Summary of: Kupers, E., Lehmann-Wermser, A., McPherson, G., & van Geert, P. (2019). Children's
creativity: a theoretical framework and systematic review. Review of Educational
Research, 89(1), 93-124.
Childrens Creativity: A theoretical Framework
Within education, children’s creativity is recognized as an essential 21st century skill.
Imaging & creating new, unique solutions to complex problems is a distinctive human trait.
Today’s increasingly complex problems in communities and schools demands people to
develop sophisticated creative solutions.
importance of creativity in education is now widely recognized because of this
Role of creativity in educational policies is ambiguous
Education experts & policymakers emphasize role of education in fostering
creativity(National Advisory Committee on Creative & Cultural Education, 1999)
Other educational experts argue this increased standardization of educational policy of
basic skills & standardized testing has diminished creativity (Hall & Thompson, 2005;
Robinson, 2011)
Key question: what is creativity?
Individual characteristic/ability (like intelligence)
Output/product (original painting, elegant solution)
Process of generating & trying out & evaluating new ideas
Answer to this question has consequences on how it is measured & vice versa;
mainstream creativity research influences popular opinion on creativity
Aim:
1. Integrating main theoretical approaches of children’s creativity through development
of a framework based on Complex Dynamic Systems model(creativity can be defined
by 2 mechanisms: emergence & constraint)
2. Empirical integration of recent literature (through 3-dimensional taxonomy)
where are the gaps in literature, which themes are relevant?
Complex Dynamic Systems Perspective (CDS)
Main Principles
Fundamental question: Where does novelty/creation come from?
In creativity research you can focus on every day forms of creativity & truly innovative
outputs of creativity by individuals that push society forward.
How to approach creativity?
Theory of complex dynamic systems
1. Learning is socially situated/ exists in interactions
o Interactions between student and direct social environment (teacher) &
physical environment (learning by doing/ enactment)
o In large body of educational research the environment is seen as outside
factor. In CDS it’s considered that student & environment shape or influence
each other/ co-create learning and teaching is in constant interaction with
environment
This idea is shared with social-constructivist theories (Kave & Wenger,
1991; Vygotsky, 1978) & situated or embodied cognition (Foglia &
Wilson, 2013; Smith, 2005)
2. Interactions between child & environment = self-organizing
o No external force that pushes learning into one direction or another; learning
and teaching emerge through socially embedded interaction
, TDC – Lecture 4 Kupers 01 2
o Link between developmental psych & creativity: emergence
defined as … Emergent entities (properties/substances) arise out of
more fundamental entities and yet are “novel” or ‘irreducible’ with
respect to them (O’connor & Wong, 2015)
Emergence are core characteristic of all complex systems. Mechanism
that connects higher order & lower order variables (higher order
variables emerge from interaction between lower level variables over
time).
o Self-organization & emergence imply that it’s meaningful to distinguish
between different levels of organization in teaching and learning. Different
levels take place on different timescales
Example lower order component; interactions here and now between
student and teacher as student solves mathematical problem; timescale
= minutes
Example higher order component: student’s mastery of mathematics/
student motivation for mathematics’, repeated measures over months
Interaction can also work other way around; high level variables put
constraints on lower level v.
low level of motivation for maths influences the range of
teacher-student interaction during math class
3. As a consequence of self-organization, complex systems display variability over time
o Intraindividual variability (variability across time within individual) is an
intrinsic property of learning and development
Occurs through continuous transaction between child and environment.
Creates flexibility in system because multiple behavioral states are
explored. Giving rise to novel and higher states of functioning
this creates fluctuating levels of variability over time which
indicates current state of system
temporary increase in variability indicates phase transition in
different domains (e.g. cognitive development).
Example: when children solve series of matrix tasks, there’s
often a peak in mistakes made before they discover new
strategy
Theories of Creativity on Four Levels
Four P’s of Creativity (framework to classify different creativity approaches, Rhodes,
1961). Still influential to this day to classify empirical research.
Defines creativity research in different lines/strands
Conclusion: different schools of creativity research developed in isolation, rarely informing
each other. Meta-theoretical model is needed to understand how the different strands relate
and interact. complex dynamic system model will be used to interpret 4 levels
1. Creativity on Level of the Person: In early days, creativity often studied as a
personality characteristic. Research mainly focused on relation to other personality
traits, mainly intelligence (IQ, from here).
o Creativity as part of IQ: research on intellectual giftedness. Gardner (1995,
2011) states that IQ is more than capacity for logic reason & literacy. Even
though educational system gives these most attention.
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