Reframing Creativity in Education as a Distributed and Participatory Process [Interactive Lecture]

Date: 

Saturday, June 21, 2014 (All day)

Location: 

Maine College of Art

When innovation takes place in our deeply connected, interdependent world, it is almost always the result of the collaborative efforts and insights of a variety of individuals. Despite the prominence of socially emergent creativity and innovation throughout business, science, and the arts, many educators and school policy makers still retain traditional, individual-based understandings of creativity.

During this interactive lecture, Project Zero researcher Edward Clapp will make the case that educators who subscribe to traditional, individual-based understandings of creativity are focused on the wrong unit of analysis. Rather than attempt to develop educational structures that increase individual student creativity, Edward proposes that it is more important to pursue an understanding of the unique learning that accrues to young people when they participate in the development of group-generated creative ideas. To make this case, Edward will discuss his research of learning environments that pursue creativity and innovation through the development of group-generated ideas. The ultimate goal for this session is to provide participants with an understanding of creativity as an educational experience students participate in, rather than something one either is or has. Reframing creativity as a distributed and participatory process may relieve the stress of fostering creativity within individuals that many educators now face, and allow for the emergence of new pedagogical practices aimed at developing teaching and learning environments where creative ideas—and the broad spectrum of individuals who participate in those ideas—may flourish.