The authors examine why the attribution of "giftedness,""talent," or "creativeness" to the mentally retarded has been neglected, review definitions applicable to this group, examine the therapeutic effects of various types of art work (work which could be attributed as "gifted",) and suggest techniques to…

Twelve gifted students (grades three through five) in a music and imagery training program scored higher on indices of figural originality, figural fluency, figural flexibility, and figural elaboration than gifted students in two packaged treatment programs: New Directions in Creativity Basic and New Directions in Creativity Enhanced. (CL)

Research is reviewed that indicates that originality and creativity may increase after mundane or noncreative responses are given. Note: For related information, see EC 120 232-238. (CL)

The author reviews the importance of creativity training for children and discusses a project in which three types of metaphors (the direct, the personal, and the integrative) were used to foster creative thought. Activities emphasized sensory expression through predivergent, exposure, conversion, postdivergent, and expresson phases. (CL)

The article focuses on the applications of the GENESA model (a life sized model of the geometry of a biological cell) in the enhancement of the creative processes during the stages of incubation, illumination, and verification, with emphasis primarily on the phase of incubation/imagery through potential illumination. (SBH)

This paper describes an evolving systems approach for use in exploring aspects of creativity, including: measurement of creativity; uniqueness; processes which amplify deviation; novelty and progress; chance and purpose; networks of enterprise; self-concept; difficulty, duration, and purpose; sudden insight; and sequential stage theories. (JDD)

Several commentaries on Howard Gruber's paper, "The Evolving Systems Approach to Creative Work," are offered: "How High Should One Climb to Find Common Ground?" (Robert Albert); "Where is the Evolving Milieu?" (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi); "Creativity: The Individual, The Systems, The Approach" (Todd Lubart and Robert Sternberg); and "Quality and…

An adventure consultant shares lessons about creativity. Steps to being creative are: look for connections; be willing to experiment and fail; be open-minded and seek input from others; and practice, practice, practice. Examples of different versions of an adventure activity illustrate several creative techniques. The impact of time deadlines on…

The author describes four capacities--interpretation, instrumentation, interaction, and inner direction--that are as important as traditional academic subjects in preparing young adults for college and career success. He suggests how high schools should address each of these capacities. For example, to develop students' capacity for inner…

This article begins by identifying that children have a spontaneous predilection for playing with language, engaging in poetic discourse even before their first poetry lesson. Although children's language play is relatively unresearched in the classroom, in a case study of two groups of pupils aged between 10 and 11, it was observed that children…

Recent research has shown that the UK's Advanced Apprenticeship Programme (AAP) struggles to develop the forms of "vocational practice", that is, a combination of knowledge, skill and judgement, employers are looking for in the creative and cultural sector. Employers' reluctance to get involved with the AAP does not mean that they are…

This paper looks at the collaborative construction of web pages in History by a Year-4 group of children in a primary school in the UK. The aim of this paper is to find out: (a) How did children interpret their involvement in this literacy practice? (b) How the construction of web pages was interactionally accomplished? and (c) How can creativity…

This article discusses some reasons for not implementing the National Recreation and Park Association certification/registration program. (PD)

A series of studies was conducted to examine effects of various types of praise and of instructions and primes on the making of a different/new form or the using of an object in a unique way by preschoolers. Generalization of creative behavior within a response set of a given task and from a trained task to an untrained (transfer) task was…

The effects of a 14 week creativity training program (the Purdue Creative Thinking Program) on the creativity in written expression of 25 learning disabled (LD) students (11 to 12 years old) was measured. The program consisted of 28 audio tapes and printed exercises designed to foster divergent thinking in areas of verbal and figural fluency,…