Teacher education in creative pedagogies for STE(A)M disciplines

Abstract

There is growing interest internationally in education for creativity, demonstrated by its inclusion in the influential PISA tests from 2022. Definitions of creativity typically include three core strands: novelty, effectiveness, and ethicality (Cropley 2001). In other words, creativity is oriented to the development of a new product or idea that is useful in some way, making a positive contribution. In defining creative thinking suitable for 15 year olds, PISA’s definition incorporates all these aspects: “[Creative thinking is defined as] the competence to engage productively in the generation, evaluation and improvement of ideas, that can result in original and effective solutions, advances in knowledge and impactful expressions of imagination”(OECD 2019 p.8). Creativity in education has been explored from both cognitive and sociocultural theoretical perspectives. Definitions of creativity such as those above focus on creative thinking and use cognitive concepts such as divergent and convergent creativity in which originality is related to divergent creative thinking and imagination, and the analysis, synthesis and evaluation deemed necessary to ensure the utility of the ideas produced are associated with convergent creativity. The sociocultural perspective situates creativity within the wider social and cultural context in which new ideas or outcomes are produced, recognising that creativity occurs both individually and collaboratively, through dialogue. Csikszentmihalyi’s view of creativity highlighted the importance of a combination of culture, individual original thought and the importance of disciplinary expertise. Whilst creativity is often associated with the Arts, there is ongoing debate regarding the extent to which creativity is ‘domain-specific’ or ‘domain-general’. Domain-general creativity is seen as being essentially the same regardless of discipline or context. On the other hand, it can be argued that given that different subjects are rooted in different ‘ways of knowing’, how creativity manifests in different disciplines may vary, leading to the notion of domain-specific creativity such as scientific creativity as distinct from artistic creativity, and so on. Regardless, there is no doubt that creativity plays a role in STEM subjects as well as Arts. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to education argue for different disciplinary perspectives to be drawn together (interdisciplinarity), or transcended (transdisciplinarity), leading to the notion of STEM Education. The economic imperative that lay behind the interdisciplinary grouping of STEM subjects as key to economic growth also sits behind the more recent inclusion of Art, or the Arts, with the argument that innovation and creativity are increasingly recognised as crucial in economic growth. STE(A)M education, in which Art or the Arts is drawn in to inter/multi/transdisciplinary approaches to STEM, has gained ground internationally within Higher Education and policy in recent years and can be linked to the educational focus on creativity, or creative thinking, as a desirable educational outcome. This entry describes research into creative pedagogies in STE(A)M education to explore how creativity can be taught and learned, and the implications for teacher education