kaufman JC. Classroom contexts for creativity. High Ability Studies. 2014;25(1):53-69. DOI: 10.1080/13598139.2014.905247.
[7] Lin YS. Fostering creativity through education: conceptual framework of creative pedagogy. Creative Education. 2011;2(3):149-155 DOI: 10.4236/ce.2011.23021.
[8] European Commission. Initial Teacher Education in Europe: An Overview of Policy issues. Brussels: European Commission; 2014. 21 p.
[9] Sternberg RJ, Lubart TI. Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1999. 493 p.
[10] Csikszentmihalyi M. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial; 1996. 480 p. DOI: 10.1080/10400419.1996.9651177
[11] Rhodes, M. An analysis of creativity. Phi Delta Kappan. 1961;42:305-310.
[12] Howard TJ, Culley SJ, Dekoninck E. Describing the creative design process by the integration of engineering design and cognitive. Design Studies. 2008;29(2):160-180. DOI: 10.1016/j.destud.2008.01.001
[13] Amabile T. The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1983;45(2):357-376. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.45.2.357
[14] Sternberg RJ, Lubart TI. An investment theory of creativity and its development. Human Development. 1991;34(1):1-31. DOI: 10.1159/000277029
Bibliography
[15] Amabile T, Pillemer J. Perspectives on the social psychology of creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior. 2012;46(1): 3-15. DOI: 10.1002/jocb.001
[16] Runco MA, Pagnani AR. Psychological research on creativity. In: Sefton-Green J, Thomson P, Jones K, Bresler L, editors. The Routledge international handbook of creative learning. London: Routledge. 2011. p 63-71.
[17] Amabile T, Gryskiewicz N. The creative environment scales: The work environment inventory. Creativity Research Journal. 1989;2(4):231-254. DOI: 10.1080/10400418909534321
[18] Runco MA. Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology. 2004;55:657-687. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141502
[19] Craft A. Little c creativity. In: Craft A, Jeffrey R, Leibling M, editors. Creativity in education London and New York: Continuum. 2001. p 45-61.
[20] Kaufman JC, Beghetto RA. Beyond big and little: The four c model of creativity. Review of General Psychology. 2009;13(1):1-12. DOI: 10.1037/a0013688
[21] Sawyer RK. Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press; 2011. 568 p. ISBN: 9780199737574.
[22] NACCCE. All our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. London: Department for Education and Employment; 1999. 242 p.
[23] Villalba E. On creativity. Towards an understanding of creativity and its measures. JRC Scientific and Technical Reports, EUR 23561. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities; 2008. 40 p. ISBN: 978-92-79-10647-7
[24] Cremin T, Clack J, Craft A. Creative Little Scientists: Enabling Creativity through Science and Mathematics in Preschool and First Years of Primary Education. D2.2. Conceptual framework: Literature review of creativity in education. 2012.
[25] Loveless A. Literature review in creativity, new technologies and learning. Bristol: NESTA Futurelab Series; 2002. 36 p. ISBN: 0-9544695-4-2
[26] Ferrari A., Cachia R., Punie Y. Innovation and creativity in education and training in the EU member states: Fostering creative learning and supporting innovative teaching. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. 2009. 54 p.
[27] Craft A, Cremin T, Hay P, Clack J. Creative primary schools: developing and maintaining pedagogy for creativity. Ethnography and Education. 2014;9(1):16-34. DOI: 10.1080/17457823.2013.828474
[28] Davies D, Jindal-Snape D, Collier C, Digby R, Hay P, Howe A. Creative environments for learning in schools. Thinking Skills and Creativity. 2013;8:80-91. DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2012.07.004
Bibliography
[29] Barajas M, Frossard F. Mapping creative pedagogies in open wiki learning environments. Education and Information Technologies. 2018;23(3):1403-1419
[30] Cremin T, Barnes J. Creativity and creative teaching and learning. In: Cremin T, Arthur J, editors. Learning to Teach in the Primary School (3rd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. 2014. p. 467-481.
[31] Sawyer RK. A call to action: the challenges of creative teaching and learning. Teachers College Record. 2011;117:1-34.
[32] Lee MR, Chen TT. Digital creativity: Research themes and framework. Computers in Human Behavior. 2015;42(1):12-19. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.001
[33] Loveless A. Creative learning and new technology? A provocation paper. In: Sefton-Green J, editor. Creative learning. London: Creative Partnerships. 2008. p. 61-72.
[34] Dewey J. Experience and Education. New York: Collier; 1938. 91 p. ISBN: 0684838281
[35] Kolb DA. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall; 1984. 390 p. ISBN: 9780132952613
[36] Freire P. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press; 1974. 186 p. ISBN: 0816491321
[37] Blikstein P. Digital Fabrication and ’Making’ in Education: The Democratization of Invention. In: Walter-Herrmann J, Büching C, editors. FabLabs: Of Machines, Makers and Inventors. Bielefeld: Transcript Publishers. 2013. p 203-222.
[38] Jordan A., Carlile O, Stack A. Approaches to Learning: A Guide for Teachers: A Guide for Educators. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education; 2008. 296 p. ISBN: 0335226701
[39] Craft A. Creativity in schools: tensions and dilemmas. London: Routledge; 2005. 224 p. ISBN: 0415324157
[40] Ackermann E, Gauntlett D, Wolbers T, Weckstrom C. Defining systematic creativity in the digital realm. Billund: LEGO Learning Institute; 2009. 58 p.
[41] Kafai B, Burke Q. Connected Gaming: What Making Video Games Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. Cambridge: MIT press; 2016. 224 p. ISBN: 9780262035378
Risorse della lezione
- Digital creativity in teacher education - M. Barajas, F. Frossard
- Docent approach to digital creativity - M. Barajas, F. Frossard
- Approaches and tools for integrating digital creativity in Teacher Education - M.Ponticorvo
- Digital creativity through tangible interfaces - R. Di Fuccio
- Digital creativity through educational robotics - A. Trifonova
- Digital Creativity through STEM Education - D. Diamantidis
- Digital creativity through Inquiry-based learning - L. S. Sica
- Evaluation about digital creativity - K. K. Papadakis, F. Chaimala
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