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12 - Attitude Change as the Precursor to Creativity Enhancement

from PART II - VOICES FROM THE RESEARCH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

By
Jonathan A. Plucker  and
Gayle T. Dow
Edited by
Ronald A. Beghetto  and
James C. Kaufman
Ronald A. Beghetto
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
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Summary

Educational theorists such Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky have all highlighted the importance of using experiential learning, active hands-on learning, and problem-solving activities to promote learners’ creative development. More recently, research has provided evidence that these engaging instructional strategies can be used to enhance creativity. For example, inquiry-based laboratory activities appear to increase creative thinking levels and attitudes among pre-service science teachers (Yakar & Baykara, 2014).

Although many of these techniques have a well-established track record of success in motivating students and improving critical and creative thinking (Dow & Wagner, 2015), not all teachers embrace these techniques in their own classrooms. Policy and environmental factors, such as test-based accountability systems and diminishing teacher autonomy (Olivant, 2015), can be in direct conflict with creativity-fostering classrooms. And teachers’ negative attitudes toward creativity may be a potential source of bias when promoting creative behavior (Geake & Gross, 2008). The goal of this chapter is to propose a practical approach to enhancing creativity in today's schools and classrooms, primarily by modifying learner attitudes toward and beliefs about creativity.

Attitudes toward creativity are influenced by prior experiences (e.g., teacher education programs) and experiences in the classroom. These attitudes develop and grow into complex, organized mental frameworks of knowledge (Anderson, 1977; Piaget, 1926) that then influence curriculum planning, lesson plan development, and classroom activities. Although attitudes may be flexible, it is very difficult to completely change them, even in light of contradictory evidence (see Palmer, 1981; Wheatley & Wegner, 2001). This causes particular concern among educational psychologists, because some attitudes may be inaccurate or based on partially incorrect information.

Creativity is not immune from inaccurate attitudes or myths. Creativity, defined in this chapter as “the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as defined within a social context” (Plucker, Beghetto, & Dow, 2004, p. 90, emphasis in original), is plagued by implicit myths that, in our view, have led to widespread, inaccurate schemata.

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Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom , pp. 190 - 211
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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