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.
Il Modello delle 4 P di Rhodes
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
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
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
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
B. Person
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].
Picture of painter Francias Bacon in the famous workshop which inspired his art.
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.
C. Product
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
Вашето име”, Макото Шинкай
Шведска организация за свободно училище Bитра
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.
„5 сантиметра в секунда ”, Макото Шинкай
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.
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The importance of creativity
“There seems to be a consensus view, within the realm of education, that creativity is amenable to teaching.” LIN, 2011
Картина на класа на Йоханес Итен в Баухаус
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].
© www.creative-little-scientists.eu
Definitions
Definitions
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].
Джон Дюи, Поддръжник на eкспериментното обучение
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].
Пауло Фрайре, Bодещ защитник на критичната педагогика
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).
Жан Пиаже, баща на конструктивизма
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].
Сиймор Паперт, Пионер на конструктивното движение в образованието
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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Lezione 1 (slide n. 1) - Unit 1. Defining creativity
Lezione 1 (slide n. 12) - Unit 2 - Creative education
