engleski

Styles of Creativity in Education

Creativity is usually defined as the ability to create new ideas that have value. Since the 1950s creativity has been regarded as very important in the educational system and today it is highlighted as one of the general educational goals. Almost simultaneously, two different directions of creativity research were developed: level and style approach. Level approach addressed the question how creative someone is, while style approach addressed the question how someone is creative, i.e. in which way someone expresses creativity. Level (how much) and style (in what manner) represent two dimensions of creativity, so both approaches are equally important for understanding the phenomenon of creativity and the ability to encourage creativity in the educational process. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the relation between the level and style of creativity and the possibilities of encouraging different styles of creativity in the educational process in order to allow each individual a process of learning and development in accordance with individual's unique personality. One of the theories of creativity is Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Theory, which sets two distinct styles of problem solving and creativity, adaption and innovation, on the continuum of cognitive style. People differ in their preferences in solving problems, making decisions and bringing about change, so each person can be more adaptive or more innovative depending on the context. This paper offers guidelines for encouraging the adaption and innovation cognitive style in the modern educational process with the aim to systematically encourage creativity of children with different styles of creativity in education.

creativity, cognitive style, education, problem solving

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