Creativity: Some Definitions: the Creative Personality;The Creative Process;the Creative Classroom

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore, briefly, the divergence of thinking about the nature of creativity and the reative process. It is suggested that creativity involves thinking, intuition, feeling and sensing and that in order to achieve fulfilment, the highly creative personality needs a framework of elf-understanding, positive encouragement and acceptance in order to balance the rational and irrational components of the creative personality. Creativity is regarded as the reconciliation of conflict between detachment and commitment, passion and decorum, immediacy and referral, masculinity and femininity. The assessment and promotion of creative functioning are vital considerations for the teacher. The writer suggests ways in which the teacher can promote a classroom environment in which all children can flourish creatively and in which the highly creative child can more easily reconcile his/her differences within the peer group.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

H. H.

‘On the Meaning of Creativity.’ In Anderson

H. H.

, ed., Creativity in Childhood and Adolescence, pp. 46–61. Palo Alto, California: Science and Behaviour Books, 1965.

Clark

Growing Up Gifted. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1979.

Getzels

J. W.

Jackson

P. W.

Creativity and Intelligence. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1962.

Ghiselin

‘The Creative Process and its Relation to the Identification of Creative Talent.’ In Taylor

C. W.

Barron

, eds., Scientific Creativity: Its Recognition and Development, pp. 355–364. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1963.

Gowan

J. C.

‘The Relationship Between Creativity and Giftedness.’ Gifted Child Quarterly, 15: 239–244 (1971).

Gowan

J. C.

‘The Development of the Creative Individual.’ In Gowan

J. C.

Khatena

Torrance

E. P.

, eds., Educating the Ablest, pp. 58–79. Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock, 1979.

Guilford

J. P.

‘Traits of Creativity.’ In Anderson

H. H.

ed. Creativity and its Cultivation, pp. 142–161. New York: Harper and Bros., 1959.

Guilford

J. P.

‘Measurement and Creativity.’ Theory into Practice, 5: 186–189 (1966).

Hudson

‘Intelligence, Divergence, and Potential Originality.’ Nature, 196: 601–602 (1962).

10.

Hudson

Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the Young Student. New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1966.

11.

Maslow

Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Bros., 1954.

12.

Maslow

‘Creativity in Self-actualizing People.’ In Anderson

H. H.

, ed., Creativity and Its Cultivation, pp. 83–95. New York: Harper & Bros., 1959.

13.

Rogers

C. R.

‘Toward a Theory of Creativity.’ In Anderson

H. H.

, ed., Creativity and Its Cultivation, pp. 69–82. New York: Harper & Bros., 1959.

14.

Torrance

E. P.

Guiding Creative Talent. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1962.

15.

Torrance

E. P.

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Lexington, Mass.: Personnel Press, 1966.

16.

Vernon

J. D.

‘Creativity and Intelligence: Research implications for Equal Emphasis in High School.’ Exceptional Children, 36: 565–569 (1970).

17.

Wallach

M. A.

Kegan

Modes of Thinking in Young Children. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc:, 1965.