Play and Creativity: Developmental issues

Play and creativity have been linked in numerous ways. Theoretically, pretend play fosters the development of cognitive and affective processes that are important in the creative act. Russ's (1993) model of affect and creativity identified the major cognitive and affective processes involved in creativity and the relations among them, based on the research literature. Central to both play and creativity is divergent thinking. Both cognitive and affective processes in play have been related to divergent thinking in children. In a longitudinal study, quality of fantasy and imagination in play predicted divergent thinking over time. Divergent thinking itself was relatively stable over time. An important question is whether play can facilitate creativity. Play has been found to facilitate insight ability and divergent thinking. Studies have also shown that children can be taught to improve their play skills. Future research studies should: (i) investigate specific mechanisms that account for the relationship between play and creativity; (ii) develop play intervention techniques that improve play skills; and (iii) carry out longitudinal studies with large enough samples to enable the application of statistical procedures such as path analysis.     

Trust: the power that binds in team supervision of doctoral students

Team supervision of doctoral students adds new dimensions and complexities to relationships within the teams that impact functionality of the team. Trust emerged as a significant theme in recent qualitative research into the quality of team supervision of doctoral students. Trust was cited as a key component in successful team collaborations, and the missing component in dysfunctional teams. Definitions refer to trust as the belief of truthfulness, reliability or faith in another person’s abilities. My hypothesis is that trust operates as a form of power in team supervision. It is a form of power that enables voice, resilience and creativity in teams. This article concludes that placing trust in others in supervisory teams is a deliberate decision by candidates and supervisors. It is a decision to engage in a team context despite known risks and may be understood as a gamble on the reliability of others in the expectation of reciprocity. By conceptualising trust as a form of power, strategies that engender and maintain trust may be utilised more intentionally.     

Cultural differences in Chinese American and European American children's drawing skills over time

Parents and early childhood teachers in Chinese societies and the United States have had dissimilar views about appropriate art instruction for young children. The Chinese view is that creativity will emerge after children have been taught essential drawing skills. The American view has been that children's drawing skills emerge naturally and that directive teaching will stifle children's creativity. Forty second-generation Chinese American and 40 European American young children participated in this longitudinal study at ages 5, 7, and 9 to explore possible cultural differences in and antecedents of their drawing skills and creativity. Chinese American children's person drawings were more mature and creative and their parents reported more formal ways of fostering creativity as compared to their European American counterparts. Correlations showed that children who had more opportunities to draw and who received more guidance in drawing were more advanced in their drawing. For Chinese Americans, fathers’ personal art attitudes and children's Time 1 drawing skills predicted 53% of the variance in children's drawing scores four years later.     

The discourse and nature of creativity and innovation: Ways of relating to the novel

In the discourse of the knowledge-based economy, the link between creativity and innovation is usually taken for granted. However, not only is this link of recent date, it joins together two diametrically opposed concepts: the economic concept of innovation and the humanistic concept of creativity. In research too, there is a lack of enquiry into the nature of the processes of creativity and innovation and into how these processes are similar yet different. Building on the original insights of Henri Poincaré and Joseph Schumpeter, I present the hypothesis that creativity and innovation are similar in nature, not in regard to knowledge or skills, but in that both are ways of relating to the novel. My findings suggest, meanwhile, that creativity and innovation differ in that creativity is about experiencing the novel in the creative process, whereas innovation is about willing the novel as a strategy for the innovative process. Furthermore, my findings suggest that there exists a structural similarity between creativity and innovation and Aristotle’s concepts of practical and philosophical wisdom, in that innovation is a form of practical wisdom in regard to the novel, whereas creativity is a form of philosophical wisdom in regard to the novel.     

Enhancing creativity and innovation in engineering education

With the rapid progress of modern civilization, creativity and innovation within a techno-economic perspective are becoming the major driving forces behind the sustainability of economic growth and competitive achievements. The current paper will focus on developing a clear concept of the terms creativity and innovation, and investigate their possible relation with engineering education. The parameters that could be essential for the enhancement of creativity or innovation are discussed from the perspective of the individual and the community. An engineering creativity enterprise diagram (ECED) is introduced to be reflective of the industrialization and technological level of any community as correlated to creativity and innovation. A systematic approach is designed to help developing the possible courses and activities that would enhance creativity and innovative skills and capabilities of a graduate engineer.     

Minecraft and machinima in action: development of creativity in the classroom

ABSTRACT

Numerous studies show the positive effects of introducing video games into learning contexts. These instruments help develop twenty-first-century skills, such as creativity, from a dual perspective: (i) the students’ perspective, since they develop skills and competencies that allow them to find innovative solutions to the challenges posed by games, and to become digital culture producers; and (ii) the education professionals’ perspective, to use these instruments in schools and thereby change the way students learn. Using a sample of 85 first-year secondary school students, this study aims to provide empirical evidence about the development of creativity through the introduction of video games in the classroom. To do this, an eight-week pedagogical workshop was developed in which the Minecraft video game was introduced in the subject of technology. To assess the results of the workshop, the participants’ creativity was analysed using a pre-test/post-test design through the CREA Creative Intelligence Test, as well as the evaluation of the students’ machinima productions by their teachers. Results show a significant increase in creativity and high scores for machinima productions, highlighting the opportunity to introduce these tools in classrooms in order to develop innovative educational contexts where creative processes and products are the protagonists.     

The Social Construction and Psychological Assessment of Creativity

The paper underlines the conceptual disunity present in the field of creativity research and introduces a relational concept of creativity of products that stresses the socially defined character of this aspect of creativity. The proposed definition implies that creativity cannot be conceived as an ability of persons, as a characteristic of thinking processes, or as a neuronal function. Referring to the well‐known investment theory of creativity and to the so‐called creativity tests, the paper explicates additional consequences of a socially construed creativity concept and considers the status of empirical research on creativity within a social constructionist framework.     

Influences on Creativity in Technical Communication: Invention,Motivation, and Constraints

Interviews with 14 technical communicators reveal that skills in rhetorical invention help them creatively address communication problems. They define creativity in relation to four interrelated exigencies of invention: thinking like a user, reinvigorating dry content, inventing visual ideas, and alternating between heuristic and algorithmic processes. They recognize intrinsic factors such as curiosity and sympathy as motivations for their creativity, while being conscious of the external factors (people, money, and time) that may restrain creativity.     

The PhD – is it out of alignment?

ABSTRACT

Globally there is recognition that doctoral programmes need to offer the opportunity for career pathways beyond academia, as PhD graduates are entering a range of careers. Consequently, some doctoral programmes now provide opportunities to develop a broader skill set. However, most PhD programmes in the United Kingdom and Australasia still concentrate on disciplinary knowledge and developing research skills. Moreover, the assessment has remained narrowly focused on a written thesis and an oral examination. Here we apply the notion of ‘constructive alignment’ to doctoral education and find that, even in terms of preparing PhD graduates for academic and research careers, the curriculum lacks opportunities to develop and assess relevant skills. The situation is even more extreme for wider careers beyond academia. To achieve alignment, we suggest providing more structured learning opportunities and personalised professional development plans with formative portfolios. If wanting true alignment in the PhD, a portfolio would be the summative assessment, but this is likely a step too far for a conservative academy.     

The Limits To Creativity In Education: Dilemmas For The Educator

Since the end of the 1990s, creativity has become a growing area of interest once more within education and wider society. In England creativity is now named within the school curriculum and in the curriculum for children aged 3–5. There are numerous government and other initiatives to foster individual and collective creativity, some of this through partnership activity bringing together the arts, technology, science and the social sciences.
  As far as education is concerned, this growth in emphasis and value placed on encouraging creativity can be seen as being in stark contrast with the government policy prevalent from the late 1980s onward. One of the underpinning themes and justifications for this re-kindling of interest in fostering creativity is that the individual and collective empowerment which is fostered by the development of creative skill is seen to be a good thing at the social and economic level in particular (Craft, 2002). These justifications have been discussed elsewhere (Jeffrey and Craft, 2001).
  But an important question to ask is, how desirable are the cultural norms of continual change and innovation in Western society?
  This paper examines some possible social, environmental, cultural and ethical limits to creativity, in the context of educating for creativity (NACCCE, 1999). It argues that the notion of creativity may be value- and culture-specific and that this poses the so-called liberal educator with various dilemmas of principle and pedagogy, which are explored.     

从国外思维教学项目看其对学生创造力的培养

信息时代背景下加强对学生创造力的培养已是全球教育界的共识。本文通过对当代国外具有代表性的思维教学项目的分析,总结了这些项目如何通过开放性的教材内容设计、基于建构主义的教学方法设计和对以创造力发展为教学目标的教师专业发展体系的构建来培养学生的创造力,希望能对我国素质教育改革和创造力培养研究带来一些有益的启示。     

Factors explaining the learning of generic skills: a study of university students’ experiences

ABSTRACT

Although generic skills have received widespread attention from both policymakers and educationalists, little is known regarding how students acquire these skills, or how they should best be taught. Hence, the aim of this study was to identify what kinds of pedagogical practices are behind the learning of eight particular generic skills. The data were collected from university students (N =?163, n?=?123) via Internet questionnaires. The findings from regression analyses showed that teaching practices involving collaboration and interaction as well as features of a constructivist learning environment and integrative pedagogy predicted the learning of generic skills – such as decision-making skills, different forms of creativity, and problem-solving skills. In contrast, the traditional forms of university teaching – such as reading, lecturing, and working alone – were negatively associated to learning generic skills. Overall, this study offers detailed information about the pedagogical practices that nurture learning generic skills in university contexts.     

The Impact of a Science/Technology/Society Teaching Approach on Student Learning in Five Domains

The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the Chautauqua Professional Development Program in terms of the mastery of basic science concepts, understanding major science processes, use of creativity skills, improvement of student attitudes toward science, and the ability to apply science concepts and processes in new situations. Participants included twelve teachers who agreed to participate in an experimental study where Science, Technology, and Society (STS) strategies were utilized with two class sections where in one class the teacher determined the course structure and the form of instruction that was typically used. Conversely, the experimental class was almost exclusively student-centered. A total of twenty-four sections of students were in STS sections (365 students) and a similar number in control sections (359 students).The data collected were analyzed using quantitative methods. The results were tabulated and contrasted for students enrolled in the two sections for all the teachers. The results indicate that students in the student-centered STS sections achieved significantly better than students in the teacher-directed STS sections in terms of understanding and use of process skills, use of creativity skills, development of more positive attitudes; and the ability to apply science concepts in new contexts. However, there were no significant differences noted with respect to mastery of basic science concepts. Apparently student-centered STS approaches result in students with conceptual understandings but it is no better than the situation where teachers guide and direct inquiry STS approaches which focus much more exclusively on specific concepts and their definitions.     

Cabinetmakers’ Workplace Mathematics and Problem Solving

This study explored what kind of mathematics is needed in cabinetmakers’ everyday work and how problem solving is intertwined in it. The informants of the study were four Finnish cabinetmakers and the data consisted of workshop observations, interviews, photos, pictures and sketches made by the participants during the interviews. The data was analysed using different qualitative techniques. Even though the participants identified many areas of mathematics that could be used in their daily work, they used mathematics only if they were able to. The cabinetmakers’ different mathematical skills and knowledge were utilized to their skill limit. Cabinetmakers were found to constantly face problem solving situations along with the creative processes. Being able to use more advanced mathematics helped them to solve those problems more efficiently, without wasting time and materials. Based on the findings, the paper discusses the similarities and differences between problem solving and creative processes. It is suggested that the combination of craftsmanship, creativity, and efficient problem solving skills together with more than basic mathematical knowledge will help cabinetmakers in adapting and surviving in future unstable labour markets.     

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.     

Learning for well-being: creativity and inner diversity

This article explores the perspective that well-being and creativity can be nurtured in children through understanding and addressing the diverse ways in which children learn, communicate, and develop (inner diversity). In particular, our working hypothesis is that focusing children’s and young people’s learning towards the realization of their well-being supports and enables creativity. But it also requires, firstly, addressing how children perceive, engage with, and express creativity in different ways and, secondly, nurturing the development of core capacities to, in turn, underpin their capacity to develop key competences and skills in formal and non-formal learning settings. In recommending that education systems take the well-being of children as their central purpose, we are suggesting that there are capacities, ranging from personal qualities to behavioural skills, which are necessary for the development of the personal resources to enable lifelong and life-wide learning.     

Integrating creativity training into Problem and Project-Based Learning curriculum in engineering education

In order to foster creative engineers, a creativity training programme was carried out in medialogy education in a Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment at Aalborg University, Denmark. This paper focuses on the question of how engineering students perceive the strategy of integrating creativity training into a PBL curriculum. A total of 20 medialogy students in the training programme were interviewed. The data shows that the training programme was thought useful and students get benefits such as gaining project work skills, creative concepts and confidence of being creative. However, limitations of the programme show that only five days of training did not fit the requirements of learning skills in PBL. So the supervisors are suggested to offer more creativity techniques and process engagement to move projects forward.     

课堂教学中实践创新教育的几点体会

课堂教学中，除了向学生传授基础知识和基本技能外，还应着力培养他们的创新精神和创新能力。要通过创设新型的师生关系，增强学生的创新意识；要通过介绍科学家的创新成就，激发学生的创新精神；要结合探索性、设计性实验，培养学生的创新能力；要以培养学生创新能力为已任，有目的、有意识地长期坚持下去，做创新教育的有心人。     

当代组织创新的理论及其应用意义

组织环境里的创新不只是独立的个人创新，而具有更加复杂的内容。建立在等级体制和官僚体制基础上的解决问题的传统规则和组织的运行机制，受到来自市场方面的严重挑战。当代组织创新的理论模型强调，个人的创新性成就依赖于组织运作的开放性，以及组织给予个人在经济的精神上的投入、并找到维护组织利益和保证个人创造性发挥彼此平衡的运行机制。     

在教学方法中普及应用建导技术是释放学生创造力与合作力的关键

本文首先介绍国际上先进的、国内还空白的一个关键的事理学原理,即人脑认知机制的“非简单性”．然后回顾若干教育方法论与学习方法论的前沿成果,指出只有真正在教学过程中做到“以学习者为中心”才有可能实现对这些原理的应用。