The articles in this issue of "New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development" nicely summarize recent findings about creativity and development. This commentary underscores some of the key ideas and puts them into a larger context (i.e., the corpus of creativity research). It pinpoints areas of agreement (e.g., the need to take…

The author examines various definitions of creativity, from broad global statements to narrow views of testable traits. Concluding that none of these definitions can be operationalized in education, he suggests that educators concentrate on more definable components of creativity, such as critical thinking, aesthetics, and the imagination. (SJL)