Creativity research has always been linked to its social and cultural context. In this essay, I give two examples of how creativity research has changed from the 1950s to the present, and I argue that these two changes are driven by social and cultural factors. First, I discuss a transformation in U.S. society from a 1950s emphasis on conformity,…

We argue that the future of creativity research should focus on the dual goals of the development of individuals with great creative genius as well as the enhancement of creative activity in society in general. To achieve these goals, we need basic research that will help us better understand the fundamental nature of creativity. We describe an…

The aim of this paper is to provide a concise survey of advances in the study of the psychology of creativity, with an emphasis on literature that is typically not cited in mathematics education. In spite of claims that mathematical creativity is an ill-defined area of inquiry in mathematics education, the literature from psychology can serve as…

In this article, I discuss how teaching of mathematics can develop and encourage creative thinking, not only in mathematics, but also in general. I begin by discussing creativity as a habit that teachers can help students develop. Then I briefly present the investment theory of creativity. The basic idea of the investment theory is that creative…

The standard definition of creativity has enabled significant empirical and theoretical advances, yet contains philosophical conundrums concerning the nature of novelty and the role of recognition and values. This work offers an act of conceptual valeting that addresses these issues. In doing so, creativity definitions are extended through the use…

The article reasserts the primacy of drawing as a driver of creativity within art schools. It reviews specific aspects of visual perception theory and visual communication theory relevant to a pedagogical strategy as a means of nurturing an "intelligence of seeing" in art students. The domain of drawing is theorised as a…

When people generate responses during a divergent thinking task, some responses are "old" (retrieved from memory) and some are "new" (generated on the spot). K.J. Gilhooly, E. Fioratou, S.H. Anthony, and V. Wynn (2007) suggested that old and new responses stem from different cognitive strategies and differ in key ways. The…

Since the introduction of brainstorming as an idea-generation technique to address organizational problems, researchers have struggled to replicate some of the claims around the technique. One major concern has been the differences in the number of ideas generated between established groups as found in industry versus the non-established groups…

Creativity and giftedness in mathematics education research are topics of an increased interest in the education community during recent years. This introductory paper to the special issue on Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness in Mathematics Education has a twofold purpose: to offer a brief historical perspective on the study of creativity and…

This article addresses the human need to create uniquely beautiful things for social sharing, play and to elevate objects above functionality. For that reason we often see ordinary people "making special" in many types of informal settings. A pervasive notion exists among many in the art world and in the general public that making that…

Working within the field of creativity can be difficult within a context of the arts. Just mentioning the word could get you into trouble. One thought is that in arts education we don't talk about creativity in fear of loosing the "magic" about it. The arts are per se a creative context so why bother defining it, describing it, or even…

This paper addresses the question of how the Conceptual Metaphor Theory with its well-established mechanism of cross-domain conceptual mappings, on the one hand, and the Conceptual Integration Theory, or Blending Theory with its mechanism of combining two or more input spaces into an emergent novel conceptual structure, on the other hand, can be…

This study aims to explore the effect of savoring of teachers at universities in Shandong, China, on their creative behaviors, using creative self-efficacy and aesthetic experience as mediators. This study adopted the use of questionnaires to investigate teachers at 32 universities in Shandong, China. 822 valid questionnaires were retrieved and…

This article presents a new model of building capacity for innovative teaching that I call "Artistic Quotient" (AQ). The purpose of the study was to test the model with generalist teachers who were registered in a professional learning program for innovative teaching through the arts. The procedure employed a one-way, within-subjects,…

Community art therapy studios promote individual and communal transformation outside of traditional health settings. In this qualitative study, 3 art therapists observed 6 sessions of a community art therapy studio by making art and writing observations. Synthesis of their findings indicated the importance of tending to healthy relationships.…