Children’s Creativity: A Theoretical Framework and Systematic Review

By E. Kupers, Andreas Lehmann-Wermser, G. McPherson, P. V. van Geert. Review of Educational Research, 2018

179 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Within education, the importance of creativity is recognized as an essential 21st-century skill. Based on this premise, the first aim of this article is to provide a theoretical integration through the development of a framework based on the principles of complex dynamic systems theory, which describes and explains children’s creativity. This model is used to explain differing views on the role of education in developing children’s creativity. Our second aim is empirical integration. On the basis of a three-dimensional taxonomy, we performed a systematic review of the recent literature (2006–2017, 184 studies) on primary school students’ creativity. Our results show that creativity is most often measured as a static, aggregated construct. In line with our theoretical model, we suggest ways that future research can elaborate on the moment-to-moment interactions that form the basis of long-term creative development, as well as on the mechanisms that connect different levels of creativity.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3dbd7e6cd379e8f1081e7b9fff59d3e9da43f082