Education for Creative Potential

TLDR

Recent creativity research emphasizes unambiguous talent, yet for children the focus shifts to creative potential defined as personal construction of new meaning, aligning with the principle that understanding leads to invention and highlighting the individual self. The study finds that creative potential is widely distributed, with virtually every child possessing the capacity to generate personal interpretations, indicating that creativity is present in all children, not only the gifted.

Abstract

One trend in the creativity literature is towards unambiguous expressions of talent. This trend follows from an interest in scientific rigour, but if we are interested in children, it is creative potential that is the primary concern, rather than unambiguous creative performance. Educators and others working with children should define creativity in very literal terms, as thinking or problem solving that involves the construction of new meaning. This in turn relies on personal interpretations, and these are personal and new for the individual, not on any larger scale. This approach is consistent with the educational premise 'to understand is to invent', and it allows educators to target self-expression. The emphasis is thus on the individual, the self. Equally significant for educators is that this view of creativity posits that creativity is widely distributed. A wide distribution is implied because virtually every individual has the mental capacity to construct the personal interpretations that are involved. Creativity is, then, something we can find in every child, not just the gifted or highly intelligent.