On the Nature of the Creative Mind (original) (raw)

In educating the creative mind, it becomes imperative to reach a deeper understanding of the creative mind and of creativity itself. A vast number of creativity research studies conducted in recent years indicates that creativity is closely related to art, artistic practice and artistic modes of relating to and communicating with the world around us. Furthermore, creativity researchers in the field generally agree to base their definition of creativity on value and novelty, and they thus agree to presuppose a more or less tacit range of utilitarian and anthropocentric categories. In educating the creative mind, it is therefore also imperative to investigate the teleological basis for our understanding of the creative mind-what is the purpose of creativity and how does creativity relate to and influence our lives, practice, learning and the world around us? This paper examines the nature of the arts and the creative process and proposes a definition of creativity that places the arts and arts-based education as one of the many ways to promote creative thinking and innovation. Finally, the paper argues as one of its main conclusions that any change towards more creative preschools and early elementary schools presupposes a change of the culture of the schools and that this change in its turn presupposes a deep and unfolded understanding of the very culture that we want to enrich.