Three Examples to Demonstrate a More Complete Theory of Loose parts (original) (raw)

Creativity in pre-school education

The volume is the result of the CREANET three-year-research process that has involved an experienced team of researchers and a large number of practitioners. CREANET is a multilateral Comenius Network running between 2010 and 2013. The project is the result of a transnational partnership representing 12 organisations from 10 European countries active in the field of education. The volume provides the reader with comprehensive array of perspectives on the topic, starting off from the specificities which characterize early childhood education and care in 10 different European countries. The book is organized in four sections: (1) the national literature reviews on creativity; (2) the transnational literature review and thematic analysis of creativity in pre-school education; (3) the perspective of the teachers on creativity; (4) creativity and pre-school education practices.

Objective measure of scientific creativity: Psychometricvalidity of the Creative Scientific Ability Test.

This article presents an overview of a new test of scientific creativity, "the Creative Scientific Ability Test (C-SAT)" and research carried out on its psychometric properties. The C-SAT measures potential for scientific creativity with fluency, flexibility and creativity components in hypothesis generation, experiment design and evidence evaluation tasks in five areas of science. In the current study, the test was administered to 693 sixth-grade students. The internal consistency reliability was found to be good (.87) and the interscorer reliability was excellent (.92). The Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the one-factor model solution for the C-SAT scores. The test had medium to high-medium correlations with math and science grades and a mathematical ability test. Mathematically talented students scored higher on the C-SAT than did average students. Research findings show that the C-SAT can be used as an objective measure of scientific creativity both in research and in the identification of scientifically creative students.

Autonomy and task performance: Explaining the impact of grades on intrinsic motivation

The use of grades to motivate constitutes an unresolved theoretical controversy. In 2 experiments carried out with different age groups and academic tracks, a standard-grade condition was compared with a condition in which differential scoring engendered higher grades and with a no-grade condition. The relative power of task performance and task autonomy to explain differences in subsequent intrinsic motivation (self-report task interest and continuing motivation for the task) was assessed. Results show that, compared with the standard-grade condition, both high-grade and no-grade conditions enhanced the 2 forms of subsequent intrinsic motivation. However, although task performance explained higher levels of task interest in the high-grade condition, it failed to explain higher levels of continuing motivation for the task. Task autonomy, conversely, explained the higher levels of both task interest and continuing motivation for the task experienced in the nongraded condition. Results are discussed in the light of an integrative model that differentiates the mediational role of task performance and autonomy, 2 traditional major explanations of the link between grades and intrinsic motivation.

Batalo Dissertation Creativity and Mindfulness

Creativity and Mindfulness, 2012

In this study, I explored the personal attitudes toward creativity of students enrolled in digital photography classes at a Southern California community college, and attempted to discover if awareness brought to creativity and participating in a creative process affects these attitudes. Pink (2005) suggested that creativity is a desirable 21st century skill, and that the future lies in individuals’ abilities to be creative. Yet, creativity is a difficult and complex subject, with many models and definitions. Due to this complexity, individuals may not be aware of their own creativity before they have identified it (Kaufman, 2009; Richards, 2007). Acquiring personal knowledge and insights about creativity through reflection and by participating in the creative process may also help to shift perspectives, increase awareness, and enhance creative potential.

Creativity and Financial Incentives

Creativity is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon with tremendous economics importance. Yet, despite this importance, there is very little work on the topic in the economics literature. In this paper, we consider the effect of incentives on creativity. We present a first series of experiments on individual creativity where subjects face creativity tasks where, in one case, ex-ante goals and constraints are imposed on their answers, and in the other case no restrictions apply. The effects of financial incentives in stimulating creativity in both types of tasks is then tested, together with the impact of personal features like risk and ambiguity aversion. Our findings show that, in general, financial incentives affect “closed” (constrained) creativity, but do not facilitate “open” (unconstrained) creativity. However, in the latter case incentives do play a role for ambiguity-averse agents, who tend to be significantly less creative and seem to need extrinsic motivation to exert effort in a task whose odds of success they don’t know. The second set of experiments aims at exploring group creativity in contexts where corporate culture promotes cooperation or competition among group members. Our results show that, in the case of closed tasks, financial incentives and collectivist attitudes foster creativity, but only with cooperative corporate culture.

An investigation into the factors enhancing or inhibiting primary school children's creativity in Pakistan

2010

This study provides a baseline analysis of the extent to which the primary education system in Pakistan is capable of enhancing or inhibiting children's creativity. It involved 1008 primary schools who participated in a survey, 154 children who took the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and classroom observation in 16 schools as well as documentary analysis of the education policy documents, curriculum and the official science textbook. The research presents the findings related to the definition of 'creativity', and the means used to identify, assess and enhance it as well as the importance and the obstacles faced in doing so.