What price hyacinths? An appreciation of the work of Sir Alec Clegg 1

Creativity is seen as important to society by the current Prime Minister and the Department for Education and Skills and is present in curriculum documents applying from birth to 16 years old but with various shades of meaning. Unfortunately, the term creativity is used in English education and the larger society without a clear definition. The author argues that for creativity to truly underpin education there needs to be an agreed definition of creativity.     

Creative tensions? Creativity and basic skills in recent educational policy

Recently, in response to sustained criticism about the standards driven curriculum, UK government agencies have been promoting creativity in schools. In this article we explore how creativity is being defined in current national educational policy statements; how these definitions relate to other theoretical work on creativity, and the implications for the curriculum and pedagogies.     

Can creativity be measured? An attempt to clarify the notion of creativity and general directions for future research

The goal of this investigation is to demonstrate that much of the confusion regarding the measurement of creativity is caused by the insufficient clarity of its definition and to provide suggestions for an improved assessment and new possible tools of investigation (e.g. interviews).It is shown that three dimensions of creativity (novelty, appropriateness and impact) constitute a framework within which creativity can be defined and measured.Further clarity to the definition of creativity is added by distinguishing between person's and product's creativity and providing definitions for each.Based on this new definition, it is argued that Divergent Thinking, Remote Associates or some personality scales can be considered neither the only components of the creative process/cognition/potential nor “creativity tests”. The use of the terms “creativity test” and “measure of creative process” in the literature are criticized and it is indicated when they should be used.It is also shown that claims to have found a general factor of creativity are based on methodological and conceptual errors.Finally it is concluded that a person's creativity can only be assessed indirectly (for example with self report questionnaires or official external recognition) but it cannot be measured directly.     

The changing face of creativity in Australian education

Traditional ties between “arts” education (that is, discipline-based arts subjects and activities in schools) and an emergent notion of “creativity” in educational discourses and policy documents are loosening, with implications for both. While creativity seems to be on the ascendant, the arts may not be as fortunate; creative skills and capacities are emerging as a central focus of twenty-first century learning, while the arts continue to fight for room in an overcrowded curriculum. In this article, we examine some policy-level shifts in focus towards creativity and its conflation with innovation, and its trickle-down effects in secondary and tertiary learning environments. Central to this analysis is the diffuse and often contentious constructions of discourses of creativity, and its inability to be clearly and consistently defined or measured in the education sector. The need to quantify creativity and its presence in schools is on the rise, and this article tracks its implications for teacher education, policy development and curriculum and pedagogical evolution in the twenty-first century.     

Remaking textbook policy: analysis of national curriculum alignment in Korean school textbooks

The article aims to reform Korean textbook policy through analysing national curriculum alignment in authorized school textbooks and assessing their quality management. The research was conducted with 14 different types of approved middle school physical education textbooks that were examined for the creativity embedded in Korea’s current national curriculum. The research outcomes indicate great disparities in the creativity of the examined physical education texts. Also, the textbooks focused only partially on the aim and method of the mandated curriculum. The findings suggest a lack of creativity, which is a guiding principle of nationally authorized textbooks. Thus, Korean textbook policy needs to be changed in two important ways. First, the classification of creativity must be made part of the compilation criteria, and second, creativity must be reinstated as part of the authorized textbook screening process.     

Elementary Students,Creativity, and Technology

Abstract

This article reports on the impact on student personal creativity of a longitudinal study that had as its major goal the creation of a unique intervention program for elementary students. The intervention was based on the National Profile and Statement (Curriculum Corporation, 1994a, 1994b) for the curriculum area of technology. The intervention program comprised thematically based units of work that integrated all eight Australian Key Learning Areas (KLA). A pretest/posttest control group design investigation (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) was undertaken with 580 students from 7 schools and 24 class groups that were randomly divided into 3 treatment groups. One group (10 classes) formed the control group. Another 7 classes received the year-long intervention program, while the remaining 7 classes received the intervention, but with the added seamless integration of their available classroom computer technologies. The effect of the intervention on the personal creativity characteristics of the students involved in the study was assessed using the Creativity Checklist, an instrument that was developed during the study. The results suggest that the purposeful integration of computer technology with the intervention program positively affects the personal creativity characteristics of students.     

Creativity and performativity policies in primary school cultures

Cultures of performativity in English primary schools refer to systems and relationships of: target‐setting; Ofsted inspections; school league tables constructed from pupil test scores; performance management; performance related pay; threshold assessment; and advanced skills teachers. Systems which demand that teachers ‘perform’ and in which individuals are made accountable. These policy measures, introduced to improve levels of achievement and increased international economic competitiveness, have, potentially, profound implications for the meaning and experience of primary teachers’ work; their identities; their commitment to teaching; and how they view their careers. At the same time as policies of performativity are being implemented there is now increasing advocacy for the adoption and advancement of ‘creativity’ policies within primary education. These major developments are being introduced in the context of a wide range of social/educational policies also aimed at the introduction of creativity initiatives into schools and teaching. This complex policy context has major implications for the implementation process and also primary teachers’ work and how they experience it. The ethnographic research reported in this article has been conducted over a school year in six English primary schools in order to analyse the effects of creativity and performativity policy initiatives at the implementation stage. The article concludes by arguing that in the schools of our research the drive to raise pupil test scores involves both performative and creative strategies and that this critical mediation goes beyond amelioration toward a more complex view of professional practice. Implementing creativity and performativity policies provided important contextual influencing factors on teacher commitment. These were: curriculum coverage and task completion; and providing psychic rewards of teaching.     

Development of creativity: The influence of varying levels of implementation of the DISCOVER curriculum model, a non-traditional pedagogical approach

Development of creativity is influenced by multiple factors, including the environment, developmental changes, and measurement tools. In this study, we investigated the relationship between creativity development and implementation of the Discovering Intellectual Strengths and Capabilities while Observing Varied Ethnic Responses (DISCOVER) curriculum model. Using the Test of Creative Thinking–Drawing Production (TCT-DP), 1986 culturally diverse, low-income students, K through 6, in four elementary schools in the U.S. were assessed for three consecutive years. The creativity of all children increased from grades K to 6, but children in classrooms of low implementers demonstrated a dip and some “pauses.” Differences in scores of children in middle/high and low implementers' classrooms were significant. The implication is that creativity development is supported through active learning, student choice, access to varied materials, exploration, self-evaluation, problem finding, and problem solving. Additional analyses need to be conducted to uncover cultural and linguistic influences in these four schools.     

Can Investigative Practical Work in High School Biology Foster Creativity?

Creativity is recognised as a valuable human quality for personal, social, technological and economic reasons and many school curriculum documents assert that creativity can be taught. In science education it is often argued that it is through engagement in practical work that students develop their possibility thinking and problem solving abilities. This paper uses data generated during a four-year study of students engaged in open investigative practical work in senior biology to indicate how such engagement might foster personal and collaborative creativity.     

论大学生“学少悟多”创造素质的培养

本文论述了大学教学的本质、目标在于“创造”,并且提出了培养大学生“学少悟多”创造素质的教学改革的几点看法。一是确立“以人为本”、培养“创造素质”为导向的教学评价观 ;二是激发和培养与创造素质有重大关系的非智力心理品质 ;三是进行坚持“少就是多”的课程内容建构的改革 ;四是进行有利于开发学生创造力的教学方法改革。这对我国大学由知识质量型到创造型的教学改革有一定的指导意义     

Educational Guidance‐‐Technical Education: STUDENT GUIDANCE IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION

It is contended that present assumptions regarding the relationship of creativity to curriculum structure are inadequately supported by both experimental findings and theoretical rationale. There are two main issues requiring further elucidation: the first concerns the influence of school environment on creativity directly: the second comprises an examination of the interrelationships of creativity, intelligence and curriculum structure.

The evidence presented demonstrates that school environments have a perceptible influence upon creativity but the generally held assumption that progressive environments are more favourable is shown to require careful qualification.The findings also suggest that the interrelationships of creativity, intelligence and curriculum structure are highly complex. Structure does not seem to affect creativity‐intelligence correlations to any great extent: the major influences here would appear to be largely dependent upon the average intelligence of the groups and the extent to which the creativity tasks require school learning and especially verbal skills for their performance.     

日本高中数学教育课程的改革

本文介绍了当前日本数学教育课程的改革方针,指出其突出的特点在于强调培养学生“创造性的基础”,并对日本高中教学课程的目标和内容进行了评析。     

培智学校课程改革与社会适应目标探析

本文在回顾智力落后儿童社会适应能力定义的基础上,分析了社会适应目标在智力落后教育与培智学校中的重要地位;对我国培智学校课程体系中的社会适应目标进行了详细回顾与分析;以社会适应能力为切入口,对我国培智学校课程改革的发展方向进行了讨论与思考。培智学校的课程改革要“以生活质量为导向”;既注意课程的统合,又要注意课程的分层;要向“学校为本位的课程”模式发展;同时,注重“均衡课程”的发展。     

The Implicit Curriculum in Social Work Education: The Culture of Human Interchange

This article focuses on the culture of human interchange, which is included as a component of the implicit curriculum in the current EPAS. It presents the use of the implicit curriculum concept in teacher and medical education as a context for its application to social work education. The authors argue that professional behaviors taught in the explicit curriculum of the classroom need to be consciously reinforced in the many venues and through the ongoing interpersonal relations throughout the educational environment. The article identifies the challenges that movement in this direction would create but which the implicit curriculum standard mandates us to address.     

Epistemic insights: Contemplating tensions between policy influences and creativity in school science

Creativity and the way it could be supported in schools is understood differently by policy makers, practitioners and scientists. This article reviews, with a chronological lens, the development of policies that include teaching creativity and teaching for creativity. The epistemic tensions between the intentions of government and the nature of creativity as it emerges in learning or scientific work is introduced and reflected upon. There have been more than nine key educational policies that have been introduced over the last 50 years. Each of these are considered in this article and related to the ways that creativity is understood and expected to be taught, supported or enacted in schools by policy makers. In light of the need to support creativity as a key twenty-first-century skill, to ultimately enable current students (who will become the next generation of scientists) to develop the capabilities to address global concerns, this article highlights issues related to this issue. Epistemic insights are offered that relate to the development of aspects of creativity, including questioning, developing alternate ideas, ‘seeing’ things differently, innovation, curiosity, problem solving and evaluating. The ways that policy related to creativity in science appears not to recognise how creativity can be reified in these ways in schools suggests the need for rapid review, especially in light of the upcoming international creativity tests in 2021.     

当前大学创造教育的课程建设与模式建构

创造学学科建设与创造教育的模式构建问题是创造教育的基本理论问题。人们对创造学学科性质认识上的模糊及创造教育缺乏系统性,极大地影响了创造教育的实施。当前应当进一步完善普通创造学,重点加强学科创造学的建设,实施一体两翼三结合的立体化创造教育模式。     

通过数学活动题培养学生创造力的实践探索

培养学生的创造力是世界各地的课程改革也包括数学教育的一个重要目标。然而由于对创造力本身的界定有不同的认识,如何在教学中培养学生的创造力一直是困扰一线教师的难题。数学活动题作为一种开放性的问题,提供了丰富的问题情境,有助于学生探索和思考。学生在解决可操作的数学活动题时,表现出积极的情感体验,体现出多样的思维过程,并能对自己的解题思路进行反思和调整。利用数学活动题是培养学生数学创造力的一条可行的途径。     

台湾技职校院推动创业教育的困境与策略

台湾技职校院推动创业教育面临创业管理课程与实务缺乏连结、创业人才培育缺乏全面性和多元性、创业竞赛流于创意竞赛等三个困境。针对上述困境,应加强创业教育课程与实务的连结,多元性地开设创业教育课程,改善引导创业竞赛,以此推动创业教育的发展。     

"学思维"活动课程对初中生创造力影响的实验研究

采用自行设计的“学思维”活动课程,对39名初中生进行为期两年的思维能力训练,探讨该课程对学生创造力的影响。结果表明,实验组学生的创造性思维能力、科学创造力和语文创造力有明显的提高。     

An empirical study of industrial engineering and management curriculum reform in fostering students’ creativity

The objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of a creativity-fostering program in industrial engineering and management (IE&M) curriculum reform. Fostering creativity in students has become a crucial issue in industrial engineering education. In a survey of previous studies, we found few on IE&M curriculum reform. In particular, no study has dealt directly with fostering students’ creativity. In this study, we propose an IE&M curriculum reform program. The core of this program is intended to enhance students’ creative problem solving ability. Based on this concept, three required courses were developed: industrial communication, creative problem solving, and scientific research methodology. To investigate the effectiveness of this curriculum reform program, we conducted a two-year follow-up study. One hundred seventy-seven IE&M undergraduates from Yuan-Ze University participated this study, and Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) were used to measure changes in their creativity. The results showed that the students, after completing this reformed curriculum program, had significantly improved their creativity.