Creativity: When East Meets West

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Sing Lau, Anna N N Hui and Grace Y C Ng

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WWorld Scientific NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI

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Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: Suite 202, 1060 Main Street, River Edge, NJ 07661 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

CREATIVITY: WHEN EAST MEETS WEST Copyright © 2004 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.

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ISBN 981-238-826-5

Printed in Singapore.

Foreword

To a practicing graphic designer, creativity is certainly a much valued asset to possess. Although it is intangible, creativity is part intuition, and it can definitely be taught and learned. Some people may be born more creative than others, but creativity is a thinking process that can be improved upon with experience, observations, and awareness and by learning. Instead of writing “about” creativity, I would like to share with you the process of how the logotype for the Second International Symposium on Child Development (the origin of this volume) came to be. “Creativity: A Moment of Aha!” was the given title of the theme. I was asked to design the logo for this three-day symposium, which was held at the Hong Kong Baptist University from June 26 to 28, 2001. When designers embark on any kind of creative work, it is very important that they must find out and understand the basic facts and general information behind the assignment before they even attempt to think about suitable design solutions. In this particular case, it was an international symposium centering on the theme of creativity, organized by the Center for Child Development of the Hong Kong Baptist University. Academic professors and creativityrelated persons from different countries around the world would be invited to come to Hong Kong to present their papers, findings, and hold workshops on the subject of creativity. This information is necessary for any designer to digest and understand in order to find a solution that will reflect these ideas in the final design. I carried this information around my head for a few days and jotted down rudimentary sketches and ideas from time to time. It is important to note down any ideas on paper initially, because one can always refer to these ideas later on for changes, making variations, combinations, improvements, etc. It is also worth noting that ideas very seldom come v

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all at once in a “completed package” without changes. All designers need time to digest the information, to think, to organize ideas, to dwell on the creative possibilities before they eventually come up with and decide on the best one or two ideas, or a combination of ideas to choose from. From the beginning, the word “creativity” has always been the obvious choice and central theme of the design for this logotype. But how and what to do with the word “creativity”, in order to embody the concept of being international, with workshops, presentations, yet without being overtly obvious, but in a symbolic manner which can be understood by the general public, even if it is on a subconscious level, was yet to be decided. Also, I wanted the logotype to reflect a sense of playfulness and with the spirit of creativity to enhance the theme. Those were my initial thinking and general directions that I had in mind. After getting a few ideas down on paper, I realized that by using hand lettering, in combination with typography, I would be able to create more visual interests and at the same time, add contrast and meaning to the word, and along those lines. I slowly developed the concept, and experimented with many variations of arrangements, styles, and selections of the letterforms that finally appeared on the chosen design. In a matter of days after trying out various combinations, layouts, and refinement, the design for the creativity symposium was completed, with the help of computer. Here is my design statement for the logotype (see Figure 1): My design objectives were: the word “creativity” must appear to be unique, full of variety, and have a sense of playfulness and inventiveness about it. The combination of the use of non-traditional hand-lettered alphabets, typography, and graphic images were selected and combined to spell out the word “creativity”, designed to reflect the essence of the theme, as well as symbolizing the gathering of different academic talents from around the world to speak on the various aspects of creativity in this international symposium. In the final design, the word is spelt out using an exceptionally varied combination of letterforms in different styles and methods, including illustrations and pictograph. These seemingly unrelated letterforms are combined to symbolize the gathering of many talents from different countries who came to

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Figure 1. Poster design of the Second International Symposium on Child Development — Creativity: A Moment of Aha!

Hong Kong to participate in a symposium to teach, to instruct, to explain, and to lecture on creativity. Aside from achieving the above symbolic meanings, the word creativity in itself is also a self-explanatory graphic image representing the many facets of imaginative and inventive possibilities of being creative. I would also like to share an interesting note about creativity. Each designer invariably approaches a design problem in a very personal way, as each of us is indeed, unique. This is primarily due to the individual’s background, interests, education, culture, influences, likes and dislikes of certain styles, personal tastes, etc. All these factors will no doubt influence the final outcome of the design. Therefore, no two designers will come up with the exact same solution to a common design problem. Therein lies the beauty and secret of creativity that perhaps can never be fully explained or analyzed. “The moment of Aha!” is not only elusive, but one can never be sure of when, or how, or exactly where it really comes from. Derick Pao Director of Pauhaus Canada November 2003

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Preface

What actually is creativity? And what contributes to its conceptualization and development? For decades, these and other questions have fascinated researchers, educators, parents and laymen alike, and equally so in the East and West. The present collection of chapters is a continuous attempt in answering and exploring the above questions from both Eastern and Western perspectives. Readers may find some answers satisfactory, whereas others bewildering. This is in fact the reality of creativity research and education. And we hope readers will share the joy of reading such a road map. In 2001, the Center for Child Development of the Hong Kong Baptist University celebrated its 10th anniversary which led to a series of distinguished events. One of the highlights was the Second International Symposium on Child Development — “Creativity: A Moment of Aha!” — held at the Hong Kong Baptist University from June 26 to 28 in 2001. The symposium brought international renowned scholars in the area of creativity to Hong Kong and attracted about 300 local and overseas participants to take part in seven pre-conference workshops and 50 presentations. It offered useful and unique opportunity for educators, parents and community professionals from all disciplines to exchange and discuss views on creativity development and enhancement of children, adolescents, families, schools and community. The Symposium was a treasured experience for all participants, in particular, the speakers and presenters. To outlive the event, two publication projects on creativity in Chinese and English respectively were initiated. Speakers and presenters were invited to contribute papers from their own professional perspectives, which account for eleven of the book chapters. We are also honored to have several scholars who ix

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could not join the Symposium but contribute to this work and add to its fullness. This explains the birth of this volume. We would like to thank all the authors for their concerted and persevering efforts. We also owe debts to sundry paper reviewers who squeezed time from their tight schedules to give invaluable advice to the authors as well as the editors. We hope that this volume will inspire readers to rethink the essence of creativity in the East and the West and to make further contribution to the topic.

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Contents

Foreword

v

Preface

ix

List of Contributors

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Chapter 1. Creativity: A Meeting Between the East and the West Sing LAU, Anna N. N. HUI and Grace Y. C. NG

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Chapter 2.

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Personal Creativity and Culture Mark RUNCO

Chapter 3. Creativity: Developmental and Cross-Cultural Issues Todd I. LUBART and Asta GEORGSDOTTIR

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Chapter 4. Creativity among Chinese People: Beyond Western Perspective Elisabeth RUDOWICZ

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Chapter 5. Why is there a Paradox in Promoting Creativity in the Asian Classroom? Aik Kwang NG and Ian SMITH

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Chapter 6. Creativity and Innovation: East-West Comparisons with an Emphasis on Chinese Societies Kwok LEUNG, Al AU and Beeto W. C. LEUNG

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Chapter 7. Progress from Traditional to Creativity Education in Chinese Societies Vivian M. Y. CHENG

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Chapter 8. Recognizing and Nurturing Creativity in Chinese Students Jing-Jyi WU

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Chapter 9. The Social Psychology of Creativity: The Beginnings of a Multicultural Perspective Beth A. HENNESSEY

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Chapter 10. Beauty is in the Eye of the Creator — A Psychological and Cross-Cultural Account of Children’s Understanding of Pictorial Art Siu Fung LIN

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Chapter 11. Blue Apples and Purple Oranges: When Children Paint Like Picasso Kay Cheng SOH

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Chapter 12. Singapore’s Creativity Education: A Framework of Fostering Constructive Creativity Ai-Girl TAN

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Chapter 13. Inspiring Creativity Through Music Mayumi ADACHI and Yukari CHINO

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Chapter 14. Creativity and Multiple Intelligences: The DISCOVER Project and Research C. June MAKER

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Chapter 15. Nurturing Creative Thinking: Western Approaches and Eastern Issues Gerard J. PUCCIO and David W. GONZÁLEZ

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Index

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List of Contributors

Mayumi ADACHI is Associate Professor of Psychology at Hokkaido University, Japan. She studied piano pedagogy and music education in Niigata University, Japan (B.A.) and Teachers College at Columbia University (M.A. & M.Ed.). She studied developmental and cognitive psychology in music and received her Ph.D. in psychomusicology from the University of Washington, USA. Her recent research includes children’s expression of emotion in songs and stories, the development of metaphoric interpretation of music, and the process of music composition in a small group. Al AU received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Hong Kong and his M. Phil. degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He currently works as a senior research assistant at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include organizational communication, intercultural negotiation, and cross-cultural comparisons. Vivian M. Y. CHENG is Lecturer of Department of Science, Hong Kong Institute of Education. She obtained her Ph.D. from Hong Kong Baptist University with her doctoral dissertation entitled “Creativity in Teaching: Conceptualization, Assessment and Resources”. She is the project leader of “Towards Creativity Education in Primary Schools and Teaching Training Institutes” and “Creative Teaching Campaign for Teachers of Hong Kong” and the chief editor of a web-page on creativity: http://www.ied.edu.hk/creative.

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Yukari CHINO is a teacher at Yamanashi University Elementary School, Japan, and a master’ s student at Yamanashi University. She studied elementary school education in Yamanashi University, Japan (B.A.). After teaching in a public school for many years, she has been appointed as the Head of Music Division at her elementary school. She is a strong advocate of children’s own ideas, expressions, and creativity in music classrooms. For her master’ s thesis, she is currently developing a music curriculum which integrates learning of musical symbols with creative music making throughout elementary school education. Asta S. GEORGSDOTTIR is currently completing her doctoral studies at the University of Paris V, France. She received her B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, and her D.E.A. (master’ s) degree from the University of Paris V, France. Her research focuses on cognitive flexibility, with an emphasis on individual differences, and the development of cognitive flexibility in children and adolescents. David W. GONZÁLEZ is the Manager of Momentum at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College, N.Y. and a Partner at New & Improved. He works as a trainer, facilitator, executive coach and consultant in the areas of creative thinking, creative problem solving, teambuilding, facilitation, executive coaching, change and leadership. He is the author of Behind the Curtain: Unveiling the Wizardry of Popular Creativity Methods (2002) and has translated several creativity and emotional intelligence training manuals into Spanish. He is currently in pursuit of his Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and holds a Master of Science in Creativity & Change Leadership where his research focused on a comprehensive analysis of three popular creative problem-solving methods (CPS, Lateral Thinking and Synectics). He is a member of the board of directors of the American Creativity Association, along with serving as an on-going leader of the Creative Problem Solving Institute. Beth A. HENNESSEY is Professor of Psychology at Wellesley College, USA. She received her Ph.D. in Social/Developmental Psychology from Brandeis University in 1986. Her own research interests focus on the question of how to construct classroom and workplace environments so

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that they are more conducive to intrinsic motivation and creativity of performance. She is the author of numerous book chapters and scholarly journal articles and delivers papers at scientific and educational bodies both in the U.S. and in other countries. One of them is her monograph co-authored with Teresa Amabile in 1987 entitled Creativity and Learning: What Research Says to the Teacher. Her current projects include an ethnographic study of a fourth grade classroom and a cross-cultural examination of the social psychology of creativity. Anna N. N. HUI received her B.A. (English Language & Literature), Dip. Ed. (English Language), and M. Phil. (Educational Psychology) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She is also a Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology at CUHK. She is currently the Center Executive of the Center for Child Development and Instructor of Education Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include creativity of children, implicit theory of creativity in Chinese people, motivation orientation as well as gifted and talented education. Sing LAU obtained his Ph.D. in social psychology from Purdue University in 1977. He is currently Director of the Center for Child Development and Professor of psychology and education at Hong Kong Baptist University. He was formerly Head of Department of Education Studies of Hong Kong Baptist University. He had also taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and was Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, University of Pittsburgh and the State University of New York. He has published many articles in international journals and two books related to the social development of adolescents and children. He has also edited a volume entitled Growing up the Chinese Way (1996). His research interests cover the areas of creativity, suicide, depression, self-concept, gender role, and value. Beeto W. C. LEUNG received his undergraduate and M. Phil. degrees in Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is interested in research about positive psychology including optimism, subjective wellbeing and creativity. He currently teaches “Creative and Critical Thinking” at Hong Kong Community College and “Sports and Sociology” at the General Education Center, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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Kwok LEUNG, Professor in the Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong, is internationally renowned for his scholarly research on social and organizational psychology, cross-cultural research methodology, and cross-cultural psychology. He has published a wide range of academic papers in these areas, and is currently the Editor of Asian Journal of Social Psychology, an associate editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and a departmental editor of Journal of International Business Studies. He also serves on the editorial board of a number of other academic journals. He is now editing the Handbook of Asian Management to be published by Kluwer. Siu Fung LIN is Honorary Research Fellow of the School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Birmingham. She is a developmental psychologist. Her research interests include child psychology, children’s drawing, art education, emotional expression, and cognitive development of children and adolescents. Todd I. LUBART is Professor of Psychology, Laboratory of Cognition and Development, University of Paris (V), France. He received his Ph.D. (Psychology) from Yale University. One of his recent publications is “Creativity across Cultures” published in the Handbook of Creativity (1999) edited by R. J. Sternberg. He also co-authored Defying the Crowd: Cultivation Creativity in a Culture of Conformity (1995). His areas of interest include individual creativity, artistic creativity and emotional intelligence. C. June MAKER is Professor of Special Education, Rehabilitation & School Psychology, University of Arizona. She holds a master’ s degree in Special Education (Gifted) from Southern Illinois University and holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology and Special Education from the University of Virginia. She conducts research in the areas of identification of giftedness in minority children and identification of problem-solving abilities in children/adults. She is the director of the DISCOVER Projects based at the University of Arizona. She coordinates doctoral degree programs in education of the gifted and teaches courses in education of gifted students and in the development of creativity.

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Aik Kwang NG did his undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore, and his postgraduate studies at the University of Queensland in Australia. Upon his graduation, he joined the National Institute of Education in Singapore as a lecturer. His research interest is in the cultivation of creativity in the Asian classroom and society. He has conducted several workshops on creativity for schoolteachers and students in Singapore and Hong Kong. He has also published widely in the area of student learning and creativity. He received the 2001 Early Career Research Award from the International Council of Psychologists for a provocative paper on creativity. In addition, he has written a best-selling book entitled Why Asians are Less Creative than Westerners (2001), which has been translated into Chinese. Grace Y. C. NG received her first degree in psychology from the University of Hong Kong. She works at the Center for Child Development at Hong Kong Baptist University and has recently co-edited a Chinese manual for primary schoolteachers entitled An Infusion Model of Gifted Education in Learning & Teaching in Primary Schools: Theory & Practice (2003). Her research interests include cultural and cross-cultural studies and gender topics. She is taking a postgraduate study in Literary & Cultural Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Gerard J. PUCCIO is Department Chair and Professor at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State, State University of New York. He holds a doctorate in Organizational Psychology from the University of Manchester, England. His doctoral research examined stress, creative performance, and satisfaction in the workplace. He has written more than thirty-five articles, chapters, and books. One of the books is entitled Creativity Assessment Readings and Resources (1999) co-edited with Mary C. Murdock. In addition to his academic experience, he has also worked as a trainer, facilitator and consultant for many organizations such as Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and Manchester International Airport (UK). Elizabeth RUDOWICZ is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social Studies at the City University of Hong Kong. She obtained her M.A. degree in Psychology and Ph.D. from the A. Mickiewicz

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University, Poznan, Poland. Her current research interests include creative thinking and its measurement, impact of culture on perception, expression, and development of creativity, and school underachievement. The results of her studies were reported in over 60 publications including authored books, book chapters, international journals, conference proceedings, research reports, and instructional videos. She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society, an Associate Fellow of the Hong Kong Psychological Society, and a Member of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. Mark A. RUNCO, Ph.D., is Professor of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University, Fullerton, and Adjunct Professor of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. He is founder and continuing editor of the Creativity Research Journal and acts as a senior editor of the Perspectives on Creativity book series. Author of over 120 books, chapters, and articles in the area of creativity, he is a fellow and past president of the American Psychological Association’s Division 10 (Psychology & Arts). He is recipient of a Spencer Foundation Research Grant and also of the Early Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children. Ian SMITH received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University. He teaches educational psychology and human development in the School of Development and Learning at the University of Sydney. His research interests are in the development of children’s self-concept and self-regulation strategies and their relationships with educational achievement. He has published more than 40 refereed journal articles and book chapters, as well as a textbook, Human Development and Education (1992). Kay Cheng SOH retired as Senior Fellow at the Department of Psychological Studies of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. At present, he is Assessment Consultant of Universitas 21 Global of Singapore. He obtained his MEd degree from the University of Manchester, UK, specializing in educational psychology and his Ph.D. from the National University for his research

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in child bilingualism. He has been consulting with the Hong Kong Department of Education and the Hong Kong Baptist University and has been publishing internationally with papers on youth values, bilingualism, and creativity. Ai-Girl TAN is an Associate Professor of the Department of Psychological Studies, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her main research interests include creativity, problem solving, culture and psychology, and multicultural education. Her recent publications include books such as Psychology of Cultivating Creativity (2000), Psychology in Singapore: Issue of an Emerging Discipline (2002), New Paradigms in Science Education: Problem Solving, Creative Teaching and Primary Science Education (2002), Creativity for teachers (2004) and papers in the Journal of Creative Behavior (2000, 2001) and Perceptual and Motor Skills (2002). Jing-Jyi WU is Executive Director of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Foundation) and Adjunct Professor of Education at the National Chengchi University of Taiwan. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota, USA. He is an experienced scholar and artist who brings psychological theories into people’s everyday lives. His research on creativity has received much attention in the Chinese communities.

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Chapter 1

Creativity: A Meeting Between the East and the West

Sing LAU Anna N. N. HUI Grace Y. C. NG Center for Child Development Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

1. Introduction Creativity: When East meets West. But when? And how? In the meeting, cross-cultural comparisons are inevitable. And if made on equal grounds, such comparisons can ignite meaningful reflections and controversies. With the passing away of Edward Said and the subsequent reports by Asian scholars in the media, more people have come to know of his works and writings. In brief, as in one of his earlier books entitled Orientalism (1978), Said puts forth his argument against the West’s (in particular the United States’) narrow and stereotyped view of the East (in particular the Middle East). His research has also aimed at raising Americans’ awareness of the diversity, richness, and dynamic nature of the culture of Arabic nations. Said was born in Palestine, grew up in Egypt, and got his higher education in the United States. Like his background, his thinking and research cross both academic and cultural boundaries. As such, apart from arguing against the West’s molded view of the Middle East, his work has also helped to alert Arabs of their 1

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unique identity, and not to take up the West’s view of themselves so readily. To extrapolate from Said’s thinking and research, we should also alert ourselves of similar pitfalls in the discussion of creativity between East and West. In fact, in the cross-cultural discussion on almost any topic between East (mainly Chinese societies) and West (mainly the United States), several typical approaches or stance can be noted. First, the West usually adopts some dominant ideology (e.g., Confucianism) and concepts (e.g., collectivism) in describing Asian culture and in explaining Asians’ behaviors. Second, as such, a list of as-a-matter-of-fact pre-concepts, beliefs, and assumptions often comes up (e.g., filial piety, authoritybinding, conforming, group-oriented, face saving — all these and other traits are highlighted as being not beneficial to the cultivation of creativity). Third and more worth noting is that Asian researchers also adopt the Western viewpoints. Sometimes such adoption happens quite readily without any questioning even in light of weak or opposing evidences. In contrast, we tend not to find a similar picture in Western research. For example, even though the United States is a predominantly protestant country, no dominant or any single ideological thought is used in theory building or in explaining Americans’ behaviors and thinking. Research has in fact taken issue with the Western view of Asians. For example, studies have indicated that Asians (e.g., Chinese youths in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Singapore are no less individualistic than their American peers in value orientation; Lau, 1992). They also place great importance on the value of being imaginative (Lau, 1992). On the purposes of education, results are mixed: American students believe that the school should teach them to think critically and to consider the family first, and Hong Kong students indicate that the school should teach them to respect authority and to face challenges creatively (Lau, Nicholls, Thorkildsen, & Patashnick, 2000). On the style of parenting, research has also shown that functional authoritative (in terms of providing guidelines) rather than controlling behavior is practiced by Chinese parents in Hong Kong (e.g., Lau & Cheung, 1987) and the United States (e.g., Chao & Sue, 1996).

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In summary, all the above point to the issue that it is sometimes too easy to resort to simple concepts and presumptions in explaining Asians’ behaviors and the comparison of differences between East and West. More often, such attributed presumptions are not based on actual measures. This has been raised previously (see Introduction in Lau, 1996) and by authors in this book (e.g., Cheng; Lubart & Georgsdottir; Runco). Apart from Confucianism, Cheng and other researchers (e.g., Lau, 1996) have suggested that other ways of thinking such as Taoism and Buddhism have immense influence in Chinese and Asian cultures. People in Western countries could be high on collectivism as in many social and political interactions. In fact, the reliance on building and maintaining good networks are important to attaining goals, be they personal or social in nature. Even in resorting to Confucianism, we should note that Confucius was a non-conformist as he refuted what were being practiced by different emperors. His teachings (as well as those of others like Laozi and Zhuangzi) were rejected by the emperors in his time. Let us take Chinese people as one Asian group as an example: before using the cultural label to explain the phenomenon of creativity in the Chinese, Chang (2000) critically pointed out six wrong places in search of the ethno-indigenous psychology of the Chinese. In the first approach, the objective demographic variable — ethnic Chinese — is taken for granted as equivalent to the subjective aspect of culture — beliefs and values. In most of the cross-cultural studies on creativity and Chinese people, researchers conveniently equate ethnic Chinese with subjective or self-identified Chinese. In the second approach, similarities among Chinese and people from different cultures will be classified as universal elements among human individuals but when differences occur, it seems difficult to look for an explanation especially when non-average samples are used. Chang (2000) thus suggested that the everyday life of the average Chinese people should be examined. In the third and fourth approaches, a standardized set of independent variables are used under the same experimental conditions to investigate how people from various cultures behave or react in the same or different ways. Chang further questioned the generalizability of behaviors observed in laboratory situations to a normal life of the individuals. She also queried about the similarity in perception of stimulus or instruments in

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various cultures. She recommended that observations should be made in the daily life of the Chinese and culturally based measurement should be developed. In the fifth approach, culture is interpreted as a causal factor of certain behaviors. It, however, does not attempt to investigate which particular cultural belief or value is contributing to the similarity or difference as very often theories seldom include cultural variables. It tells little about how culture plays a role in human behavior (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993). Any operational definition of a psychological construct should be contextualized in the specific culture.

2. Focus and Structure The focus of this volume is three-fold. First, it aims to reexamine and question commonly held conceptions of the nature of creativity, especially in the context of culture. Second, it aims to stimulate new thinking on the cultivation of creativity, again in the context of culture. Incompatible findings and controversies are put forth, and new hypotheses are proposed to accommodate opposing facts and beliefs. Third, in the present decade of globalization, some new issues and problems happening in the East and the West are also brought forward. Creativity is of great interest to psychologists, educators, and policy makers. The present volume is significant in reviewing and extending our current knowledge of its nature and development. In recent decades, both Eastern and Western scholars are becoming increasingly aware of the need for cross-cultural research. In such research, comparisons are inevitable, and readers will be aware of the various compatible or incompatible interpretations of the differences found. Authors in this volume have tried their best to bring together the current cross-cultural research done on creativity and the conceptual issues and controversies involved. The structure of the volume consists of three parts. As the present volume is on creativity in the East and the West, almost all chapters touch upon the issue of culture and its influence, albeit to a different extent. Nonetheless, in the first part, the six chapters focus on the conception and influence of culture (Runco; Lubart & Georgsdottir; Rudowicz; Ng & Smith; Leung, Au & Leung; Cheng). Runco starts off

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with a seemingly simple but important question on the conception of culture. Echoing this, Lubart, Georgsdottir and Rudowicz bring forth the understanding and misunderstanding of the Eastern culture and cultural difference in the conception of creativity. Ng and Smith show their support, which is based solely on Confucianism. In their chapter, Leung et al. alert readers to the fact that although the majority of research evidence on creativity is unfavorable to Asians, there are similarities and opposing findings found. Moreover, Cheng points to the fact that we should take other concepts and thinking such as Taoism and Buddhism in the study of Asian, in particular Chinese culture. In her chapter, Cheng is able to introduce to readers a rich source of research and literature published in Chinese that are less known to Western scholars. In the second part, the four chapters focus on education and development (Wu; Hennessey; Lin; Soh). Wu highlights the blockage toward creativity among Chinese students and he proposes some passages. Hennessey indicates, in her studies including Arabic children, that creativity can be enhanced when motivation and development are also considered. Both Lin and Soh show that children’s drawing can be a meaningful channel in the understanding of children’s artistic creativity and appreciation. Like Runco, Soh also alerts us not to make any hasty judgement in the comparison between apples and oranges in cross-cultural studies on creativity. In their chapter in the first part, Lubart and Georgsdottir have provided a rich source of empirical evidence and ideas on education and development related to creativity. The last four chapters in the third part are related to creativity in practice (Tan; Adachi and Chino; Maker; Puccio and González). The focus is on introducing different approaches and models towards creativity enhancement. Tan starts off in describing the development of creativity research and education in Singapore, and she shows the construction of modules on creativity for teachers. Through different activities, Adachi and Chino demonstrate how people can come to be more creative in music making. In integrating creativity and intelligence, Maker introduces a problem-solving enhancement model, which has been practiced in different Asian countries. Puccio and González focus on enhancing creative problem solving, and their model has also been tried out in Asia. Through their on-site practice, both Maker and Puccio become more

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aware of the eagerness and propensity in creativity development among Asian children and educators.

3. The Meeting of East and West: When and How? In this volume, readers are introduced to creativity research done in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the United States, and other Eastern and Western countries. Authors of this volume are in the forefront on creativity research, especially of the cross-cultural nature. In their chapters, their insights can be noted in the way they present theoretical concepts and research findings, identify controversies, and pinpoint overlooked and misunderstood areas. In reading through this volume, readers may be aware of some shortcomings or dilemmas. First of all, it is impossible to cover all areas of research related to the conceptualization, development, and education of creativity in the East and West. Second, either East or West is too broad a term. We need therefore to delimit them to just being generic in nature. In most chapters, East refers to Asian countries mainly of Chinese in origin, and West refers mainly to the United States. This is due to the fact that most published crosscultural works in the West involve these two groups of people. Nonetheless, authors in this volume have tried their best to include other populations. Third, readers may either agree or disagree with the contributors’ interpretations of various cross-cultural differences on creativity. Authors may also challenge the explanations of results found in the studies done by different researchers. The precise intention of this volume is to bring up controversies for discussion and future research. As on the meeting of East and West on creativity, it seems evident that the time is not right yet. There are at least two reasons. First, the theorization of creativity in the East is too lopsidedly dependent on Western concepts and theories (Lau, 2003). As mentioned before, even if attempting to include Eastern concept, the reliance on traditional ideological framework (such as Confucianism), Western prescribed landmark (such as individualism-collectivism) as well as the self-imposition of such thinking tend to hinder any breakthrough in theory building by scholars

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in the East. Nonetheless, conceptually, we have seen some scholars in the East finding insights either from the arts and literature or a rough-attempt kind of psychological research (see Cheng’s chapter). As an example, based on her analysis of Chinese art and painting, Li (1997) has put forth some interesting and innovative conceptualization of Chinese people’s ways of creative thinking. (For a brief introduction of Li’s study, readers may refer to the chapters by Lubart and Georgsdottir, Chapter 2; Ng and Smith, Chapter 4; and Leung et al., Chapter 5. Second, the assessment of creativity is also too dependent on Western measures. As remarked by Niu and Sternberg (2002), and restated in Leung et al.’s chapter, it could be to Asians’ disadvantage when their creativity is measured by Western instruments. The comparison between East and West could be unfair and the former is very often found to score lower. Recently, some indigenous instruments have been developed. For example, based on very simple constructs, the one developed by Wu and his colleagues ( , , , , & , 1998) is widely used in Taiwan. It has also been used in Hong Kong, alongside with the Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests, and found to be high in reliability and validity. However, its acceptance by Western (and to some extent Eastern) scholars has yet to be established as it has not been published in the literature. The measure developed by Cheung, Tse, and Tsang (2001) on creative writing is another successful attempt. As suggested by Leung et al., the employment of a two-group two-test design is ideal in establishing a wider acceptance of such new measures. With appropriate modification, such measures will be useful in future cross-cultural research. In all, the present volume provides a meeting ground for the presentation of research on creativity done in the East and the West. With the development of more indigenous theorization and assessment tools in the East, a more fruitful and fairer meeting will be in the making as more Eastern scholars are becoming more aware of the needed elements for such a kind of meeting.

References Betancourt, H., & Lopez, S. R. (1993). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. American Psychologist, 48(6), 629–637.

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Chang, W. C. (2000). In search of the Chinese in all the wrong places! Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies, 1(1), 125–142. Chao, R. K., & Sue, S. (1996). Chinese parental influence and their children’s school success: A paradox in the literature on parenting styles. In S. Lau (Ed.), Growing up the Chinese way: Chinese child and adolescent development (pp. 93–120). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Cheung, W. M., Tse, S. K., & Tsang, W. H. H. (2001). Development and validation of the Chinese creative writing scale for primary school students in Hong Kong. Journal of Creative Behavior, 35(4), 249–260. Lau, S. (1992). Collectivism’s individualism: Value preference, personal control, and the desire for freedom among Chinese in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 361–366. Lau, S. (Ed.) (1996). Growing up the Chinese way: Chinese child and adolescent development. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Lau, S. (2003). The limit of creativity. Paper presented at the seminar on “The Practice of Creativity”, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, on March 21, 2003. Lau, S., & Cheung, P. C. (1987). Relations between Chinese adolescents’ perception of parental control and organization and their perception of parental warmth. Developmental Psychology, 23, 726–729. Lau, S., Nicholls, J. G., Thorkildsen, T. A., & Patashnick, M. (2000). Chinese and American adolescents’ perceptions of the purposes of education and beliefs about the world of work. Social Behavior and Personality, 28, 73–90. Li, J. (1997). Creativity in horizontal and vertical domains. Creativity Research Journal, 10, 107–132. Niu, W., & Sternberg, R. J. (2002). Contemporary studies on the concept of creativity: The East and the West. Journal of Creative Behavior, 36(4), 269–288. Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. &

Taiwan]

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Chapter 2 Personal Creativity and Culture

Mark RUNCO California State University, Fullerton and Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, USA

1. Introduction The most obvious things are often the most difficult to explain. Consider in this regard the English word what. This word is no doubt used by virtually every English speaker, and probably used with great regularity. It is used by very young children, by adults, and by individuals for whom English is a second or third language. It is one of the most frequently employed words in the English language. Compare it to a less common word, such as oxymoron. Oxymorons are sometimes subtle and frequently go unnoticed. The expression “pretty ugly” is sometimes not recognized as an oxymoron, but it does imply a contradiction. That is of course what oxymorons are: contradictions of terms. But note how easily an oxymoron can be defined. Its definition can be put into a short phrase: It is “a contradiction of terms.” The English word what, on the other hand, is much more frequently used yet much more difficult to define. It is much easier for speakers of English to use it in conversation or in text than it is to define it in a short phrase. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary requires several pages to cover the diverse uses of what. It requires several thousand words to define it. Think for yourself how many times you have used the word what today, this week, or in your lifetime. Now try to define it.

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Culture (the experience, not the word) is also a common and seemingly obvious thing. It is obvious in the sense that every individual belongs to a culture or set of subcultures. Culture is omnipresent. Yet like the English word what, culture is difficult to define. This difficulty in defining culture is especially acute in the sciences, at least if you abide by Skinner’s (1956) dictum that good science can predict and control. From this perspective, it is important to have operational definitions in order to understand and explain. Culture, like the word what, is surprisingly difficult to put into operational terms. In this chapter, I offer an operational definition of culture. It is not an enormously broad definition. This is in part because it is based on one particular model of creativity. This model is in turn based on the theory of personal creativity, something I have been developing over the past few years. This chapter explores several which have not been presented elsewhere; these deal primarily with culture as an influence on personal creativity. I also revisit the argument that personal creativity underlies all creative efforts. Late in this chapter I suggest that studies of implicit theories will help us to understand personal creativity and the relevant cultural differences. Various specific expressions of culture are noted in this chapter, such as tolerance, control, and conventionality. Families and the educational context are tied to culture at several points. This chapter is by no means a comprehensive review of the literature on culture and creativity. Fortunately, this chapter appears in a volume which does justice to that larger topic.

2. Consensual versus Personal Creativity Just above I cited Skinner (1956) and the scientific premise that objectivity is a good thing. I also noted that operational definitions are desirable, and that scientific work is informative and can be useful. All of this true — but objectivity can be taken too far. As a matter of fact, an exaggerated objectivity is apparent in the creativity research and is responsible for a number of problems. Too often, creativity is viewed in strictly objective terms. A huge number of definitions now emphasize creative products, for example, probably because it is easy to count things and therefore easy to be

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objective about them. These creative products may be works of art, performances, publications, inventions, designs, or the like. The products actually examined in the creativity literature are those which some social judgment has determined to be worthwhile. There is usually some sort of consensus about the products. This is part of the problem, for social judgments too easily relegate the individual creator and posit that products are only creative when some judges or audience deems them useful and original. The process which generated the product, and the individual’s perspective, are overlooked, at least if it is not consistent with the consensus. I developed the theory of personal creativity largely in response to such social “consensual views” (Runco, 1995, 1996). The theory of personal creativity focuses on the individual, and in particular on his or her interpretive capacities, discretion, and intentions. The first of these allow the individual to construct original interpretations of his or her experience, and this is, I believe, the origin of all creativity, from the mundane to the profound. Granted, culture is not all that relevant to the interpretive component of creativity, for the transformational and assimilatory skills which allow them are probably just about universal (around the world). It could be said that they are relevant to culture, at least to the process which influences the creative process in all cultures. This component of creativity does not, however, explain much if anything about cultural differences. Such differences can be understood by looking to the next component of personal creativity, namely discretion. Discretion is the label given to the individual’s choices, decisions, and judgments. These influence the creative process in numerous ways. They influence ideas and ideational paths explored and tolerated; they determine what experiences the individual will have and which investments (e.g., training, education) the individual will make; they determine what behaviors will be shared. Unlike the interpretive capacities, discretion is very much tied to culture. As Runco (in press) put it, “choices are usually a reflection of one’s values and one’s views of appropriate behavior. Individuals are socialized such that they acquire parental and cultural values, and these include standards for deciding when and how to express one’s originality. In traditional Asian cultures,

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for instance, where educators are greatly respected, it would most often be clearly inappropriate to question one’s teacher or offer ideas that are different from what the teacher suggests. This may create significant longterm problems because a student may be in class several hundred days each year, year after year, and all this time feel it is inappropriate to generate an idea that brings the teacher’s logic or ideas into question.”

Early on it is the family that presents cultural expectations to individuals. Parents socialize their children in accordance with cultural values; they show children what is appropriate, given cultural contexts, and what is inappropriate. As Albert (1996, p. 390) put it in his Presidential Address to Division 10 of the American Psychological Association, “families interpret for all members the culture. This means that one of the first things that a child is placed in is a culture, without being asked, ‘do you want to be part of this or not?’” Cropley (1973) put it this way: “Whatever levels of [creative] potential are present in a child, the direction in which they are developed (towards convergence or divergence), will be… guided by the kinds of interactions the children have with their parents. In turn, the parents’ thinking about how children should be treated is related to the way in which they themselves were reared, in fact, to the prevailing cultural notions about what is right and what [is] wrong behavior in children. If a culture imposes severe negative sanctions against certain behaviors, most parents will try to suppress them in their children, while they will try to foster those behaviors of which the culture approves.” (p. 62)

There is indication that certain institutions in certain parts of Asia are very appreciative of original ideas. Basadur (1994), for example, described the suggestion boxes and similar techniques used in various Japanese organizations. These were intended to encourage employees to offer new ideas and solutions. In fact, the new ideas were called “golden eggs” (Basadur’s translation) because of their great value and potential.

3. Culture-Specific Investments Different cultures value different things and some of these values directly influence the development and expression of creativity. One useful way

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to view the developmental process is psycheconomically. Rubenson and Runco (1992) used this perspective to describe how and why the United States does not invest enough into the creativity of its students. Of most relevance in their analysis is the concept of allocative efficiency. In their words, “Although investment in creative potential parallels investment in other forms of human capital, there are some important differences. In particular, it is likely that individuals will underinvest in creative potential relative to formal education. This is because investment decisions depend not just on average returns (the expected marginal benefit), but also on the variance of returns. Even if two uncertain alternatives have equal expected benefits, risk aversion implies that the one in which the variance of the returns is higher will, ceteris paribus, be less desirable. Compared with formal education, the variance of returns to investment in creative potential is apt to be greater. This claim hinges largely on the ways in which the labor market evaluates and rewards human capital investments. The credentials which acknowledge investments in formal education (college degrees, for example) are well known, and employers usually have well-defined expectations concerning the effects of these investments on employee productivity. The results of investments in creative potential, on the other hand, are more idiosyncratic and therefore difficult for employers to evaluate. Even though the expected benefits of both types of investment for employers may be similar, the increased uncertainty concerning the outcome of investments in creative potential lowers their value to individuals. As a result, investment will be lower.” (p. 138)

One way of interpreting this is simply to acknowledge that cultural values are important, and if education is most important in a culture, that will be reflected in the decisions that most people make most of the time. This applies to individuals deciding what to do with their lives (i.e., how to invest their time and money) but also to employers (i.e., which applicant to hire). It also applies to creativity and decisions about what ideas and behaviors to express. Another interpretation is that creativity is a risky investment. Its payoffs are ambiguous, especially compared to investments in traditional education. How often will someone with less formal education but more certain creative potential be hired instead of someone with more formal

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education? The problem is that creativity is tied to originality, and this means that its expression is difficult to predict. An employer may very well respect creativity and original but need to watch the bottom line and avoid risky investments. You can’t be certain what you will get when work with a creative person; it will be original; but what does that mean? You can’t predict it! The choice of formal education over creative potential is, then, really a choice for certainty and an avoidance of risk. Note also the psychoeconomic idea that creativity is influenced by individual and social factors. As Rubenson and Runco (1992) described it, “Creative activity is produced by individuals; the amount and quality of creative activity an individual will produce depends in part on the creative potential of that individual. In addition to this intrinsic component, creative activity by individuals depends on the external demands for that activity” (p. 139). Clearly, cultural values determine the market for creativity. They determine the opportunities, the rewards, and what models are available. I include the last of these models because I am extrapolating from my educational model (Runco, 1992). In it I suggested that parents and teachers can do at least three things to encourage and support creativity: provide opportunities, supply the right kind of reinforcement, and model (i.e., demonstrate) creative efforts. These same three options exist in a broader sense throughout society and culture.

4. Support for Creativity There are, then, difficulties supporting creativity in various situations (and cultures). In addition to the risk involved, there is another problem reflecting the dependence of creativity on originality. Creative things are always original — but it does not work the other way! Original things are not always creative. Creativity requires more than originality; it requires some fit or appropriateness (Runco & Charles, 1993). That is again why culture is so influential; it defines appropriateness. The problem may, however, be more with originality, for original things are unusual, and sometimes even deviant (Plucker & Runco, 1999). In the classroom, they may be surprising and counter to an educator’s plans. This surprise element makes it difficult to support creativity, especially when the teacher may be trying to keep 20 or 30 children on one task.

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Tolerance is clearly required in many social contexts. The educator must, for instance, tolerate surprises created by creative ideas and input by students. Tolerance is also personal, though, for creative things sometimes take time (Runco, 1999b). The individual must be patient, then. Creative things may also be ambiguous, and at the extreme, troubling (Rothenberg, 1997). The individual must be able to tolerate those emotions as well. Finally, it may be that creative things are only found if particular tactics and strategies are used (Runco, 1999c), and some of these may require tolerance. As Adams (1986) pointed out, some tactics may also be more or less likely in particular cultures. In Western culture it may be difficult to postpone judgment, play with ideas and problems, or consider immature or deviant options. In all cultures, certain things are taboo; we resist considering them, but some of them may be related to original insights. Of course that takes us right back to the issue of deviance.

5. Culture as Constraint Culture represents a set of long-term constraints on creative thought. To fit into a culture, the individual conforms to the values of that culture, and conformity precludes the originality that is necessary for creativity. Cultures of course vary in terms of the degree of constraint (or latitude). An individual could consider a huge variety of ideas and solutions, but through the course of development and education, he or she learns what is appropriate. Some constraints (gravity, the demands of our biological makeup) are shared by all humans; but individuals also abstract what is appropriate within his or her particular culture. This is beneficial in many ways, but it also means that only ideas which are consistent with that culture are explored. Gender, stage of life, socioeconomic position, and so one can further define “appropriate” for the individual and constrain thought. Consider this analogy: TV, like culture, can influence creative thought (Runco & Pezdek, 1984; Sneed & Runco, 1992). This is a concern in the U.S. because children watch an average of 30 hours each week. Certain TV programs are designed specifically for children and intended to be educational. But even these are probably bad influences. This is because all TV shows require a passive viewer. The child watching TV does not

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need to think for himself or herself. TV shows can ask questions and pause, allowing a viewer to think, and this might be marginally effective, but TV programs tend to be fast-paced, free of gaps, and supply detailed pictures, sound and everything an individual needs. There is no room for inference, for problem solving, for originality. Programmers do not want gaps or opportunities for the viewer to think for themselves; they might turn the channel! In this light all TV is very likely to stifle development (generally and for creativity) because of the medium, not the content. You can have a good TV show, but it is still TV and thus still leads to intellectual passivity. In a parallel fashion, all culture requires conformity (to cultural values and definitions of appropriateness); conformity is an inherent part of fitting in. This will inhibit the potential for creative thought. Yet there are cultural differences, such as those described by Cropley (1973) and Stein (1953), and those explored empirically by Aviram and Milgram (1977), and Johnson, Runco, and Raina (2003). In the next section of this chapter, I review differences found in the implicit theories of parents and teachers.

6. Implicit Theories Johnson, Runco, and Raina (2003) suggested that the social validation technology (Runco, 1984, 1989; Runco & Bahleda, 1986) can be used to study cultural differences in creativity. They targeted the implicit theories of parents and teachers (see also Runco, Johnson, & Bear, 1993). Social validation techniques were first developed in the clinical setting (e.g., Runco & Schreibman, 1983) to confirm that the benefits resulting from therapy which were noticed by trained professionals would also be noticed by parents and teachers. Runco et al. (1993) applied this basic methodology to study implicit theories about creativity. Johnson et al. (2003) defined implicit theories in this fashion: “Implicit theories, from which expectations are formed, are the constellations of thoughts and ideas about a particular construct that are held and applied by individuals. Though these theories may never be explicitly expressed or formalized, they are maintained and are either intentionally or unintentionally applied when making judgments about

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certain characteristics and behaviors – in this case, about the characteristics and behaviors of creative children. These implicit theories probably act as standards against which children’s creative behaviors and performances are judged.” (p. 427)

I will also quote Johnson et al. (2003) on their findings: “Indian parents and teachers viewed traits commonly considered to be creative or uncreative by U.S. parents and teachers in very similar ways, with few exceptions... Comparisons were made within and across cultures between the creativity and desirability ratings of each item. The findings support the previous results... in that parents and teachers in the U.S. view creative traits in children favorably. They do not support the conclusions of the Indian studies regarding the undesirability of creative children (Raina, 1975; Raina & Raina, 1971; Singh, 1987). In fact, in the present study parents and teachers in both countries viewed, for the most part, creative traits as desirable and uncreative traits as undesirable. These observations were qualified, however, by the adjectives which received creativity and desirability ratings in opposite directions. These, as mentioned earlier, gave some reassurance that measures derived from parent and teacher implicit theories and ratings collected using them are not merely the influence of social desirability. These observations suggest that the adults not only recognize the indicative and contraindicative aspects of creativity, but they understand that some of the traits associated with creativity in children may be undesirable.” (pp. 435–436)

The exceptions noted in the first part of that quotation are important. They were cautious and conforming, two traits that can easily be tied to creative behavior. Creative persons are often risk takers, for example, rather than cautious. Even more clearly, they are never conformists, at least when doing something creative. They are more typically contrarians than conformists (Runco, 2003). Admittedly, no one displays any one trait all of the time. “States” or contexts will influence the expression of traits, including caution and conformity, but in a sense that is the point of the chapter — that cultural context makes a big difference. Parents and teachers socialize children, and one function of socialization (and enculturalization) is to demonstrate what is appropriate within that culture. More often than not this diminishes the number of

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options available to the individual, and that inhibits the free thought that allows creativity. It does not eliminate free thought nor creativity, but it does constrain it. And of course there is great benefit to knowing what is appropriate! The individual should know what is appropriate, but also know when he or she can make a decision for one’s self. Runco (1996) described this as post-conventional behavior, which is defined as knowing what is conventional (and typical, and appropriate) but making up one’s own mind. It is not, then, blind conformity nor blind nonconformity, but instead is an optimal balance of the two.

7. Conclusion Most of what was reviewed above applies most directly to contextual cultural variables, namely, the school and educational system, the family and home, and the organization. The individual does of course play a role, and it is not merely the role of recipient. As is the case with much of development, interactions are bidirectional. The child often has impact on the environment, just as the environment has impact on the child and development. Ng (1999) described the individual’s role in the creative process, emphasizing “the self ”. He described a number of notable differences existing between Western and Eastern views of the self. He gave the most emphasis to assumptions about control, which is not far afield from my own discussion of post-conventionality. In Ng’s work, the Eastern view traditionally emphasizes extrinsic control — control exerted by the environment. Here it is the individual who adapts, who is recipient. In the Western view the individual initiates change; control is intrinsic. Ng’s primary interest seems to have been in art and aesthetics, but his ideas apply well beyond those spheres to creative thinking and creative work. Clearly, this view is complementary with the theory of personal creativity which was outlined at the beginning of the present chapter. Put briefly, the theory of personal creativity acknowledges certain universals (e.g., the interpretive capacity we each share) and certain cultural differences (e.g., definitions of appropriateness). In my Foreword to Ng’s book, I singled out his argument that the East and the West both have something to offer creative efforts. Here is the summary statement from that Foreword:

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“[Ng] captures what may be the key idea in cross cultural studies, namely that cultures differ but cannot and should not be directly compared. Any such comparison is unfair, much like the common expression (in the West) about comparing apples and oranges. Just to name one example, the West might seem to have an advantage for fulfilling creative potentials in that it allows the individual more liberty. Individuality is encouraged, rewarded, expected. There is probably more autonomy in the West, less pressure for conformity and harmony. On the other hand, human emotions are treated in different ways in the East and the West, with the East typically more open to and in control of emotions. This is especially significant when it comes to creativity because emotions have such weight in creative work.” (Runco, 1999a, p. x)

Creativity is a complex. We cannot just look to cognitive potentials, nor just emotions, nor just to social behaviors. Hopefully the theory of personal creativity outlined here provides a useful perspective for the role of culture in the creative process. Its emphasis on the values and judgments involved in the creative process should, at the very least, complement the other perspectives offered in this volume.

References Adams, J. (1986). Conceptual blockbusting. New York: Norton. Albert, R. S. (1996). What the study of eminence can teach us. Creativity Research Journal, 9, 307–315. Aviram, A., & Milgram, R. M. (1977). Dogmatism, locus of control, and creativity in children educated in the Soviet Union, the United States, and Israel. Psychological Reports, 40, 27–34. Basadur, M. (1994). Simplex: A flight to creativity. Buffalo, NJ: Creative Education Foundation. Cropley, A. J. (1973). Creativity and culture. Educational Trends, 1, 19–27. Johnson, D., Runco, M. A., & Raina, M. K. (2003). Parents’ and teachers’ implicit theories of children’s creativity: A cross-cultural perspective. Creativity Research Journal, 14, 427–438. Ng, A. K. (1999). Why Asians are less creative than Westerners. Singapore: Prentice-Hall. Plucker, J., & Runco, M. A. (1999). Deviance and creativity. In M. A. Runco & Steven Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (pp. 541–545). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

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Raina, M. K. (1975). Parental perception about ideal child. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 37, 229–232. Raina, T. N., & Raina, M. K. (1971). Perception of teacher-educators in India about the ideal pupil. Journal of Educational Research, 64, 303–306. Rothenberg, A. (1997). Creativity, mental health, and alcoholism. In M. A. Runco & R. Richards (Eds.), Eminent creativity, everyday creativity, and health (pp. 65–93). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Rubenson, D. L., & Runco, M. A. (1992). The psychoeconomic approach to creativity. New Ideas in Psychology, 10, 131–147. Runco, M. A. (in press). Discretion is the better part of creativity: Personal creativity and implications for culture. Critical Inquiry. Runco, M. A. (1984). Teachers’ judgments of creativity and social validation of divergent thinking tests. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 59, 711–717. Runco, M. A. (1989). Parents’ and teachers’ ratings of the creativity of children. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 4, 73–83. Runco, M. A. (1992). Creativity as an educational objective for disadvantaged students. Storrs, CT: National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Runco, M. A. (1995). Insight for creativity, expression for impact. Creativity Research Journal, 8, 377–390. Runco, M. A. (1996). Personal creativity: Definition and developmental issues. New Directions for Child Development, 72, 3–30. Runco, M. A. (1999a). The intersection of creativity and culture: Foreword to Why Asians are less creative than Westerners. In A. K. Ng, Why Asians are less creative than Westerners (pp. ix–xi). Singapore: Prentice-Hall. Runco, M. A. (1999b). Time and creativity. In M. A. Runco & S. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (pp. 659–663). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Runco, M. A. (1999c). Tactics and strategies for creativity. In M. A. Runco & Steven Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (pp. 611–616). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Runco, M. A. (2003). Creativity and contrarianism. Submitted for publication. Runco, M. A., & Bahleda, M. D. (1986). Implicit theories of artistic, scientific, and everyday creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 20, 93–98. Runco, M. A., & Charles, R. (1993). Judgments of originality and appropriateness as predictors of creativity. Personality and Individual Differences, 15, 537–546. Runco, M. A., Johnson, D. J., & Bear, P. K. (1993). Parents’ and teachers’ implicit theories of children’s creativity. Child Study Journal, 23, 91–113. Runco, M. A., & Pezdek, K. (1984). The effect of radio and television on children’s creativity. Human Communications Research, 11, 109–120.

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Runco, M. A., & Schreibman, L. (1983). Parental judgments of behavior therapy efficacy with autistic children: A social validation. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 13, 237–248. Singh, R. P. (1987). Parental perception about creative children. Creative Child and Adult Quarterly, 12, 39–42. Skinner, B. F. (1956). A case study in the scientific method. American Psychologist, 11, 211–233. Sneed, C., & Runco, M. A. (1992). The beliefs adults and children hold about television and video games. Journal of Psychology, 126, 273–284. Stein, M. I. (1953). Creativity and culture. Journal of Psychology, 36, 31–322.

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Chapter 3 Creativity: Developmental and Cross-Cultural Issues

Todd I. LUBART Asta GEORGSDOTTIR Université René Descartes — Paris 5 Laboratoire Cognition et Développement, France

A multivariate approach is used to study developmental and cross-cultural differences in creativity. In this chapter, we propose that cultures shape the development of creativity differently through their influence on children’s cognitive development, personality development, and the environment in which children grow. We start an overview of recent work on the development of creativity in children. Then we turn to how cultures shape creativity through different definitions of creativity, by differential emphasis on creative activity, and by channeling creativity into some sectors more than others. Finally, we examine how culture interacts with development to shape creativity differently in the west and in the east. We conclude that creativity training needs to take into account cultural differences that may foster or inhibit creativity, in order to build on the strengths and compensate for the limits of each culture to better foster children’s creative development.

1. Introduction Since Guilford’s (1950) presidential address to the American Psychological Association, the topic of creativity in the fields of psychology and education has received increasing attention. There is wide agreement that 23

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creativity represents an important facet of human behavior, which is potentially relevant to nearly every domain of activity (for example, artistic, scientific, economic, religious, everyday life domains). Thinking and research on creativity has developed, as in most scientific fields, using a divide-and-conquer strategy. The topic of creativity has been split into manageable chunks. For example, one popular division was proposed by Rhodes (1961) who identified the “4 P’s” of creativity: the creative product, the creative person, the creative process and the creative environment (called “press”). Another line of attack has been to study creativity within one or another sub-field of psychology. Thus, we find the cognitive approach, the social-psychological approach, the developmental approach, the cross-cultural approach, the psychoanalytic approach, and the list continues. In the last twenty years, several authors have sought a more integrated conception of creativity in which different approaches, different pieces of the puzzle come together. An example of this line of work is the multivariate approach to creativity, which proposes that creativity depends on cognitive, conative, and environmental factors that combine interactively (Amabile, 1983, 1996; Lubart, 1999; Sternberg & Lubart, 1995). According to this view, there is a continuum of creative ability from very low levels (non-creative individuals) to very high levels (eminent cases of creativity, such as Confucius, Dostoyevski, Einstein, Freud, Ghandi). Individual differences in creativity result from the combination of the different cognitive, conative, and environmental factors. Results of recent empirical studies have begun to provide support for this multivariate approach (Conti, Coon, & Amabile, 1996; Lubart & Sternberg, 1995). Other recent integrative approaches, such as the systems view of creativity have also been proposed (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). Case studies show that a combination of person-centered and environment-centered variables is involved for each eminently creative person (Gardner, 1993). In the presentation that follows, we seek to move further toward an integrated view of creativity. The multivariate approach will serve as a basis on which developmental and cross-cultural studies of creativity will be overlaid. This chapter consists of three parts. First, we will present an overview of the development of creativity in children. Our approach is multivariate in the sense that cognitive factors, personality-motivational

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factors and the child’s environment are considered important for the emergence of creativity. Second, we will look at ways that creativity is affected by culture. In particular, we suggest that the definition of creativity, the extent to which creativity-related behaviors are valued, which in turn influences the quantity of creative activity, and the domains in which creativity is promoted vary across cultures. Third, we explore how cross-cultural differences in creativity may mesh with its development. It is proposed that differences in the definition of creativity condition the cognitive developmental factor. The extent to which originality is valued is linked, in particular, to the personality-motivational factor. The set of domains in which creativity is allowed is specified through the environmental factor. In conclusion, implications of this combined developmental, cross-cultural approach are proposed.

2. Developmental Issues 2.1. What is creativity in this approach? In work concerning the development of creativity, most authors define creativity as the capacity to produce novel, original work that fits within task constraints (Lubart, 1994). Work refers to all types of ideas and productions. This work must be novel in the sense that it goes beyond a replication or copy of that which exists. The extent to which the work produced is novel can vary from being original only for the person who completed the work (this is the notion of re-inventing ideas known already in the larger social context) to being original for a limited social group, to being original for all of humanity. The second component in the definition concerns the fit with constraints. We distinguish creative ideas from bizarre ideas, which are also novel, because creative ideas take into account the parameters of a situation, the constraints. Depending on the field of endeavor, such as art, science, literature, or engineering and design, the weight given to the two components, novelty and constraint satisfaction, varies. Operationally, creativity in children is often measured through divergent thinking tests, evaluations of specific productions such as drawings or stories, or parent/teacher nominations (Lubart, 1994; Sternberg & Lubart,

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1992). Divergent thinking tests for creativity, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking or the tests proposed by Wallach and Kogan, require children to produce as many original ideas (uses of an object, questions, consequences, titles for a picture) as possible concerning a stimulus (Torrance, 1974; Wallach & Kogan, 1965). This stimulus may be a hypothetical situation (e.g., strings attached to clouds), a drawing (e.g., picture of a boy who looks in the water), an object (e.g., a box, a paperclip), or other things. These tests are usually time limited (5 to 10 minutes for a task). Divergent thinking tasks provide three indices of performance: fluency which is the number of ideas produced; flexibility, which is the number of different categories from which the ideas are drawn, and originality of the ideas (see Mouchiroud & Lubart, 2001). Some divergent thinking tasks take into account the elaboration of ideas, or the number of details included in the productions. An alternative to divergent thinking tests is the use of integrated production tasks in which the child must produce an elaborated idea, such as a short story, a drawing, a collage, or a musical composition. This production is then evaluated by adult judges for its creativity. Finally, creativity may be measured by asking parents or teachers to nominate children who show creative thinking in their actions at school or at home. Of course, each of these three types of creativity measures has its strengths and weaknesses (Lubart, 1994).

2.2. Cognition and development Several intellectual abilities are considered important for creativity. These include selective encoding — the ability to notice relevant stimuli in the environment, selective comparison ability allowing for analogical and metaphorical thought, selective combination ability to facilitate the generation of complex ideas from disparate elements, and divergent thinking to generate numerous alternatives when facing an impasse. These abilities develop with age. In our recent work, we have devised specific measures of some of these capacities and examined their development. For example, we constructed a test of sensitivity to cognitive change using visual stimuli, which relates to selective encoding capacity. In this test, a child sees a series of images that change slightly each time (e.g., the face of a lion that becomes a face of a monkey). The child must

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indicate what is portrayed and we score when the child notes that the initial object or animal displayed has become something different. This test correlates with children’s creativity in diverse tasks, such as the Urban-Jellan drawing test (Georgsdottir, Jacquet, Pacteau, & Lubart, 2000; Lubart, Jacquet, Pacteau, & Zenasni, 2000). It is important to note that the development of cognitive abilities particularly involved in creative thinking, such as divergent thinking, is not isolated from the development of other cognitive abilities, such as logical reasoning. In fact, some of our research suggests that there may be temporary slumps in creative development when other aspects of cognition that require contrasting types of thinking are put into place. We conducted semi-longitudinal research with 8- to 12-year-old children, examining how performance changes with age on the verbal subtests of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and storytelling tasks. We found a temporary slump in performance for certain tasks around 9- to 10-yearold, in particular the tasks that involved finding unusual uses for familiar objects (a box and a string). Interestingly, using modified Piagetian tasks, we observed in our sample that certain modes of logical thinking became fully operational after 9 years old (Lubart & Lautrey, 1995). Two other empirical studies on 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old children focused on the development of the flexibility component of creative thinking and its relationship to cognitive development (Georgsdottir, Ameel, & Lubart, 2002). The first study showed that cognitive flexibility decreased around age 9 and then increased again around age 10, whereas logical thinking develops in particular around 9 years old. In this study, cognitive flexibility was measured by a repeated categorization task, in which the child was required to regroup the same material in many different ways (relating to selective combination capacity) whereas logical thinking reflected the tendency to classify items into taxonomic categories rather than schematic categories in a forced-choice categorization task. For an item such as “sled – ski – snow”, an example of taxonomic categorization is “sled – ski” whereas an example of a schematic categorization of the same item is “sled – snow”. In the second study, cognitive flexibility was measured in two different ways in order to grasp both the spontaneous and the adaptive aspect of flexible thought. Spontaneous flexibility was measured by a free-

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association task in which the child was asked to name all the ideas he or she could think of in response to the word “airplane”. The number of different conceptual categories present in the answers indicated spontaneous flexibility in the sense that individuals will produce more or less diversified ideas without any suggestion that they be flexible. Adaptive flexibility was measured by Duncker’s (1945) candle task, which involves putting a candle on a wall without the wax spilling on the floor using only a box of matches, a box of tacks and a few candles. Here, flexibility is demonstrated by breaking out of the mental set or the functional fixedness of seeing the boxes only as containers. The solution is to empty one of the boxes, fixing it to the wall with some tacks and put the candle on top of it. In this study logical thinking was measured with a logical implication task (Light, Blaye, Gilly, & Girotto, 1989), in which children were presented with two picture cards (a flower and a mushroom) facing down on a violet cardboard with a green center. A rule was introduced: the mushrooms must be placed outside of the center. The task was to say which card needed to be turned over in order to verify if the rule had been broken or not (only the center card needs to be turned over in order to verify the rule). The findings confirmed the results of the first study. We observed a pause in the development of both spontaneous and adaptive flexibility between ages 8 and 9, and then a progression between 9 and 10 years old, whereas logical thinking progressed rapidly between ages 8 and 9, but then the development seemed to stagnate for the 10-year-old children. Taken together, these studies indicate that the development of cognitive processes involved in creative thinking (in particular, divergent thinking and flexibility) are related, at times in an alternating way, with the development of certain other cognitive abilities. These results are consistent with Karmiloff-Smith’s (1994) model of the development in which she postulates that acquisition of new skills can lead to temporary regressions in performance, followed by restoration of the capacity. Once new ways of thinking have been consolidated, performance is restored on the basis of new knowledge that can be applied in a flexible way. In addition to basic information processing skills, the acquisition of knowledge is also important. Knowledge is the raw material on which creative thinking draws. Due, in part, to their limited level of knowledge,

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it seems that children are not ready from day 1 to be creative in the same way as adults. For example, very young children, such as 2-year-olds who are just learning to speak, may produce unusual utterances without really understanding the sense of the words that they have put together; is this creativity in the same sense as an adult who purposively breaks with linguistic tradition to express a new idea through modern poetry? Knowledge provides a platform from which creative ideas can be generated. In this vein, Sir Isaac Newton noted that his achievements were due, to a great extent, because he had “stood on the shoulders of giants”, the predecessors in his field. When we speak of knowledge, we include the accumulated facts, theories and personalized experiences that concern various content domains, but also an understanding of taskrelevant constraints and other implicit parameters that play a role in problem solving. It seems specially important to be aware of constraints in order to distinguish creative ideas from simply eccentric ones. The capacity for evaluative thinking, which has been shown to relate to children’s and adults’ creative performance (Runco, 1992), depends on the development of one’s knowledge base in a domain. Of course, as with most things, too much of a good thing can become detrimental; the negative side of acquiring substantial knowledge on a topic is that it can lead to rigid, “fossilized” thinking. In summary, creativity-relevant cognitive abilities develop with age, and their development seems to be linked to other developing abilities. Divergent thinking declines temporarily between 9 and 10 years of age, whereas logical thinking shows a spurt around the same age. Knowledge also accumulates with age which, up to a certain point, can facilitate creativity if used in a flexible way.

2.3. Conation and development Creativity is more than a purely cognitive phenomenon. Certain personality traits are particularly relevant for original, adaptive thinking develop during childhood. In particular the traits of risk taking, openness, individuality, perseverance and tolerance of ambiguity seem to play a role in creativity (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995). Consider, for example, the traits of risk taking and openness.

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Clifford (1988) examined children’s risk taking and failure tolerance in academic situations. She asked children at various grade levels (8- to 12-year-olds) to solve problems of their own choice in verbal, mathematics, and other academic domains. The problems were clearly labeled as being appropriate for average children of various ages (age 6 to 14 years old). The results were somewhat surprising and disturbing. Fourth-grade children selected problems that were approximately six months below their ability level; fifth graders selected problems that were on average one year below their level, and for sixth graders differences reached up to 1.5 years between real age and the age-level of the problems selected. This shows that children were increasingly risk averse with age, which is smart for getting good grades in school. This result, which was originally obtained in a study of American children has been replicated in Mainland China (Clifford, Lan, Chou, & Qi, 1989), in Taiwan (Clifford & Chou, 1991), and with somewhat different tasks in our own work in France. The basic finding can be considered disturbing because creative thinking involves taking risks, going against standard ideas, and exposing oneself to failure and negative comments from peers, teachers, or parents. In research with adults, we have found that people who respond to hypothetical domain-specific situation scenarios in a way that shows willingness to take risk tend to produce more creative work in tasks in the domain examined (Lubart & Sternberg, 1995). These considerations among others led to the development of what we call the investment approach to creativity (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995). In this view, many people are not creative because they are unwilling to pursue unknown or little valued ideas, they do not “buy low”. “Buying low” involves investing one’s energy and resources in new, risky or low-valued ideas. Some of these ideas may turn out to be worth the investment. Being creative is, in part, a philosophy of life, which is acquired through childhood experiences. Openness to new experiences is another creativity-relevant trait that develops. In an empirical study of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old children, we correlated scores on the unusual uses for a cardboard box task from the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking with an Openness-to-experience questionnaire drawn from a big-five personality inventory for children (Little & Wanner, 1998). We found a positive relationship between openness to experience and creativity in the 10-year-old group that was

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not present for the younger groups (Georgsdottir & Lubart, 2002). Perhaps the relationship between openness and creativity that has been found in adult populations (McCrae, 1987) emerges only after a certain level of cognitive development has been attained. In addition to personality traits, motivational variables have also been shown to be important for creativity. Motivation refers to the force that drives an individual to engage in a task. There are both intrinsic motivators, such as curiosity and the enjoyment gained from expressing one’s self through visual or verbal modes, as well as extrinsic motivators, such as social recognition from peers or teachers. Research in which motivation is manipulated by role-modeling, training, or rewards suggests that children’s motivation for work, intrinsic or extrinsic, develops over time based on the experiences provided by their environment. Intrinsic motivation is considered more conducive for creativity although extrinsic motivation can also contribute in certain circumstances (Amabile, 1996). In summary, the development of personality traits, such as risk-taking and openness, may influence how creativity develops. The motivation for creative work can also evolve as a result of the rewards and values which are proposed.

2.4. Environment and development Several authors have proposed that one of the key influences on creative development is the physical and social environment of the child. In this section, we consider the family, school, and societal spheres of the environment. The family environment may provide cognitive (e.g., intellectual stimulation) and affective (e.g., emotional security) support for creativity as well as providing the physical setting in which a child grows (Harrington, Block, & Block, 1987). For example, families that provide stimulating settings with many books, magazines and cultural activities tend to foster creative thinking (Simonton, 1984). Carl Rogers (1954) suggested that a warm, secure family will serve as a base from which creative work can be attempted. Other authors, have explored a socialcognitive dimension of the family environment, the “structure of family rules” for daily life.

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Using basic intellectual tasks from the Piagetian and psychometric traditions, Lautrey (1980) and other authors showed that families that have established rules to guide children’s behavior but modify occasionally these rules provide both the structure and the perturbations of this structure that foster cognitive development. These families with “flexible” rules can be contrasted with those having “rigid” rules and those that lack rules in general. In a series of studies with Parisian children (7 to 12 years old), we examined how these variations in family rule systems are related to creativity (Lubart & Lautrey, 1998). Children completed creativity tasks from the Torrance battery and parents responded to a questionnaire on family life. This parental questionnaire contained 20 items that measured whether each family’s system of rules for children was rigid, flexible, or unstructured. The questionnaire also assessed demographic and socioeconomic status. A sample question is: When your child plays at home: (a) Your child can play only in certain places that you specified. (rigid rule) (b) You have specified places for playing games but your child can play outside of these areas under certain circumstances. ( f lexible rule) (c) Your child plays wherever he/she wants. (lack of rule) To characterize the family environment, we used two types of scores: (a) the number of questionnaire responses indicating a flexible rule structure (a continuous variable) and (b) a categorization of each family as either predominantly flexible in its rule structure or predominantly rigid (a categorical variable). We found that the number of “ flexible ” rule responses (by parents) correlated positively with creative performance (Fluency) of children (correlations ranging from .12 (n.s.) to .46 (p < .01) depending on the sample, and the creativity task). The analysis of contrasted groups confirmed the correlational trends and showed that children from families with mainly “rigid” parental rules were, on average, less creative than families characterized mainly by “flexible” rules. Analyses concerning socioeconomic status (SES) showed three results. First, creative task performance is related to SES (high SES, greater fluency). Second, family rule structure is related to SES (high SES

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associated with flexible rules and low SES associated with rigid rules). Third, and most importantly, the positive relationship between flexible family rules and creative task performance occurs at each level of SES. Thus, our research studies indicate that there is a positive relationship between the flexibility of family rules and creative task performance in children (measured by the number of ideas produced). This result seems to hold across socioeconomic levels and remains after intelligence-related variables (such as factor g) are controlled statistically. In summary, the results suggest that family rule structure may be one of the components of the environment that influences the development of creativity in children showing a small but consistent relationship to creative task performance. In addition to the family setting, the school environment plays a crucial role in the development of creativity, or its lack of development in many cases. First, children acquire cognitive abilities and knowledge in school. Often schools emphasize convergent thinking, finding the “correct” answer to problems proposed by the teacher. Sometimes, however, divergent thinking is encouraged and children are allowed to struggle with illdefined problems. In terms of knowledge, information is often transmitted in a compartmentalized way, with an emphasis on memorization and recall. However, some curricula emphasize the dynamic, context-specific nature of knowledge, using knowledge in diverse ways, and building links across different content areas. Second, teachers serve as role models for children. Teachers may value or de-value the expression of creative ideas in the classroom. Work on teachers’ conceptions of the ideal student show that teachers often value characteristics that are socially important but not specially relevant for creativity. For example, Verkasalo, Tuomivaara and Lindeman (1996) studied 124 Finnish schoolteachers and found a conception of the ideal pupil as honest, broad-minded, valuing self-respect, family security, true friendship and meaning in life. A study done among 127 Nigerian teachers showed that they valued pupil characteristics such as industry, sincerity, obedience, courtesy, consideration, self-confidence, and health (Ohuche, 1987). Other studies have shown that teachers favor quiet, conforming behaviors rather than intellectually provocative ones, which may question the teacher’s authority. Working with teachers on their attitudes towards creative behaviors in the classroom is important as they are in a privileged

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position to stimulate or stifle creativity. Cropley (1997) has identified some common characteristics of teachers who foster creativity in the classroom, they encourage independent learning, have a cooperative teaching-style, motivate students to learn the facts in order to have a solid base for divergent thinking, encourage flexible thinking, delay judging students’ ideas until they have been fully considered, promote self-evaluation of ideas, take students questions and suggestions seriously, offer opportunities to work with a variety of materials in varied conditions, and help students to cope with frustration and failure in order to build the courage to pursue new ideas. Third, school structures children’s lives and serves as an important context for socialization. Torrance (1962, 1968) and other authors have suggested that some temporary slumps in creative divergent thinking task performance, observed at age 6 and 13 in developmental studies using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, can be explained by schoolrelated circumstances. In particular, around age 6, most children enter the formal school system. They encounter a structured world with many new rules to master and structured learning activities to accomplish. It is not surprising, therefore, that creativity is affected. At approximately age 13, a second slump is often observed in the average developmental curve. This age corresponds in many cases to a change from elementary school to secondary school, which certainly requires some time for children to adjust. Also, age 13 corresponds to adolescence, a period specially marked by peer pressure and identity development. Beyond the local, school setting, the macroscopic social environment conditions creative development in numerous ways. For example, cultural activities such as concerts, artistic expositions, museums, and television shows on diverse topics can all contribute to children’s creative development. Historiometric studies have shown that the presence of eminent role models (such as great scientists or writers) in one generation (g) tends to predict the creative accomplishments of future generations (g+1, g+2) in the same domain (Simonton, 1984, 1996). The proximity of a city, state or country with respect to other, different cultural centers also seems to have an influence through the potential for stimulation and cross-fertilization of ideas (Simonton, 1975, 1984).

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To sum up, the environment can influence creativity through the family, the school, or on a broader societal level. Flexible family rules seem to be more nurturing to creativity than a rigid structure. Schooling is also important, as teachers can either encourage or discourage creativity through their ways of transmitting knowledge and attitudes towards pupils. On a broader level, opportunities to encounter creative work and creative role models in the environment also foster creativity. In the following section, we develop in detail how culture may influence creativity.

3. Cross-Cultural Issues Culture refers to a shared system of cognitions, behaviors, customs, values, rules, and symbols concerning the manner in which a set of people interact with their social and physical environment (Reber, 1985; Triandis, 1996). Culture is learned and socially transmitted from generation to generation; cultures are dynamic and may evolve over time. Cross-cultural analyses suggest that the definition of creativity, the level of creative activity and the domains in which creativity is promoted vary across cultures.

3.1. Definition The definition of creativity proposed earlier in this chapter — creativity as the ability to produce work that is novel and appropriate — dominates the literature and may be referred to as the “Western” view. An important feature of creativity in this perspective is the link to an observable product. This product can be assessed by an appropriate group of judges, either peers or experts (Amabile, 1983). Divergent thinking tests require the production of ideas, which are then counted to obtain the fluency score, categorized for the flexibility score or situated with respect to other ideas produced in a population for originality scores. This product-centered conception of creativity seems to fit with the Western perspective on cosmic creation, which involves a linear movement toward a new point (see von Franz, 1995). For example, the book of Genesis states that creation of the world took six days of labor and each day resulted in

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observable progress (such as the formation of land, creation of animals, etc.) (Mason, 1988; Wonder & Blake, 1992). There was a finite beginning and the process ended with a tangible product, the world, which the divine creator found satisfying. In contrast to the Western conception of creativity, it is possible to distinguish an alternative, traditional Eastern or Oriental view (It should be noted that within the Eastern and Western camps, there are crossnational differences, such as those between China, Japan, and Korea which are part of the Eastern group). The Oriental conception of creativity seems more focused on the authenticity of the discovery process than the output of innovative products. Creativity is often discussed with respect to a state of personal fulfillment, a connection to a primordial realm, or the expression of an inner essence or ultimate reality (Chu, 1970; Mathur, 1982; Raina, 2002). Meditation is relevant to creativity because it helps one to see the true nature of the self, an object, or an event (Chu, 1970; Onda, 1962). Illustrating this view, an anthropological field study of traditional painters in India found that the creative artist is one who contacts the “psychic reality within the depths of himself … strive[s] to make it manifest … to become one with it, integrating it through differentiation, meditation, and self-realization. In a very real sense, the artist is enjoined to re-create, or reactivate, what is already latent in his unconscious” (Maduro, 1976, p. 135). The Oriental view of cosmic creation has been characterized as “an ongoing process — a developing, an unfolding” (Sinclair, 1971, p. 83). In parallel terms, the traditional, Oriental concept of creativity is sometimes described as the successive reconfiguration of an initial totality, the reinterpretation of traditional ideas — finding a new point of view — more than a dramatic break with tradition (Kristeller, 1983). This conception of creativity is thus linked to the idea of a natural process of producing and renewing (Niu & Sternberg, 2002). Recent studies of people’s conceptions of creativity in Western settings as well as in Asian societies (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan) suggest that the notion of novel, original thinking is present in each case (Lim & Plucker, 2001; Niu & Sternberg, 2001; Rudowicz & Yue, 2000; Soh, 1999; Tan, 2000). It is debatable, however, whether the notion of “novelty” has the same nuances in these diverse

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cultures. In line with Sternberg, Kaufman and Pretz’s (2002) work on types of creative contribution, an idea may be novel, for example, because it (a) reiterates a known idea in a new way, (b) moves a field forward along its current trajectory, (c) moves a field forward in a new direction, or (d) leads to an integration of diverse trends in a field. Certain forms of novelty (b, c) seem to fit well the western view of creativity whereas other forms fit within the eastern view (a, d). In the same vein, Li (1997) contrasted “vertical” creative domains, such as Chinese ink-brush paintings in which novelty builds on certain fundamental elements, with “horizontal” creative domains such as modern Western painting in which novelty can occur in nearly any aspect of the work. Finally, Niu and Sternberg (2002) compared studies concerning peoples’ implicit theories about the creative person in Western and Eastern societies. They found many similarities in the conceptions of creativity between the two cultures, such as: originality imagination, intelligence, independence, and high energy. The Eastern and Western conceptions were not identical however, as the Eastern view of creativity did not emphasize humor and aesthetic sensitivity as did the Western view, but did emphasize social and moral aspects of creativity.

3.2. Cultural context and the amount of creative activity Creativity may be stimulated or hindered in general by cultural features such as the tendency toward individualism or collectivism and the value placed on conformity or tradition (Williams, Saiz, FormyDuval, Munick, Fogle, Adom, Haque, Neto, & Yu, 1995). For example, cultures characterized by individualism, such as North American and Western European ones, define the self as autonomous. Collectivist cultures, such as Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese cultures, define the self within a social context such as the family with its norms and obligations (Sodowsky, Maguire, Johnson, Ngumba, & Kohles, 1994; Triandis, 1996). According to Triandis, McCusker, Betancourt, Sumiko, Leung, Salazar, Setiadi, Sinha, Tozard, and Zaleski (1993), individualist cultures value independence and self reliance, which are positive factors for creativity whereas collectivist cultures emphasize obedience, cooperation, duty and acceptance of an in-group authority. More recently, Ng (2001a) proposed

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that the individualism-collectivism dimension can explain to a large extent differences in creative activity levels for Westerners and Asians. He argued, in particular, that task-focused motivation, relevant for creativity, is related to individualism (Ng, 2001a, 2001b). However, in the highly dynamic present-day eastern societies such as the People’s Republic of China, this cultural emphasis may be subject to change. In related work at the person-level rather than the cultural level, the traits of individuality and individuation — the willingness of a person to differentiate him- or herself from others — have been linked to creative activities and behaviors such as offering a new, original opinion compared to a majority view (Maslach, 1974; Sternberg & Lubart, 1995; Whitney, Sagrestano, & Maslach, 1994). In this vein, Burns and Brady (1992) found that American and Malaysian students differed on their expressed need for uniqueness, the desire to be stand out from the crowd, which relates in turn to the use of “rare”, innovative products and the promotion of idiosyncratic ideas or behaviors. In addition to the individualism-collectivism dimension, cultures vary on the extent to which they value conformity and tradition (Mann, 1980). Some cultures more than others accept deviation (at least in certain domains). For example, Silver (1981) reports that Ashanti “wood carvers refrain from overtly criticizing their peers. In general they praise attempts at anything new under the assumption that the innovation may prove popular, whereas at worst it may fail harmlessly” (Silver, 1981, p. 105). Of course there is a range of permissiveness across cultures (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dasen, 1992). Ho and Lee (1974) propose that the traditional Chinese family is characterized by authoritarianism, submission and value placed on conventional behavior patterns, which are features antithetical to creativity. A few cross-cultural studies show links between levels of conformity or dogmatism/openmindedness and creativity (see Aviram & Milgram, 1977; Marino, 1971; Straus & Straus, 1968). The previously mentioned study of traditional Indian painters also provides evidence on the link between conformity to tradition and creativity (Maduro, 1976). Interviews with the painters revealed that the level of conformity to tradition demanded by their jati had a conscious impact on creativity. One subgroup of painters, the Adi Gaur jati, follows the traditions, restrictions, and orthodox customs of the priestly Brahmin

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caste. The second group of painters, the Jangira jati, identifies with the supreme creator Vishvakarma and shows greater flexibility and tolerance in its’ practices. Seventy percent of the painters ranked creative by the whole artistic community were Jangiras even though there were twice as many Adi Gaurs in the community. In addition to the value placed on conformity and tradition, numerous other cultural characteristics may influence creativity. For example, cultures vary on the extent to which they value perseverance, tolerance of ambiguity, and risk taking, identified as important for creativity (Berry et al., 1992; Blinco, 1992; McDaniels & Gregory, 1991). Additionally, cultures may possess beliefs or attitudes that can foster or hinder creativity. For example, Krippner (1967) and Adams (1986) identify several beliefs that may work against creativity. Some are: “Fantasy and reflection are a waste of time”; “Playfulness is for children only”; “There is a right answer”; “Reason, logic, numbers, utility, and success are good — intuition, emotions, qualitative thinking, and failure are bad” (Adams, 1986, pp. 53–64; Krippner, 1967, pp. 144–156). A given culture, of course, may contain some elements that foster creativity and others that stifle it. In summary, culture can influence the amount of creativity through its emphasis on individuality as opposed to collective interests, through its tolerance of deviance as opposed to emphasis on conformity, and through cultural values and believes that favor creativity. These aspects can also differ between subgroups within the same culture.

3.3. Cultures channel creativity Beyond the conception of creativity, culture influences the manifestation of creativity in terms of the preferred forms and domains of its expression. Culture encourages creativity in some situations and for some topics but discourages it for others. For example, Mar’i and Karayanni (1983) observed that many Arab students’ responses to the question, “What would happen if mules and other animals which help us plow the farm cease to exist?” were elaborate and original. However, a religious question, “What would happen if worship places cease to exist?” yielded shallow responses or those that rejected the question. For the Ashanti, an African

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group, creativity is encouraged in the carving of secular objects but discouraged for objects depicting religious motifs (Silver, 1981). For traditional Indian painters, Pichwai paintings of the Shri Nathji idol or other religious topics are the most important genre. Depiction of a fundamental motif is not open to change but creativity can play a role in the depiction of subthemes. In landscape paintings, a greater degree of stylistic variation is permitted. Paintings produced for popular calendars, a third genre, are seen as a leisure-time form of painting and show the most creativity (Maduro, 1976). Taken together these instances of selectivity for creativity suggest that the level of creativity permitted on a topic is often inversely related to the topic’s role in the maintenance of deep cultural patterns. That is, for topics related to religion or considered as sacred in some way, there seems to be much more reluctance to change, than for topics that are taken less seriously in the culture and for which less obedience is expected. Ludwig (1992) draws on Margaret Mead’s studies of Bali to illustrate this idea: In Bali, “the more serious the art form, like sculptures of gods or ritual dances, the less the permitted change, and the less serious the art form, like carvings of kitchen gods, the theatrical performances of clowns, the playing of instruments or the weaving of containers, the greater the originality can be” (p. 456). In general, although creativity is possible for topics such as social organization, economics, and religion, it may be relatively rare because these topics are involved in maintaining basic cultural patterns (Bascom, 1969). Within a culturally-selected domain, the expression of creativity may be further specified. For example, in Bali music is seen as a group endeavor in religious rituals. Groups of musicians can differ in style from each other. Individual musicians, however, are expected to be stereotyped, anonymous contemporaries with regard to creativity (Colligan, 1983; Gaines & Price-Williams, 1990). This type of channeling effect on creativity may derive from a culture’s position on an individualismcollectivism dimension. In some societies, collectivism could be expressed through maintaining the status quo in religious art, as religion plays a role in maintaining social order in the society. The Kaluli of Papua New Guinea illustrate another way that musical creativity depends on social structure. In this case the focus is on gender-based groups. Men and women can both be creative but in different musical genres. For women,

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songs that express the personal emotions of the singer are valued, such as songs in which an individual’s sorrow for a loved one’s death is expressed. For men, songs that provoke a collective emotional response are valued, such as those that incite the audience to cry or even to attack the singer (Brenneis, 1990). In summary, culture channels creativity by permitting more or less variation in the interpretation of themes. Themes that are central to maintaining deep cultural patterns, such as religious themes, seem to be less open to individual creative expression than more popular themes.

4. Integrating Developmental and Cross-Cultural Perspectives In this section, we explore how cross-cultural differences may influence the development of creativity, being transmitted from one generation to the next. Following the analysis presented in the preceding section, we will examine the definition of creativity and how children’s definitions of creativity emerge during childhood, the amount of creative activity that is fostered in different cultures and the ways in which different cultures channel creativity into selected activities.

4.1. Ways that culture defines creativity during development First, children learn about creativity through examples provided by their social environment. When parents or teachers remark that an idea, a drawing, a story or any other behavior is “creative”, children develop an implicit definition. Equally important are eminent role models that the culture offers as examples of creativity (Simonton, 1984, 1996). Artists, writers, scientists, inventors, business people, musicians and others may receive special attention in the media, in expositions, or in school programs as historical or contemporary cases of eminent creativity. To the extent that cultures differ on their conceptions of creativity, we can expect that the examples noted by parents and teachers as well as the eminent cases identified in the public arena will differ. Second, the extent to which creativity represents a break with tradition or, on the contrary, an extension and renewal of cultural traditions is

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transmitted during children’s development. According to the “Western” conception of creativity, children can be creative without much knowledge because creativity involves discovery and breaking away from that which exists. In fact, knowledge may limit imagination and lead children to repeat existing ideas (Soh, 1999). Thus, even young children can be creative, and schools educate the creativity out of many children by filling their heads with information that constrains and standardizes their thinking. This attitude toward creativity is reflected in the belief that a child may produce a creative idea without even realizing its novelty. For example, a child who strings words together in a novel way to express an idea because he or she does not know that the commonly-used vocabulary term can be considered to be creative linguistically in a western perspective. In contrast, an “Eastern” view implies an initial mastery of existing ideas in order to refine, extend or rework these ideas (Gardner, 1997). Education is a necessary first step for creativity. Exercises such as copying masterworks (for example, paintings) will help develop creativity according to this perspective. Thus, children must first acquire a body of existing knowledge before being able to contribute potentially new ideas. In line with this conception, Soh (2001), based on children’s artistic productions compared to those of mature creative artists, suggested that children may be spontaneous, producing novelty without knowledge or attention to task constraints, but this does not qualify as creativity. Furthermore, the Japanese concept of “satori”, a flash of enlightenment similar to the “aha” experience in Western creators accounts, is described as requiring a long period of preparatory activity, with constant practice, persistence, and the acquisition of domain expertise (Torrance, 1980). Finally, a comparison of educational views of Singaporean teachers who were trained either in traditional Chinese schools or in western-oriented teacher colleges showed that the traditionally-trained group believed significantly more than did the western-trained group that basic skills must precede creativity (Soh, 1999). In summary, culture influences children’s emerging definitions of creativity in several ways, for example, through family influences, schooling or available role models. The definition each culture has of creativity also influences whether children’s productions are regarded as creative or not.

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4.2. Ways that culture influences the amount of creativity during development The development of children’s tendencies to engage in creative behavior is influenced through cultural variables such as the level of conformity required in family and school settings, the consequences of failure in school, and the type of reinforcement offered (intrinsic or extrinsic rewards) for good work. Creativity-relevant personality traits and motivation, which are important for productivity and originality, are shaped over time. In this regard, cross-cultural comparisons of parental values and practices shows that European-American parents compared to ChineseAmerican and Taiwan-Chinese parents differed in several key ways; the traits of politeness, calmness, neatness, concentration and precision were rated as significantly more important for preschool children by TaiwanChinese and Chinese-American parents than by European-American parents (Jose, Huntsinger, Huntsinger, & Liaw, 2000). Taiwan-Chinese and Chinese-American parents exerted more control through directive behaviors and emphasized academic achievement more than EuropeanAmerican parents. In principle, these different parental profiles should impact on the tendency for creative behavior in children. In line with these results, Rudowicz and Yue (2000) examined concepts of creativity in Chinese undergraduates from Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei and Hong Kong. Although there were some differences across the four groups of subjects, certain characteristics judged consistently as important for being a creative person (having original ideas, being innovative, imaginative and individualistic) were also judged as having a relatively low value for a Chinese person to possess. Also related to individuality and conformity, Torrance (1973) conducted an interesting study in which he asked children from different cultural settings to provide an ending to stories in which the main character deviated from expected norms (for example, a lion that won’t roar, a boy who wants to be a nurse). American children, in general, wanted to “cure” the character, to convince the lion to roar or the boy to choose another profession. French children wrote stories in which the character accepted being different. Greek children’s stories focused on understanding

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character’s differences. A recent study of Korean’s conceptions of creativity showed that the non-conformist, “creative loner” notion was present in their implicit theories. This non-conformity was described, however, in mainly negative terms, such as “is indifferent to other’s opinions”, “makes conflicts when working in groups”, “seems to be abnormal”, or “is rude” (Lim & Plucker, 2001); as these descriptors of creative people contrast with the importance placed on social responsibility in Korean society, the development of creativity may be negatively affected. With regard to risk taking, Clifford et al. (1989) studied American and Chinese students aged 8 to 11 years old (3rd to 5th grades). First, they observed that, in general, tolerance for failure declines with schooling in both cultures. Second, they noted that academic risk-taking was, on average, higher for American students compared to Chinese students. Third, within the Chinese sample (from Beijing), there was less risk taking by children from government-employee settings than by children from industrial settings. These findings may be due to differential cultural reactions (by parents and teachers) associated with academic failure. Another important difference is the existence of competitive exams in China (but not in the United States) at the end of 6th grade for admission to college-oriented high schools. In particular, students from governmentemployee settings are concerned by these exams. It is worth noting that cultural influences on variables such as risk taking can be complex. Weber, Hsee and Sokolowska (1998) examined proverbs commonly used in the United States or China concerning risk taking. In contrast to the cross-cultural trend for academic risk taking, risk taking was considered more negative in the financial domain according to American proverbs than according to Chinese ones. This result can be explained by the “cushion” effect, according to which the collectivist nature of Chinese culture reduces the negative impact of financial risk taking because the family and community can cushion failure. This study suggests that creativity-relevant factors such as risk taking may be domain specific with development linked to numerous co-existing personality dimensions that develop as well. In addition to long-term, behind-the-scene influences that a culture can exert on creative development, societies decide sometimes to

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specifically stimulate creativity for political or economic reasons. For example, after the launch of Sputnik by the former Soviet Union, many politicians and educators in the United States called for programs to enhance students’ scientific creativity to enhance national competitiveness. Government and private sectors in Chinese societies (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan) have recently stressed the importance of developing creativity (Wu, 2001). For example, in Singapore, from the 1980s a number of educational initiatives were introduced to foster creative thinking in students and sensitize teachers. The prime minister’s speeches (1996 — 1999) noted the necessity of enhancing creativity. Since 1999, student teachers are assessed, in part, on their ability to promote creative thinking (Tan, 2000). Educational policy, however, does not always correspond to general political objectives. Wu (2001) suggests that many people involved in the Chinese educational sector continue to emphasize authority figures, exam results and standard answers, “nice boy and girl” behavior, memorization of knowledge, and seriousness. Tan (2001) notes that despite an emphasis on creative thinking, Singaporean elementary schools are strongly influenced by the preparation for streaming exams (age 10 and 12, grades 4 and 6 respectively), which lead to an emphasis on structured questions, textbook activities and memorization. In summary, culture can stimulate or hinder development of creativity in children several ways. Parents and teachers value creativity-related personality traits differently across cultures. These values can be transmitted to children as either positive or negative ideas about creative children. Risk taking and tolerance also differs between cultures, but these differences could be somewhat domain specific, depending on the specific circumstances in each culture.

4.3. Ways that culture channels creativity during development There are at least three ways in which children can learn that creativity is relevant to some activities more than others. First, parents and schools provide opportunities for creative development in some sectors more than others. For example, in many schools graphic-expressive activities such as drawing and painting are given more attention than musical creation and improvisation; creative activities in dance and choreography

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are even rarer. In science classes, questioning is encouraged whereas in religious settings an attitude of acceptance is preferred. Research suggests that societies differ as well on preferences for leisure activities; for example, Beatty, Jeon, Albaum and Murphy (1994) found that young adults in France and Denmark compared to those in the United States and New Zealand showed a greater interest in aesthetic-intellectual leisure activities, such as reading, whereas the opposite trend was observed for sport activities. Second, creativity is channeled through emulation of eminent role models that exist in the society. Role models may be available in certain domains more than others (e.g., creative artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs more than creative politicians, educators and economists). In a culture where some areas of creativity are much more valued than other, children may consider only the instances that belong to these areas as creative and overlook creative productions in other domains. For example, in Bengal, creative endeavor in literature, music, mysticism and metaphysics, as well as architecture, sculpture and painting are highly valued, whereas the scientific and mathematical domains have received less attention. Anisuzzaman (1981) explains this difference by the fact that, in Bengal, creativity was closely related to social status. Literary creativity was mostly practiced among the high caste groups, who relegated other art forms to lower caste levels. This produced a situation in which recruitment into the valued branches of arts occurred through status at birth rather than through excellent performance in the art practiced. In the case of technological advancement, new methods of working benefited mostly farmers and craftsmen — members of the working class — who were in the position of having to render all surplus production to the ruling order, a situation that does not encourage increased production. The result of this system is a definition of creativity that corresponds above all to the elite’s activities and devalues the creative activities of other social classes. According to Rudowicz and Yue (2000), variations in the preferred domains for creative activity are also observed in comparisons between Mainland China and Hong Kong. Creativity-relevant books, workshops and educational materials in Mainland China favor examples of scientific and technological creativity whereas in Hong Kong, creativity in business and financial sectors is highlighted.

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Third, social events or competitions, such as the Olympics of the Mind competition, are organized at the local, national or international level that promote certain domains of creative activity. These competitions, which focus usually on scientific, musical or artistic creativity, provide a structured setting in which children receive materials, instructions, supervision and motivation and, social recognition for their efforts. In summary, culture can channel creativity into some domains rather than others. First, cultures provide different amount of opportunities for different domains of creative activity. Second, eminent role models will be more visible in different domains depending on the culture, and third, types of social events aimed at stimulating creativity will differ depending on the domain of creative activity valued in each culture.

5. Conclusion Cultural differences in creativity are implemented through indirect environmental pressure on cognitive development, indirect pressure on conative (personality-motivation) development, or though the direct effect of the activities proposed to children or the availability of role models. Thus, the impact of education can be very important for creative development. Education includes both: (a) the activities, learning experiences provided to students and (b) the education of parents and teachers concerning the nature of creativity and how it may be fostered or hindered. Furthermore, society’s leaders may act to promote creativity or inhibit it through their governmental policies. These include funding some sectors of activity more than others (art versus science), investing directly in the educational system to promote creative thinking skills to young children, and fostering diversity and individualism or, on the contrary, conformity. As creativity is, at least in part, a culturally-defined psychological construct, the educational programs that foster indigenous creativity in one context may be quite different from those that foster creativity in other contexts. We suggest that creativity can be best developed, specially during childhood, through learning activities that are tailored to the cultural context and promote abilities or traits that are habitually underdeveloped but important for creativity within the cultural setting (see Tan, 2000). In this optic, creative skill training programs

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developed in one culture will not be very effective when transplanted to another culture because children’s needs in relation to their existing cognitive and conative profiles will probably be quite different (Ng, 2001a). For example, in eastern cultures, the emphasis on obedience could be reduced in the educational system, whereas in western cultures, the emphasis on a logical approach to problems at the expense of intuition could be decreased. A good understanding of the context in which creativity develops, and the aspects of each culture likely to either hinder or foster creativity are essential in order to build on the resources already existing in each culture to foster creativity.

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Triandis, H. C. (1996). The psychological measurement of cultural syndromes. American Psychologist, 51(4), 407–415. Triandis, H. C., McCusker, C., Betancourt, H., Sumiko, I., Leung, K., Salazar, J. M., Setiadi, B., Sinha, J. B. P., Tozard, H., & Zaleski, Z. (1993). An eticemic analysis of individualism and collectivism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 24(3), 366–383. Verkasalo, M., Tuomivaara, P., & Lindeman, M. (1996). 15-year-old pupils’ and their teachers’ values, and their beliefs about the values of an ideal pupil. Educational Psychology, 16(1), 35–47. von Franz, M. L. (1995). Creation myths (Rev. ed.). Boston: Shambhala. Wallach, M. and Kogan, N. (1965). Modes of thinking in young children. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Weber, E. U., Hsee, C. K., & Sokolowska, J. (1998). What folklore tells us about risk and risk taking: Cross-cultural comparisons of American, German, and Chinese proverbs. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 75(2), 170–186. Whitney, K., Sagrestano, L. M., & Maslach, C. (1994). Establishing the social impact of individuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(6), 1140–1153. Williams, J. E., Saiz, J. L., FormyDuval, D. L., Munick, M. L., Fogle, E. E, Adom, A., Haque, A., Neto, F., & Yu, J. (1995). Cross-cultural variation in the importance of psychological characteristics: A seven-country study. International Journal of Psychology, 30(5), 529–550. Wonder, J., & Blake, J. (1992). Creativity East and West: Intuition vs. logic? Journal of Creative Behavior, 26(3), 172–185. Wu, J. J. (2001). Enticing the crouching tiger and awakening the hidden dragon: Recognizing and nurturing creativity in Chinese students. Paper presented at the Second International Symposium on Child Development, Hong Kong, on June 26–28, 2001.

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Chapter 4 Creativity among Chinese People: Beyond Western Perspective

Elisabeth RUDOWICZ Department of Applied Social Studies City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

1. Introduction Creativity has been the driving force behind human progress in all realms of life, and across different societies, cultures, and historical periods. Chinese civilization, one of the oldest in the world, has been admired and respected across the globe for its philosophies and inventions, e.g., paper, printing technique, seismograph, compass, gunpowder, silk, etc. Despite these past achievements, there has been a significant amount of speculation about creativity among contemporary Chinese populations. What do the Chinese people share with their Western counterparts in their conceptualization of creativity? Is there any compatibility between Chinese beliefs, values, socialization practices and creative development? How is creativity valued by the Chinese? In spite of all these questions and speculations, there have been few empirical studies exploring creativity among the Chinese. This chapter attempts to review and summarize what is known in the literature on the subject. The available data will be discussed under the following general headings: (a) creativity as an individual and social phenomenon; (b) conceptualization of creativity; (c) value attached to creativity and domains of creative expression; (d) socialization practices and development of creativity; and (e) level of creative development.

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Right from the start, it should be made explicit that the Chinese do not represent a homogenous group and the Chinese world is not static. The majority of Chinese people who live in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore share the same ethnicity, cultural roots, and social practices. Yet, the enormous historical and sociopolitical differences among them do not justify treating them as a uniform group. To understand China and the Chinese with their long history of inventions, unique art, literature, poetry, and music, and at the same time a high reverence towards tradition, is an almost impossible task. Furthermore, with the progressing globalization of the world’s economy and culture, and China’s integration with the world we have to be aware that “even tradition dies hard” (Y. H. Wu, 1996, p. 16) and “the continuities with the past are striking” (Gardner, 1989, p. 154) in China, the thinking of modern Chinese people is no longer dominated by the traditional Confucian thought. Therefore, readers are encouraged to keep in mind the complexity and richness of Chinese history, philosophy, and culture as well as China’s contemporary drive towards modernization, globalization, and westernization while studying the material presented in this chapter.

2. Creativity: An Individual and Social Phenomenon For many years Western laypeople and psychologists have displayed a tendency to attribute creativity to dispositional rather than social factors. Consequently, research on creativity focused on exploring personality characteristics (Barron & Harrington, 1981; Helsen, 1996), cognitive processes (Schooler & Melcher, 1995; Sternberg, 1998), and life span development of creative individuals (Gardner, 1993; Simonton, 1990, 1991). A distinctive characteristic of these approaches has been their attention on gaining an in-depth understanding of how a creative individual operates. This perspective attributing creativity to personal factors has been far less common in non-Western societies, where creativity is attributed to spiritual or social forces (Ludwig, 1995). Montuori and Purser (1995) argued that for more than 30 years this individualistic Western approach to creativity studies has prevented researchers from exploring the social nature of creative processes. It was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s that an explicit social psychology

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of creativity emerged. This new framework created an important entry point that allowed researchers to address issues related to how historical and socio-cultural forces influence the expression of creativity (Simonton, 2000). Throughout the history of development of human civilization these forces, have proved to be very potent in determining “what is expressed, by whom it is expressed, how it is expressed, and what function this expression serves” as well as “the kinds of people acceptable for fulfilling the creative role” (Ludwig, 1995, p. 413). Thus, this social perspective on creativity has demonstrated the need for interdisciplinary, systematic, ecological, and culture sensitive approaches to studies into creativity. The social and interactive nature of creativity has been widely studied by Amabile (1990), Csikszentmihalyi (1988, 1996, 1999), Simonton (1996, 1998), and Harrington (1990). Nowadays it is fully accepted that any discussion regarding creativity needs to be positioned within a historical and socio-cultural context. Therivel (1995) used an ethno-psychological approach to understand the development of creativity across different historical periods and cultures and argued that the long-term presence or absence of the division of power in a given society exerts a profound influence on creativity at both the individual and societal level. A society that had been ruled for a long period of time by one domineering and unified source of power developed individuals and whole civilizations that can be characterized as insulars. Whereas, a multiplicity of sources of power, which struggled with each other, led to the development of personal and cultural characteristics identified as visitors. According to Therivel (1995), these two new concepts are very useful for understanding of the development of the philosophy of life in different populations which in turn corresponds closely with the level of creativity. For many centuries Chinese or Arabs were visitors and at that time their creativity was thriving. In the more recent past and present times the unity of power increased and Chinese and Arabs became insulars, what led to the decline of the level of creativity. Western civilization had transformed from an insular mentality into a visitor mentality due to the long fights for power in the Middle Ages. In response to this new social approach, an interest in the conceptualization and development of creativity in different cultural milieus emerged since the late 1980s. A number of empirical studies has

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been initiated to explore creativity in Chinese populations (Chan & Chan, 1999; Jaquish & Ripple, 1984–1985; Rudowicz, Cheung, & Hui, 2001; Rudowicz & Hui, 1995, 1996, 1997; Rudowicz, Hui, & Ku-Yu, 1994; Rudowicz, Lok, & Kitto, 1995; Rudowicz & Yue, 2000), Afro-American culture (Baldwin, 2001), Afro-Arab Islamic culture (Khaleefa, Erdos, & Ashria, 1996a, 1996b, 1997), Korean culture (Farver, Kim, & Lee-Shin, 2000; Lim & Plucker, 2001), and Turkish culture (Oner, 2000). These studies revealed that the universal concept of creativity is non-existent. Thus, for creativity to be fully understood, it has to be studied in a context in which the individual variables interplay with historical and cultural forces.

3. Conceptualization of Creativity within the Chinese Cultural Context Conceptualizations of creativity can be described as explicit or implicit. Explicit theories of creativity are constructions of psychologists or other social scientists that are based on theoretically derived hypotheses that can be empirically tested (Sternberg, 1985). In contrast, implicit theories are drawn from individuals’ belief systems that exist in the minds of these individuals (Runco & Bahleda, 1987) and need to be revealed rather than invented. Implicit theories help researchers formulate common cultural views on a given psychological concept and understand what people in a given community mean when referring to creativity. People use their implicit theories to formulate standards against which they judge and assess their own behavior and that of others. Implicit concepts also serve as a basis for training (Runco, Johnson, & Bear, 1993; Sternberg, Conway, Ketron, & Bernstein, 1981). Implicit theories may also reveal which aspects of a given concept are overlooked in the available explicit theories.

3.1. Explicit concepts of Chinese creativity A number of different theories attempting to conceptualize explicitly creativity have been predominantly developed in North America by Guilford (1959) and Torrance (1966) — exemplifying the psychometric approach,

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Sternberg (1988), Getzels (1975), and Weisberg (1988) — representing the cognitive perspective, and Amabile (1990), Csikszentmihalyi (1988), and Simonton (1996, 2000) — the social approach. Initially researchers adopted these Western explicit theories of creativity and utilized them in the Chinese cultural context on the assumption of their universal applicability (Liu & Hsu, 1974; Ripple, Jaquish, Lee, & Spinks, 1983; Torrance, 1981; Zhang, 1985; Zheng & Xiao, 1983). However, in the late 1980s, when social psychology of creativity started to emerge, researchers became aware that such a wholesale importation of creativity concepts and measuring tools may lead to a distorted understanding of creativity of the Chinese. Consequently researchers started to search for the historical and indigenous roots of the concept of creativity and to compare Chinese conceptions with those of North American and Western perspectives. The results of such comparisons led Weiner (2000) to conclude that, “Creativity in the Western sense might be seen as absurd from common Hindu and Buddhist perspectives” (p. 160). Bearing in mind that elements of invention and novelty, a willingness to reject tradition, orientation on self-actualization, celebration of individual accomplishment, and concentration on the future, are almost inherent to Western conception of creativity we can easily notice that these elements are foreign to the traditional Chinese ideals of respect for the past, and maintaining harmony with the forces of the nature. Novelty and inventions understood as attributes of creativity in the Western concept are either non-existent or, at the best, differently conceptualized in Chinese traditional teaching. Throughout the history of Chinese philosophy, creativity was perceived as discovering the nature or following “the Way” (the Tao), as there was nothing new to create. Thus, those people “who desire creating something new live in ego illusion” (Weiner, 2000, p. 160). The foremost goal of any human activity is to attain harmony with forces which are far greater than humans. Within the Taoist and Buddhist teaching, creativity was viewed as an inspired imitation of the forces of nature. Creativity was needed for figuring out what response was consistent with “the Way”, as well as for showing others that one was indeed following “the Way” (Weiner, 2000). Within common Chinese conceptions, the “new” creations such as bronzes, sculptures, ceramics, and paintings came into the being in order to honor

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“the eternal ways of heaven and nature, the ancestors, and the ancient texts” (Weiner, 2000, p. 178). Such a perception of the motivations and aims of creative effort is strikingly different from the willful quest for novelty inherent to Western creations since the Renaissance. Invention in China was traditionally understood as an imitation of nature. A brief look at the stories regarding Lu Ban or Gongshu (c. 507–444 B.C.), the finest building artisan in ancient China who invented many tools, such as the carpenter’s saw and plane, drill, ink marker, chisel, and shovel, may be illustrative. As one legend says, once in preparation for building a palace, Lu Ban and his apprentices went lumbering to Nanshan Mountain. Felling trees with an axe was tiring and extremely slow. One day, on his way to select timber his hand was badly scratched as he stripped a handful of blades from wild grass on the roadside. Puzzled, he started to examine the plant and found sharp teeth on both sides of its blades. This gave him an idea of the blade with an indented edge, which was a predecessor of the saw in common use today (Cheng, 1997). Inventions were also meant to serve the people and to preserve the past. They were not and could not be considered as leading to an individual’s self-fulfillment or celebration of an individual accomplishment. As the Chinese thinker Mo Di or Mo Zi, said to the overjoyed Lu Ban when he demonstrated his new invention to him — a wooden kite which flapped its wings and flew into the sky — “You can be counted as ingenious only when the thing of your making is beneficial to the people. If not, you are to be counted only as stupid” (Cheng, 1997, p. 94). Maintaining and honoring tradition has been one of the central ideals throughout Chinese history. The reverence towards tradition was highly visible in Confucian philosophy. Confucius was quoted as saying “I transmit but do not create. I believe in and love the ancients” (Analects, 7:11, cited by Weiner, 2000, p. 175). Confucius also stressed that one of the most important qualifications to teach anything is to “review the old, so as to find out the new’ (Analects, 2:11, cited by Weiner, 2000, p. 175). Thus, for Confucius, study of the past was a necessary prerequisite to creativity since the creative process was, in fact, perceived as a gradual learning process. Implicit in the above discussion is the question of how in Chinese societies, so heavily restricted by tradition, could creative

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arts, poetry, literature, music, and other creative works have flourished through history? It is worth noting, that in the Chinese — or more generally in the Far Eastern — context, tradition is not the opposite of creativity, whereas thoughtless habit and routine is. Here creativity may take the form of modification, adaptation, renovation, or re-interpretation, which is perceived as a form of intellectual and societal revisions that can pave the way for the continuation of culture in a new transformed form for societal development (Rudowicz, 2003). This becomes possible because the norms are perceived as unchangeable but people are free in their deeds and actions. Here, creativity takes place within a coherent network of customs, beliefs, cultural norms, and societal structures. Thus, despite the change that resulted from the introduction of new ideas, continuity and stability were maintained, throughout most of Chinese history. In traditional Chinese thought, a person should not take credit for what he has “created”, since an individual does not create but follows the nature and discovers the existing truth. Thus, according to a legend, “all spirits cried in agony” when Tsang Chieh invented writing, “as the innermost secrets of nature were thus revealed” (Stonehill, 2002). The sage should engage in “actionless doing … creating, but not possessing” or “taking credit” for what he creates (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 2 as quoted by Weiner, 2000, p. 178). This selfless orientation partly explains why some of the important Chinese classics contained no author’s name and why the Chinese who invented printing, had not developed a copyright system (Kuo, 1996). In addition, in Chinese arts and music, there was often a lot of collaboration in the creative effort, thus there was no need to single out any individuals. Even when the contribution of one person could be singled out, this was not desired as it could lead to their humiliation and pity (Weiner, 2000). Even among contemporary Chinese the emotion of pride is not the one that they would like to experience unless it resulted from an achievement which benefited others (Russel & Yik, 1996). The fact that the creators of palaces, temples, vases, or sculptures remain anonymous does not make these less appreciated or valued. Chinese researchers and educators tend to link creativity to ethical and moral standards (Liu, Wang, & Liu, 1997; W. T. Wu, 1996). This proclivity lacks parallel in the Western concept of creativity. The link

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between creativity and morality might have its roots in the Chinese belief that all good traits come together (Gardner, 1989) and that study of literature, poetry, and music will develop moral goodness in peoples’ mind (Weiner, 2000). Thus, in traditional China, the sage was assumed to combine his wisdom with great merit and morality (Kuo, 1996). Gao (2001) reported that as soon as innovation education advanced in China in the 1990s it was instantly combined with moral and aesthetic education. She also stressed that “modern moral education should take the cultivation of creative moral individuals as one of its objectives” (p. 56), whereas aesthetic education should improve students’ intelligence and innovational competence. Similarly, Gardner (1989) after his visit to China, noted that Chinese arts make a very strong link between the true, the beautiful, and the good. Thus, the right way is beautiful, while, the wrong way is ugly. Therefore, art education in China is not only skills oriented but also aims at using artistic expression as a way of moral education. The theory of two forms of knowledge — intuitive and logical — has proved to be of theoretical merit to categorize variations in the conceptualization of creativity by Chinese and Westerners. Taking Croce’s philosophical perspective, Wonder and Blake (1992) have proposed that Eastern thought and approaches to creativity are more “intuitive”, whereas Western approaches are more “logical”. Thus, assuming that creativity means either adding a new fact to the existing database or deleting an existing fact from the database, the East tends to look inward towards inner peace, towards experiencing facts that are already in the “database” (culture) and is less likely to acquire new information or to force the creative process by introducing new information. Thus, the East may be rather more willing to rearrange the pattern or make a modest alteration to existing knowledge or practices than to start a radical change or reconceptualization. The Eastern view of creativity puts more emphasis on inner experience and on mastering and perfecting skills through rigid training. In contrast, the West tends to look outward towards progress, towards the right way of solving problems, and puts more emphasis on method while promoting creativity. Western thought relies heavily on logic and demands that everything fits together according to the existing laws. Whatever the differences between the intuitive and logical approaches, neither of them is entirely exclusive or inherently more

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creative. Each approach leaves room for creation as well as having inherent limitations regarding creative expression.

3.2. Chinese implicit concepts of creativity Studies of implicit theories of creativity aim at reconstructing concepts that exist in people’s minds rather than at constructing theoretically derived hypotheses. Most Western empirical studies exploring implicit conceptions of creativity have focused on characteristics of creative individuals or conceptualization of creativity (Fryer & Collings, 1991; Runco, 1987; Runco & Bahleda, 1987; Runco et al., 1993; Sternberg, 1985; Westby & Dawson, 1995). On the conceptual level, Sternberg (1985) found that implicit conceptions of creativity overlap with, but also differ distinctly from, those of intelligence and wisdom. He further observed that in conceptions of creativity there was much less emphasis on analytical abilities and much more on aesthetic taste, imagination, inquisitiveness, and intuitiveness. Western implicit concepts focusing on descriptions of a creative person seem to cluster into motivational qualities, personality characteristics, and cognitive traits. The most evident motivational characteristics emerging from a number of studies were energetic, active, motivated, willing to take stand, inquisitive, excited, impulsive, curious, adventurous, ambitious, self-confident, determined, and enthusiastic (Runco & Bahleda, 1987; Runco et al., 1993; Sternberg, 1985; Westby & Dawson, 1995). Cognitive characteristics identified in Sternberg’s (1985) study included ability to make connections and distinguish between ideas and things, ability to understand and interpret environment, ability to grasp abstract ideas, high IQ level, is always thinking, attaching importance to ideas, and ability to put old concepts and theories in a new way. Psychology undergraduates and artists participating in Runco and Bahleda’s (1987) study listed cognitive characteristics of a creative person such as openminded, intelligent, logical experimenting, problem solving skills. Cognitive characteristics also emerged in implicit concepts of creativity of parents and teachers surveyed by Runco et al. (1993). These characteristics included clear thinking, clever, intelligent, capable, imaginative, inventive, questioning. Among personality characteristics

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most often identified in the implicit concepts of creativity held by respondents participating in Sternberg’s (1985) study were free spirit, nonconformist, unorthodox, questions societal norms and assumptions, appreciates arts, good aesthetic taste, and sense of humor, whereas Runco and his colleagues (Runco, 1987; Runco & Bahleda, 1987; Runco et al., 1993) pointed out original, humorous, patient, common sense, adventurous, artistic, assertive, confident, daring, individualistic, and progressive. Empirical studies that have examined Chinese people’s implicit concepts of creativity have only recently been carried out among the general public in Hong Kong (Hui & Rudowicz, 1997; Rudowicz & Hui, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998), Hong Kong teachers (Chan & Chan, 1999; Lam, 1996), and Hong Kong, Taiwanese, and Mainland Chinese students (Rudowicz & Yue, 2000; Rudowicz & Yue, 2002; Yue & Rudowicz, 2002). Results of these studies provide evidence that despite many similarities between the Western and Chinese implicit concepts of creativity there are also a number of differences which are worth noting. In Rudowicz and Hui’s (1998) study in response to the question “What is creativity?” the Hong Kong Chinese general public described creativity as “something new”, “non-existing before”. That applied both to the cases of an abstract concept such as an “idea”, and “abstract idea” as well as a concrete product: “can be counted, felt, seen”. The defining properties of this “something new” were uniqueness (“unprecedented”, “out of ordinary”) and innovativeness (“design”, “invent”, “develop”). This finding is much more in accord with Barron’s (1988) conclusion that in Western literature dealing with the implicit concept of creativity, creativity is associated with bringing “something new, or unique” into existence, whereas differs from the Chinese explicit concepts of creativity derived from traditional teaching of Tao and Confucius. As creation often goes hand in hand with destruction leading to change, progress, or improvement, thus, Hong Kong Chinese also included in their concept of creativity such characteristics as “change” or “breakthrough”. In addition, they perceived creativity as associated with thinking, wisdom, intuition, independence (“will not follow others”, “free range”), power, energy, and human potential. Thus, when asked to describe a creative person the majority of respondents brought up such

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characteristics as smart, imaginative, innovative, independent, outstanding, clever, energetic, bold, good thinking skills, quick in response (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997). Similarly, university students in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing, and Guangzhou rated innovative, observant, good thinking, flexible, has original ideas, and willing to try as the most representative for creativity (Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). These basic characteristics specified in the Chinese implicit concepts of creativity overlap highly with the Western implicit concepts reported by Sternberg (1985) and Runco (1987), and deviate from the explicit concepts of Chinese creativity derived from traditional Chinese beliefs, which were discussed in the previous section. When characteristics that emerged from the studies of implicit concepts of creativity among the Chinese (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997; Rudowicz & Yue, 2000) were subjected to an exploratory principal component factor analysis, they formed factors that, similarly to the Western concepts, could be distinguished as cognitive, motivational and personality traits. The cognitive characteristics included clever, talented, good thinking, quick in response, has wisdom. Among motivational characteristics the most prominent were energetic, willing to try, self-confident, quick in doing things, whereas other personality traits included bold, brave, innovative, observant, independent, imaginative, curious. Apart from this considerable overlap between Western and Chinese implicit concepts regarding creativity and the characteristics of a creative person, it is interesting to note some differences. There are three characteristics of creativity which appear in the Chinese concept that are not revealed in Western studies. They seem to relate to a collectivistic orientation of the Hong Kong Chinese and comprise of such attributes as “contributes to society’s progress, improvement, and betterment”, “inspires people” and “is appreciated by others” (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997). At the same time some characteristics evident in the Western implicit concepts of creativity are missing in the Chinese concept. Firstly, characteristics relating to aesthetic appreciation such as “aesthetic taste” (Sternberg, 1985) is consistently absent in the Chinese perception of a creative person (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997, 1998). In addition, “being artistic” is not perceived as very indicative of creativity (Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). Secondly, “humor” or “sense of humor” that is regularly reported as part

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of Western implicit (Runco, 1987; Sternberg, 1985) as well as explicit concepts of creativity (Cropley, 1992; Hocevar & Bachelor, 1989) is either invisible (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997, 1998) or perceived as having very little to do with creativity (Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). With regard to implicit concepts of creativity humor — so prevalent in the Western concepts — was absent in implicit theories held by Hong Kong teachers (Chan & Chan, 1999; Lam, 1996). Sense of humor was ranked among the least valued traits for the ideal pupil by teachers using traditional teaching approach (Lam, 1996). And yet, artistic was perceived as a characteristic of a creative person by only 12.7% of primary school teachers and by 7.1% of secondary school teachers (Chan & Chan, 1999). Artistic was ranked last and before last, on a list of characteristics of creative pupils, by teachers using the traditional and activity based approach respectively (Lam, 1996). In addition Chan and Chan (1999) observed that Hong Kong teachers nominated many more undesirable traits as characteristics of creative students than their North American counterparts in Runco et al.’s (1993) study. Ethical standards, advocated by a number of Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese researchers (Gao, 2001; Liu et al., 1997; W. T. Wu, 1996) as an integral part of the Chinese explicit concepts of creativity, do not appear to be a significant element in the implicit concepts of creativity. Undergraduates in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in Rudowicz and Yue’s (2000) study did not consider such key components of ethical standards of human behavior as “honest” and “responsible” as important for creativity. Moreover, teachers in Chan and Chan’s (1999) and Lam’s (1996) studies did not list any characteristic relating to ethics or moral standards as an attribute of a creative student. And yet, they considered that being “honest”, “responsible”, “self-disciplined”, “not selfish” and “respecting parents” were the very important virtues of an ideal student (Lam, 1996). Similarly, Chinese undergraduates in Rudowicz and Yue’s (2000) study indicated that the five most desired characteristics for a Chinese person were “respects parents”, “being responsible”, “being diligent”, “being healthy”, and “being an honest person”. It seems that the perception of a creative student or creative person by the Hong Kong teachers or Chinese undergraduates from the Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan deviates significantly from their concept of an ideal student or desired model of a Chinese person.

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The observed differences between Western and Chinese implicit concepts of creativity cannot be ignored. They confirm the importance of empirical explorations of creativity across cultures in order to differentiate the universal aspects from the culture specific ones. Such explorations also might have some impact on the use and interpretation of creativity tests and influence how creativity is evaluated, employed, and enhanced in the Chinese culture. As the current knowledge in that area is less than satisfactory, systematic empirical studies are needed to shed more light on the above issues.

4. Value Attached to Creativity and Domains of Creative Expression in Chinese Populations Culture and socio-historical contexts not only influence conceptualization of creativity but also people’s attitudes towards the value and domains of creative endeavors. Studies of different cultures throughout the history showed that societies were inclined to limit their encouragement for creativity to selected individuals and groups (Ludwig, 1992; Weiner, 2000). This could also be the case, because people in every culture, even the most progressive ones, have been entrenched to a greater or lesser extent in a complicated set of human relationships and traditions. Creativity might pose a threat to these very relationships and practices. Thus, it seems that there are inherent tensions surrounding creativity in any society, be it modern or traditional. In traditional cultures and societies such as ancient Chinese, rulers of the day introduced a very strict selection system of people for civil service and scholarly activities. These small groups of carefully chosen individuals were given significant cultural and political freedom. And they assured that the introduction of new ideas or changes took place within the well-guarded network of traditional customs and beliefs. As Okazuki (1968, quoted by Weiner, 2000) observed “throughout most of Chinese history the majority of artisans were state employed, the industry and the craft being controlled by officials of the central government” (p. 177). In the more recent history of China, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, calling for change and encouraging everyone to take part in building

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modern industry, agriculture, science, and culture, seemed to open an enormous opportunity for a widespread creativity. In reality, however, only Mao himself and carefully selected senior Communist Party members had the power to decide which ideas were correct and who was allowed to express them. Thus, in spite of the promises to let “a hundred flowers blossom” only the ones that were perceived as right or supportive to the goals of the revolution could come into bloom (Weiner, 2000). Thus, creativity was formally declared as important and needed but in reality it was not valued for purposes other than realizing goals set by the ruling minority. The importance of creativity and its development in students is formally declared by educators and policy makers in Hong Kong and China (Rudowicz, Kitto, & Lok, 1994) and yet, in practice, teaching efforts oriented towards nurturing creativity are missing. In school practices there is still an emphasis on logic and memorization. Schools seem to be geared towards preparing their students for numerous tests and examinations. Thus, school is considered to be a place of learning by rote or recitation in unison, not for fun (Y. H. Wu, 1996). In addition, teachers usually lack appropriate training in creative teaching techniques and approaches, so they are “staffing children with incomprehensible material” and leave “no room for children’s creativity or self expression” (Y. H. Wu, 1996, p. 15). And as yet, teachers’ training has not fully embraced the idea of creativity in education (Cheng, 2001). Therefore, Chan (1997) has stated that changing the education system in Chinese societies in order to maximize creative development of children to meet the challenges of modern times is an urgent task. These disparities between the formal declarations of policy makers regarding the importance of creativity and school practice are not unique to Chinese societies. Researchers and educators in a number of European and South American countries have voiced similar concerns (Rudowicz, 2003). Each culture tends to define which domains of creative endeavor are acceptable and/or appreciated in a given society at a given historical time (Lubart, 1999; Weiner, 2000). Even most dictatorial governments can allow or promote creativity in some chosen areas. Weiner (2000) has pointed out that American scientists, artists, academics, and business people feel that their work stands a greater chance of full support if the

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government and corporate world are successfully convinced that their work is of political or commercial value. Lubart (1990) argued that in the U.S. creativity in science and problem solving have been encouraged to a greater extent than creativity in politics and economic theory. Concerning Mainland China, the government seems to allow and encourage a much greater degree of experimentation in the economic domain than in political expression. In the domain of economic and technological creativity the Mainland Chinese have been given a lot of freedom and room for innovation and entrepreneurship in the last decade. As a result the Chinese economy underwent enormous development and expansion. The Chinese, however, had to learn creative ways of developing the capitalist economy in a communist run state. Thus, Weiner (2000) observed that “according to some analysts, creative problem solving in China consists to a great extent in figuring out clever ways to appear as toeing the party line and following government dictates even while not doing so.” (p. 185). Culture also determines which domains of human activity are perceived as expression of creativity. Hong Kong Chinese, in contrast to North Americans, equated creative achievement with political and financial accomplishments rather than with aesthetic or artistic attainments. On the top of the list of the most creative Hong Kong people nominated by respondents in Rudowicz and Hui’s (1998) study were businessmen, politicians, and fashion designers. They were followed by film directors, actors, popular singers, and architects. Writers, artists, and scientists were rarely nominated. Political and scientific accomplishments were highly associated with creativity by Chinese university undergraduates from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. When responding to the request to nominate Chinese people outstanding for creativity they selected politicians, scientists, or inventors, both historical and modern figures, and rarely considered artists, writers, and composers for this purpose (Yue & Rudowicz, 2002). It seems that the Chinese care a lot more about the creator’s social influence, status, fame, charisma, and contribution to society, than his/her contribution to culture. In fact, the roots of such thinking can be traced to Chinese mythology where legendary leaders were great inventors at the same time. For example, “The Yellow Emperor” (Huang Di) and his court officials are credited with, amongst other things,

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formulating the laws of astronomy and drawing up the first calendar, establishing the measurement of length, weight, and mass, founding classic Chinese medicine, and inventing the boat, the cart, and the flute (Huang Di, the Emperor, 2002). Chinese students’ perception of accomplished creators contrasts sharply with those of British undergraduates. Data from Smith and Wright’s (2000) study showed that students at Central Lancashire University considered the contributors to arts, classical music, science, and philosophy as those who have made a creative and lasting contribution to culture.

5. Chinese Socialization Goals and Practices and the Development of Creativity Cultural values and beliefs are reflected in socialization practices which are considered to be the most persistent part of a culture. Continuity of well established and culturally appropriate child-rearing practices is particularly evident in the literate civilization of the Chinese, which dates back several thousand years. Thus, the contemporary Chinese living in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and North America still share many values and practices related to upbringing of their children, despite their geographical separation and socio-political differences. The above assumption received extensive empirical support from studies carried out among different Chinese societies as reviewed by Ho (1986, 1994a), Y. H. Wu (1996), and Gow, Balla, Kember, and Hau (1996). People who share the same cultural heritage also share similar worldviews, that is, “the presuppositions and assumptions an individual holds about the makeup of his or her world” and his or her relationship with the nature, and other people (Sodowsky, Maguire, Johnson, Ngumba, & Kohles, 1994, p. 309). The worldview of Chinese people reflects values of Eastern cultures, with a strong collectivistic orientation and interdependent perspective of the self, whereas that of Western people is strongly linked to the principals of individualism and independent perspective of the self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Ng, 2001; Niu & Sternberg, 2001). There is substantial empirical evidence that child-rearing practices which reflect peoples’ values and world views, influence the development of creativity. Child-rearing practices that restrict individual

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freedom, have little tolerance for deviation from tradition, insist upon conformity and group harmony seem to hinder creativity (Gardner & Moran, 1997; Ho, 1994a; Khaleefa, Erdos, & Ashria, 1996a; Lubart, 1999; Ng, 2001; Niu & Sternberg, 2001). As the space limitations do not allow for a detailed account of Chinese socialization practices, preferential attention will be given to those tenets of child-rearing practices that are considered as the most influential for the development of creativity. These include training for obedience, cooperation, compromise, interdependence, impulse control, acceptance of social obligations, and sacrifice for the in-group with a relative lack of emphasis on independence, self-reliance, assertiveness, and creativity (Ng, 2001; Y. H. Wu, 1996). One aspect of socialization in Chinese culture is an emphasis on interdependence and filial piety. This refers to the need of the child to be obedient, dutiful, compromising, and dependent on the in-group, as well as the need to avoid anything that can bring disappointment or shame to the family. To train an obedient and filial child, Chinese parents living in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the U.S. are more restrictive and authoritarian than their American counterparts as they believe that a strict disciplinarian education will help to bring up a dutiful son or daughter (Ho, 1986; Y. H. Wu, 1996). In addition, they not only give their children less autonomy and independence than their Western counterparts but they give it at an older age (Feldman & Rosenthal, 1991). As a result of such training children become more inclined to conform to their in-groups and are more concerned with social harmony rather than with expression of their true feelings, opinions, or desires. They tend to emphasize group interests over individual concerns, stress sensitivity to others, and exercise self-control in setting and achieving goals (Ho, 1986; Ng, 2001; Rudowicz, Kitto, & Lok, 1994). In contrast, an American child is inspired to differentiate himself or herself from others and to stand firmly on his/her own two feet from quite early on. As a result, children perceive themselves as unique individuals with distinguished private thoughts and feelings. Western parents will allow even a small child to solve a problem by himself or herself. Conversely, a Chinese child will receive careful guidance in order to do things in the right or correct way. Thus, Chinese education is oriented towards molding and shaping a person rather than developing individuality (Gardner, 1989).

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This approach to socialization goals and practices inspired popular speculation that Chinese students will show less willingness to depart from conventionally accepted behavior (Jaquish & Ripple, 1985) and their self-expression or self-actualization will be inhibited (Chu, 1975; Ng, 2001). This would in turn affect their ability for creative expression or make it “ much harder for Asians to think, feel and act in a creative manner, compared to Westerners” (Ng, 2001, p. xiii). Another distinctive feature of Chinese socialization practices regards impulse control. Parents are expected to instill self-control of facial expressions, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors early on in their children (Ho, 1986). The child’s behaviors, which are independent, exploratory, adventurous, or risky, are strongly discouraged. One of the functions of impulse control is maintenance of the filial piety ethic and preservation of respect for authority and tradition (Y. H. Wu, 1996). This assertion was confirmed in Ho and Kang’s (1984, reported by Ho, 1986) study showing a positive correlation between filial piety and socialization practices which discourage children’s expression of opinion and selfmastery. In another empirical study among Chinese adults and university or secondary-school students Ho (1994b) found that filial piety was moderately associated with child-training attitudes emphasizing impulse control, obedience, indebtedness to parents, and proper conduct. In addition, a large scale survey among Chinese parents in Taiwan and Singapore revealed that they did not accept assertive behavior in their children as assertiveness might damage harmony and a loving parent child relationship (Y. H. Wu, 1996). In contrast, Western socialization practices aim at building up a child’s confidence in his/her ability to “conquer” the outside world and put emphasis on the child’s expression of own views, opinions, and creativity. This cultural emphasis on being independent and self-reliant makes Westerners more prone to experience self-focused emotions such as pride, joy, anger, and sadness (Ng, 2001; Russell & Yik, 1996). These traditional Chinese child-rearing goals and practices promote submissiveness and conventionalism which are incompatible with creative expression and risk-taking behavior (Chu, 1974; Ho, 1986, 1994a; Liu, 1990). Therefore, it is often speculated in literature that Chinese children vocalize less and should have lower scores on verbal and ideational

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fluency scales than Westerners. These concerns have found some empirical support in cross-cultural studies which involved Chinese participants (Jaquish & Ripple, 1984–1985; Kitto, Lok, & Rudowicz, 1994; Ripple, Jaquish, Lee, & Chan, 1982; Rudowicz et al., 1995). Yet, another aspect of Chinese socialization is associated with the approach to acquiring knowledge. The traditional Chinese way is to look for new knowledge upwards, towards authority, and backwards, to tradition and to study these avidly. In the process of learning the main emphasis is on hard work and memorization. As Bond (1991) pointed out, in Chinese tradition “an educated person was a man who had memorized the classics” and “the discipline required to memorize produced a civilized man” (p. 29). Thus, even today in Chinese schools the main emphasis is on practice through memorization and teacher centered learning (Bond, 1991; Chan, 1999; Liu, 1990; Stevenson, 1992). In school, teachers are the supervisors and their role is to guide, control and transmit to their students the knowledge accumulated in the past. The students in return are expected to be respectful and obedient to their teachers under all circumstances (Gardner, 1989; Liu, 1990). This approach to education is reflected in students’ perceptions of the purposes of education. Chinese high school students participating in Lau, Nicholls, Thorkildsen, Patashnick’s (2000) study perceived that the main purposes of education are to teach them how to face challenges, make sacrifices, respect authority, and to prepare them to earn money for respect. In contrast, American high school students were of the view that school should teach them to understand science, to think critically, to be useful to society, and to consider the family first. In addition, there is some empirical evidence that even university students do not challenge their teachers. Data from a longitudinal study of Bella, Stokes, and Stanford (1991, reported by Gow et al., 1996) among Hong Kong students across six different courses of study showed that “submission to authority” and “maintaining face” were stable across all university departments. Thus, students displayed a strong tendency to seek approval and confirmation from their teachers and pay great attention to “what should be reproduced”. Similarly, Niu and Sternberg’s (2001) study among American and Chinese college students revealed that the artistic creativity of Chinese students was a function of explicit instructions to be creative. When such instructions were missing the level of creativity decreased.

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Thus, the contention is that traditional Chinese teaching and learning environments are unlikely to be supportive for nurturing creativity. Creativity seems to require encouragement and time for independent exploration as well as teachers who would give their students the license to sometimes be wrong in the process of problem solving. These conditions appear to be much more prevalent in the American system.

6. Level of Creative Development among the Chinese In an attempt to examine the differences in the development of creativity between Chinese and Westerners a number of studies were carried out using divergent thinking tests such as Sounds and Images (Jaquish & Ripple, 1984, 1984–1985), the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Chu, 1974; Rudowicz et al., 1995; Wang and Chu, 1975), and the Wallach and Kogan tests (Chan, Cheung, Lau, Wu, Kwong, & Li, 2001), behavioral tests (Kitto et al., 1994), The Urban Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (Jellen & Urban, 1989; Rudowicz et al., 2001), as well as social validation of a creative product (Niu and Sternberg, 2001). Although, the divergent thinking tests used in these studies were translated into Chinese, the tests have been theoretically grounded in the Western concept of creativity. As discussed earlier, there is evidence, that Chinese people view creativity somewhat differently than Westerners. Thus, results of the comparative studies presented in this section should be looked at with an awareness of this limitation. In spite of these shortcomings a short review of results stemming from these cross-cultural studies has been included in this chapter, to quote Harrison: “even imperfect data are better than perfect speculations” (Ripple, 1983, p. 20). Closer analysis of comparative data regarding divergent thinking points to similarities and differences between Chinese and Western samples. Similarities, in most cases, pertain to the developmental pattern of divergent thinking among Chinese and Westerners and to the lack of statistically significant gender differences in the test scores. The differences pertain to the level of development of such characteristics associated with divergent thinking as fluency, flexibility, and originality as well as to the variations in performance on the verbal and figural forms of the tests.

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Jacquish and Ripple (1985) collected data in the U.S. and Hong Kong among participants ranging in age from nine to sixty years. They used the auditory test which was conceptually similar to Cunnington and Torrance’s (1965) Sound and Images Test. In the study participants produced written responses to four groups of recorded sounds. Both familiar and abstract sounds were presented as stimuli in the test. Participants’ responses were scored for fluency, flexibility, and originality. Chinese and Americans displayed the greatest developmental similarity on the originality scale. In both groups, originality scores increased linearly from childhood to young adulthood (between the ages 9–25) and were least differentiated by age. Fluency and flexibility scores of the Chinese showed developmental increase from childhood to adolescence. This trend replicated the one observed among American and South African samples (Ripple & Jaquish, 1982). However, after adolescence, Chinese scores on fluency and flexibility decreased linearly up to the age of 60, whereas among American respondents middle aged adults (40–60 years) scored the highest. In both cultural samples the interaction of age group by gender tested by MANOVA yielded no statistically significant gender differences. The most systematic difference between the American and Chinese samples was that the American scores were consistently higher than the Chinese scores across all age groups and on all three divergent thinking abilities. These investigators looked for possible explanations for the difference in divergent thinking scores in cultural variations in socialization and educational practices. Superior performance of American respondents on divergent thinking tasks reported by Jaquish and Ripple (1985) received some support from Jellen and Urban’s (1989) study which employed the Test of Creative Thinking Drawing Production (TCT-DP) constructed by the authors. The study, involved small samples of school children (around 50) from each of the eleven participating countries. Total test scores of English, German, and American children were higher than those of their Chinese counterparts. The results from the studies discussed above, have not received a full support from other empirical findings. A number of investigators observed some variations in divergent thinking scores, among cultural samples, hinging upon the test scale and nature of the task. The Hong Kong

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children studied by Rudowicz et al. (1995) outperformed American children on the Figural Form of the TTCT but scored lower than the American sample on the Verbal Form of the test. Taiwanese preschool children participating in Chu’s (1974) study employing the Uses and Picture Construction Tests scored higher than their American counterparts on the fluency scale but lower on originality. Conversely, Taiwanese undergraduates scored lower on fluency measured by the number of ideas produced in their brainstorming session than Canadian undergraduates (Ho, 1999). However, the Taiwanese produced ideas that scored higher on originality as compared with their Canadian peers. Chu (1974) also observed that boys outperformed girls on the fluency scale and that the social background of children had a greater bearing on divergent thinking scores than their culture. Boys also scored consistently higher in ideational fluency on verbal tasks than girls, in Chan et al.’s (2001) study involving lower primary school children in Hong Kong. Chan et al. (2001) also revealed that the fluency scores obtained by Hong Kong children on verbal and figural tasks from the Wallach and Kogan tests compared favorably with those reported in the original Wallach and Kogan study involving American fifth graders. The Hong Kong children participating in Chan et al.’s (2001) study produced 9 to 20 ideas in response to verbal tasks and 13 to 15 distinct ideas in response to figural tasks, whereas the respective figures for the American sample were 5–11 and 4–5 distinct ideas. There could be a number of possible reasons to account for differences and inconsistencies regarding performance on creativity tests across and within cultural samples. One of the possible reasons could be due to the use of different testing instruments and to the time lag in conducting the studies. Some reported data were collected almost two decades ago. Thus, tested cohorts were living in different historical, cultural, social, and technological times. There could also be biases associated with using norms from one culture to assess creativity in another culture. Consolidated effort and well-coordinated studies across cultures are needed to obtain more reliable comparative data. Recently a couple of studies attempted to examine the effects of culture on artistic creativity. Li (1997) compared the differences between traditional Chinese ink-brush paintings and modern Western paintings.

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Li has argued that Western paintings were shaped by horizontal domains and Chinese paintings by vertical domains. Thus, the Western artist is allowed a novel expression in all dimensions, whereas, the Chinese artist is expected to preserve certain elements that are existentially fundamental to the domain, and yet, is permitted to bring about changes in some other dimensions which, however, should evolve around the stable elements. Horizontality and verticality of a domain also influence methods of expression, materials and tools used by the artists as well as criteria used to judge the artistic expression. Effects of culture on artistic creative expression and on the criteria used in judging artistic creativity were also explored in Niu and Sternberg’s (2001) study among Yale and Beijing undergraduates. They used tasks, from Amabile’s (1982) and Ward’s (1994) studies, respectively consisting of collage making and drawing an extraterrestrial alien to assess the artistic creativity of the students. A number of interesting observations resulted from this study. Firstly, collages and drawings produced by American undergraduates showed higher artistic creativity and aesthetic qualities then those produced by Chinese undergraduates. According to the investigators, this could reflect differences in artistic abilities between these two groups of participants who had no former art training. Secondly, American students were less restricted by the rules and conditions of the tasks and showed more spontaneity in breaking through these constraints than Chinese students. Thus, the authors hypothesized that Chinese students can benefit more than their American peers from the direct instruction to be creative. Thirdly, Chinese judges were found to be more in agreement in judging art work than were American judges, possibly because the former could reflect the collectivistic culture that avoids emphasis on individual differences. Fourthly, on average, Chinese judges were giving higher ratings than American judges. This could be the result of American judges using the scale differently than Chinese judges.

7. Conclusion In this review differences in conceptualization, expression, and development of creativity were discussed comparing Chinese culture and societies with Western ones. It should, however, be noted that neither the

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Chinese nor Western societies are totally homogenous entities. Differences in, and opportunities for, creative expression might not be equally distributed across different cultures or even within a given culture due to intra-cultural and socio-historical dynamics. As some creativity researchers suggest (Khaleefa et al., 1997; Mar’i & Karayanni, 1983) the differences in creative development might be more attributable to the differences in westernization and modernization than to the culture per se. A number of salient observations emerge from the above literature review and discussion. First, although universal aspects of creativity undoubtedly exist, there are elements in conceptualization and expression of creativity that are specific to Chinese culture. Second, a given society might show an explosion of creative accomplishments in one sociopolitical and historical period and move to something akin to creative recession in another. Such booms and declines in creative achievements were observed throughout the stages of development of both Chinese and Western civilizations. Third, although Chinese culture — as reflected in the value system, socialization practices, and education — has a profound influence on an individual’s conceptualization and expression of creativity, the relationship between cultural factors and creativity is far from being simplistic. Thus, no conclusive evidence regarding the specifics of this relationship has yet been offered. Fourth, studies aiming at understanding creativity within the Chinese indigenous system suffer from cultural biases stemming from the fact that there is no complete system of indigenous Chinese psychology to allow us to understand creativity and its complexity. As creativity cannot be isolated from other cognitive, emotional, motivational, biological, and social processes, indigenous theories regarding these processes seems to be vital for understanding creativity in Chinese societies. Fifth, there are serious doubts about the usefulness of Western creativity tests for the collection of creativity data which are, as we discussed above, conditioned by many socio-cultural factors. The creativity tests should be linked with the creativity concepts functioning in a given culture, with raters and norms from that culture. This, however, will make comparing the creativity scores of different cultural groups problematic, as the groups will not share a common reference point. Thus, it seems that creativity tests which share some core tasks and have some additional culture specific tasks could be more appropriate. Sixth,

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Chinese societies are not immune to modernization and globalization as observed throughout the world. As one of the greatest contemporary Chinese artists Wu Guanzhong said, “Between the Chinese and foreigner of today there exists a distance, but far greater distance exists between the Chinese of today and the Chinese of antiquity. While the former distance will diminish with time the latter distance will lengthen” (“Direction Unknown”, Hong Kong Arts Museum, May 2002).

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Rudowicz, E., & Hui, A. (1997). The creative personality: Hong Kong perspective. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 12(1), 139–157. Rudowicz, E., & Hui, A. (1998). Hong Kong Chinese people’s view of creativity. Gifted Education International, 13, 159–174. Rudowicz, E., Hui, A., & Ku-Yu, H. (1994). Implicit theories of creativity in Hong Kong Chinese population. Creativity for the 21st century. Selected Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness (pp. 197– 206). Seoul, Korea. Rudowicz, E., Kitto, J., & Lok, D. (1994). Creativity and Chinese socialization practices: A study of Hong Kong primary school children. The Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, 3(1), 4–8. Rudowicz, E., Lok, D., & Kitto, J. (1995). Use of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking for Hong Kong primary school children. International Journal of Psychology, 30(4), 417–430. Rudowicz, E., & Yue, X. D. (2000). Concepts of creativity: Similarities and differences among Hong Kong, Mainland and Taiwanese Chinese. Journal of Creative Behavior, 34(3), 175–192. Rudowicz, E., & Yue, X. D. (2002). Compatibility of Chinese and creative personalities. Creativity Research Journal, 14(3), 387–394. Runco, M. (1987). Inter-rater agreement on socially valid measure of students’ creativity. Psychological Reports, 61, 1009–1010. Runco, M. A., & Bahleda, M. D. (1987). Implicit theories of artistic, scientific and everyday creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 20, 93–98. Runco, M. A., Johnson, D. J., & Bear, P. K. (1993). Parents’ and teachers’ implicit theories of children’s creativity. Child Study Journal, 23, 91–113. Russel, J. A., & Yik, M. S. M. (1996). Emotion among the Chinese. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 166–188). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Schooler, J. W., & Melcher, J. (1995). The ineffability of insight. In S. M. Smith, T. B. Ward & R. A. Finke (Eds.), The creative cognition approach (pp. 97– 133). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Simonton, D. K. (1990). History, chemistry, psychology, and genius: An intellectual autobiography of historiometry. In M. A. Runco & R. S. Albert (Eds.), Theories of creativity (pp. 92–115). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Simonton, D. K. (1991). Emergence and realization of genius: The lives and works of 120 classical composers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(5), 829–840. Simonton, D. K. (1996). Individual genius and cultural configurations: The case of Japanese civilization. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 354–375.

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Simonton, D. K. (1998). Achieved eminence in minority and majority cultures: Convergence versus divergence in the assessments of 294 African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 804–817. Simonton, D. K. (2000). Creativity: Cognitive personal, developmental, and social aspects. American Psychologist, 55(1), 151–158. Smith, C. D., & Wright, L. (2000). Perceptions of genius: Einstein, lesser mortals and shooting stars. Journal of Creative Behavior, 34(3), 151–164. Sodowsky, G. R., Maguire, K., Johnson, P., Ngumba, W., & Kohles, R. (1994). World views of white American, Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and African students: An investigation into between-group differences. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 25(3), 309–324. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdo. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 607–627. Sternberg, R. J. (1988). A three-faced model of creativity. In R. J. ternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 125–17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Triarchic abilities test. In D. Dickinson (Ed.), Creating the future: Perspectives on educational change. Seattle: New Horizons for learning. Sternberg, R. J., Conway, B. E., Ketron, J. L., & Bernstein, M. (1981). Peoples’ conceptions of intelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 37–55. Stevenson, H. W. (1992). The reality of American Schooling. Scientific American, 267(7), 70. Stonehill, P. (2002). Mysteries of the Yellow Emperor. Retrieved 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ufoinfo.vom/news/yellowemp.html. Therivel, W. A. (1995). Long-term effect of power on creativity. Creativiy Research Journal, 8(2), 173–192. Torrance, E. P. (1966). Torrance tests of creative thinking: Norms-technical manual. Princeton, New Jersey: Personnel Press. Torrance, E. P. (1981). Cross-cultural studies of creative development in seven selected societies. In J. C. Gowan, J. Khatena, & E. P. Torrance (Eds.), Creativity: Its educaional implications (pp. 89–97). Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing. Wang, H., & Chu, C. P. (1975). A revision of Torrance Test of Creative Thinking: The figural form. Psychological Testing, 22, 88–94. Ward, T. B. (1994). Structured imagination: The role of category structure in exemplar generation. Cognitive Psychology, 27, 1–40.

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Chapter 5 Why is there a Paradox in Promoting Creativity in the Asian Classroom?

Aik Kwang NG National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Ian SMITH School of Development and Learning University of Sydney, Australia

In this paper, we argue that there is a paradox in promoting creativity in the Asian classroom: the more creative a class of students becomes, the more undesirable their behavior appears to the teacher. We trace this paradox to two factors: on the one hand, the nature and context of learning in the Confucian tradition is highly authoritarian in character, producing students who are docile and teachable. On the other hand, creative students tend to behave in an individualistic, skeptical, and egoistic manner. To deal with this paradox, we argue that the Asian teacher needs to relate to students in an egalitarian and reciprocal manner. By establishing good rapport with students, (s)he can promote creativity in the classroom. At the same time (s)he can also rein in the more negative aspects of creativity in students.

1. Elizabeth’s Email As lecturers in the field of teacher education, from time to time we receive emails from our former students who have since moved on to work in the teaching profession. One day, the first author (of this chapter) 87

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received an email from Elizabeth, who is presently working as a teacher in a primary school in Singapore. It reads as follows: “I’ve a problem with this pupil in my class. I notice that he is very creative but often has some mischief up his sleeves. He has a competitive spirit in him, thinking he’s good in everything. He can be rather rebellious, stubborn, and attention-seeking. He gets bored easily, and is often distracted in class. However, he’s a creative boy. First, he can draw very well and loves art. Second, whenever there’s a project on Science, making models, he can invent a very outstanding toy. He loves anything to do with using hands. But when it comes to daily work, he’s not interested, and it came to a point that he didn’t even complete his homework. He will mumble when I’m teaching, disturbing his classmates. I was out of my wits on what to do with him. What would you advise me to do?”

What is especially noteworthy in Elizabeth’s email is not the creative student per se, even though she has spent the bulk of her email in describing his traits (e.g., rebellious, stubborn, attention-seeking) and behaviors (e.g., draw very well, invent outstanding toy). Instead, it is the strained relationship that exists between him and the class as a whole: the creative student “disturbs his classmates” and his teacher is “out of her wits on what to do with him”.

2. An Anomaly in Education Elizabeth’s email highlights a certain anomaly in education: Asian students in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore are encouraged to be creative (Newsweek, September 6, 1999). This encouragement is frequently initiated by educational bureaucrats in the government, and comes in many forms, from expensive investment in IT and instructional programs on creative thinking, to educational policies that stress creativity. For example, the set of desired outcomes for school students in Singapore include creativity: At the end of the basic 12 years of education, “students should be resilient and resolute, have an entrepreneurial and creative spirit and be able to think independently and creatively” (The Ministry of Education, 1998).

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Although there is considerable focus on creativity in the Asian classroom, an ironical finding in the empirical literature is that many teachers dislike personality traits associated with creativity. For example, Westby and Dawson (1995) asked elementary schoolteachers to rate their favorite and least favorite students based on personality characteristics associated with creative children. They found that judgments for the favorite student were negatively correlated with creativity, whereas judgments for the least favorite students were positively correlated with creativity. In another study, Scott (1999) found that creative children were seen as more disruptive than average children by both teachers and undergraduates. In addition, she discovered that the teachers were significantly more likely than the undergraduates to rate creative children as more disruptive than average children. Why do teachers dislike creative students? According to Torrance (1963), it is because they tend to have traits that are obnoxious. Examples of these obnoxious traits include a social lack of courtesy, a stubborn refusal to take “no” for an answer, as well as a personal tendency to be negativistic and critical of others (Davis, 1986). However, other characteristics of the creative individual, although not deserving the label “obnoxious”, nonetheless may not be those most highly valued in the typical classroom. For example, MacKinnon (1963) found that among the adjectives associated with the highest level of creativity in a group of architects were “determined”, “independent” and “individualistic”. Sternberg (1985) offered his own list of characteristics associated with creativity, including “impulsivity” and “risk-taking”. Given the educational goal of maintaining order and discipline in the classroom, it is not surprising to discover that creative traits like “impulsivity”, “risk-taking” and “individualistic” are not high in the teacher’s list of desirable student characteristics (Westby & Dawson, 1995). Instead, descriptors like “responsible”, “sincere”, “reliable”, “dependable”, “good-natured” and “tolerant” would be high in this hypothetical list of desirable student characteristics. Interestingly, these descriptors are found to be associated with the lowest levels of creativity in MacKinnon’s (1963) study of creativity in architects. Our problem is identified for us: we need to understand why, in general, teachers seem so resistant to creative students. This is because

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between the student and the school stands the teacher: without the teachers’ co-operation, bureaucratic initiatives on creativity will be “still-born”, no matter how well a particular policy has been thought through. There are many ways of approaching this problem, such as examining the implicit theories of creativity held by teachers, and analyzing how they differ from creativity concepts in the theoretical literature (see Chan & Chan, 1999; Westby & Dawson, 1995). Because we are interested in how different cultures shape and influence behavior, we intend to tackle this problem from a cultural perspective. Our paper consists of the following parts. First, we examine the nature and context of learning in the Confucian tradition. Second, we explore the intrinsic character of creativity, and argue that the attempt to promote creativity in the Asian classroom creates a paradox. This can be described as follows : the more creative a class of students becomes, the more undesirable their behavior appears to the Asian teacher. We present results from an empirical study in support of this model. Finally, we discuss how the Asian teacher can deal with this paradox and nurture independent yet socially responsible creators who can contribute to society.

3. The Nature of Learning in the East Metaphorically speaking, culture is the “spectacles” we use to see the world. However, its function is not merely informational in nature, by providing us with a coherent sense of the world. Culture also has a motivational function, in possessing a “directive force” that motivates and guides people’s behavior in that particular culture (D’Andrade, 1992). We can appreciate these complementary roles of culture by examining the nature of learning in the East and comparing it to the West. Learning occupies a central place in Chinese culture. The defining importance of learning originates with Confucianism, which promotes the idea of human perfectibility as a moral purpose through individuals’ lifelong dedication to learning (Tu, 1985). Indeed, the opening sentence of The Analects of Confucius refers to the significance and joy of learning: “Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?” (Lau, 1979). Close scrutiny of this classic in Chinese literature reveals that the term “learning” pervades the entire text, thus qualifying it to be called a book of learning.

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This dedication to learning is not aimed at mere literacy, but more importantly, at cultivating one’s moral character, so that one can be neisheng or “sagely within” and waiwang or “kingly without”. That is, Chinese learners are not only exhorted to seek inner self-cultivation and virtue (neisheng), but also to contribute their learning back to society by assuming “meritorious service” (waiwang). Confucius puts it in this way: “The officer, having discharged all his duties, should devote his leisure to learning. The student, having completed his learning, should apply himself to be officer” (Analects, XIX.13). This Confucian notion of learning assumed such importance that in China, it became institutionalized during the 7th century as the civil examination system, in which scholars of all backgrounds were carefully selected to serve the emperor in official positions (Smith, 1973). This system lasted over twelve centuries until its abolition at the beginning of the 20th century. By then, the supremacy of learning in Confucian culture is well-entrenched, and to this day it continues to serve as a source of inspiration for generations of learners in Confucian-heritage societies in East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. If, as White (1999) observes, a people signals its awareness and acknowledgement of a new cultural phenomenon by naming it, then it follows that ancient terms that have persisted for many centuries must signal a long-lasting awareness and acknowledgement of the denoted phenomenon. The high regard that the Chinese place on learning is reflected in the large body of aesthetically-appealing phrases, expressions, and metaphors in the Chinese language that refer to learning. For example, “long-term diligence is the road to the mount of knowledge; endurance of hardship is the boat to the boundless sea of learning”. This form of poetry is shared commonly among the Chinese as affirmation, encouragement, and contemplation for learning. In Lakoff and Johnson’s view (1980), they are “experiential gestalts” that function to organize and interpret human experiences. Li (2001) employed a two-step procedure to collect and analyze these learning-related terms in the Chinese language. First, a list of learningrelated terms in Chinese was generated by two groups of Chinese respondents. Second, these terms were judged for their similarity in

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meaning by a third group of Chinese respondents. Using cluster analysis, she classified the 225 terms that emerged from this procedure into different basic groups of varying size. The first basic group to emerge from this analysis contained the largest number of items. It was labeled as “heart and mind for wanting to learn”. This is a Chinese folk term to describe one’s desire to learn, which is often translated as “achievement motivation” in the West. The rich concept in this Chinese folk term can be gleaned from other items contained in this basic group. They include “lifelong pursuit”, “there is no boundary to learning”, and “upon great achievement, make still further progress”. In unison, they reveal the Eastern conception of learning as an ongoing, never-ending process that involves the whole person. A second basic group that complements “heart and mind for wanting to learn” is labeled as “quartet”. It is so called because it is subdivided into four related clusters of terms, under the headings of “diligence”, “endurance of hardship”, “steadfastness”, and “concentration”. Although each cluster is distinct, in unison they constitute a coherent whole regarding how learning takes place. “Diligence” connotes the notion that learning is an activity that requires much time and practice, as the following examples demonstrate: “Wang Xizhi, known as the sage of calligraphy, practiced with his fingers on his clothes so that they were all damaged” and “if well-versed in three hundred Tang poems, one will be able to chant if not compose poems”. “Endurance of hardship”, the second cluster, focuses on overcoming difficulties, especially physical drudgery and poverty. An example is the following : “Zhu Maicheng studied while woodcutting — too poor to go to school”. This emphasis on enduring hardship during the learning process contrasts sharply with the Western notion of learning. In the West, learning is frequently conceptualized as a fun activity that one enjoys doing. For example, interesting activities are designed for students to stimulate their creativity (Starkos, 1995). In contrast, in the East, learning is a disciplined activity that involves the overcoming of hardship. According to Confucian tradition, those who can achieve great learning by enduring hardship possess personal and moral strength and are upheld as examples of wisdom. As Mencius, a famous disciple of Confucius, has pointed out:

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“When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man, it will exercise his mind with suffering, subject his sinews and bones to hard work, expose his body to hunger, put him to poverty, place obstacles in the path of his deeds, so as to stimulate his mind, harden his nature, and improve wherever he is incompetent.” (quoted by Lee, 1996, p. 32)

The third cluster is “steadfastness”, which resembles the Western notion of perseverance, in which the individual exerts effort in a specific task to pursue a certain goal (e.g., Latham & Locke, 1991). However, it differs from perseverance by being broader and more holistic in connotation: “Steadfastness” refers to an enduring orientation to learning that is expressed in such phrases like “filing a block of metal into a needle”. The importance of “steadfastness” is due to the Confucian belief that there is no shortcut to learning. Knowledge does not come about overnight, but accumulates bit by bit over a long period of time, to the enduring learner with “steadfastness” who perseveres in spite of hardship. “Concentration”, the last term in the “quartet”, emphasizes studying with consistent resolution and dedication without ever swerving from it. It is expressed in such phrases like “put one’s heart into one’s study”. “Concentration” allows the full engagement of one’s mind and heart in study. Without “concentration”, there would be no true understanding, no mastery, let alone application of knowledge. A good example of “concentration” is found in Ng’s (2001a) account of a group of Japanese students who checked into a hotel with their families during the New Year holiday to concentrate on preparing for their college entrance examination. In unison, these four terms in the “quartet” present a coherent account of learning in the Eastern tradition. First, they all presume a great desire to learn, because without the “heart and mind for wanting to learn”, these learning behaviors cannot be sustained. Second, they are interrelated: “Diligence” without “enduring hardship” does not amount to serious learning. Likewise, if one is not “steadfast” in one’s “concentration”, one’s learning will end up being half-hearted. In this arduous path of self-cultivation, the individual is motivated by stories of great learners in the past. These stories are widely available in the oral literature, as well as in children’s textbooks and popular illustrations of the Chinese. One

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example relates a story about digging a hole in the wall to borrow the neighbor’s light: “Kuang Heng, a famous essayist during the Ming Dynasty, was very poor in his childhood. His family could not afford light. To study, he chiseled a hole in the wall to borrow the neighbor’s light. This is how he acquired his knowledge. Later he became a prime minister.” (Li, 2001, p. 118)

Consequently, the frequent finding (e.g., Hess & Azuma, 1991; Holloway, 1988) that Asian students attribute success and failure to effort and lack of effort; whereas Western students attribute the same phenomena to ability and lack of ability, begins to make sense. As Watkins (2000) remarked, if you perceive — like the typical Western student — that intelligence is something that is innate and fixed, and understanding is a sudden, insightful process, then what is the use of expending a lot of effort in your studies? However, if you perceive — like the typical Asian student — that intelligence is something that is incremental and malleable, and understanding is a slow process requiring hard work, then expending a lot of effort in your studies seems reasonable. Supporting this frequent finding is the basic group labeled as “extraordinary ability”, which contains phrases like “a living dictionary” and “prose flows from the mouth”. Li noted that “extraordinary ability” is not considered by her respondents as a cause of achievement or an inherent trait. Instead, it was seen as a subgroup of achievement, suggesting that the Chinese view “extraordinary ability” not as being independent of learning, but as being forged and honed by the process of learning.

4. The Cultural Context of Learning in the East The nature of learning in the East is closely related to the cultural context of learning in the East. It is to the latter that we now turn. Traditionally Chinese teachers enjoy a great deal of authority, and are treated with respect by their students. In the Confucian tradition, teachers are far more than personnel hired by the state to impart information to students. More crucially, they serve as moral embodiments that students are to emulate; they are entrusted to guide their charges on the journey toward

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lifelong learning (Liu, 1973). Hence, when a Chinese parent sends the child to school, it is not merely to ensure that the child acquires literacy. More crucially, (s)he is concerned with providing the child with the moral way to develop as a person in society (Cheng, 1996). This traditional respect for the teacher, as a revered elder transmitting knowledge and wisdom to a subordinate junior (Ginsberg, 1992), is brought out clearly in a study of British and Chinese secondary school students by Jin and Cortazzi (1998). The British students characterized a good teacher as one who is able to arouse the students’ interest, explain clearly, use effective instructional methods, and organize a range of activities; these are very much the “teaching skills” taught in typical Western teacher training programs (Biggs, 1996). The Chinese students, on the other hand, prefer their teacher to have deep knowledge, to be able to answer questions, as well as to be a good moral model. This view that the Chinese teacher should not only be an effective instructor, but should also be a keen cultivator of character, is confirmed by Gao (1998). A major aim of his study was to develop a model of conceptions of teaching appropriate for secondary school Physics teachers in China. After numerous in-depth interviews, classroom observations, and a pilot quantitative survey, Gao developed a model of teaching that consisted of a molding and cultivating orientation. Whereas the former corresponds fairly well with the knowledge transmission dimension, the latter is more affective and moral in orientation. The affective orientation is concerned with developing the student’s love for a subject like science; the moral orientation is concerned with cultivating awareness of their personal responsibility to their family and to society as a whole. The teacher in the Confucian tradition serves as a moral exemplar to students. In return, students show their respect to the teacher by their meekness and obedience in class. As Jin and Cortazzi (1998) observed, whereas in Britain it is the good students who obey and pay attention to what the teacher says, in China, this is something that both teacher and students alike take for granted of all students. This is expressed in Biggs’ (1996) notion of the “docile student” in the East. Biggs uses this term not in a negative, derogative sense, but in its original sense of being teachable: Chinese students enter the classroom believing that their teachers, as exemplars in learning, have valuable knowledge which is their duty as

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students to learn from. In return, the teacher also has a high expectation of the students’ diligence, perseverance, endurance of hardship, concentration, and self-cultivation. This shows up clearly in the style of student questioning: whereas Western students ask questions based on their ignorance, Chinese students ask questions based on their knowledge. That is, they would read up on a topic first and then pose questions to their teacher to fill in missing gaps in their understanding. Chinese students studying overseas often consider their Western classmates rude for asking questions based on ignorance. In turn, Western teachers cannot understand why Chinese students do not ask questions earlier in the learning process (Jin & Cortazzi, 1998).

5. Why is there a Paradox in Promoting Creativity in the Asian Classroom? Given this insight into the nature and context of learning in the East, we are now in a position to understand why there is a paradox in promoting creativity in the Asian classroom. To begin with, a creative act, by definition, involves the introduction of novel elements into an established domain, and as such it threatens the conventional manner of doing things (Ng, 2001a). So there will be much resistance faced by the creator. Instead of succumbing to this insidious pressure to conform or toe the line, the creator must be ready to challenge it, by persevering in the face of obstacles. Albert Einstein has remarked: “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a person does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” (quoted by Ng, 2001a, p. 135)

Due to the nature of the creative act, Ng (2001b) argued provocatively that creators are dogmatic people. If they are not dogmatic — if they do not stubbornly adhere to their position in the face of pressure by society to conform or toe the line — they would not be effective as a creator. This provocative notion of the dogmatic creator, which stands the

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conventional notion of the creator as an innovative person on its head, is backed by many historical examples, from Galileo Galilei to the Wright Brothers. It also leads to another controversial insight: “nice” people are not creative and creative people are not “nice”. The reason is as follows: “nice” people are agreeable individuals who go along with what the group says, instead of upsetting everyone by doing things their own way. In contrast, creative people are not “nice” because they insist that others should do as they say, no matter how strange or eccentric their ideas are. Ng (2001b) demonstrated empirically that in a collectivistic culture that emphasizes the social group rather than the individual as a basic building block of society, “nice” people who are not creative predominate; in contrast, in an individualistic culture that emphasizes the individual rather than the social group as a basic building block of society, creative people who are not “nice” predominate.1 Ng’s provocative thesis on the relationship between culture and creativity leads us to reason that there is a paradox in promoting creativity in the Asian classroom. The origin of this paradox stems from the intrinsic character of creativity on the one hand, and the nature and context of learning in the Confucian tradition, on the other hand. Specifically, the teacher in the Confucian tradition acts as a moral guide to students. In return, students show their respect to the teacher by their meekness and obedience in class. The relationship between teacher and student is highly authoritarian in character: the teacher imparts knowledge and wisdom to students by personal example; the students accept what their teacher has imparted to them without questioning. There is a harmonious fit between teacher and student, even though their relationship is hierarchical in nature. However, when we promote creativity in the Asian classroom, we disrupt the harmony that pertains to this hierarchical relationship. We disrupt this “harmony in hierarchy” on account of the intrinsic character

1

Although Ng (2001b) has asserted in a scientific paper that members of one culture are not so “nice” in comparison with members of another culture, he stressed that in the context of his study, no value connotation is associated with the word “nice”, i.e., “nice” does not mean “morally better”. Instead, “nice” means being able to get along with other people with a minimal amount of social friction. What he has said applies to our paper as well.

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of creativity. Specifically, when students start to behave in a creative manner, two tendencies are set in motion simultaneously: there is a decrease in student tendency to behave in a “nice”, passive, and submissive manner in class, in proportion to the increase in student tendency to behave in an individualistic, skeptical, and egoistic manner in class. The more creative a class of students becomes, the more difficult it is to control and manage them. This is especially so for those teachers who are steeped in the Confucian tradition of learning, as expressed in injunctions such as this: “Rearing without education is the fault of the father, teaching without strictness is the negligence of the teacher” (quoted by Ho, 2001, p. 101).

6. A Cultural Model of Creativity in the Classroom Our theoretical analysis leads us to develop a cultural model of creativity in the classroom, as shown in Figure 1. In this model, we assert that there is a meaningful relationship between cultural individualism-collectivism, the two teaching attitudes, as well as the two types of student behaviors. This meaningful relationship is depicted in two sets of hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that cultural individualism-collectivism has a positive impact on the liberal-democratic teaching attitude (H1A). On the other hand, it has a negative impact on the conservative-autocratic teaching attitude (H1B). Second, we hypothesized that the liberal-democratic teaching attitude has a positive impact on the tendency to promote creative but undesirable behaviors in class (H2A). On the other hand, the conservative-autocratic teaching attitude has a positive impact on the tendency to promote desirable but uncreative behaviors in class (H2B). This cultural model of behavior implies that if one works as a teacher in a Confucian-heritage society, one is likely to believe in the importance of inculcating discipline and morality in students; this conviction will lead one to encourage students to be hardworking, disciplined and respectful to the teacher. In contrast, if one works as a teacher in a liberal individualistic society, one is likely to believe in the importance of assisting students to realize their innate potential; this conviction will lead one to encourage students to be creative, autonomous, and independent as a learner.

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Liberaldemocratic teaching attitude

0.21*

0.43** H2A

99

Tendency to promote CBU behaviors

H1A Cultural individualismcollectivism

-0.23**

H1B Conservativedemocratic teaching attitude

H2B 0.22*

Tendency to promote DBU behaviors

Summary of Fit Indices χ2 (24, N = 135) = 38.78, p < 0.05. GFI = 0.94 AGFI = 0.90 CFI = 0.94 Standardized RMR = 0.08 RMSEA = 0.068

Figure 1. A cultural model of creativity in the classroom.

To test this cultural model of creativity in the classroom, we distributed a survey to two groups of trainee teachers. One group consisted of 76 trainee-teachers from Singapore, a collectivistic culture. The other group consisted of 59 trainee-teachers from Australia, an individualistic culture. First, our respondents completed the Teachers’ Attitude Towards Students scale, which consists of 16 items. Eight items measure the conservativeautocratic attitude of teachers towards students. Examples of conservative items include “Training students to behave properly is more important than developing their creativity” and “Teachers should have absolute authority in class; students should obey the teacher without fail”. The other eight items measure the liberal-democratic attitude of teachers towards students. Examples of liberal items include “In teaching students, the most important thing is to nurture their creativity and individual

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talents” and “Teachers should adopt an open and democratic attitude in class; students should be able to challenge what (s)he says”. Our respondents indicate the extent of their agreement or disagreement with each item, using a 5-point rating scale. The TATS has been found to be internally reliable, to possess a clear factor structure, as well as to be meaningfully associated with the Schwartz survey on personal values. Specifically, the liberal-democratic teaching attitude correlated positively with open values like self-direction, stimulation, and universalism; whereas the conservative-autocratic teaching attitude correlated positively with closed values like conformity, security, tradition, and power (Ng, 2002). Second, our respondents completed a scale measuring two types of student behaviors that the teacher may encounter in the classroom. One type of student behavior is creative but undesirable in nature. Examples of CBU items are “likes to challenge and argue with the teacher” and “is skeptical of what the teacher says”. Another type of student behavior is desirable but uncreative in nature. Examples of DBU items are “listens carefully to what the teacher says” and “does work obediently without grumbling”. Our respondents indicate the extent to which they will encourage these student behaviors in the classroom, using a 5-point rating scale. The construct validity of this scale had been previously established in two separate studies. In the first study, we showed that the two sets of items loaded onto two factors. One factor refers to DBU behaviors in class, whereas the other factor refers to CBU behaviors in class. In the second study, we found that would-be teachers tended to encourage the DBU behaviors significantly more than the CBU behaviors (Ng and Smith, 2003). We used structural equation modeling to test this cultural model of behavior, and the SEM results are shown in Figure 1. H1A is supported: cultural individualism-collectivism has a positive and significant impact on the liberal-democratic teaching attitude (γ = 0.21, p < 0.05). H1B is supported: cultural individualism-collectivism has a negative and significant impact on the conservative-autocratic teaching attitude (γ = 0.23, p < 0.01). H2A is supported: the liberal-democratic teaching attitude has a positive impact on the tendency to promote creative but undesirable behaviors in class (β = 0.43, p < 0.01). H2B is supported: the conservative-autocratic teaching attitude has a positive impact on the

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tendency to promote desirable but uncreative behaviors in class (β = 0.22, p < 0.05). With regards to the model as a whole, χ2 (24, N = 135) = 38.78, p < 0.05. Although this indicates a poor fit, χ2 is known to be affected by large sample sizes, and other fit indices are used to test the validity of the model. As shown in Figure 1, these fit indices fall within the acceptable region, with GFI = 0.94, AGFI = 0.90, CFI = 0.94, standardized RMR = 0.08, and RMSEA = 0.068. Based on these results, we conclude that there is empirical support for the cultural model of creativity in the classroom. Still, there are limitations in our study. First, our respondents consist of would-be teachers from Singapore and Australia. Future research should see if this model can be replicated, using respondents who are experienced teachers. Second, we solicited respondents from Singapore and Australia only. Future research should cast the net wider, and solicit participants from other countries. This will enable us to gauge how generalizable is the cultural model of behavior. Finally, we used only self-reports to measure the key constructs in this model. Although they are valid and reliable, future research should test this model using other measures, especially of a behavioral nature. For example, a videotape analysis of an actual lesson can provide vital and more realistic information about teaching attitudes and student behaviors in class. Although there are several limitations associated with this study, it nevertheless supports our argument that there is a paradox in promoting creativity in the Asian classroom: the more creative a class of students becomes, the more undesirable their behavior appears to the teacher. To assist Asian students to be creative, this paradox must first be addressed. We believe that the solution does not lie in investing more money on information technology or in developing more instructional programs designed to increase creative thinking. This is because they omit culture in their deliberation on the learner. This is a serious omission, because culture has a direct influence on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral development of the learner. Failure to consider its role in the learning process can reduce the effectiveness of any initiative to promote creativity in the Asian classroom. For example, when a class of students in a Confucian-heritage society starts to behave in a creative manner, their

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teachers may experience a “culture shock”, so to speak. If this is not addressed, then it may lead to more serious consequences, like a teacher quitting her job because she cannot cope with highly creative but disruptive students in class. Since the resolution of this paradox must consider the role of culture, we need to revisit the Confucian tradition of learning. We have seen that this learning tradition encourages “diligence”, “endurance of hardship”, “steadfastness”, and “concentration” in the learner. This is not a bad thing in itself. As the saying goes: no pain, no gain. In addition, the exhortation to cultivate one’s moral being, as well as to contribute one’s learning back to society, is laudable. No reasonable person would argue against this. However, there is an aspect of learning in the Confucian tradition that we take issue with, namely, its authoritarian nature.

7. The Authoritarian Nature of Learning in the Confucian Tradition According to Ho, Peng, and Chan (2002), this is due to a set of dogmas or basic assumptions concerning the enterprise of learning. One dogma asserts that education is the acquisition of correct knowledge, not the discovery and generation of new knowledge. As Ho and colleagues pointed out, this effectively leaves creativity out of consideration. A second dogma asserts the superiority of the written word over oral discourse. Once written and accepted as orthodox, a text is enshrined with authority that cannot be challenged. Instead, it should be silently committed to memory. A third dogma asserts that the teacher is the repository of knowledge, to be passed on to students. The older the teacher, the greater this repository of knowledge, and the more (s)he is to be revered by students. Together, this set of dogmas justifies the authoritarian nature of learning in the Confucian tradition. It is most keenly manifested in the hierarchical relationship between the teacher and student. The definition of this relationship is characterized by its imperative nature: pervasive, stringent, and intolerant of deviation. It impedes free exchange between teachers and students. Teachers do not allow their authority to be challenged. Students are to revere and respect their teachers, instead of asking them provocative questions. The hierarchical character of this relationship

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constrains the freedom of expression, self-assertion, and development of individuality in students. Hence, to resolve the paradox of promoting creativity in the Asian classroom, we need to engage in a critique of the Confucian tradition of learning (cf. Ho, Peng, & Chan, 2002). First, education is not merely the acquisition of correct knowledge; more crucially, it is the discovery and generation of new knowledge. Second, what constitutes correct or incorrect knowledge occasions debate and investigation; it cannot be preordained in sacred text. Third, teachers are not the moral embodiment of authority who must not be questioned. Instead, they are the sounding boards of inquisitive students who dare to ask provocative questions. This critique should include a restructuring of the teacher-student relationship, from one that is hierarchical and authoritarian in character, to one that is reciprocal and egalitarian in character. At first sight, this obliteration of hierarchy and authority in the Asian classroom may seem to erode the teacher’s control over students. But on closer inspection, it turns out to strengthen control over them. To understand how this is so, we need to take a closer look at the nature of power, as well as the way it acts on people.

8. Lessons from Dead Poets Society Consider the critically-acclaimed Hollywood movie Dead Poets Society, which revolves around a group of students in Welton Academy. This is a private college preparatory school for boys, and its mission is to train them to become future lawyers, doctors, and scientists. The headmaster of Welton Academy is Mr. Nolan, whose stiff, uncompromising manner reflects the school’s oppressive teaching philosophy. This philosophy is based on four pillars, including tradition, honor, excellence, and discipline. Mr. Noland is a fictitious example of a teacher who adopts a conservativeautocratic attitude towards students. This is seen at one stage in the movie when he spanked a mischievous student for his antics. This hierarchical mode of relationship transforms the students in Welton Academy into controlled pawns who feel coerced in what they do (Deci & Ryan, 1987). In contrast to the no-nonsense headmaster is Mr. Keating, a Welton alumnus who has returned to the school to teach poetry. He is a fictitious example of a teacher who adopts a liberal-democratic attitude

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towards students. This is seen in his unorthodox teaching methods. These methods range from exhorting his students to “suck the marrow out of life” and getting them to stand on his desk at one stage in his lesson, to warning them of the dangers of conformity by making them march in the courtyard of the school. The reciprocal and egalitarian relationship that Mr. Keating established with his students via his eccentric style of instruction transforms them into volitional origins who experience an inner sense of psychological freedom in what they do. Which teacher has a greater power over students, Mr. Nolan or Mr. Keating? At first sight, it appears to be Mr. Nolan, the conservativeautocratic teacher who strikes fear in his students. However, on closer analysis, it is Mr. Keating, the liberal-democratic teacher who inspires passion in his students. The reason is as follows: students of Mr. Noland may obey his instructions, but they are not likely to treat his desire as their desire. This is because the teaching style of Mr. Noland is hard and imperious, and students are likely to feel resentful towards him. In contrast, students of Mr. Keating not only obey his instructions; in addition, they are likely to treat his desire as their desire. This is because the teaching style of Mr. Keating is soft and seductive, and students are likely to feel love and affection towards him. In short, the liberal-democratic teacher has a greater power over students, in comparison with the conservativeautocratic teacher, because (s)he adopts a soft and seductive approach in teaching, which enables him or her to win the love and affection of students, who treat their teacher’s desire as their own. The liberal-democratic teacher is likely to reap the love and affection of students because (s)he works with them in the enterprise of learning. In contrast, the conservative-autocratic teacher is likely to reap the resentment of students because (s)he works against them in the enterprise of learning. How does the liberal-democratic teacher work with students in the enterprise of learning? (S)he works with whenever (s)he uses feedback from students to design an interesting lesson. (S)he also works with whenever (s)he provides various choices to appeal to the different tastes of students. What about in those instances where no provision of choice is available, for example, in imposing a certain piece of classroom legislation on students? We believe that the liberal-democratic teacher can still — paradoxically — work with. For example, (s)he works with

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whenever (s)he communicates the rationale for the behavioral constraint: a penalty is given for late assignments to ensure fairness. (S)he also works with whenever (s)he acknowledges any negative emotional reaction on the students’ part to the behavioral constraint. After all, how many of us enjoy having our willful behavior suppressed? (see also Ng & Tan, 2002). The liberal-democratic teacher has another advantage over the conservative-autocratic teacher: students are more likely to follow the advice that (s)he dishes out to them. This is because they trust the liberaldemocratic teacher as a friend who has their best interest at heart. Hence, when Mr. Keating reproached a student for engaging in a silly prank during a school assembly, by pointing out to him that “sucking the marrow out of life does not mean choking on the bones”, the student readily accepted his reprimand. This “friendly authority” of the liberal-democratic teacher enables him or her to attenuate the negative aspects of creativity in students. For remember that there is an antithetical relationship between creativity and desirability. When students start to behave in a creative manner, there is a decrease in student tendency to behave in a “nice”, passive, and submissive manner in class, in proportion to the increase in student tendency to behave in an individualistic, skeptical, and egoistic manner in class. If this is not managed carefully, the teacher risks transforming a class of docile and teachable students to a class of chaotic and rebellious students. Both extremes should be avoided assiduously. The liberal-democratic teacher accomplishes this goal by using his or her “friendly authority” to steer students down the middle path. Following this strategy enables the liberal-democratic teacher to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak: (s)he can promote creativity in the classroom, while at the same time (s)he can also rein in the more negative aspects of creativity in students. In this connection, we would like to take a closer look at the issue of how creativity is affected by the individual’s relations to the social group. Creative work necessarily occurs within a social context, stimulated by social requirements and evaluated by social standards (Crutchfield, 1962). Hence, the social group has the potential for favorable as well as unfavorable influences on the creative processes of the individual. The

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independent creator maintains an optimal balance between self-reliance and group identification. As a result, (s)he benefits from the favorable contributions of the social group, while rejecting its unfavorable influences. In contrast, the extreme conformist and extreme counter conformist fail to benefit from the favorable contributions of the social group, and experience its unfavorable influences instead. In the case of the extreme conformist, the reason can be attributed to his or her oversocialization by the social group. That is, (s)he follows what the majority says and does unthinkingly. By behaving in this way, (s)he misses out on the chance to become his or her own person. An example is the “nice” student who engages in desirable but uncreative behavior. In the case of the extreme counter conformist, the reason can be attributed to his or her undersocialization by the social group. That is, by an unthinking rejection of what the majority says and does, (s)he misses out on the chance to learn from others. An example is the student in Elizabeth’s class, who upsets his teacher and alienates his friends with his mischievous antics. In contrast to them, the independent creator is neither too oversocialized nor undersocialized. (S)he is not too oversocialized because (s)he can be independent and take the initiative; (s)he is not too undersocialized because (s)he can tap on the resources of the community when (s)he needs to.

9. Nurturing Independent Yet Socially Responsible Creators in the Asian Classroom From this perspective, the Asian teacher should strive to nurture independent, yet socially responsible creators, who appreciate the importance of cultivating a good relationship with peers, as well as the necessity of maintaining independence from them. We believe that this goal can be achieved more effectively by the Asian teacher who relates to students in an egalitarian and reciprocal manner, rather than in an authoritarian and hierarchical manner. By now, the answer should be obvious: in the enterprise of learning, the liberal-democratic teacher wins the love and affection of students by his or her method of working with. The “friendly authority” that (s)he exercises in class enables students to be receptive to the moral lessons that (s)he imparts to them. For example, with individual freedom comes social responsibility, and one should

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employ one’s creative talents to serve society. Achieving this goal may appear to be difficult for the Asian teacher, as it involves a sharp change in his or her attitude towards students. However, the situation is not as bleak as it seems. Although teacher-centered pedagogy and student compliance are still prevalent in many Asian societies, despite the fact that some of them have a long history of Western influence, recent studies have presented a somewhat more complex picture of the management style of the Asian teacher. For example, Biggs (1996) observed that despite the relatively little interaction and lack of response to the teacher in the Asian classroom, there was much teacher-student interaction outside class, with a lot of informal discussions and collective activities, which were “typically marked if not by warmth then by a sense of responsibility and mutual respect” (p. 274). Biggs attributed this phenomenon to the complex nature of social roles and relationships in a collectivistic culture. Specifically, in the formal class situation, a more ritualized and hierarchical relationship is in operation. In such a situation, the Asian teacher is likely to behave in an autocratic manner, in order to maintain control over the learning process. However, outside the classroom, relationships are informal and the social climate can be warm. In such a situation, the Asian teacher is likely to behave in a genial manner, as there are fewer norms and social rules to comply with. According to Biggs, this may partially explain why as soon as class was over, the number of Asian students seeking interaction with their teacher was much higher than was the case with Western students. Ho (2001) found that in the Australian context, respect from students was allegedly earned through good teaching and demonstration of teacher competence, and this respect in turn enabled the teacher to exercise the necessary authority over students. In contrast, in the Hong Kong context, teachers were respected for being able to exercise authority in the classroom, as well as having an affectionate relationship with students, and this respect from students enabled the teacher to conduct the lesson without disruption. This dual emphasis on the apparently contradictory elements of authority and affection in the teacher-student relationship was clearly indicated among Hong Kong teachers, who used phrases such as “dual emphasis on mercy and authority”, “simultaneous use of

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hard and soft measures”, and “being a teacher, at the same time being a friend” to describe their approaches to students. Ho also found that punitive measures in the Hong Kong context could have positive rather than negative effects on the teacher-student relationship. To illustrate this point, she highlighted a discussion with two teachers in Hong Kong, who alleged that since detention of students who misbehaved often involved teachers spending out-of-class time with the student on a one-to-one basis, it provided good opportunities for establishing a more personal teacher-student relationship, which would foster greater self-control in student behavior, as a result of greater respect for the teacher arising from a better relationship. To summarize, while Western teachers tend to display a consistent approach to students in various situations in and out of the classroom, Asian teachers tend to display a variable approach. In a formal class situation — a ritualized occasion for students to receive knowledge — they are authoritative, and focus on maintaining control of the learning process. Personal needs of students are not addressed, and both teachers and students share these expectations. However, once out of this formal class situation, and the demand for norm-oriented behavior is less stringent, Asian teachers may interact with students in a personalized manner and attend to their needs in a more student-centered way. This nuanced understanding of the teacher-student relationship suggests that nurturing creative yet socially responsible students may not be as difficult for the Asian teacher as it appears to be. Although this task requires the Asian teacher to modify his or her attitude towards students, (s)he is not starting from a zero base. Instead, (s)he already has a lot of experience — outside of the formal classroom context — in relating to students in a warm, caring, and personalized manner. (S)he can bring this experience into the classroom and use it to establish a conducive climate for creative learning, which is permeated by psychological safety and interpersonal trust (Ng & Tan, 2002). With all these pages of learned discourse, let us return to Elizabeth, the caring teacher who consulted one of us for advice on dealing with a creative but disruptive student in class, and who unwittingly became a catalyst for developing our ideas in this paper. We would urge Elizabeth to use her legitimate authority as a schoolteacher to rein in the misbehaving

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boy, to prevent him from disrupting the lesson further. For example, she can move him to a front seat in class, so as to keep an eye on him. Elizabeth should explain the rationale for this move to the entire class. She should do this in a grave but non-threatening tone, so that her students are aware of the consequences of misbehaving, yet do not feel alienated from her. After the formal lesson is over, we would urge Elizabeth to spend some time with the misbehaving student. In this one-to-one session, she should use her friendly authority as a caring teacher to deal with the erring boy. For example, she can use realistic examples to show the culprit why his present behavior is not acceptable in class. She will probably need to counsel the boy for a period of time before he changes his behavior for the better. In addition, we would urge Elizabeth to use this critical incident to reflect on her behavior as a teacher in class. One possible consideration is to devise interesting ways of delivering lessons to her students. By capturing the attention of her students with stimulating lessons, they are less likely to misbehave. As the saying goes, the devil finds work for an idle mind to do. If Elizabeth does follow through with this line of thinking, then she and her students will be the ultimate beneficiaries: she gets to design stimulating lessons, while her students get to enjoy them!

10. Conclusion Creativity is an important resource to nurture in our students in the new millennium. It enables them to cope with the tremendous changes in the world. This is the reason why many Asian societies are striving to promote creativity in the classroom. However, these typically government-initiated efforts do not usually take into consideration the intimate relationship between culture and creativity. Our paper has tried to fill this gap, by drawing attention to the paradox of promoting creativity in the Asian classroom: the more creative a class of students become, the more undesirable their behavior appears to the Asian teacher. Dealing with this paradox is not going to be an easy challenge, because it involves a major modification of the Confucian tradition of learning, as well as a wholesale restructuring of the teacher-student relationship. However, if we want our students to feel more passionate in what they study, as well as to be

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more creative in the way they behave, we need to deal with this paradox. The gratifying insight that emerges from our analysis is that this is a potentially accomplishable task which does not require us to jettison the Confucian tradition of learning. It is practically possible for the Asian teacher to nurture independent, yet socially responsible, creators, who use their talents to serve society. Confucius would be pleased to hear this.

References Biggs, J. (1996). Western misperceptions of the Confucian-heritage learning culture. In D. A. Watkins & J. B. Biggs (Eds.), The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological and contextual influences (pp. 45 – 67). Hong Kong: Comparative Educational Research Center. Chan, D. W., & Chan, L. K. (1999). Implicit theories of creativity: Teachers’ perception of student characteristics in Hong Kong. Creativity Research Journal, 12(3), 185–195. Cheng, K. M. (1996). The quality of primary education. Paris: International Institute for Education Planning. Crutchfield, R. S. (1962). Conformity and creative thinking. In H. E. Gruber, G. Terrell & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to creative thinking: A symposium held at the University of Colorado (pp. 120–140). New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc. D’Andrade, R. (1992). Schemas and motivation. In R. G. D’Andrade & C. Strauss (Eds.), Human motives and cultural models (pp. 23–44). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Davis, G. A. (1986). Creativity is forever. Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1987). The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1024–1037. Elliott, M. (1999, September 6). Now, please think: As Americans embrace testing, Asians pursue creativity. Newsweek, 36–47. Gao, L. B. (1998). Conceptions of teaching held by school physics teachers in Guangdong, China and their relations to student learning. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Hong Kong. Ginsberg, E. (1992). Not just a matter of English. HERDSA News, 14(1), 6–8. Hess, R. D., & Azuma, M. (1991) Cultural support for schooling: Contrasts between Japan and the United States. Educational Researcher, 20(9), 2–8.

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Ho, D. Y. F., Peng, S., & Chan, S. F. (2002). Authority and learning in Confucianheritage education: A relational methodological analysis. In F. Salili, C. Y. Chiu, & Y. Y. Hong (Eds.), Multiple competencies and self-regulated learning: Implications for multicultural education (pp. 29–47). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. Ho, I. T. (2001). Are Chinese teachers authoritarian? In D. A. Watkins & J. B. Biggs (Eds.), Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and pedagogical perspectives (pp. 99–114). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Center, The University of Hong Kong. Holloway, S. D. (1988). Concepts of ability and effort in Japan and the U.S. Review of Educational Research, 58, 327–345. Jin, L., & Cortazzi, M. (1998). Dimensions of dialogue on large classes in China. International Journal of Educational Research, 29, 739–761. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Latham, G. P., & Locke, E. A. (1991). Goal-setting: A motivational technique that works. In B. M. Staw (Ed.), Psychological dimensions of organizational behavior (pp. 54–64). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Lau, D. C. (1979). Confucius: The Analects. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. Lee, W. O. (1996). The cultural context for Chinese learners: Conceptions of learning in the Confucian Tradition. In D. A. Watkins & J. B. Biggs (Eds.), The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological and contextual influences (pp. 25–41). Hong Kong: Comparative Educational Research Center. Li, J. (2001). Chinese conceptualization of learning. Ethos, 29(2), 111–138. Liu, Z. (1973). Shi Dao — Principles of Teacherhood. Taipei, Taiwan: Chung Hwa Book Company. MacKinnon, D. W. (1963). Creativity and images of the self. In R. W. White (Ed.), The study of lives (pp. 251–278). New York: Atherton. Ng, A. K. (2001a). Why Asians are less creative than Westerners. Singapore: Prentice-Hall. Ng, A. K. (2001b). Why creators are dogmatic people, “nice” people are not creative and creative people are not “nice”. International Journal of Group Tension, 30(4), 291–324. Ng, A. K. (2002). The development of a new scale to measure teachers’ attitudes toward students (TATS). Educational Research Journal, 17(1), 63–78. Ng, A. K., & Smith, I. (2003, July). The paradox of promoting creativity in the Asian classroom. Paper presented at the XXV International Congress of Applied Psychology, Singapore, on July 9, 2002.

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Ng, A. K., & Tan, S. (2002). Helping Asian students to be more creative by nurturing a creative climate in the classroom. In A. S. C. Chang and C. C. M. Goh (Eds.), Teachers’ handbook on teaching generic thinking skills (pp. 109–119). Singapore: Prentice-Hall. Scott, C. L. (1999). Teachers’ biases toward creative children. Creativity Research Journal, 12(4), 321–328. Smith, D. H. (1973). Confucius. U. K.: Maurice Temple Smith Ltd. Starko, A. J. (1995). Creativity in the classroom: Schools of curious delight. White Plains, N.Y.: Longman Publishers. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity and wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 607–627. The Ministry of Education (1998). The desired outcomes of education in Singapore. Retrieved 1998 from http://www1.moe.edu.sg/desired.htm. Torrance, E. P. (1963). The creative personality and the ideal pupil. Teachers College Record, 65, 220–226. Tu, W. M. (1985). Selfhood and otherness in Confucian thought. In A. J. Marsella, G. DeVos & F. L. K. Hsu (Eds.), Culture and self: Asian and Western perspectives (pp. 231–251). London: Tavistock Publications. Watkins, D. (2000). Learning and teaching: A cross-cultural perspective. School Leadership and Management, 20(2), 161–173. Westby, E. L., & Dawson, V. L. (1995). Creativity: Asset or burden in the classroom? Creativity Research Journal, 8(1), 1–10. White, S. H. (1999). Designing American adolescence — Once more, with feeling. Paper presented at a meeting held at Brown University in honor of Theodore R. Sizer.

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Chapter 6

Creativity and Innovation: East-West Comparisons with an Emphasis on Chinese Societies1

Kwok LEUNG Al AU Beeto W. C. LEUNG Department of Management City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

1. Introduction Creativity is to some extent in the eyes of the beholder, and the definition of creativity is subjected to the influence of a wide range of contextual factors. For instance, contemporary classical music lovers may wonder why the works of Bach were not more appreciated by his peers, as “his reputation in his life time was restricted to a fairly limited circle and his music was regarded as old-fashioned” (Kennedy & Bourne, 1994, p. 43). But Bach’s lackluster career as a composer seems auspicious when compared with van Gogh’s total failure as a painter during his tragic life. The wax and wane of the reputation of creative geniuses are not limited to the West. The status of Li Bai, widely regarded as the most gifted poet in China, also vacillated in different periods due to different artistic viewpoints (Yang, 1990, p. 498; Cooper, 1973, p. 29). The purpose of this chapter is to review the evidence for a relativist view of creativity, 1

This chapter is supported by a strategic research grant of City University of Hong Kong. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their highly constructive comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. 113

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with a focus on Chinese societies. The chapter will begin with an exploration of the conceptualization of creativity from a cultural perspective and an analysis of how culture shapes the nature and processes of creativity. East-West differences in creativity and innovation are then reviewed, and directions for future research will be discussed.

2. Creativity as a Cultural Phenomenon 2.1. What is creativity: A personality trait or a social process? Before we delve into the influence of culture on creativity processes, it is instructive to explore perhaps the most fundamental epistemological issue in the field of creativity: What is creativity? The beginning of large-scale research on creativity probably coincided with Guilford’s (1950) address to the American Psychological Association, in which he asserted that the psychologists’ task in studying creativity is to define a creative personality. Thus, creativity can be seen as an individual trait that is inherited and associated with a certain group of people. Guilford’s approach had a huge influence on creativity research in the 1950s and 1960s. Subsequently, some researchers have challenged the trait approach to creativity and argued for the importance of the influence of the environment and social interaction. For instance, Amabile (1982, 1983, 1996), a social psychologist, has conducted a series of experimental studies to investigate the effects of motivation on creativity. In one study, she found that children who engaged in a competition for rewards produced significantly less creative and aesthetically appealing, but technically better, collage designs when compared to their counterparts who produced the design for their own interest and fun. This finding was replicated in a study on creative poem writing by adults (Amabile, 1983). Based on this line of work, Amabile (1996) proposed a componential theory to emphasize the importance of cognitive, social, and motivational influences on creative performance. Taking a more macroscopic view, Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1999) posited that creativity does not mean much when an individual is alone by himself/herself, and that “creativity is not an attribute of individuals but of social systems making judgments about individuals” (1990, p. 198).

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His view is that creativity cannot be viewed as a personality trait that can be measured objectively. One cannot judge whether a piece of work or a person is creative if one lacks a context in which creativity can be assessed. Following this logic, he has developed a dynamic model of creativity that consists of three interrelated subsystems: domain, field, and individual. Domain includes a set of rules and criteria that defines creativity, which is shaped by culture; field includes a group of experts or people who make creativity judgments; and an individual creates works, which is then judged by the field based on the domain. All components are dynamic and context-bound, and creativity is the result of the interaction among these three subsystems. An important implication of this model is that creative judgments may change overtime and across contexts. Csikszentmihalyi’s (1999) systems perspective takes into account the effects of culture on creativity explicitly. In his model, the definition of creativity is culture-bound, and there are no universal criteria for the measurement of creativity. For instance, even within one cultural context such as the U.S., Runco and Bahleda (1987) found that implicit theories (lay conceptions) of creativity differed across domains and across people with different backgrounds. Participants with an artistic background regarded “humorous” as a characteristic of artistic creativity, whereas participants with no artistic background did not include this characteristic. Furthermore, regardless of one’s artistic background, “imaginative” was regarded as a characteristic of artistic creativity, but not a characteristic of scientific creativity. Chan and Chan (1999) reported that Hong Kong Chinese and U.S. teachers differed in some of the attributes they associated with creativity. For instance, Hong Kong teachers regarded “quick in responding” as a creative attribute, whereas “self-centered” was mentioned by U.S. teachers (for a review, see Niu & Sternberg, 2002).

2.2. Universality of creativity measures A relativist view of creativity such as that of Csikszentmihalyi’s (1999) suggests that it is hard, if not impossible, to measure creativity objectively. However, many objective instruments such as personality assessments, biographical inventories, and behavioral tests have been developed to

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measure creativity. Most of these techniques follow the Guilford approach and aim at measuring creativity objectively, of which the tests developed by Torrance (1990, 1992) are probably the most well-known. The Torrance tests involve several measures, including ideational fluency (the number of ideas generated), flexibility (different categories of responses), and originality (infrequent responses), and elaboration (detail in idea generation). Although these measures tend to be quantitative and objective, they are not free from multiple interpretations. How can we be absolutely sure that those who generate more categories of ideas (flexibility) are more creative than those who generate few categories? In a similar vein, unique ideas or ideas that are based on a lot of detail are not necessarily the most creative ideas. These questions point to the difficulty of establishing a consensual criterion for the measurement of creativity without taking into account the cultural context. To minimize the subjectivity involved in the measurement of creativity, the use of multiple raters and the emphasis on inter-rater agreement have been introduced in Torrance tests. In a similar vein, Amabile (1982) has developed a technique called consensual assessment, which relies on a group of qualified judges to rate the works produced by a person. However, the works being judged are usually products of simple tasks, such as simple figure drawing, that can be attempted by people without much technical expertise. If a high degree of agreement is obtained among different judges, it can be concluded that creativity has been measured reliably. However, the criteria involved in the assessment of creativity are likely to vary over time and across cultures (Amabile, 1996). Thus, this approach takes into account implicitly social and environmental factors that shape the definition of creativity for a given time period. The above review of the measurement of creativity suggests that culture-free, context-free measures of creativity are unlikely, if possible at all, and that there is no reliable way to disentangle cultural influence from the measurement of creativity. In fact, Niu and Sternberg (2002) express the concern that divergent tests are Western in origin and may bias against non-western groups. For instance, “a sense of humor” is not associated with creativity in Hong Kong, but humor is typically a core dimension in Western creativity tests (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997). A more productive approach is then to recognize the role of culture in creativity processes and to formulate models with culture as an integral element.

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2.3. East-West differences in the conception of creativity We argue that creativity cannot be fully understood without grounding it in its social and cultural context, and that it is entirely possible that different cultures may have different conceptions of creativity. Culture here refers to a shared set of values, rules, behaviors and a system of cognitions and customs which govern how people interact with each other and with the physical environment (Triandis, 1996). Drawing on a sociopolitical perspective, Weiner (2000) wrote extensively on the cultural values of a society that define creativity. According to Weiner, Western values on creativity, dominated by the American ideology, can be viewed as creating novel and appropriate objects and ideas that dramatically depart from existing ones. With a strong emphasis on individualism, freedom of expression, and democracy. Americans are encouraged to imagine and go beyond the existing frontiers with a future time orientation. All these emphases are reinforced by a political system that protects freedom and protesting rights as mentioned in the First Amendment Rights to the Constitution. Under these ideologies, variety is encouraged, and novelty and diversity rewarded. In contrast to the Western notion of creativity, reinterpretation of the past, intrapsychic processes, and integration with the environment are emphasized in Eastern views of creativity (Averill, Chon & Hahn, 2001; Li, 1997; Lubart, 1999). For instance, Weiner (2000) observed an aesthetic feature of void in Chinese paintings, in which “empty” space is prominent and valued. Such an aesthetic feature emphasizes the integration and harmony with the environment in the creation processes, which contrasts sharply with the prominence of human figures in Western paintings. In short, creative values in East Asia, especially in China, emphasize respect for traditions and harmony with nature. These themes in creativity are most apparent in China. Confucian values were canonized in the Han dynasty, while other values were suppressed. This historic event has shaped Chinese values for the next two thousand years, resulting in a deep-rooted respect for traditions and harmony. Creativity is witnessed readily in various art forms, but in a way different from artistic creativity in the West. Li (1997) suggested that artistic creativity in the West and the East can be characterized by two fundamentally different traditions, horizontal and vertical. In horizontal

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traditions, a more salient characteristic of the West, modifications and even radical changes in artistic aims, methods and symbols are highly valued and regarded as creative productions (e.g., Picasso’s cubism was judged as a groundbreaking form of painting). However, in vertical tradition, a more salient characteristic of the East, artistic creativity, consistent with Confucianism, is expressed in a form of reinterpretation of the past. Artists fully respect the traditions in striving to establish their own styles. While Chinese artists usually do not deviate from an established theme or subject matter, they manage to find the space they need to express their uniqueness and individuality (Averill, Chon, & Hahn, 2001; Li, 1997). According to the systemic model and the political societal perspective of creativity proposed by Csikszentmihalyi (1990) and Weiner (2000), respectively, cultural values play a fundamental role in defining creativity and shaping educational processes that are intricately linked to creativity performance. For instance, Cheng (1999) reported that in Singapore, teachers who were more immersed in Chinese culture were more likely to endorse goal-directed and performance-oriented modes of educational processes than teachers who were more oriented toward Western culture. These two modes of educational processes are likely to be counterproductive to creativity as defined and measured by American notions of creativity. Thus, East Asians are likely to be judged as inferior in creativity when using criteria consistent with Western values and ideologies, a topic that we will discuss next.

3. Cross-Cultural Research on Creativity 3.1. Creativity research in educational settings across cultures Some cross-cultural studies support the claim that Westerners outperform Chinese or East Asians in creativity-related tests (e.g., Ng, 2001). Take creative potential as an example, Jellen and Urban (1989) assessed children from 11 countries with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP). The test is based on incomplete figural fragments which carry no or vague meaning in order to provide maximum flexibility for creative production (Jellen & Urban, 1986). It was found that children from western

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countries such as England, Germany, and United States obtained significantly higher overall creativity scores and unconventional scores (reflecting non-stereotypical usage of a given fragment) than those from Eastern countries such as China, India, and Indonesia, with the Philippines as the exception (Jellen & Urban, 1989). In a comparison of Japanese and American students with the Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking, Saeki, Fan, and Van Dusen (2001) found that Japanese participants scored lower in elaboration and abstractness of titles than American students, but there was no cultural difference in other dimensions. A life-span cross-cultural creativity comparison (age 9 to 60 years old) between United States and Hong Kong was conducted (Jaquish & Ripple, 1984), and American participants in all age groups were found to generate more (higher fluency) and better (more flexible and original) ideas than their respective Chinese counterparts. Other cross-cultural findings with regard to divergent thinking and ideational fluency also point to similar conclusions (Ripple, 1989; Dunn, Zhang & Ripple, 1988). Niu and Sternberg (2001) extended these findings to artistic creativity. American and Chinese college students were asked to produce two artworks, and judges from both cultures were invited to evaluate the artworks subjectively. The two groups of judges found that American college students produced significantly more creative, aesthetically pleasing (the degree to which the judges liked the artwork), and technically advanced artworks than their Chinese counterparts. Interestingly, they also found that the artistic creativity of Chinese college students was lower when asked to produce a collage design, a task with more constraints, than when instructed to draw an alien, a less restrictive task. Furthermore, Chinese college students benefited more when explicitly instructed to be creative. It is well-documented that Chinese children were usually more advanced in the technical quality of their drawing than were American children (Cheng, 1998; Gardner, 1989). Thus, Niu and Sternberg (2001) suggested that factors other than cultural values, such as individual motivation, may also explain the cultural differences in creativity performance. Other research has provided evidence to support the motivational explanation of cultural differences in creativity proposed by Niu and Sternberg (2001). Rudowicz and Yue (2000) conducted a survey to

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investigate how Chinese in Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan viewed creativity. These researchers reported that characteristics commonly associated with a creative individual, such as “have original ideas” and “innovative”, were considered relatively unimportant for a Chinese person. It follows that the Chinese may not view creativity as very important and are relatively less motivated to be creative. Some research has also shown that the Chinese endorse a pragmatic view of creativity, which may reduce their motivation to engage in divergent thinking. Yue and Rudowicz (2002) reported that in Mainland China and Hong Kong, when asked to nominate creative individuals, undergraduates nominated primarily politicians and scientists, whereas artists and business people were rarely nominated. Yue and Rudowicz (2002) interpreted this finding as reflecting the utilitarian view of creativity of Chinese because in modern Chinese history, politicians and scientists are easily associated with social changes. To evaluate this possibility, Yue and Leung (2002) conducted a survey about the motives and attitudes underlying creativity for Hong Kong and Guangzhou undergraduates. When asked about the motives underlying creativity, undergraduates in both cities were found to emphasize extrinsic and instrumental rewards like social responsibility and contributions more than intrinsic rewards such as personal satisfaction. Yue and Leung speculated that this tendency is another manifestation of the “utilitarian” perspective of knowledge and creativity in Chinese societies. As mentioned above, extrinsic motivation is likely to undermine creativity in the West (Amabile, 1983, 1996), and this finding generalizes to Chinese societies. The utilitarian orientation toward creativity is likely to reduce the creativity motivation of Chinese, which may explain why they were usually found to perform at a lower level than their western counterparts. We should note that literature is not uniform in showing the superiority of Westerners in creativity tests. In a recent review, Niu and Sternberg (2002) reviewed several studies that showed higher performance of Asians than Westerners. For instance, Japanese (Torrance & Sato, 1979) and Hong Kong Chinese (Rudowicz, Lok, & Kitto, 1995) were found to outperform their American counterparts in creativity tests. A study by Chan, Cheung, Lau, Wu, Kwong and Li (2001), which is not included in the review, reported that Hong Kong Chinese had a higher score of

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ideational fluency than their American counterparts based on the results of Wallach and Kogan (1965). However, the time gap between the two studies may pose a problem to the cross-cultural comparison. To sidestep the reliance on American tests for cross-cultural comparison, Chen, Kasof, Himsel, Greenberger, Dong and Xue (2002) compared the drawings of geometric shapes of European American and Chinese college students. One interesting feature of this study is that the creativity of the drawings of both cultural groups was evaluated by judges from both cultures. No significant differences were found between the creativity of these two cultural groups, and these null findings were not related to the cultural background of the judges. The above review points to two observations. First, while there is more evidence supporting the superiority of Westerners in creativity performance, this issue is far from conclusive because there is also a sizeable literature showing that Asians are as creative as or more creative than their Western counterparts. Second, empirical research concentrates on the comparison of the creativity performance of different cultural groups, and issues concerning how creativity is generated, judged, and nurtured across different cultures have not received much attention. The dearth of research on these issues makes it impossible to develop theoretical frameworks to account for the differential performance in creativity across cultures. Whether East-West differences in creativity performance are attributable to cultural, cognitive, or motivational factors remain an open question, and we will revisit this issue in the conclusion. In the next section, we explore how creativity manifests itself in work settings, with an eye toward an integration of the findings with those from educational settings.

3.2. Creativity and innovation in the workplace In the West, creativity is often viewed as an individual activity, and that may be why creativity is typically associated with artists or scientists. However, in the workplace, creativity is an individual as much as a collective activity, involving synergistic effort of work teams and units. We should note that while both creativity and innovation are concerned with ideas, actions, outcomes, and products, creativity is more concerned

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with ideas, whereas innovation is more concerned with products and outcomes. The emphasis on practicality in the workplace renders innovation a popular research topic in the organizational setting. Organizational innovation has been researched extensively in the West (Damanpour, 1991; Wolfe, 1994), and a major direction is to identify the determinants of organizational innovation and the factors that shape its process. A wide variety of factors have already been identified, which may be broadly classified into three categories: individual, interpersonal, and organizational. At the individual level, research has shown that some traits are associated with the tendency to innovate, such as social independence, autonomy, high tolerance of ambiguity, and propensity for risk-taking (e.g., Eiseman, 1987; Michael, 1979; Torrance, 1979; Sarnoff & Cole, 1983). Freedom of choice, especially with regard to time use, is frequently cited as a positive antecedent of creative performance (e.g., Lovelace, 1986). There is also consensus that individual innovation is a function of ability (both knowledge and self-efficacy) and motivation (e.g., Farr & Ford, 1990). As noted before, some work has shown that extrinsic motivation is detrimental to innovation (e.g., Amabile, 1983). At the interpersonal level, it was found that a democratic, participative leadership style is conducive to innovation (Kanter, 1983). Support from supervisors also plays an important role in facilitating creativity, whereas lack of appreciation of creative accomplishment is an obstacle (Glassman, 1986; West, 1989). Interpersonal communication facilitates the dispersion of ideas within an organization and increases their amount and diversity, resulting in cross-fertilization of ideas and a higher likelihood of innovation (Aiken & Hage, 1971). At the organizational level, it was found that concentration of authority and decision making at the top of the organizational hierarchy reduces innovation, and that a strong emphasis on following rules and procedures also stifles innovation (Zaltman, Duncan, and Holbek, 1973). However, both centralization and formalization are conducive to the implementation of innovation plans. Zaltman et al. (1973) also argued that organizational complexity, i.e., extensive occupational specialization and task differentiation in the organization, are conducive to innovation, but are barriers to the implementation of innovation plans. On the other hand, Damanpour (1991) has found that contrary to an earlier belief,

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formalization is not related to organizational innovation. The availability of lack resources, i.e., uncommitted resources, and resources in technological knowledge are positively related to innovation (Rogers, 1983). Some researchers have argued that a supportive climate that emphasizes openness to change, potential for change, and need for change is an important antecedent of innovation (Amabile & Conti, 1997; Kanter, 1983). A task culture, which is flexible, adaptable and sensitive to the environment, and emphasizes performance and minimizes status differences within a team, is most conducive to innovation (West & Farr, 1989). Norms that support conformity, dogmatism, and low risk taking propensity are related to low innovation (King, 1990). Finally, a competitive and turbulent environment also promotes innovation (Kimberly & Evanisko, 1981).

3.3. A cross-cultural analysis of organizational innovation The above findings are obtained in the West, mostly in the U.S., and it is important to evaluate their generalizability to Asian societies in general and Chinese societies in particular. Unfortunately, the cross-cultural literature on organizational innovation is very limited, and to shed some light on East-West differences in innovation processes, we have to draw upon the more extensive research on Chinese people and organizations. As will be discussed in the following, some features of Chinese people and Chinese organizations seem conducive to innovation, while others may obstruct innovation. Research has shown that Chinese tend to be higher in conformity and social dependence than their Western counterparts, a pattern consistent with their collectivistic orientation (Bond & Hwang, 1986; Hofstede, 1980). This tendency is not favorable to innovation, a conclusion also reached by Yamada (1991) about creativity in Japan. However, Chinese are characterized as low in uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1980), which is associated with risk-taking and tolerance of ambiguity and hence is conducive to innovation. Western research has clearly shown that intrinsic motivation is crucial to innovative behavior. Chinese often exhibit lower levels of self-oriented achievement motivation, and Yu (1996) has argued that the achievement motivation of Chinese people is social in nature as

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opposed to the self-oriented achievement motivation of Westerners. In social-oriented achievement motivation, the goal of excellence is mainly defined by in-group members and the incentive for achieving a goal lies mainly in the positive evaluation of in-group members. Extrapolating from the results of Amabile (1983), social-orientation represents a type of extrinsic motivation, and hence may hinder innovation. On the positive side, it is well known that Chinese are willing to exert a high level of effort for goal attainment (Leung, 1996), and the emphasis on effort should enhance their capability to innovate. Thus, this analysis suggests that there is not simple relationship between Chinese cultural characteristics and the propensity for Chinese to innovate. At the interpersonal level, Chinese leaders tend to be autocratic, and participative management is less common in Chinese firms than in the West (Redding & Wong, 1986). In contrast, the consensual decisionmaking style is often cited as a cause of organizational innovation in Japan (Yamada, 1991). With regard to interpersonal communication, Chinese show a pattern of conflict avoidance and are less likely than their Western counterparts to argue and confront each other (Leung, 1997). The avoidance of open communication and debate may be a barrier to innovation. The emphasis on face by Chinese may also make it difficult to openly point out mistakes and problems in others’ ideas (Hwang, 1987). Finally, Chinese are more likely to differentiate between in-groups and out-groups, and out-groups are often not trusted (Bond & Hwang, 1986). The distrust of out-group members may hinder open communication across different functional areas within an organization and impede organizational innovation. On the positive side, Chinese in-groups are tightly knit and cohesive, which should provide the support and encouragement that is needed for organizational innovation. Again, it is not clear whether social dynamics among Chinese are necessary impeding innovative behaviors in a work setting. At the organizational level, Chinese firms are known to be more centralized and less specialized than their Western counterparts, but there is no difference in formalization between Chinese and Western firms (Redding & Wong, 1986). Based on the Western findings, centralization and lack of specialization are barriers to organizational innovation. However, in a survey conducted in Taiwan, Tsai (1997) found that

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centralization is negatively related to organizational innovation. Unlike Western findings, however, specialization was related to a low level of innovation. More research is needed to explore the relationship between specialization and centralization. Some research has shown that culture is related to the implementation of innovative processes, and that the Chinese may show a distinct pattern in implementing innovation. Shane, Venkataraman and MacMillan (1995) examined the relationship between national culture and preferences for innovation championing strategies and found that a higher level of power distance, which refers to a more marked differentiation between ranks, was related to a higher preference for gaining the support of authority figures for innovative initiatives before other actions were taken. Collectivism, which emphasizes a strong commitment to the in-group, was related to the preference for making cross-functional appeals for support for innovative ideas. Uncertainty avoidance, which refers to a low tolerance for ambiguities, was related to a low preference for the violation of rules, norms, and procedures in the innovative process. Compared to Westerners, Chinese are typically higher in power distance and collectivism than Westerners. Thus, innovation in Chinese firms is probably more characterized by activities that aim at getting the support of authorities as well as other co-workers. However, Fischer and Farr (1985) found that the climate for innovation was surprisingly similar between Chinese and Western research and development staff. Thus, it remains an open question whether organizational innovation processes are similar across Chinese and Western societies.

3.4. Integrating creativity research in educational and work settings There is more cross-cultural research in education than in work settings, and the overall results suggest that Chinese students may be lower in creativity than their Western counterparts, although several studies do not support this general conclusion. Furthermore, “creativity” as defined in by American scholars and laypeople is less valued and encouraged in Chinese societies, and Chinese seem to prefer a more practical, utilitarian conception of creativity. However, we should note that even if we adopt

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the American definition of creativity, in the absence of systematic crosscultural research on how to measure the quality of creativity reliability, it is not entirely clear if Chinese students are indeed less creative than American students. We will revisit this point in the conclusion. The current empirical results are also inadequate in mapping out a picture of the processes that drive the creativity performance of Chinese. When we turn to work settings, the empirical results are even thinner. Although it is obvious that Chinese firms are unlikely to be world leaders in their sectors, and that many western firms are market leaders, it is hard to conclude that Chinese firms are always low in innovation. For instance, Taiwan’s high technology firms are ahead of many Southern and Eastern European countries. Hutchison-Whampoa, a Hong Kong firm, is now a major global player in the 3-G mobile telephone market. If we look at other East Asian countries, such as Japan, no one will claim that Toyota and Honda are less innovative than General Motors and Ford. To the best of our knowledge, there is no systematic research that compares the innovativeness of Chinese and western firms that are equated on such organizational characteristics as size and industry. Research on organizational innovation does suggest that some elements of Chinese culture, such as the concern for face and a paternalistic leadership style, may hinder innovativeness. However, there are other cultural elements that promote innovation, such as the emphasis on effort and diligence. Even the emphasis on in-group harmony among Chinese is a two-edged sword with regard to innovation. It is too early to conclude whether Chinese culture in general promotes or stifles innovativeness in the workplace.

4. Conclusion Our review of East-West difference in creativity with an emphasis on Chinese societies raises more questions than answers. While some studies show that East Asians score lower on creativity tests than their western counterparts, there is a sizeable literature that contradicts this conclusion. With regard to implicit theories, the findings are more consistent, suggesting that the East Asian view tends to be collectivistic and pragmatic, and the Western view tends to be individualistic and expressive. However,

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the antecedents and consequences of these cultural differences are far from clear. In the following we discuss four issues that are central to these findings in the context of identifying fruitful directions for future research.

4.1. Implicit theories of creativity and the measurement of creativity performance Given that lay conceptions of creativity and innovation differ between Chinese and Westerners, it is possible that these cultural differences may account for cross-cultural differences in performance in western creativity tests. For instance, it would be interesting to explore whether the Chinese whose implicit theories of creativity resemble those of Americans would score higher in American creativity tests. This line of enquiry also points to an important issue concerning the usefulness or functionality of different conceptions of creativity. Is the traditional conception of creativity in Chinese societies unfitting for a modern, globalizing world? Is it counterproductive to adopt in a wholesale fashion the American conception of creativity? Are there hybrid versions that capture the strengths of both traditions? Answers to these questions are predicated on a successful resolution of two problems: the development of (1) valid measures of creativity and (2) valid outcome measures associated with creativity. The development of cross-culturally valid creativity measures is crucial, as Niu and Sternberg (2002) suggest that American tests of creativity may be biased against Asians. The extensive use of American creativity tests in cross-cultural comparisons may underestimate the creativity of Chinese. To evaluate this possibility, a two-group two-test design is ideal, which involves the administration of a Chinese creativity test and an American creativity test to both Chinese and American participants. The two cultural groups can then be compared across the two versions of creativity tests to identify any cultural bias involved. To the best of our knowledge, the systematic development of a reliable and valid test of creativity for Chinese people is only in the initial stage (e.g., Cheung, Tse, & Tsang, 2001). Without a reliable indigenous creativity test and the associated cross-cultural research, we have no basis to accept or reject the argument of cultural bias that may deflate the creativity performance of Chinese.

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With regard to outcome measures of creativity, the critical question is whether scores of creativity tests are linked to important educational and work outcomes. In other words, we need to demonstrate that these scores make a difference in real-life situations, which is not always the case. For instance, Saeki et al. (2001) found that scores of the Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking did not correlate with academic results among Japanese as well as among American undergraduates. In work settings in Chinese societies, we have no idea whether creativity scores derived from standardized tests are related to such outcomes as job performance and promotion. In fact, we cannot rule out the possibility that Chinese who score high on American creativity tests may not be advantaged in a Chinese context because of a mismatch between performance and expectation. For instance, one who is high in ideational fluency does not necessarily fare well in a place where the emphasis is on accuracy. On a macro level, we also do not know to what extent the traditional Chinese views of creativity are adaptive in this globalizing world. Some authors argue for a complete abandonment of traditional views because they are dysfunctional (e.g., Ng, 2001), but we simply do not have reliable, coherent empirical facts to support or refute this position. As an anecdote, more people probably regard American firms as more innovative than Japanese firms. But if we compare Japanese firms with French, German, and British firms, most people will hesitate to jump to a conclusion because it is not obvious that Japanese firms are less innovative than firms from these European countries. Most people will find it even harder to compare the innovativeness of Japanese firms with Spanish and Portugal, because there are not too many world-famous firms from these two Southern European countries. This example illustrates the difficulty in evaluating the general statement that creativity is lower in Asia than in the West on a macro level.

4.2. Chinese culture and creativity Western research on creativity suggests that some elements of Chinese culture, such as authoritarianism and harmony, seem to hinder creativity, but we cannot take these conjectures as empirical facts. In a related domain of research, Chinese parents have been shown to be more

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authoritarian than Western parents. Western research also suggests that parental authoritarianism is related to negative outcomes in children. However, Leung, Lau and Lam (1998) have found that parental authoritarianism is related to better school performance for Hong Kong students, but not for American and Australian students. Furthermore, Lau and Cheung (1987) have shown that parental control, a key characteristic of parental authoritarianism, entails both functional and dysfunctional elements. Parental control that focuses on structuring the activities of children is related to positive outcomes, whereas parental control that demands complete submission and obedience is related to negative outcomes. These findings suggest what is found to be detrimental in the West may not function in the same manner in Chinese societies. In other words, elements that hinder creativity in the West may prove to be harmless in their effect on creativity in Chinese societies.

4.3. Interplay between motivational and cognitive factors Despite the fact that some studies show that Chinese students perform less favorably in divergent thinking tests than western students, it is welldocumented that Chinese students excel in academic results in the West. As mentioned before, the relationship between divergent thinking and academic performance is unclear, because motivational factors may be involved. Sue and Okazaki (1990) have argued that academic excellence may be perceived by Asian Americans as an effective path to success because of their minority status, which may account for their strong motivation for academic excellence. In creativity performance, the role of motivation is also crucial. For instance, Chen et al. (2002) found that when European American and Chinese college students were instructed to be creative, both groups produced more creative drawings. In an earlier section, we review some evidence that suggests Chinese are not necessarily motivated to be creative in their environment. However, if there is a change in the reinforcement contingency in the environment, so that creativity becomes instrumental to success, we may extrapolate from the previous findings that Chinese will strive to be creative. It is possible that creativity can be enhanced through learning and practice driven to a motive to be successful. Of course it is also possible that creativity is

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an inherent ability that cannot be easily altered by effort. These two possibilities need to be evaluated in future research to further our understanding of the interplay of cognitive and motivational factors underlying creativity performance.

4.4. Creativity as a life-long performance We need to examine the relationship between creativity at school and in the workplace in Chinese societies. To the best of our knowledge, there has not been any large-scale longitudinal research in Chinese societies that examines the development of creativity and its consequences on important life outcomes over a long period of time (see Torrance, 1993). One possibility is that creativity is a general ability that does not change much over time, and if one is not creative at school, one is unlikely to be creative at work. Another possibility is that creativity is domainspecific, and that a student low in creativity at school may turn out to be a very creative employee at work. A third possibility is that creativity can be nurtured and developed by training and practice. A student low in creativity, if properly trained and developed, can be groomed into a highly creative worker. We have no idea how creativity performance changes from a life-span perspective in Chinese societies, and longitudinal research is urgently needed to unravel the dynamics involved.

References Aiken, M., & Hage, J. (1971). The organic organization and innovation. Sociology, 5, 63–82. Amabile, T. M. (1982). Social psychological of creativity: A consensual assessment technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 357–377. Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: SpringerVerlag. Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview. Amabile, T. M., & Conti, R. (1997). Environmental determinants of work motivation, creativity, and innovation: The case of R and D downsizing. In R. Garud, P. R. Nayyar, & Z. B. Shapira (Eds.), Technological innovation: Oversights and foresights, (pp. 111–125). New York: Cambridge University Press.

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Chapter 7 Progress from Traditional to Creativity Education in Chinese Societies

Vivian M. Y. CHENG Department of Science Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

This paper illustrates an overview of the educational changes in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. The literature review explores how traditional education in Chinese societies is affected by Confucianism and collectivism. These educational systems are criticized for putting a strong emphasis on morality, conformity, instrumental roles of education, and less on personal and creativity development of students. They are also criticized for being highly examination-oriented, authoritarian with rigid and centralized curriculum, and for maintaining large class sizes. The criticism comes from an increasing concern about the development of creativity in Chinese students. Governments in these countries have put forth new educational policies for creativity-conducive curriculum in parallel with many creativity-related studies and projects initiated by individual scholars and educators. This study reveals the changes that are taking place in various educational settings, including curriculum, assessment, instructions, school management and teacher training. The discussion in this paper includes the future challenges posed by these changes. This paper argues that the educational reforms imposed by these governments are mainly based on economical reasons, and it may be incongruent with the pace of changes in school culture, assessment methods, teacher competence and other socio-cultural aspects of schooling and education. Hence, large gaps between implemented and intended 137

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curriculum are expected. This study stresses the importance of reforms in school curriculum and assessment, public examinations, and development of creativity and pedagogical competence of teachers in Chinese societies. It calls for more creativity research in the educational field to meet the special needs of Chinese societies. The construction of a “Chinese model of creativity education” is suggested.

1. Introduction “Is education in Chinese societies conducive or detrimental to creativity development of students?” This is an important but difficult question. The answer to this question may even vary with time. This paper reviews the changes of creativity education in Chinese societies in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. The discussions in this paper are mainly based on research studies in education and creativity fields as well as government papers in these Chinese societies. The first section of this paper reviews some common criticisms on traditional Chinese education, mainly from a western point of view. Although many studies have commented that traditional Chinese education is detrimental to creativity development, a simple literature search reveals that there are a growing number of creativity studies in Chinese societies. The second section of this paper gives a brief review of the creativity studies found in Chinese societies. In parallel with the increasing concern about creativity in the societies, governments of these Chinese societies have recently put forth new educational policies to promote creativity development. The third section of this chapter reviews some government papers and explore the new policies on creativity education. Education in Chinese societies is now undergoing a critical moment of change from traditional to creativity-conducive one. The final section of this paper discusses the challenges faced by these Chinese societies in this critical period and makes suggestions for future studies. This paper will focus mainly on the discussion of the common characteristics of creativity education in the Chinese societies, although large variations may exist among different societies. As it is difficult to exhaust all creativity studies in Chinese societies, this paper does not attempt to give a full review of them but only a discussion of some

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selected papers. Through a brief review of some educational and creativity studies and government papers in Chinese societies, this paper aims at providing an overview of the common changes in creativity education of Chinese societies and raising some significant questions for future studies.

2. Criticisms on Traditional Chinese Education As stated by Bruner (1986), “most learning in most settings is a communal activity, a sharing of the culture” (p. 127). Many studies have commented that traditional school curriculum in Chinese societies are influenced by Confucius and collectivistic culture (Rybak, Wan, Johnson & Templeton, 2002; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992; Watkins & Biggs, 2001). They believe that, under such cultural influence, education in Chinese societies has several characteristics.

2.1. Philosophy in education In Confucius culture, the social roles of education are more emphasized than the personal development of students. As suggested by Ho (2001), “proper behavior in the Confucian collectivistic culture is defined by social roles, with mutual obligation among members of society and the fulfillment of their duties for each other being emphasized …” (p. 100). This kind of education discourages the expression of individual opinion, independence, self-mastery, creativity, and all-round personal development (Biggs, 1996a, 1996b; Mok, Chik, Ko, Kwan, Lo, Marton, Ng, Pang, Runesson, & Szeto, 2001; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). Upton (1989) further described the nature of Chinese education as moral-politicaloriented and that of American education as strictly academic. Another characteristic of Chinese education is its emphasis on basic knowledge and skills. Based on visiting artists in China, Gardner (1997) suggested that, compared with western one, Chinese creativity is more skill-oriented. The Chinese tend to believe that basic skills are fundamental and must precede any efforts to encourage creativity. Soh (1999) tested his assumption with Singapore teachers and found support for Gardner’s view. Freeman (1997) further commented that Chinese educational

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philosophy is based on the belief that learning should occur through continual, careful shaping and molding, and that creativity is demonstrated only after the child has perfected prescribed and approved performances. In Chinese culture, the development of creativity is considered as a “delayed” educational objective, which is stressed only after the acquisition of strong knowledge and skills. In Gardner’s view (1997), Chinese education, which places great emphasis on skills acquired through very rigid training programs that starts at a very young age, is detrimental to creativity development.

2.2. School curriculums Chinese educational systems, including that in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, usually embrace a rigid and centralized curriculum in which teachers manifest little flexibility in teaching. Wang and Mao (1996) commented that, instead of using creative ways to improve the curriculum to cater to their students’ needs, Chinese teachers tend to reproduce and adopt the curriculum mechanically. They also have little autonomy on their teaching schedule (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). The traditional education systems of the Chinese societies are also frequently criticized to be too examination-oriented. The teaching and learning activities mainly focus on preparation for external examinations (Biggs, 1996a). Teachers overemphasize the results of examinations and therefore, rote learning and memorization are used to get higher grades , ,& , 2001). Yojana (1996) believed that this ( competitive exam-driven system engenders conformist behavior of students. Salili (1996) also described that, “The content of the curriculum in Hong Kong is at an unreasonably high standard, students are asked to do a lot of drill work to achieve the standard by the teachers” (p. 99). In sum, the school learning in Chinese societies is very hard, competitive, and of high pressure.

2.3. Teachers and teaching methods Another characteristic of Chinese education is its large class sizes. “As large group lesson and whole group instruction are the commonest forms

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of teaching in Chinese countries … there is a strong need to create order and structure” (Stevenson & Stigler, l992, p. 62). “Confucian classes are mostly quite formal (a situation for students to receive knowledge from the teacher), where teachers could be highly authoritarian if necessary in order to keep absolute control over the situation” (Ho, 2001, p. 112). Furthermore, in comparison with western teachers, Chinese teachers tend to exercise their control through negative reinforcement, for example, punishment. As Salili (1996) commented that, “Chinese teachers, however, seldom use praise and consider it harmful to a child’s character if it is given without an outstanding cause … Hence, students seldom receive positive verbal feedback about their performance” (p. 94). In Chinese societies, the high student-teacher ratios lead to an emphasis on discipline, obedience and punishment for the convenience of classroom management. Since traditional teaching and learning in Chinese countries is examination-oriented, teacher-centered, textbook-oriented, drilling teaching methods seems to be inevitable. Tang and Biggs (1996) commented that teachers in Hong Kong consider their main duty as maximizing their students’ results in the public examinations. They believe the most effective way is using an expository teaching style. Paine (1990) described that the lessons in Chinese societies were dominated by teacher-talk; it seems that teachers are artistic performers and students are the audience. Besides, Biggs (1996b) even criticized that, “Hong Kong students display almost unquestioning acceptance of the knowledge of the teacher or lecturer. This may be explained in terms of an extension or transfer of the Confucian ethic of filial piety” (p. 47). A few studies have been conducted to find empirical support to the Chinese teaching style. Xin and Lin (2000) found that among 347 teachers in China, most of the teachers were categorized as dominant or submissive, according to the scale they adopted. Empirical study conducted by Stevenson and Stigler (1992) supported that Asian students receive more instruction from their teachers than American students do. “In Taiwan, the teacher was the leader of the child’s activity for 90% of the time, as opposed to 74% in Japan, and only 46% of the time in the U.S. No one was leading instruction for 9% of the time in Taiwan, 26% in Japan, and an astonishing 51% of the time in the U.S. …” (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992, p. 145).

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There is criticism that Chinese teachers tend to neglect or even discourage students’ creativity performance. Hunsaker (1994) found that although teachers view creativity as a common characteristic of giftedness, when nominating students to gifted programs, they focus more on classroom performance than creativity. In a study of 204 primary and secondary Hong Kong schoolteachers, teachers regarded some characteristics of creative students as socially undesirable (Chan & Chan, 1999). They explained that “In Chinese culture, it is common for people to regard nonconforming or disobedient behavior as rebellious, expressive behavior as arrogant or attention seeking, and assertive behavior as selfcentered or opinionated. Thus nonconforming, expressive, or assertive may be personality and behavioral characteristics not well appreciated by Chinese teachers” (Chan & Chan, 1999, p. 194). “A good boy or a good girl, in teacher’s view, should be honest, tolerant, easily taken in, always listens to the teacher, and does not raise strange questions” (Wang & Mao, 1996, p. 149). Besides not valuing the creativity development of students, traditional Chinese societies are also criticized as not valuing the creativity of teachers. Cortazzi and Jin (2001) has examined the criteria for an able teacher and Chan (2001) has examined the characteristics and competencies of teachers of gifted students who are perceived as successful. In both of their studies, creativity is not found to be one of the attributes of the teachers. In summary, from the western point of view, the traditional Chinese education is quite strongly criticized as detrimental to creativity development. Studies have commented that Chinese education puts stronger emphasis on the social role of education, and value conformity and obedience of students than their personal development. Its school curriculum is highly centralized, rigid and examination-oriented, with mostly expository and rote-learning teaching style. The Chinese consider knowledge and skill learning as preceding creativity development.

3. Increasing Concern on Creativity in Chinese Societies In contrast to the criticisms on traditional Chinese education, there are increasing awareness and concern in the recent decade over the development of creativity in Chinese societies. Many studies in this

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area are published in either local Chinese or international English journals. Below is a brief review on some creativity studies found in Chinese societies.

3.1. Chinese conception of creativity Although there is a lot of literature criticizing the detrimental effects of traditional Chinese education on creativity education, several recent studies have suggested some alternative viewpoints. The Chinese tendency of delaying creativity development and putting strong emphasis on knowledge and skill acquisition does not necessarily imply that Chinese do not value creativity. Some scholars commented that western people consider creativity as a relatively rapid, insightful process, whereas in Chinese conception, creativity is a slow process requiring much effort, repetition, attention and a strong knowledge base (Dahlin & Watkins, 2000; Jin & Cortazzi, 1998; Watkins, 2000). While westerners believe that “children learn (creativity) through being creative” (Jin & Cortazzi, 1998, p. 756), Chinese tend to think the opposite. For these reasons, Chinese emphasize hard work, effort, repetition and memorization for understanding, and a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Watkins, 2000). Several studies (Rudowicz & Hui, 1997; Yue, 2001) have revealed that Chinese put more emphasis on the social and instrumental role of creativity, but less on the aesthetic and humorous elements in it. Chinese tend to consider more politicians and scientists than artists and writers as creative people. Although some researchers may believe there are some cultural differences in the conception of creativity, both the studies done by Chen, Kasof, Himel, Greenberger, Dong and Xue (2002) and Niu and Sternberg (2001) showed that there are high consensus and great similarity between western and Chinese judges in creativity judgments of drawings. There is quite a number of research studying the creative personality of Chinese in different places. A study conducted in Mainland China found that creative personality traits include high intelligence, optimism and low anxiety (Chen, Song, Lin, & Miao, 1996). He, Zha and Xie (1997) found that people’s creative thinking and tendency of creation, are related to their personality attributes like adventure, curiosity,

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imagination, and challenge. When asking Hong Kong Chinese to rate the characteristics of a creative person, Rudowicz and Hui (1997) found that innovative abilities, intellectual abilities, dynamism, boldness and social style are the five strong factors. It seems that both western and Chinese societies have similar conceptions of creative personality, except that humorous and artistic elements are absent in the Chinese one. A study done by Hui and Rudowicz (1997) indicated that Hong Kong Chinese people value creative personality. Among the top ten factors to which the participants attach high values, four of them belong to the creative creativity while three of them belong to the Chinese personality. In his study of value preference, Lau (1992) found that Hong Kong university students rank “being imaginative” highly and in nearly the same order as that in the American sample. Lau, Nicholls, Thorkildsen and Patashnick (2000) also discovered that high school students of Hong Kong prefer school teaching them how to face challenges creatively more than their American counterparts. However, in Rudowicz and Yue’s study (2002) conducted in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan, participants in all samples value Chinese personality traits (obedience, social acceptance, discipline, and dutifulness) more than creative traits (innovative, dynamic, intellectual abilities, and social style). The Chinese conception of creativity remains unanswered. And yet it would directly affect the objectives and methods of creativity education in Chinese societies. For example, what kind of creative person does Chinese education wish to produce? What are the objectives of Chinese creativity education. And compared with other attributes, how should high creativity development be ranked in Chinese education? And finally, in what way do Chinese people think that creativity can be developed? All these are fundamental questions in creativity education.

3.2. Assessment of creativity With regard to assessment, quite a number of western divergent thinking ability tests and other attitude tests have been adopted and used in Chinese societies. For example, Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have been successfully translated and adopted in Taiwan ( , ,& , 1992; , , & , 1993) and

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Hong Kong (Spinks, Ku-Yu, Shek, & Bacon-Shone, 1995; Rudowicz, Lok, & Kitto, 1995). The Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests have also been adapted in Hong Kong (Lau, Cheung, Chan, Wu, & Kwong, 1998; Chan, Cheung, Lau, Wu, Kwong, & Li, 2001). On the whole, acceptable validities and reliabilities for the described divergent thinking tests have been found in Chinese samples. Most of the creativity assessment tools found in Chinese societies originate from western studies and most of them are used to assess creativity of children in general aspects. Recently, several studies have gone beyond this scope of research. , , , , and (1999) have successfully developed divergent thinking tests using image and object of Chinese culture (for example, Chinese character and chopsticks). Hu and Adley (2002) have developed divergent thinking tests for measuring scientific creativity of secondary students. Apart from assessing divergent thinking abilities, Cheng (2002) has adopted the consensual assessment technique to assess the creativity of teachers in developing teaching ideas. The psychometric results are generally good. Cheung, Tse and Tsang (2001) have successfully developed and validated a “Chinese Creative Writing Scale” for assessing creativity in Chinese writings of primary students. Besides assessing creative abilities, Soh (2000) has developed a self-rating adjective checklist to assess creativity fostering behaviors of teachers. All the above studies provide useful assessment instruments or methods for educational and research purposes in Chinese societies.

3.3. Cross-cultural comparison of creative competence Some studies have tried to assess the creative abilities and performance of Chinese children and compare their results with western people. In their study, Niu and Sternberg (2001) found that American participants produce more creative and aesthetically pleasing artworks than their Chinese counterparts. In another study conducted in Singapore by Kwan (1991), it was found that western expatriates whose children were born in their home countries and were educated in the expatriate school system score higher than Singaporean participants on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. In contrast to these results, Rudowicz et al. (1995)

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found that Chinese children in Hong Kong score higher on the figural Torrance tests than American, Singaporean, and Taiwanese children but lower than German children. In Li and Shallcross’s study (1992) of solving creative “nine-dot problem”, more than 50% of the Chinese students in Beijing solve the problem while less than 25% of American do. This study also found that the Chinese students spend double the time American students do on the problem before giving up. In summary, even though the traditional Chinese educational systems are always criticized to be detrimental to creativity development of students, the cross-cultural comparisons of creative competence indicate mixed results. There is no clear evidence that Chinese are less creative than westerners. Given the multi-faceted nature and the complexity of creativity, it is not surprising to find such a perplexing result. Moreover, any differences found in cross-cultural comparisons may arise from cultural bias in assessment methods or bias in sampling, instead of some cultural or societal factors.

3.4. Teachers and teaching methods In contrast to the criticisms on Chinese teachers, quite a number of scholars in Chinese societies have highlighted that teachers play an important role in developing student creativity and should be facilitators, supporters, mentors, leaders and creators ( , 1996; Tan, 1998; 1999). (2001) commented that, to enhance students’ creativity, teachers should hold an open attitude in the first place. Lau and Li (1996) found that teachers as well as students perceive peer status as significantly related to creativity of students and that popular students are evaluated as most creative. Besides possessing supportive attitudes, in order to facilitate the development of students’ creativity, pedagogical competence of teachers is also considered most necessary. There are plenty of books and papers written in China, Taiwan and Singapore discussing how to develop students’ creativity or suggesting innovative teaching methods (Mellou, 1996; , 1994; & , 2000; , 1997; , 2001). For example, (1998) proposed that there are six teaching skills in creative teaching — support and encourage abnormal ideas; respect

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individual differences; give students time to think; create a mutually respectful atmosphere; beware of the multi-layer of creativity; and encourage participation. In order to replace the traditional “oppressive teaching methods”, (1997) suggested that “a creative teaching method” should be introduced which includes using comic books as textbooks, an open curriculum design, teaching introspection, emotionallyconcerned teaching, learning from real observation, and concern for public affairs. Quite a number of educators have suggested using other innovative teaching methods to elicit students’ creativity, such as drama ( , 2002), dancing ( , 1994), picture book ( , 2001), physical education ( , 2000), and computer software ( , 1998; , 1999). With regard to teachers’ characteristics, a recent study in Hong Kong (Zhang & Sternberg, 2002) revealed that teachers with certain thinking styles, for example, legislative thinking styles, are more likely to teach creatively. This study also found that six teacher characteristics —gender, professional work experience outside school settings, degree of enjoyment in adopting new teaching materials, tendency of using group projects in assessing student achievement, perceived autonomy for determining teaching contents, and rating of student quality — are significantly correlated with the thinking styles of the teachers. Besides thinking styles, motivational orientations may also affect teachers’ creativity development. In Taiwan, Chen’s (1995) found that there are significant multivariate relationships between six motivational orientations and innovativeness of high school teachers. Several studies (e.g., , 1999; & , 2003) have even highlighted the importance of teacher creativity in facilitating creativity development of students. Some studies (e.g., , 1999; 2000; Tan & Law, 2000) have examined how teacher training can help teachers to carry out creative teaching. Tan (2001) found that teachers who have attended thinking skill course make significantly higher ratings on the value of listening to a joke than those who have not. Klenetsky (1998) found that teachers who have received 4MAT training score significantly higher on the attitude toward creativity than those who have not received the training. In light of previous studies, it is obvious that there is increasing concern about teachers’ role and teaching methods in promoting creativity education in Chinese societies.

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3.5. School culture Quite a number of studies and papers in Chinese societies ( , 1997; , 1994) , 2000; , 1997; Mellou, 1996; , 1992; have discussed the importance of a suitable school environment to the development of children’s creativity. In a more specific area of discussion, (1998) suggested that educators can make use of IT technology to cultivate a learning environment that support co-operative learning, issue-based learning and brainstorming activities. A review study in Taiwan ( , & , 1997) reported that, to create a creativity-conducive environment, schools in Japan encourage students to participate in exhibitions and competition, provide a creative wall for teachers and students to express their ideas, and exhibit the products that have been awarded. In his study, (2000) suggested cultivating a happy school environment to promote creativity of students.

3.6. Programs for developing creativity In recent years, there are some educational programs conducted to encourage creativity development in Chinese societies. In Hong Kong, a “Quality Education Fund” invested five billion Hong Kong dollars to support innovative projects initiated by schools and educational organizations. Quite a number of them are directly or indirectly related to creativity education (see website http://www.gov.hk/qef). In China, started from 1986, a large-scale creativity educational project had been carried out for more than 10 years in primary schools ( & , 2000). Creativity-conducive elements were infused into normal school curriculum and specific creativity courses were added. Their fruitful experience and results are published in two Chinese books ( , 2000). In exploring creativity education of special groups, Chen (2001) has set up an experimental junior middle school girls’ class in 1997 in China, in which creativity education is combined with education for girls to develop the creative potential of female students.

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3.7. Alternative views on traditional Chinese culture Although most people believe that Chinese culture is dominated by Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and literature like the Book of Change also have deep-rooted influence on Chinese philosophy. These philosophical theories are full of metaphoric, imaginative, innovative and flexible ways of thinking. Several studies have highlighted their contributions to creativity development. Kuo (1996) commented that Taoist creativity involves incubation, syntactic thinking and the unification through the opposites. Holt and Chang (1992) have successfully used the Book of Change as a source of generative metaphors for fostering creativity (1995) in Taiwan has adopted the meditation of university students. technique in Buddhism to help gifted children experience relaxation and incubation in their creativity development program. It seems that further studies on these valuable Chinese cultural heritages may contribute creativity education in the future. In light of these alternative viewpoints, one may puzzle whether traditional Chinese culture is detrimental to creativity education. As the real influence of Chinese culture on the creativity development of Chinese is still uncertain, it is obviously not an easy question to answer.

4. Formal Change towards Creativity Education 4.1. Change in formal curriculum Recently, in parallel with the increasing concern about creativity development in the societies, governments of the Chinese societies have induced quite significant reforms to their school curriculums. In 1998, the Singapore government proposed “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” as the 21st century’s educational goal, which stresses various thinking skills, such as problem-solving, creative and critical thinking (Ministry of Education, Singapore, on-line). In 2001, the government of Mainland China also announced in Guidelines of Curriculum Reforms in Foundation Education (Pilot) that one of the major objectives of the new curriculum is to develop the creative and problem-solving abilities of students ( , 2001; , & , 2001). In 2001,

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the Education and Manpower Bureau of Hong Kong proposed the “Learning to Learn” curriculum reform in which creativity is among the three most important generic skills that all students need to develop (Curriculum Development Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, 2001). Amon the governments of the Chinese societies, the Taiwan government has highlighted creativity most frequently in their policy papers. In 2001, Taiwan published a White Paper of Creativity Education, in which they declared that Taiwan would become a “Republic of Creativity”, and all future educational policies should focus on creativity ( , on-line). Besides having similar goals in educational reforms, governments of various Chinese societies have proposed similar methods to achieve these goals. Their approaches share some common characteristics. Nearly all these governments try to delay or reduce the number of their public examinations; encourage schools to adopt multiple forms of assessment; encourage teachers to introduce more open-ended, student-centered inquiry, discoveries, and problem-solving activities, and to adopt more diversified teaching methods, including drama, games, role play, project work, independent studies, society services; and encourage teachers to eliminate redundant drillings and repeating exercises, and to cut down some contents of the syllabus, so as to spare time for student activities in class. The new curriculums also try to provide slightly more room for teacher’s autonomy and encourage teachers to be more flexible and to modify the formal curriculum to suit the special needs of their students (Curriculum Development Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, 2001; , 2001; , on-line; Ministry of Education, Singapore, on-line; , & , 2001). One can trace these reforms not only in government papers, but also in some studies in the societies. For example, some studies (Wang & Mao, 1996; Lin & Tsai, 1996) reported that Taiwan and China are reforming the kindergarten curriculum to enhance children’s initiative and creativity. The new curriculums encourage small-group or individual, free and imaginative activities for children to explore while lecturing and demonstrating are discouraged. Children are allowed to express their own views and choose activities.

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4.2. Change in school management School organizations in Chinese societies have also been changing in recent years. For example, the School Management Initiative was introduced by the Hong Kong Government in 1991 which allows decentralization of school management power to individual school level. As commented by Lee and Gerard (1997), the school organization is becoming more contingent- and people-oriented. Similarly, the White Paper of Creativity Education introduced by the Taiwan government in 2001 has suggested some methods to strengthen school operations, such as setting up a system so that the subordinates in the educational systems can participate in decision-making and program planning. It also proposes employing creative persons (e.g., artists) to share their experiences nd skills in schools; encourage teachers’ and students’ participation in creative activity design and assessment; and set indicators of “creative teaching” and “creativity development” to evaluate teachers ( , on-line).

4.3. Changes in teacher training Nowadays, the Chinese societies begin to use various ways to promote creative teaching methods or to enhance teacher creativity. Like in Singapore, Tan (2000) reported that, at the National Institute of Education, the number of core and elective modules that include components of creativity has been increased. Across all programs, lecturers are encouraged to infuse thinking skills into their lessons. Since 1999, student teachers’ competence to stimulate critical and creative thinking is assessed during teaching practice. In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Institute of Education has also declared that creativity is one of the main features extended across all subject areas for its Postgraduate Diploma in Education Program, and is one of the assessment criteria in some programs (Hong Kong Institute of Education, 2002). In Mainland China, Gu (1999) also indicated that China needs creative teachers and teachers of high professional qualities for the 21st century education. To pursue this, the teacher training program in normal school must be reformed. In Taiwan, the White Paper of Creativity Education suggested evaluating the teaching training system, including

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its curriculum, teaching practice and teacher assessment, and set creativityrelated courses the major emphasis of teacher training. It also suggested that educators could implement a school-based teacher development plan, teacher creativity workshop and creativity teaching theatre to enhance teachers’ creativity ( , on-line). There is no doubt that nowadays creativity has become one of the major educational goals of the Chinese governments. It seems that they are putting more effort than ever to promote creativity education. For example, the White Paper of Creativity Education of Taiwan suggests a very comprehensive plan of creativity educational reforms, which includes guidelines in nearly all possible areas, including school curriculum, teacher development, school culture and management, public education, information technology support, and life-long learning ( , on-line). It is difficult to imagine that any other country in the world can put a stronger emphasis on creativity education than Taiwan. As rival societies in the region, mutual influences among Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and also Mainland China are inevitable. These rival forces may drive the societies towards even more vigorous changes in education in the future.

5. Challenges ahead in the Creativity Reform It is understandable that such a rapid educational reform would face many obstacles and difficulties, especially in societies with such an educational and cultural history.

5.1. Gap between formal and implemented curriculums Although creativity development has become a formal educational goal in Chinese societies, whether students’ creativity is enhanced is still in question. As commented by an international magazine, “Educational reforms on paper don’t translate into reality over-night. In South Korean classrooms, despite a series of plans to make teaching more lively, the authoritarian approach still rules” (Elliott, 1999, p. 40). In another example, the Target-Oriented Curriculum (TOC) initiative was implemented in

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Hong Kong in 1995 in response to the problem of rote learning. However, the TOC, which was imported from Western culture, is not suitable for the educational practice in Chinese culture because the tradition of expository teaching and students’ reluctance to express their ideas in class have not changed (Carless, 1999). In fact, the large discrepancies between formal and implemented curriculums are a generally acknowledged fact in Chinese societies for a long time. The governments of Chinese societies are targeting at greater economic success when they propose these creativity educational reforms. Most of them lack a clear philosophy of creativity education and a full understanding of the close relationships between educational and cultural change. They are eager to train teachers to “teach creativity”, rather than inducing a comprehensive cultural change in both schools and societies. The reluctance to such a change may be deep-rooted in the social culture and educational system of these societies. Growing up in a traditional system and culture, most teachers, government officials, school management and teacher training personnel have neither sufficient experience nor aspiration in creativity, and yet they are the stakeholders of creativity development and the key persons to design and implement the reforms. In a recent survey done in Hong Kong ( & , 2002), it was found that although teachers and school principals nowadays all consider it important to develop creativity in both students and teachers, in practice, the majority of teachers still follow textbooks and the central curriculum closely without much modification or adaptation. Teachers also show little confidence and a limited knowledge in teaching creativity. The teachers commented that the greatest obstacle to their change is the high pressure and rigidity of the examination systems. A recent study by Cheung, Tse and Tsang (2003) also reported a similar discordance between the views and practices of teachers. Despite the apparent value of creativity expressed by the teachers and their familiarity with the methods for enhancing creativity, the majority of the teachers still use traditional methods to teach writing. Besides teachers, schools may not be prepared to meet the changes (Kowalski, 1997). In fact, changes in curriculums, examinations and school systems can be hindered by many factors, including a lack of resources, knowledge, experience and time. Obviously,

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the creativity reform in Chinese societies is a complex problem. The present government guidelines and creativity studies are not adequate for solving the whole problem.

5.2. Suggestion for future research In western literature, the construct creativity is more frequently studied and better defined in psychological studies than in curricular or educational studies. Although the word creativity is frequently mentioned in Chinese educational policy papers, it is not yet clearly defined by the governments. A simple literature search in the ERIC and PsycINFO databases has revealed that there are quite many studies of creativity in Chinese societies but most of them follow the psychological approach, whereas serious academic research in curricular or other educational approaches are comparatively less. Most Chinese creativity books discuss creativity assessment and creative activities for a general purpose rather than specifically for a school context. For this reason, a lot of important questions about creativity education remain unanswered. For example, what is the exact meaning of “creativity education”? What is its definition and scope? What are the detailed objectives of a creativity-conducive curriculum? What do students need to achieve at various school levels, including early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary level? What do students need to achieve in different school subjects, including language, science, mathematics, arts, etc.? In what ways can students achieve these objectives in various subjects? And how can these learning outcomes be assessed in the classroom, examination and project work? Few empirical research and serious academic studies can be found to explore these areas. Among all these research areas, the question about assessment of creativity in school context is the most urgent one. As schools in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are so examination-oriented, it is exceptionally important for these societies to develop some simple, practical, reliable and valid subject-based assessment method for assessing creativity in school context and in public examinations. Without this breakthrough in educational assessment, creativity education is difficult to succeed in Chinese societies. Recently, Hu and Adley (2002) have

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developed divergent thinking tests for measuring scientific creativity for secondary students. Cheung, Tse and Tsang (2003) have also developed a “Chinese Creative Writing Scale” for assessing creativity in Chinese writings of primary students in Hong Kong. Their studies are valuable reference for future research in school-based, subject-based assessment of creativity. Besides school curriculum and assessment, teacher development and assessment is another crucial factor in creativity educational reform. How can we select teachers for creativity education? How can we develop teachers’ attitudes and abilities for creativity education in teacher training institute and in school-based teacher development? How can we assess teachers’ competence and performance in the school context and in teacher training courses? How can we induce changes to teacher education curriculum and school management? All these are difficult but crucial questions. To induce changes in the school-based context, (2002a, 2002b) has developed an infusion model of creativity reform in schools, which highlights the importance of teacher initiative and development in the educational reform process. Besides studying changes in schools, research on changes in teacher training curriculum is also in great and urgent need. In future, the teacher education field needs to decide what the objectives of teacher training courses in the creativity reform are, how they can be achieved and assessed, and whether it is better to have a separate program for developing teacher competence in creative teaching, or to have the pedagogy for developing student creativity infused into various teacher training modules. All these are questions worth studying. Going beyond the pedagogical training, teachers’ own creative attitudes and abilities are also important. In a research conducted in Hong Kong ( , 2002b), it was found that the creative personality of teachers, the attitudes towards teaching creatively and the creativity fostering behaviors of teachers, are all significantly inter-correlated. This indicates that creativity of teachers is one of the important factors affecting the development of student creativity. Besides acting as an important role model, teachers are also the ones who design and conduct the new teaching methods. Their own thinking habits and interest in creativity are crucial to creativity education.

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However, at present, the importance of teacher creativity is not sufficiently addressed in the Chinese societies. The Singapore government has put a lot of resources in developing teaching materials and guidelines, and training workshops for teachers to teach creativity, but they put comparatively less emphasis on teachers’ own autonomy and creativity development. In contrast to Singapore, Taiwan, their new government policy paper, has offered an explicit guideline for the development of creativity of teachers ( , on-line). The paper has suggested some rationales and directions for improvements but the methods of implementation and their effects are not yet spelled out. In Mainland China and Hong Kong at present, the governments have not proposed any special teacher training policy in line with this creativity reform. Besides, studies found in the societies are mostly discussion papers and academic studies on teacher creativity are lacking. One recent study in Hong Kong has significant implication on the creativity reform. Cheng (2002) found that teachers’ creativity in teaching is significantly affected by multiple factors. Teachers’ abilities and motives in teaching innovatively, their divergent thinking abilities, intrinsic motivation in teaching, creative personality, opportunities in recent studies, years of teaching experience, and environmental factors like freedom, time, support in schools, are all influencing factors. To meet the challenge of creativity reform, both schools and teacher education institutes should consider developing teacher creativity as one of their major goals. Schools should provide teacher with a creativity-conducive environment and opportunities for continuous creative development and further studies. Teacher development programs should not only focus on the acquisition of knowledge and skills, but on nurturing imaginative and divergent thinking, intrinsic motivation in teaching, creative thinking styles and the creative personality of teachers. However, most of these cannot be “taught”. The supportive attitudes of teacher educators and school leaders, the appreciation of creative ideas, the acceptance of ambiguity and mistakes, the openness to challenge, the freedom to design what to teach and how to teach, and the recognition of creativity in teaching assessment are all necessary. Teacher educators and school leaders themselves also need to be innovative, flexible, love teaching and be ready to accept unconventional ideas. All these imply quite a revolutionary change in the

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culture of schools a teacher education institutes in Chinese societies. How to induce these cultural changes is ultimate question that Chinese societies need to seriously explore.

5.3. Towards a Chinese model of creativity education Compared with Chinese societies, creativity reform is not much emphasized in western countries. It may be partly due to the fact that creative elements have already existed in the western school curriculums and cultures, as suggested in a comprehensive cross-cultural study done by Taiwan government ( , on-line). Chinese societies are now targeting at a rapid change in creativity education, a scenario which has never been experienced in the western world. For this reason, simply importing western research methods of creativity studies to Chinese societies is not adequate to support the reform undergoing in Chinese societies. However, it is found in the present review that most creativity studies done in Chinese societies have made their reference mainly to western literature. The western divergent thinking abilities tests, the consensual assessment techniques of Amabile, the systems theory of creativity have been quite frequently adopted. Most of the previous Chinese studies have explored creativity-assessment methods, creativity-fostering methods and factors of creativity that are common in western literature. In the past decade, creativity studies in Chinese societies have mainly imported methods, tools and theories from the western world. However, Chinese societies have their unique cultural and societal context, and their special need in their creativity reform. Their needs have not been fully addressed in the past studies. In future, Chinese societies need to explore new ways to realize creativity education in their special economic and political situations, and their collectivistic or Confucius culture. This can be done by studying some of the following questions. For example, what should be the differences in the creativity education of a developing country with the majority of its population engaged in industry and farming, and that of a highly commercialized society? What are the objectives of creativity education which best fit the Chinese conception of creativity? How can we enhance creativity in a society that may value group creativity more

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than individual creativity? How can we elicit individual creativity in a group, in which social consensus is highly valued? How can we encourage different styles of creativity, both innovators and adaptors, and promote group creativity (Kirton, 1976, 1989)? How can we assess creative potentials in a society, in which one practical and useful idea is more valued than a large number of playful ideas? What other forms of creativity assessment would be more valid to Chinese people than the divergent thinking tests? How can we integrate creativity development with the Chinese conception of learning which emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge and skills? How can we encourage Chinese students to value both efforts and playfulness? How can we value and nurture intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in a complementary way in both learning and working? Future studies should also try to address the special constraints of Chinese societies, for example, studying what kinds of teaching methods can foster creativity in large-class teaching; what kind of creative learning activities do not need much additional resources; how to encourage creativity in a highly competitive environment; what kinds of learning methods can be easily picked up by students who are not used to creative mode of learning; what kinds of teaching methods are easy for those teachers who are used to expository teaching to adopt; what kind of school creativity assessment can be more accepted by parents and public; how to attract creative persons to the teaching profession, which has a very conservative reputation; how to reward teacher creativity so as to retain creative persons in the profession; and, above all, how to induce changes to the existing rigid curriculum, educational assessment, school management, and teacher education system in ways that the least number of obstacles would be met. As discussed in an earlier section, besides Confucius, the philosophy of Taoism and Buddhism and Chinese literature like the Book of Change also have strong influence on Chinese culture. Their ways of thinking, for example, the use of metaphors and meditation, have some characteristics similar to that in the western forms of creative thinking. In-depth explorations of these Chinese cultural heritages are some promising and fruitful areas of study, which would inform us more about the “Chinese ways of creative thinking” and would contribute to the

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construction of the “Chinese ways of creativity development”. To construct a Chinese model of creativity education, we need to have a more comprehensive understanding of the Chinese culture, and find ways to maximize its strengths in creativity education and minimize its inhibiting influences. We must set our own goals for creativity education, and find some effective ways to achieve these goals in our special cultural and societal contexts.

6. Conclusion At present, Chinese societies have a great and strong vision for creativity education. Progressing from a society with traditional educational culture and system to a creativity-conducive one, Chinese societies and governments have put substantial efforts to introduce changes. In future, Chinese societies need to go beyond studying creativity in simple discussion papers or purely psychological approaches. Chinese societies are urgently in need of serious academic research on creativity-conducive curriculum, educational assessment, school management and teacher education. In order to succeed in the reform, not only are methods for fostering creativity important to Chinese educators, effective ways to induce changes into the existing rigid educational cultures and systems are also crucial. Besides understanding the possible influence of their Confucian and collectivistic culture, the Chinese need to explore other potential areas in their cultural heritage and find ways to maximize their strengths. Importing methods and findings of western studies are no longer adequate to support the unique educational reform in the Chinese societies. Educators need to construct a “Chinese model of creativity education” to meet the special needs of their own societies.

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Spinks, J. A., Ku-Yu, S. K., Shek, D. T. L., & Bacon-Shone, J. H. (1995). The Hong Kong Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Technical Report. Unpublished manuscript, Education Department, Hong Kong Government. Stevenson, H. W., & Stigler, J. W. (1992). The learning gap: Why our schools are falling and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education. NY: Touchstone. Tan, A. G. (1998). Exploring educator roles in cultivation creativity. Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving, 8(1), 67–84. Tan, A. G. (1999). An exploring study of Singaporean student teachers’ perception of teacher roles that are important in fostering creativity. Education Journal, 27(2), 103–123. Tan, A. G. (2000). A review on the study of creativity in Singapore. Journal of Creative Behavior, 34(4), 259–284. Tan, A. G. (2001). Everyday classroom learning activities and implications for creativity education: A perspective from the beginning teachers’ experiences. Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving, 11(2), 23–36. Tan, A. G., & Law, L. C. (2000). Teaching creativity: Singapore’s experiences. Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving, 10(1), 79–96. Tang, C., & Biggs, J. B. (1996). How Hong Kong students cope with assessment. In D. A. Watkins and J. B. Biggs (Eds.), The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological, and contextual influences (pp. 159–182). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre. Upton, T. A. (1989). Chinese students, American universities, and cultural confrontation. Minne TESOL Journal, 7, 9–28. Wang, J., & Mao, S. (1996). Culture and the kindergarten curriculum in the people’s republic in the people’s Republic of China. Early Child Development and Care, 123, 143–156. Watkins, D. (2000). Learning and teaching: A cross-cultural perspective. School Leadership and Management, 20(2), 161–173. Watkins, D. A., & Biggs, J. B. (Eds.) (2001). Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and pedagogical perspectives. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong. Xin, Z., & Lin, C. (2000). The preliminary revision and application of the questionnaire on teacher interaction. Psychological Science China, 23(4), 404–407. Yojana, S. (1996). Creativity culture is full of eastern promise. Times Educational Supplement, 4175, 20. Yue, X. (2001). Understanding creativity and creative people in Chinese society: A comparative study among university students in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Acta Psychologica Sinca, 33(2), 148–154.

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[Develop teachers’ and students’ scientific creativity with the use of IT] 5 47–51 (1999)

[“Cooperative learning” and “question-oriented learning”: The development of teacher and students’ scientific creativity] 28 31–39 (2000)

[Enhancement of teachers’ creativity in teaching: “School-based” in-service teacher training] 3 51 60–71 (1998) [The enlightenment of children’s creativity through play therapy] 375 88–90 (1994) [Teaching methods that enhance intelligence and nurture creativity] 4 9 27–31 (2001) [A new perspective for elementary education reform and development: A collection of elementary education proceedings in China] [White paper of creativity education] 2003 http://www.creativity.edu.tw/info/info_1c.php (1997) [Inspiring schools’ creativity in face of the challenges of educational reform] 91 4–8 (1996) [Creative teaching in mathematics] 3 11 18–20 (2000) [A study of creative thinking model of teaching in advanced vocational school] 3 37–48 (1992) [The development of “Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Verbal Form B”] (1993) [The development of “Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Figural Form A”] (1999) [Development of a new creativity test for use with students in Taiwan]

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(1994) [The influence of creative dance teaching on primary schoolchildren’s creativity] 3 31– 92 [Exploration and ( 1999) implementation of innovative education] (1997) [Development of creative thinking and scientific creativity] 123 10–14 (1997) [Creativity development in Japan] 4 5 144–152 (1995) [Meditation training: Its influence on creativity, attention, self-concept and anxiety of gifted students in primary school] 13 241–259 (2002) [“Creative edu-drama”: Teachers’ notes] 149 99–102 (1997) [Reflections on and breakthrough in traditional oppressive teaching method: To be a creative professional teacher] 1 48 111–120 (2001) [How to develop children’ s creativity through picture books] 23 64–78 (1999) [The learning process of creative thinking in informational and technological education: Theoretical exploration and research analysis] 4 2 9–26 (2000) [Creativity enhancement and establishment of happy school environment] 80–81 (1997) [Thinking and creativity tools and cognitive learning environment: New applications of computers] 33 36–45 (2001) [The teaching principles and strategies of creative thinking] 4 12 66–69 (2000) [Research report of children’s creativity development] (

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[Creativity development of secondary and primary school students in China] (2000) PRIMING! PRIMING! PRIMING! [How to develop creativity: PRIMING! PRIMING! PRIMING!] 74 80– 86 (2003) [A survey report on the characteristics of creative teachers] ( 31–62) (1992) [How to develop young children’s creativity] 1 26 3– 9 (2002a) [Introduction to “Towards creativity education in primary schools and teacher training institutes”] ( 125 – 134) ( ) (2002b) [The effectiveness of “Towards creativity education in primary schools and teacher training institutes”] ( ) ( 147–151) (2002) [Creativity of Hong Kong teachers] ( 211– 223) (1994) creativity]

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Chapter 8 Recognizing and Nurturing Creativity in Chinese Students1

Jing-Jyi WU Foundation for Scholarly Exchange Fulbright Foundation, Taiwan

In Chinese societies throughout Asia, both governments and the private sectors are stressing the importance of recognizing and nurturing creativity in students. This implies that creativity in Chinese students is still undiscovered and underdeveloped. Why? The author argues that education policy and practice in almost every Chinese society neglect and/or discourage students’ curious exploration and independent thinking, intrinsic motivation, and nine other factors that are conducive to creativity. Drawing on research in Taiwan, the author suggests five ways to identify creativity in Chinese students and recommends that in order to nurture creativity, educators and researchers must: 1) create a goal structure that values creativity; 2) construct activities in a creative lifestyle; 3) employ multiple intelligence theory as a framework to cultivate creativity; 4) adopt the confluence approach and maintain interdisciplinary 1

This paper is a translated and revised copy of the Chinese script of the author’s presentation at “The Second International Symposium on Child Development” held from June 26th to 28th, 2001 and organized by the Center for Child Development of Hong Kong Baptist University. The Chinese version of this paper has been published in Research in Applied Psychology (No. 15) in fall 2002 (pp. 17–42) (Taiwan: Wu-Nan Book Co. Ltd.). Special thanks are due to Ms. Amy L. L. Cheung for translating the Chinese paper into this English chapter and Dr. Benjamin Mardell for giving professional advice for the translation. 169

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perspective to study creativity; 5) gradually shape a creative culture that allows informal and implicit learning of creative behavior; 6) select appropriate gatekeepers when necessary; 7) tolerate and respect diversity and individual differences; 8) create opportunities for experiential learning and flow experiences; 9) infuse creativity into the curriculum and make use of project-based learning; 10) teach both creativity-relevant skills and domain-relevant skills; 11) emphasize both multiple and authentic assessment of individuals and teams; and 12) always remember that mentoring is more effective than controlling.

1. Introduction The cover story of Newsweek, dated September 8, 1999, was entitled “As Americans Embrace Testing, Asians Pursue Creativity”. In recent years, both the government and the private sector in Chinese societies throughout Asia have jumped on the creativity bandwagon. Mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have almost simultaneously begun emphasizing the importance of creativity education with various projects and reform efforts. This implies that creativity in Chinese students — which can be likened to “crouching tiger and hidden dragon” — is still undiscovered and needs to be developed. Perhaps we can begin our discussion by looking at the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which was awarded Best Foreign Language Film in the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001. In the story are two pairs of lovers: the first pair — Master Li Mu Bai ( ) and Yu Shu Lien ( ) are basically characterized by the following: “They are both Han Chinese abiding by Confucian ideologies. They have a strong sense of chivalrous honor. With major accomplishments, they are respected by all in their field.” The other pair of young lovers — Jen Yu ( ) and Lo ) (or Xiou Long and Xiou Hu “Dark Cloud” in the “Dark Cloud” ( dubbed English version) — are unique because “both are young, the male being a Hui ( ) and the female a Manchurian ( ). They are relentless to love and can express their feelings freely. Their love is actualized and sensual. Undeterred in the face of challenges and unbridled by longstanding rules and traditions, they are eager to learn and to take risks, with great potential of becoming the new generation of masters”.

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People like Master Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien grew up in the behavioral paradigm of chivalry honors and traditional Confucian beliefs and succeeded in that kind of development, thus becoming the gatekeepers of this paradigm, protecting this well adopted way of life. Nevertheless, deep in their hearts, a different paradigm is concealed. It is the behavioral paradigm exemplified by Jen Yu and Lo “Dark Cloud”. Li and Yu dare not reveal this paradigm hidden and suppressed in their mind; nevertheless, they are conscious of a “crouching tiger and hidden dragon” in themselves and are waiting for the right moment to let the dragon take off into the sky and the tiger spring into the wilderness. Indeed, finally such a chance comes. Before Master Li Mu Bai dies in the arms of Yu Shu Lien, they reveal their feelings of love for each other, yet only with restrained and sadly moving words. With the advent of a knowledge-based economy, the creation of knowledge — especially the creation of teams — has become the unanimous goal of both entrepreneurs and educators alike. While it is under such intense focus, we cannot help but ask why Chinese students’ creativity is still like “crouching tiger and hidden dragon”. If we take the number of articles appearing in academic journals as an indicator of the importance of creativity research in education, we see that over the years such research has become an area of increased emphasis. In the United States, for example, when Guilford emphasized the importance of creativity in the American Psychological Association in 1950, he compiled statistics showing that research related to creativity reported in Psychological Abstract amounted to less than 0.2%. Data gathered by Sternberg and Lubart (1995) showed that papers on creativity covered 0.5% of all issues of Psychological Abstract from 1975 to 1994. Then Sternberg and Dess (2001) re-compiled the statistics based on the number of articles. They found that psycINFO had 16 articles about creativity in 1950 and 56 articles in 1959. The number increased to 328 in 1999. Apart from academic publications related to creativity, there are also at least two professional journals specializing in publishing papers on creativity, the Journal of Creative Behavior (distributed from 1967) and Creativity Research Journal (distributed from 1988). In 2000, the National Science Foundation of the United States and other private foundations sponsored research projects on creativity (Sternberg & Dess, 2001). American Psychologist, the official publication of the American

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Psychological Association, even highlighted “creativity” as the theme of their first issue in the new millennium (Sternberg & Dess, 2001). Although the U.S. has also undergone the “crouching tiger, hidden dragon” stage in their studies and education on creativity, the progress is still admirable in the eyes of Asian Chinese scholars. Creativity studies in Chinese societies in Asia so far, though considerable in number, have been sporadic and have not contributed substantially to the development of a climate of creativity. Ancient Chinese who invented things such as paper, the compass, the printing press, and gunpowder were often cited in our textbooks. While the Chinese people are, of course, proud of these innovations, these achievements did not build up an independent system of knowledge. Under the atmosphere of a traditional society, the creativity of Chinese students has yet to bud and flourish. At least in Taiwan, leaders who were in charge of academic institutes and enterprises have given remarks in public that Taiwan students lack creativity. For example, although Taiwan scored third for mathematics and first for science in the Research on International Educational Achievement in 1999, Taiwan educators, including leaders mentioned above, were anything but thrilled. They criticized Taiwan students and compared them to examination , 2000). In a study conducted by my research team technicians ( and me, we also found that although the creativity of Taiwanese students has increased, it is still low when compared with U.S. students of , 1993). & equivalent grades (

2. W hy is Chinese Students’ Creativity Still L ike “Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon”? From the point of view of school education and family upbringing, based on historical research done in Taiwan, I personally think that the following phenomena still exist in Chinese societies.

2.1. Overemphasizing IQ and neglecting creativity When Guilford addressed the American Psychological Association in 1950, he meant to publicly point out that education in America was putting too

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much emphasis on IQ and creativity was neglected. But to the Chinese, creativity was still a luxury term beyond their reach. Taking the education for gifted children in Taiwan as an example, except for those children gifted in art, other so-called gifted children are still primarily identified based on IQ scores and academic results.

2.2. Stressing extrinsic motivation and overlooking intrinsic motivation An American senior high school student (Hung, 1999) of Chinese descent living in California depicted her first year at senior high school as a whole year of sleepless hard work. She spent most of her days dashing drowsily from one honors class into another, “nodding” to her teachers constantly during lectures. Indeed, she scored “A” in all subjects, with a GPA of 4.43. Her parents praised her for her superb academic achievements; however, these rewards through extrinsic motivation did not make her happy. Fortunately when it came to the second year, she started to reflect on the situation and decided that a life like that was not what she wanted. In the end, the lesson learned by the student and her parents was “if you do not infuse your heart and soul in studies, academic achievements do not meaning anything to you. After all, what textbooks can teach you is always far less than what you can learn from daily life”. Here “infusing your heart and soul” is the intrinsic motivation, whereas academic achievements of straight A’s and approbation by parents are extrinsic motivation. A study comparing differences in motivation conviction between Asian Americans and non-Asian Americans (Eaton & Dembo, 1997) showed that Asian students show relatively better results in standardized mathematics subjects, and they put more stress on the importance of diligence. They were more concerned about how their parents evaluated their academic abilities. In another research study comparing achievement goals of elementary school pupils in America and Mainland China (Xing, Lee, & Solmon, 1997), it was also found that American pupils had higher learning goals than Chinese pupils, whereas the reverse held true for performance goals. In fact, past studies illustrated that learning goals and creative life experiences correlated higher with creative behavior for students in Taiwan ( , 1998).

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2.3. Focusing on lecturing by authoritative figures and ignoring active construction of meaning “Spoon-feeding” ( ) in Mainland China, “teacher talking/students taking notes” ( ) and “good memory equals good marks” ( ) in Taiwan are long-existing phenomena. We are geared toward a teachercentered mode of teaching, neglecting learner-centered learning. We seldom ask our students what they have learned mean to them. According to a recent study conducted on 12,398 Internet users (The China Educational Research Network), 77% of Chinese students who surfed the Internet expressed dissatisfaction with the curriculum and teaching materials in universities, saying that much of the materials departed from reality (Walfish, 2001). Furthermore, while lecturing by authoritative figures is a problem for students of any age, it is even more problematic for young children as they tend to be more dependent on learning by doing and participating and not by lecturing.

2.4. Underscoring competition for high scores and individual struggle, and discouraging cooperative learning and knowledge sharing Cooperative learning and creativity through collaboration is an essential way to tackle the challenge of the new era of our knowledge-based economy (Senge, 1990; & , 2001). Since Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the Father of the Republic China, declared critically that “Chinese are like grains of sand”, there have been no good examples of cooperative learning and creativity through collaboration among the Chinese. A study targeted at senior vocational school students revealed that peer-to-peer cooperative learning proved to boost academic results, but these students did not like the interdependence and sharing processes which were required in cooperative learning ( , 1990). Apparently, fewer students adopt a “learning from peers” strategy in Taiwan than in the U.S. ( , 1997).

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2.5. Emphasizing examination outcomes and ignoring the process of learning This phenomenon can perhaps be illustrated by a story: A small child came home after taking an examination. His parents asked him, “How did you score?” The boy replied, “97 out of 100.” Then his mother solemnly questioned, “Where are the remaining three marks?” When Dr. Yuan-Tseh Lee ( , 2000), the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1986, quoted this example, he also mentioned that in Israel, when children return home from school, their parents ask, “What questions did you raise in school today?” This example precisely points out that Chinese parents emphasize examination outcomes, whereas Israeli parents focus on the process of learning. From a perspective of goal achievement, Chinese students — no matter if they are Chinese American, Mainland Chinese or Taiwanese — are result-oriented, putting more emphasis on their measured academic performance (Eaton & Dembo, 1997; Xing et al., 1997; , 1998).

2.6. Accentuating the ability to memorize and perform on paper and pencil tests, and overlooking authentic and multiple assessments From my own observations, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan still adopt mainly paper and pencil tests. For instance, the Joint University Entrance Examination in Taiwan, the National College Entrance Examination in Mainland China, and even qualification and promotion tests for civil servants are all principally paper and pencil tests. Other alternatives of authentic assessment are overlooked. With the focus on paper and pencil tests and lack of authentic assessment, students can hardly find any chance to prove their ability in multiple capabilities. Another drawback of paper and pencil tests is that they often require memorizing and reciting of subject matter. Consequently, higher level thinking, including creativity, is ignored in the assessment. Growing up and surviving in such an education system, students are most likely to adhere to a “rehearsal strategy” among various learning approaches ( & , 1993).

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2.7. Focusing on “nice boy and girl” behavior and standard answers, and slighting curiosity, exploration and independent thinking In previous comparative studies on moral reasoning, the majority of Chinese university students were found to stay in a well-behaved “nice boy and girl” stage. They follow the ethical reasoning rules of law and social order. Although this is an indispensable step in human progress, according to moral reasoning development stages put forward by Kohlberg, most students should have surpassed traditions and advanced to a state of universal principals in moral reasoning. When team members can think independently and recognize their own strengths, they will be more likely to be creative. If they only ask for standard answers in a conforming mode of “being seated according to the number on the ticket”, then the group can achieve a unanimous aim (Swann, Jr., Milton & Polzer, 2000). Bruner believed that the ability to generate “effective surprise” was a guaranteed good indicator of creativity (Kelly & Littman, 2001) and that mutual contradiction and incongruity was the source of surprise and innovation (Berlyne, 1960; Drucker, 1985). However, Chinese students adopting the approach of holistic reasoning accept plainly contradictory situations more readily than American college students (Peng & Nisbet, 1999). By the same token, when confronted with contradictory situations, the effective surprise of Korean university students — who also adopted holistic reasoning — was considerably less than that of American college students. They also tended to display relatively more hindsight (Choi & Nisbet, 2000).

2.8. Stressing creativity taught as knowledge and neglecting creativity inspired through the process of involvement In Chinese societies, creativity is often taught just as any other subject, in an approach that is more deductive than inductive. This is true in creativity courses or activities for imparting the knowledge of creativity, whether organized by educational institutes or the government. Most of the time, students are not encouraged to experience in person or through teamwork the process and product of creativity. When I searched for

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courses related to creativity on the Internet, I found that most of these courses were conducted as workshops, allowing the participants to have a first-hand experience of the process (for example, Creative Education Foundation, Center for Creative Leadership, etc.). I was often invited by Chinese communities to give lectures on creativity-related courses and topics. Considering the duration, class size and the mode of instruction, most of them were “lectures”. For the past three years, I have requested permission to conduct the courses as workshops with a longer duration and a smaller class size so that the participants can actually undergo the creative process. This has led to a creative conflict resolution process between the organizers and myself.

2.9. Highlighting a strict focus on effort and seriousness while disregarding the enjoyment of learning We can describe the creative process and discovery with the word bittersweet. It is comprised of both pain and joy, or joy after pain. Paradoxical as it seems, it is, in fact, reasonable. Any creative behavior has to go through a birth process that is painful but also gratifying, — a serious undertaking also filled with playfulness. This was what Schrage (1999) discovered in research at the MIT Media Lab: serious play is the best drive to boost creativity in business enterprises. Chinese societies excessively emphasize effort and disregard the enjoyment of learning. When teachers attribute the lack of creativity or poor creative performance , of students to various factors, effort is still an important one ( 1997), but the effort here is not of the “playful” kind.

2.10. Emphasizing the verbal demands of creativity and overlooking informal and implicit learning Learner-centered teaching methods aim at giving students an opportunity to actively construct meaning, whereas teacher-centered teaching methods, in general, stress verbal demands and ignore informal and implicit learning. Parents and teachers in Chinese societies, in general, put more emphasis on verbal demands; however, creativity in children cannot be enhanced simply by parents’ deliberate requests that their children should create

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or by verbal demands that order them to perform creatively. Instead, it should be nurtured through changes in the lifestyles of parents, alterations in the interior design of their home, and activities in creative lifestyles which children can learn by example in an implicit way ( & , 1997).

2.11. Focusing on subject-based curriculum and neglecting curriculum integration In the education reform carried out in recent years, teachers have been expected to forsake their mindset toward a subject-based curriculum and instead focus on curriculum integration. In 2001, Taiwan started a “nine years through” curriculum policy across elementary school level one to junior high school level three, humanities and art being one of the seven main disciplines in their scheme. When I discussed this new discipline with some elementary school teachers, their anxiety and worries were obvious because teachers who used to teaching only music or art would from then on need to teach not only both of these subjects but also classes in performing arts such as dancing and drama, not to mention the part on humanities which is also to be included. Worries on the one hand had sprung from the strong focus on subject-based curriculum and the downplaying of curriculum integration during teacher training in the past; on the other hand, years of teaching experience have reinforced this concept of subject-based curriculum. For brilliant achievers in high technology fields, who have grown up under such circumstances, creativity was nurtured mainly from extra-curricular activities, not from formal , coursework ( ,& , 2000).

3. How to Identify Creativity in Chinese Students? Identifying the creative potential and understanding the creative process and its achievements have been difficult in the past due to the special focus placed on academic results on the ability to memorize and perform on paper and pencil tests. Evaluation on personal and environmental factors affecting creativity has also proved to be a tough job. Putting

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forward a few suggestions in the following pages, I hope that more valuable opinions and ideas from readers can be provoked.

3.1. Recognizing students’ creativity from their multiple indications of creative behavior and achievement Creative performance is basically multi-faceted, and so is the application of knowledge in real life. Measuring students’ performance with a single standard is like shaping identical forms with the same mold. Under this circumstance, only achievements in one aspect, rather than creativity in general, can be discovered in students. Bridled by such restraints, a child’s creativity in other dimensions of intelligence may be stifled or neglected. From a multiple intelligence perspective (Gardner, 1999), every student has his/her own potential and strengths, and thus creative behavior can be fostered in different areas which would then call for different assessment criteria. Taking kinesthetic intelligence as an example, even within the same category of intelligence, the same assessment scheme cannot be used to evaluate the creativity of a choreographer and a dancer. Creativity in body language required of an actor will not match exactly with that of a dancer either. An athlete will also probably have quite different measured achievements in terms of creativity. When I asked participants of seminars, classes or workshops to list well-known Chinese who displayed exemplary creative behavior in each of the eight intelligences, I was often surprised and frustrated by their answers. Linguistic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences were the three most often cited intelligences. For example, famous Chinese poets like Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Du Fu and Su Dongpo exhibited creative achievements in linguistics. The past Imperial Examination System provided opportunities for gifted literary people to show off their linguistic creativity. Once admitted into the civil service or some other walks of life influenced by Confucian beliefs, interpersonal or intrapersonal intelligences became important measuring rods. However, students would be prone to severe hardship because they lacked interpersonal skills, a prerequisite of success in the civil service. On the contrary, Chinese societies in recent generations have put special emphasis on technological,

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engineering and medical areas. Despite Chinese students’ superb accomplishments in these subjects, we are quite doubtful that they have equally excellent achievements in creativity. When technology, industry, and medicine are the only highly valued areas of study in the society, attempts and accomplishments in other areas will be neglected. Today we strongly advocate using multiple assessments on students’ achievement in multiple territories because we believe that students do have their different aptitude and potential. Gardner (1999) rejected the use of paper and pencil tests in appraising students’ spatial, musical and kinesthetic intelligences. If Yo-yo Ma had been brought up in a Chinese society where paper and pencil tests and attainment in mathematics, science and language were all that mattered, it is questionable whether he would still be where he stands today.

3.2. Emphasizing creativity tests based on Chinese cultural characteristics Ever since psychologists started to stress that the output products are to be assessed, focusing particularly on the use of common view technique in the assessment, many scholars have begun to adopt the same approach in their research work. Even business enterprises seek to determine creativity by product-oriented yardsticks (Kao, 1991). In real life, awards handed out in the circle of businessmen or artists are judged basically by a common view. If a product is “novel”, “appropriate to its purpose” and perhaps also “of good quality”, then it is considered a creative work (Sternberg & Dess, 2001). Apart from product evaluation, assessment of creative process in school education is also another important direction; after all, education itself is a process of nurturing problem solving skills and creativity. Concerning the assessment of a creative process, it is important to evaluate by keeping a dossier or other means to record the subjective process. Some scholars still apply the psychological evaluation paradigm put forward by Guilford (1950), Torrance (1974) and Wallach and Kogan (1965) to assess different creative processes individually or to evaluate the results of teaching creativity. Most of these tests have revised versions in Chinese. The revised edition of Torrance’s test is available in Hong Kong (Spinks, Ku-Yu, Shek, Lau, & Bacon-Shone,

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1995). Furthermore, the revised version of Wallach and Kogan’s test is available and computerized (Lau & Cheung, 2000). Although I was once a student of Torrance — who has been acting as my role model and I had helped revise a few of Torrance’s creativity tests — recently I have come to realize that even as creativity is assessed based on these theories, we still have to pay attention to Chinese cultural characteristics. Therefore, we have launched some trials on assessing creativity based on special features of the Chinese language. From a cognitive perspective, creativity requires that the mental set be broken (Schooler & Melcher, 1995). Three important elements can be deduced from creative insight oriented theories put forward in recent times and the past: 1) breaking context-induced mind set; 2) restructuring; and 3) unconscious mental attitudes. As a result, integrating the above mentioned “creative process assessment”, “psychological evaluation paradigm” and “creative insight after breaking mental set”, my colleague and I have started to design creativity tests based on characteristics of Chinese people and the Chinese language. For example, in figural creativity, we use the Chinese character “ ” (meaning “human beings”) as a graphic stimulant to measure creativity. “ ” is a pictographic Chinese character, containing both linguistic and visual elements. When we use this character out of habit, we treat it as an element of language. When we ask respondents to regard “ ” as graphic and not to associate it with language, the respondents have to break through their mental set before it can be viewed as a pure graphic stimulant. From our study, we found that some respondents failed to regard “ ” as graphic, and some needed time to break through the mental set of “ ” being an element of language. When respondents could think in terms of graphics, many interesting shapes were contrived. On the verbal creativity side, “chopsticks” are most closely related to the everyday life of Chinese people who use chopsticks at every meal. From the day chopsticks were invented, the Chinese have discovered other ways of using them in daily life through imitation or adaptation, for example, turning chopsticks into darts or hairpins, etc. To come up with other applications of the chopsticks apart from picking up food from the plate, respondents have to discard mental sets formed in the past. Our study showed that in addition to some common reactions, there were also a lot of creative ideas.

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3.3. Highlighting the assessment of a positive attitude toward creative lifestyles In consumer behavior studies, “lifestyle” is a key item. Different lifestyles of consumers are evaluated primarily from three dimensions: A (activity), I (interest) and O (opinion). One of my past research projects in Taiwan reveals that the dimensions of interest and opinion cannot effectively differentiate consumer behavior, whereas activity had the most effective differentiating power. For instance, when we evaluated lifestyles by their association with classical music, many respondents claimed that they were interested in classical music (I) and also regarded it highly (O). But this does not necessarily imply that they would take action (A) to attend concerts, purchase CDs on classical music, or sign up for classes to learn , 1995). The more about it ( , , , ,& finding shows that we are in a society in which many people do not live up to their promises. When exploring the influence on a child’s creativity by ways of upbringing practiced by parents, we have also found that the creative lifestyle of the parents is most predictive of their children’s creative behavior ( & , 1997). In other words, whether parents take part in actual creative activities has a direct effect on the creativity of their children. As a result, we need to assess one’s attitude toward creative lifestyles from the activity dimension.

3.4. Emphasizing the assessment of creative culture (including motivational climate) When we identify and discover creativity in students, we should also pay attention to the influence of social context. Arieti (1976) maintains that the creativity of an individual is largely affected by culture. Scholars like Amabile (1996) and Isaksen, Lauer, Ekvall, and Britz (2001) investigated the environmental factors promoting or inhibiting creativity from the viewpoint of climate. A study of the formation of a creative climate by Amabile (1983) discovered that the more encouragement an organization gives and the more resources and creativity management techniques it provides to a member who creates, the more constructive it will be to the member’s creative behavior. Research conducted on RSD and

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technical staff at Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park in Taiwan also concluded that the more intense the creative atmosphere of an organization’s management level is, the less negative the attitudes toward the generation of new ideas by the scientific and technical staff ( , 1998). Therefore, when we try to identify the creativity of students, we should simultaneously assess whether the culture surrounding students values and supports creativity. Besides one’s family, school is the most important environment for a student. Maher and Midgley (1996) explored the culture in schools by looking at goal structures of the classroom and the school. Based on goal orientation theories, they studied goal structures of the school and the classroom, leading to the discovery of two goal structures, namely “learning goal orientation” and “performance goal orientation”. If the school’s goal structure and students’ goal orientation are both learning goal oriented, students will develop an adaptive behavior pattern. If the school is enveloped in a climate which is performance goal oriented, competition among peers and academic results will then be the goals of students, thus making it easier for students to develop a maladaptive behavior pattern (Maher & Midgley, 1996). Therefore, when we try to identify creativity of students, we should at the same time emphasize the evaluation of goal structures in the classroom and the school, as well as goals of the students themselves. Studies by Amabile (1996) stressed that intrinsic motivation is a prerequisite to the development of creativity. A learning-oriented goal is an intrinsic motivation. Consequently if students can learn in a climate with a learning-oriented goal, it will be beneficial to the nurturing of the students’ creativity. To build up such a culture which promotes creativity, teaching professionals surely play a vital role. Therefore, “paying special attention to the influence exerted by gatekeepers of creativity” will be our next topic of discussion.

3.5. Paying special attention to the influence exerted by gatekeepers of creativity Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe (2000) applied the Systems Theory of Creativity put forward by Csikszentmihalyi (1996) to analyze how creativity comes into existence in an educational institution. In this model,

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a school comprises three parts: the first part is the “domain” which is the knowledge to be imparted to students; the second part is the “field” which refers to the teaching staff who controls the transfer of knowledge; the third part consists of the students whose job is to acquire knowledge. Teachers then appraise students based on the results of knowledge acquisition. According to this model, the school principal, teachers and related professionals in teaching act as gatekeepers in the system. At home, parents are the first gatekeepers. In school, teachers in the classroom are the most important gatekeepers, and so forth. When students participate in external contests or extra-curricular activities, there will also be relevant gatekeepers. It is up to the gatekeepers to decide whether creativity of students is accepted and valued or neglected and suppressed, so we have to pay special attention to their influence. Thus when we select gatekeepers, we should also focus on their competency in identifying students’ creativity because it is an important role which gatekeepers play.

4. How to Nurture Creativity in Chinese Students? 4.1. Actively creating proper value and attitude toward creativity Plato said, “What is honored in a society will emerge in that society.” Therefore, to nurture creativity in Chinese societies, we have to confront the emergence of creativity with a positive and enthusiastic attitude. We need to make creativity the target and evaluation criterion for education. Not only should paper and pencil tests in classrooms include creativity questions, but they should also include the evaluation of processes, products, or outcomes as part of the judging criteria. As early as the 1960s, Torrance and Harmon (1961) instructed students in graduate school to regard creativity as their learning objective and helped them construct a creative reading mental set. As expected, it turned out that this group of students performed better in creativity than the others. We reap what we sow; what has been set as the target will be achieved in the end (Sternberg, Torff, & Grigorenko, 1988). O’Hara and Sternberg (2001) conducted a study on 110 students from Yale University. One of the

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purposes was to find out what would happen if students were given instructions to be creative before writing essays. Would creativity then become the target of the essay? He used the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence as a framework to design the following explanation to the experiment, “Exhibit creativity in your response by, for example, invention, originality, innovation, imagination, etc. Your essay will be evaluated by graduate students based on your creativity, or your performance in creation, design, invention, originality and imagination.” The result showed that essays written by students who had received creativity instruction were, indeed, the most creative.

4.2. Sculpturing lifestyles based on creativity A study in Taiwan targeted at elementary school pupils showed that among the ten factors in the creative upbringing practiced by parents, the factor of parents urging their children to “express oneself, open up past experiences” has the highest correlation with the “creative lifestyle experiences” of their children. Moreover, among the various factors of “creative lifestyle experiences”, these factors correlated the most: “solving advanced scientific problems”, “application of new skills in selfimprovement”, “being open to new ideas”, “surprise generation”, and “new wine in old bottles”. Even those few factors which are not most highly correlated have medium positive correlation. They are: “creativity in performing arts” (r = .33), “visual living design” (r = .38), “changes in lifestyle” (r = .30) and “computer program design” (r = .25) ( & , 1997). Consumer studies in Taiwan also discovered that among the three dimensions of AIO, activity can best differentiate lifestyles. Therefore, to construct a life based on creativity, the best way is to actually take part in creative activities. If parents or teachers themselves engage in creative activities, or take the children along to enjoy the fun, they can then construct a creative lifestyle and add to the children’s creative experience. The curiosity of students is a main source of creativity. Therefore, when we nurture students’ creativity, we should make use of curiosity to enhance creativity. For educational purposes, activities should ideally be designed to satisfy the curiosity of students. At the same time, these activities should match the students’ capabilities, letting them tackle

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challenges which adequately test their abilities so as to attain a state of “flow”, while inspiring creative potential and positive creative experiences in them (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi & Wolfe, 2000).

4.3. Employing multiple intelligence theory as a framework to cultivate creativity Nowadays, Chinese societies still highly regard technical, engineering, medical and legal subjects, neglecting development of talents in art and humanity aspects. However, in an era of a knowledge-based economy, cultural content and art soon become intellectual properties. The University of California at Santa Barbara has specifically established the College of Creative Studies to let students nurture creativity in humanity subjects and art or other aspects. The “Harvard Zero Project” at Harvard University to enhance the intelligence of students also accentuates the experience gained from fostering students’ art talents (Harvard Zero Project, Graduate School of Education of Harvard University, 2001) and using art to stimulate and open up students’ creative potential. Gardner’s (1983) multiple intelligence theory points out that every student has a different potential and his/her own level of competent intelligence and so exhibits his/her outstanding creative behavior in different domains. Studies also reveal that in order to successfully apply multiple intelligences in education, the school principal and all teaching staff must have a firm commitment to strive toward supporting each and every learner in the school (Project SUMIT, Graduate School of Education of Harvard University, 2001). Therefore, we can nurture creativity as part of each outstanding intelligence of each student through the framework of multiple intelligences, and by virtue of which students can learn from each other, and may even gain experience in team building.

4.4. Adopting the confluence approach and maintain an interdisciplinary perspective to study creativity In the process of fostering students’ creativity, we should on one hand consider factors pertinent to the individual student, and on the other hand

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keep in mind factors such as the environment and culture in which the student’s creativity is nurtured; therefore, no matter whether in research or in education, we may need to adopt a confluence approach (Sternberg & Lubart, 1999) to contemplating creativity. Contrary to probing or developing creativity from any single-sided consideration, a confluence approach refers to studying or nurturing creativity from various perspectives simultaneously, including self, environment, culture, process and product, and also through the exploration of the relationships between these orientations. As regards education in the future, knowledge will change at a fast pace, and technologies even faster. Whether it is creative knowledge or applied knowledge, they both need interdisciplinary integration, because problem solving in real life is closely related to all different subjects rather than being independent of each other. Thinking in an interdisciplinary manner serves to provide different angles to define a problem and its solution. This interaction helps to inspire creative ideas. Wu Si Hua and I were sponsored by the National Science Council in Taiwan to lead a project to study the integration of technical creativity. A research team was formed by scholars from different fields such as business, education, psychology, engineering, etc. We have practically benefited from the advantages that interdisciplinary integration can bring to promoting creativity. After the first stage had been completed, germinating creativity from the research team, a three-year integration research project was then launched in succession on the topic of “Actualization of Creativity” ( & , 1997–2000). While “thematic teaching”, “problem-solving teaching” and “planned teaching” are being advocated as part of the trend in education for the new generation, curriculum integration is also required for teachers. Therefore, when we nurture students’ creativity, whether for research purpose or practical reasons, curriculum integration has become a vital part, just as Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe (2000) said, “When a question of creativity is arousing attention, it is often in an inter-subjective dimension.” How to assist students in organizing the knowledge that they have acquired is, in itself, an essential task.

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4.5. Gradually shaping a creative culture that allows informal and implicit learning of creative behavior We can see from creativity theories with a confluence approach put forward by Simonton, Csikszentmihalyi, Amabile, Sternberg et al. (Sternberg & Lubart, 1999) that a creative culture has great impact on the creativity of an individual as well as on a group of people. Therefore, to nurture creativity in Chinese people, we have to shape a creative culture to foster and promote its development. Studies by Isaksen et al. (2001) found that an atmosphere constructive to creativity is characterized by: challenge/involvement, freedom, trust/openness, extra time for creative ideas, playfulness/humor, conflict, support for new ideas, debate, and risk-taking. On the other hand, a learning-oriented goal structure should be established to kindle the intrinsic motivation of students. At the same time we should focus on the potential in a creative culture for learning through teamwork. From the history of patents’ application in a medical setting, we can see that patents were mainly obtained on an individual basis in the past. With advances in technology, nowadays patents have been evaluated mostly in teams or groups. Therefore, helping students to develop their creativity through teamwork is exceptionally important in an era of knowledge-based economy. If students can each identify their own strengths and outstanding intelligences and exhibit their idiosyncratic lifestyles, then when they associate with an organization or a team, they can carve out their own niche among the others, offering their best abilities while appreciating each other’s traits. Team members will then be more capable of recognizing and cherishing their own talents and aptitudes, thus achieving a hetero-exchange of creativity (Swann Jr. et al., 2000).

4.6. Selecting appropriate gatekeepers when necessary Since school principals and teachers are critical gatekeepers of students’ creativity, when students are selected for admission into the teaching profession and when schools hire teachers, it might be necessary to consider if the candidate is competent as a gatekeeper of creativity. Moreover, proper attitudes, knowledge and skills beneficial to playing

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the role of gatekeeper must also be imparted to the teachers during teacher training. Research studies have found that teachers’ self-perceived creative behavior in teaching, or creative behavior in teaching perceptive to students, and teachers’ self-aware creative lifestyle experiences all have a positive correlation with the students’ creativity and creative lifestyle , 1996). experiences ( , 1996; (2000) compared 229 teachers receiving awards from 1993 to 1999 for designing outstanding teaching materials in various subjects (music, art, mathematics, and science) with 229 ordinary teachers without awards and found that teachers receiving awards had indeed noticeably higher performance in creative lifestyle experiences and creative teaching behavior than those ordinary teachers. Hence it is quite obvious that a gatekeeper’s own creative experience in a particular domain is an important criterion for taking up competently the role of gatekeeper in that area. When Yu Shu Lien (in the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) was chasing after the masked thief who stole the sword, she already knew Jen Yu’s real identity. But Yu Shu Lien still acted with the cultured disposition expected of a gatekeeper, and so she wanted to use other non-instructive ways to let Jen Yu construct by herself the notion of returning the sword. Li Mu Bai, admiring Jen Yu’s talents, also played the role of a perplexed gatekeeper who wanted to take Jen Yu as his apprentice, not only to teach her decent and mainstream martial skills, but also to “convert her mind”, because he fully grasped what potential “crouching tiger and hidden dragon” could have. Because of the efforts of these two gatekeepers, Jen Yu awakened with insights at the last moment.

4.7. Showing tolerance and respect toward diversity and individual difference Showing tolerance and respect toward diversity and individual difference is actually a basic condition for a democratic society. As Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe (2000) put it, “Fundamental qualities of creativity should be respected in an organization. Students who are potentially creative are almost by definition unusual in their attitudes, values, and demeanor. Therefore, they often come in conflict with teachers who consider their

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responsibility to be enforcing conformity and discipline. As a result, many young people who might contribute useful new ideas are intimidated into mediocrity” (p. 89). Farley (1981) asserted that if appropriate social support is given to students with high sensation-seeking motives, creative behavior may be the result. On the contrary, if they cannot get any support, then it may lead them into deviant behavior. Our studies in Taiwan conducted on university undergraduates, high school students, and juvenile delinquents support this postulate. The motivation of jailed juvenile criminals to seek excitement is comparable to that of students gifted in sport, drama and art. Their difference lies in the fact that incarcerated adolescents could not get proper support from their family and school when they grew up, whereas gifted students received relatively expedient support from their family and school. However, curiously, too much or too little support will undermine creativity. Only an optimal amount of support can really help promote creative behavior ( , 1990; & , 1988).

4.8. Creating opportunities for experiential learning and emphasize the enjoyment of learning In recent years, learner-centered education (American Psychological Association’s Board of Educational Affairs, 1997) has become a significant trend. In the learning process, allowing students to learn to identify or raise a problem and then take a further step to solve it should be a vital part of the school curriculum in the future (Csikszentmihalyi & Wolfe, 2000). It is also the direction along which education reform in Chinese societies should follow. We should lose no time in asking students to participate in individual or team-based creativity activities, to really experience creativity and put it into action. In recent years, portfolio evaluation has become a major trend in authentic evaluation. By learning to truthfully build a portfolio to record and reflect the creative experiences of an individual or a team is an important device to emphasize the creative experience. Apart from focusing on the creative experience, helping students to get immersed in the painful but gratifying feeling in the process of creation is also a major point. Such a state of enjoyment

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is what Csikszentmihalyi (1996) called “flow”. It is only when students enjoy what they are doing that they will continue to take part in such creative activities. Then they can turn creativity into an everyday matter and make life a truly creative experience: one can engage in creativity anywhere, anytime. To achieve this, teachers or professionals responsible for setting up education policies will need to build up challenges when they design activities. The challenges must be in line with the skills required when students partake in the activity. Knowledge or information related to the domain should be able to arouse students’ interest and lead them to learn the new knowledge and also put forward questions out of enjoyment, rather than from a pursuit for academic results. Similarly, teachers should encourage students to explore different sources of information as much as possible. Under this “era without frontiers” (Ohmae, 1999), new technology is one of the best instruments to exchange creative information. In Chinese societies, no matter whether at home or in school, whenever a child is doing something he or she likes or with which he or she feels satisfied, the parents are likely to urge the child to change to do something else which they think is more important — for example, to prepare for an examination or to attend some social activities. In school, the fixed class schedule often interrupts and frustrates students when they are basking in enjoyment from learning what they like. Therefore the school should allow a certain degree of autonomy to the students who can then formulate their questions or output products according to their own learning speed and style.

4.9. Infusing creativity into different disciplines of the curriculum and focusing on its integration From my past experience, creativity was often taught as an independent course, and it usually could not get very far in terms of achievement. Ideally creativity should be integrated into each of the subjects. Every subject can and should nurture creativity. Hence the teaching of each subject can include creativity as one of the teaching goals and requirements. When students are in a problem-solving process, let them actively take the opportunity to resolve problems by the construction of

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meaning. Educational institutions or teachers can also design integrated courses with open contents or themes, allowing students to make use of their talents and intellect to learn among each other and show their creativity. Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe (2001) believe that “courses that combine different disciplines (e.g., “Physics for Poets”) are only the first step in this direction; much more effort could be devoted to the planning of integrated curricula that, while preserving the integrity of distinct domains, will attempt to show their mutual interaction”. This reminds me of the book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman (Feynman, 1985). When Mr. R. Feynman (1918–1988), 1965 Nobel Laureate in Physics, met R. Leighton, later his biographer, Leighton was playing the drum. Being eager to learn and as inquisitive and adventurous as a child, Mr. Feynman kept bugging Leighton to teach him. Later, he often practiced playing the drum with Leighton. Feynman even went to Brazil to learn to play Samba drums. In a banquet, on a playful whim, Feynman demonstrated how to play Samba drums. When he was filled with enjoyment and reached a state of “flow”, a guy called Zorthian Jyiair was so moved by the rhythm and beat of the drum that he went to the bathroom, and with his shirt removed, he drew funny pictures with shaving cream. Using cherries as earrings, he danced to the beat of Feynman’s drum. Then Feynman and Jyiair became good friends, often meeting to talk about art and science till the wee hours of the morning. The scientist knew little about art and the artist knew little about science, so they could learn from each other. Although it had been confirmed since Feynman’s high school days that he performed poorly in visual art, the physicist learned to paint. This incidence is a best illustration of how interdisciplinary integration can actually promote creativity. Many famous people in history with extraordinary creativity were interdisciplinary integrators with wide interests and experiences across different domains. Integration is required even in devising creative products for our daily life. Art Fry, the creative inventor of “Post-it” is a chemist, choir conductor and automobile technician (Nayak & Ketteringham, 1993). In the era of the knowledge-based economy, interdisciplinary and curriculum integration is an important item to help nurture creativity in students, especially when subjects have become more and more disintegrated and when departmentalism is a common phenomenon in the Chinese world.

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4.10. Teaching both creativity-relevant skills and domain-relevant skills Is creativity a domain-specific or a domain-general skill? Amabile (1996) maintains that components of creative performance include domainspecific skills and creativity-relevant skills. Skills of “specific creative domains” required in each area of study can be recognized through experiments, stories, development of creative concepts or products and the understanding and experiences of techniques required for the creative process. However, creative behavior in whatever domain requires the same “creativity-related skills”, which can be infused into the curriculum of different disciplines. Moreover, these skills can be applied to creative behavior in everyday life, similar to what Maslow (1968) called selfactualizing creativeness. Cropley and Urban (2000) believe that to nurture creativity in students, ten abilities need to be reinforced. Besides these three abilities — rich and varied experiences from many different environments, common sense, and knowledge in specific domains — the following seven skills related to creativity are also required: (i) Positive imagination. (ii) Capability to analyze and synthesize. (iii) Convergent thinking skill to see through correlation, overlapping, resemblance and logical meaning. (iv) Long-distance association, bisociating to associate apparently irrelevant fields, and divergent thinking in form of gestalts. (v) Tendency toward accommodating and not assimilating. (vi) Skills to seek, identify and define problems. (vii) Metacognition or the ability to execute, i.e., the ability to plan and evaluate the progress of learning by oneself. Amabile (1996) believes that creativity-related skills include: breaking perceptual sets, exploring new cognitive pathways, suspending judgement, keeping response options open as long as possible, breaking out of performance “scripts” or to go a step further adapting a paradigm shift, knowledge of heuristics for generating novel ideas or skill of sudden realization. In a nutshell, we can follow the opinion of Sternberg and

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Lubart (1995) that creativity requires three related intelligent skills: 1) synthetic intelligence that can produce new ideas; 2) analytic intelligence that can identify and construct problems, allocate resources and assess the value of opinion; and 3) practical intelligence that promotes and betters one’s ideas based on feedback and criticism received from others. The above-mentioned skills refer to creativity on an individual basis. Of course we also need skills pertinent to nurturing creativity in an organization or a team. These skills include: niche creation, team building, listening and sharing, cognitive stimuli in brainstorming (Dogush, Paulus, Roland & Yang, 2000) and execution skills. IDEO, renowned for creativity in its products and services, has turned an abundance of creative ideas by brainstorming, a skill much neglected by many (Kelly & Littman, 2001).

4.11. Emphasize both multiple and authentic assessment of individuals, teams, process, and product In earlier sections, we have stressed that to recognize creativity in Chinese students, we must emphasize multiple and authentic assessment of process and product, as well as paying special attention to individual and group assessment. When cooperative learning was practiced in Chinese societies in the past, assessment on individuals and groups, especially the latter, has shown that the phenomenon of social loafing and social compensation was easily brought about due to the lack of a cooperative or interdependent goal structure. Social loafing occurs when some members in a team take notice of other more capable or zealous members and take advantage of them. Social compensation occurs when other members take up more than their share of responsibility because they are conscious of other members’ inabilities or lack of initiative (Plaks & Higgins, 2000). Social loafing and social compensation make it difficult for team members to interact with each other and fully express their creativity in the process of collaboration. Therefore, in my opinion, creativity assessment on an individual basis is as important as that on a team basis.

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4.12. Keeping in mind that mentoring is more effective than controlling A series of studies conducted by Simonton (1994) on highly respected celebrities known for their exceptional talents or creativity revealed that a role model or mentor is a contributing factor toward creativity. Simonton’s Taiwanese student Ting Shing Shiang ( , 2000) studied successful Chinese historic characters and reached the same conclusion. The research which Bloom (1985) carried out on young people in various fields like music and sport also shows that receiving instructions from experts as early as possible is an important factor to actualize creativity. Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe (2000) point out that “schools can contribute to matching potentially creative young people with tutors and enhancement programs through tests for identifying talent, and the organization of mentorship” (p. 89). By means of mentoring, which in some occasions is an informal relationship or a relationship established through extracurricular activities, students learn by what they hear and see from their mentors. Research studies conducted in Taiwan on elementary school pupils and technological professionals discovered that mentoring is more & effective than controlling ( & , 1997; , , 2000).

5. Conclusion In Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the two pairs of lovers were at first not connected and had nothing in common. Then because of a stolen sword, these two experts abiding by Confucian ideologies and established rules of chivalry came across and interacted with the green but defiant pair, who were unrestrained from expressing themselves and could relentlessly choose their own roads and the way of living they liked, shedding traditional burdens. Similar to what the movie advocates, we should unleash the creative potential of each of our students, just like enticing the crouching tiger and awakening the hidden dragon. After all, as Shakespeare put it, “life is a stage” — anytime, anywhere. In our

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everyday life we find ourselves acting in different plays (Scheibe, 2000). Our family is a stage, and so are the classroom, the school and the whole society. The future globe of a knowledge-based economy may likely be yet another new stage for us all.

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Walfish, D. (2001). Students dissatisfied, poll in China suggests. The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 25, p. A46. Wallach, M. A., & Kogan, N. (1965). Models of thinking in young children: A study of the creativity-intelligence distinction. NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Xing , P., Lee, A. M., & Solomon, M. A. (1997). Achievement goal and their correlates among American and Chinese students in physical education. Journal of Cross-Culture Psychology, 28(6), 640–660. (2000) [Sociocultural context of techno-scientific eminence in modern China: A biographical data analysis] (1997) [A study on teacher attribution of student creativity] (2000 12 7 ) [Taiwan educates students to become successful examination technicians] A7 (1996) [The development of creativity in aborigine students] (1993) [Taiwan student’s creativity development: A ten years comparison] 15

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(1997–2000) [Characteristics and development of technological creativity: Comparisons among different domains] (1990) [Effects of female adolescents’ sensation-seeking and social support on their delinquent behavior and creativity] 13 35–60 (1995) [Development of a general life style inventory] (

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(1996) [Creative development and its correlates among Taiwan students] (1993) [Relationship between motivated learning strategies and academic achievement among Chinese elementary and junior high school students] 66 13–40 (1990) [Effects of cooperative learning] (1997) [Elementary students’ attachment style, their perceived child-rearing practices for creativity and creative behavior] 86 1997 9 (2000) [The development of inventories for factors that influence creativity development for personnel in technology and informational industries] 45 15–28 (2000) [Effects of teacher’s task motivation, selection pressure, and social interaction on creativity] (1988) [Sensation seeking, creativity and delinquency] 58 189–216 (1998) [The relationships among creative life experiences, creativity, age, gender, achievement goals and goal orientation] (1998)

[The creativity of R & D staffs, technicians, and non-technologists in the information technology industry in the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park (HSIP)]

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Chapter 9 The Social Psychology of Creativity: The Beginnings of a Multicultural Perspective1

Beth A. HENNESSEY Psychology Department Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA

Over 25 years of research conducted in Western settings reveal that motivation plays a central role in the creative process. It is not enough to have deep conceptual understanding or unusually high levels of skill. Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that if individuals working and learning in the West are to reach their creative potential, they must approach a task with intrinsic motivation — they must engage in that task for the sheer pleasure and enjoyment of the activity itself rather than for some external goal. Psychological theorists now propose that there is a direct relation between the motivational orientation brought to a task and the likelihood of creativity at that task; and it is particular features of the environment that in large part determine that motivation. The present paper outlines investigations grounded in a social psychological tradition that reveal that the typical American educational setting, from kindergarten to high school, is characterized by teaching practices and curricular features that kill intrinsic motivation and creativity. New data collected in a Saudi educational environment are also presented. It is argued that findings from this, one of the first empirical investigations

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Portions of this paper were presented at the Second International Symposium on Child Development, “Creativity: A Moment of Aha!”, on June 26–28, 2001 in Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong. 201

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into the impact of the classroom environment on the motivation and creativity of students in a non-Western setting, call into question the universal applicability of the social psychology of creativity. A framework for the multi-cultural study of creativity in the schools, particularly in Asian classrooms, is suggested.

1. The Social Psychology of Creativity in the Classroom: The Beginnings of a Multi-Cultural Perspective A high school student studying in Europe reflected about the pressures he felt as he prepared to be tested: “This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year” (Einstein, 1949, p. 18). This strong statement would worry any parent or teacher who cared about the academic performance and motivation of this young man, but what makes this quote especially troubling is the fact that it is taken from the writing of the then 15 year old Albert Einstein. In his autobiography, Einstein tells the story of how his interest in his studies, and apparently also his creativity, were undermined by classroom factors that exerted external control over his work. The heated competition among students and the rigid evaluation practices at his school had systematically served to kill his fascination with science. So overwhelming were these forces that, in the end, Einstein left this school to enroll in a Swiss institution noted for its emphasis on student-initiated learning and its humanistic orientation. With this change in schools came a marked shift in the tone of Einstein’s diary. He wrote fondly of its liberal spirit and the “simple earnestness of the teachers” (Holton, 1972, p. 106). Unencumbered by outside rules and regulations, Einstein’s fascination with science was renewed. In fact, it was at this Swiss school that he devised his first “thought experiment” that would eventually lead to the theory of relativity (Holton, 1972). While it is unlikely that extrinsic constraints in the classroom environment will have such a profound effect on every student, the creativity literature does make clear that, in the Western world, we must pay careful attention to issues of school climate if student motivation and performance are to flourish. What is the mechanism by which

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environmental factors come to influence task interest and creativity? To answer this question, it is important to examine first what Western researchers and theorists have come to understand about creativity.

2. Some Background The empirical investigation of creativity in the West has a long and fruitful history. As early as 1870, Galton published a study of the biographies and autobiographies of well-known creative figures and set out to identify the unique qualities of intellect and personality that differentiated this group from their less creative peers. This emphasis on the individual difference variables that contribute to high levels of creativity has continued into the present. Beginning as early as the 1920s, this research was supplemented by a second group of investigators and theorists who began to turn their attention to the creative process, attempting among other things, to specify a universal sequence of steps involved in creative production (e.g., Wallas, 1926) or the cognitive skills necessary for creative performance (Newell, Shaw & Simon, 1962). Implicit in much of this work has been a focus on the internal determinants of creativity, to the exclusion of external factors such as the environmental circumstances conducive to creativity. Creativity does not come about in a vacuum (Lubart, 1999); yet, curiously, Western researchers interested in the psychology of creativity have typically chosen to decontextualize the creative process. The empirical study of this phenomenon has generally failed to include a consideration of anyone or anything beyond the individual doing the creating. In the mid 1970s, this gap in the creativity literature was recognized by a small group of American social psychologists who turned the focus of their attention to the impact of situational factors on creative performance. This approach emphasizes the fact that a variety of environmental as well as person variables are necessary for creativity. More formally, research into the social psychology of creativity is built on a three-part conceptualization of creative performance. In order for a creative solution to be found or a creative idea or product to be generated, an individual must approach a problem with the appropriate domain skills (background knowledge), creativity skills (willingness to take risks,

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experiment, etc.) and task motivation. Under ideal circumstances, a confluence of these three factors forms what Amabile (1997) has termed the “creative intersection”. While it is certainly possible to teach (and learn) domain skills and certain creativity skills (e.g., Parnes, 1987; Parnes & Noller, 1972; Torrance & Presbury, 1984), researchers in the West have found that motivational orientation is much more ephemeral. In other words, while an individual’s creativity skills (e.g., familiarity with brainstorming and related techniques or the ability to temporarily suspend judgment) or domain skills (e.g., knowledge of chemistry, physics or engineering or facility with a paint brush) may be fairly stable, their motivational state is likely to be highly variable, and largely situation-dependent. It is on this question of how the environment helps to shape motivational orientation that American researchers and theorists have focused their attention. The model upon which this work is based tells us that, in the West, there is a direct relation between the motivational orientation brought to a task and creativity of performance on that task, and it is the environment that in large part determines that motivational orientation. A substantial number of investigations carried out over the past two and a half decades support this view.

3. The Operationalization of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation This research effort was spearheaded by Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett who, in 1973, investigated the effect of expected reward on young children’s motivation and artistic performance. Their data revealed that, for preschoolers who initially displayed exceptionally high levels of intrinsic interest in using magic markers, working for an expected “Good Player Award” significantly decreased their interest in and enjoyment of the drawing task. When compared with an unexpected reward group and a control (no reward) group, the children who had made drawings for the experimenters in order to receive a Good Player Award spent significantly less time using the markers during subsequent free-play periods than did their nonrewarded peers. Moreover, this undermining of interest persisted for at least a week beyond the initial experimental session; and the globally

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assessed “quality” of the drawings produced under expected reward conditions was found to be significantly lower than that of the unexpected reward or control groups. How was it that this simple, one-time offer of a Good Player certificate could serve to undermine the motivation and performance of preschoolers who were passionate about using magic markers? It is precisely this research question that has driven my own work and that of many of my colleagues. In our modeling of the creative process, we distinguish between two types of motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as the motivation to do something for its own sake, for the sheer pleasure and enjoyment of the task itself. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is the motivation to do something for some external goal. Over the years, a number of theorists have embellished upon these conceptualizations, suggesting that intrinsically motivating activities involve an optimal level of novelty (Berlyne, 1960; Hebb, 1955) and convey a sense of competence and mastery (Harter, 1978; White, 1959) while extrinsically motivating activities are tied to a sense of being externally controlled (deCharms, 1968; Deci, 1971; Lepper et al., 1973). Importantly, each of these hallmarks of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation focuses on some inner phenomenological state. Whether prompted by just the right amount of novelty, feelings of competence or a sense of control, an individual’s motivational orientation results from an internal, very individualized process — the complexities of which we are only beginning to appreciate.

4. The Basic Research Paradigm Over 25 years of empirical investigations conducted in the U.S. and a few other highly industrialized Western nations have led us to the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity: Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity, and extrinsic motivation is almost always detrimental (Amabile, 1983, 1996). In its earlier incarnations, this proposed relation between motivational orientation and creativity of performance was advanced as a tentative research hypothesis. But social psychologists seeking to better understand the psychosocial factors that promote creativity have now gathered so much unequivocal research evidence that this proposition

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has been elevated to the status of an undisputed principle. In a basic research paradigm, study participants who have been randomly assigned to either constraint or no-constraint conditions (e.g., expected reward or no expected reward) produce some sort of observable product that can be assessed for creativity. Their motivational orientation (i.e., whether intrinsic or extrinsic) is also measured. A paper published by my colleagues and I in 1986 (Amabile, Hennessey & Grossman, 1986, Study 1) outlines a prototypical investigation from this research tradition. In this study, the reward offered to elementary school children was not a tangible gift to be delivered afterward. Instead, it was an exciting and interesting activity — playing with a Polaroid camera — which the children were allowed to engage in before completing the target experimental task. In other words, children assigned to the reward condition signed a contract and promised to later tell a story in order to first have a chance to use the camera. Children in the no-reward condition were simply allowed to use the camera and then were presented with the story-telling instructions; there was no contingency established between the two tasks. In order to examine the impact of reward expectation on children’s verbal creativity, the children in this study were asked to tell a story into a tape recorder to accompany a set of illustrations in a book with no words (see Hennessey & Amabile, 1988). This storytelling activity was designed with three specific criteria in mind. First, it was necessary to minimize individual differences in verbal fluency because these differences could lead to high variability in baseline performances. The story-telling task accomplishes this goal with the stipulation that children say only “one thing” about each page. Second, because it was being used to test hypotheses about creativity, the story-telling procedure had to allow for a wide variety of responses. In other words, this target activity had to be an open-ended one for which a wide variety of responses were possible (Amabile, 1982b; Hennessey & Amabile, 1999; McGraw, 1978). Finally, like all the creativity tasks used in research of this type, it was important to pre-test the story-telling procedure to demonstrate that children did, in fact, find it to be intrinsically interesting. Elementary school teachers familiar with the kinds of stories children in this age group typically like to write and tell, later rated the stories

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relative to one another on creativity and a variety of other dimensions. A high level of inter-rater reliability was reached; and results indicated that, overall, stories produced by children in the no-reward condition were judged to be more creative than were stories produced by children in the reward condition. This main effect of reward was, in fact, statistically significant. Importantly, all children taking part in this investigation took pictures with the camera. The only difference in the experience of the rewarded and non-rewarded children in this paradigm was their perception of the picture-taking reward as contingent or not contingent on the target story-telling activity.

5. The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) In the investigation just described, the creativity of elementary school students was assessed based on their performance on a story-telling task not unlike other language art activities being carried out in their classroom. In this respect, our operationalization of and measurement of creativity is distinctly different from that of a good many other researchers in the field. Rather than administer a paper-and-pencil creativity assessment, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1974), we ask participants in our studies to produce some sort of real-world product. While the Torrance Tests and related measures may, in fact, accurately tap one or more creative abilities or predispositions, we believe that a test that captures the full range of creativity components has yet to be developed. Also troublesome is the fact that a variety of social and environmental factors involved in the administration of the Torrance Tests and other similar measures have been found to influence test results; and the construct validity of many of these tests has also been seriously questioned. This validity issue is especially problematic given the fact that many of the leading creativity tests have been validated against one another. Finally, one additional concern involves the fact that while the scoring procedures utilized in the majority of published creativity tests are purported to be objective, performance is often rated according to criteria based on the test constructor’s own, intuitive notion of what is creative.

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But how are investigators such as ourselves to decide whether products produced by persons working under the expectation of reward are more or less creative than products made by persons in a control/no-reward condition? The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) (Amabile, 1982b; Hennessey & Amabile, 1999) is based on the assumption that a panel of independent expert raters, persons who have not had the opportunity to talk with one another or with the researcher about possible hallmarks of product creativity, are best able to make such judgments. Research conducted over the past 20 years in Western settings has, in fact, clearly established that product creativity can be reliably and validly assessed based on the consensus of experts. Although creativity in a product may be difficult to characterize in terms of specific features, it is something that Westerners can recognize and agree on when they see it. The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) is grounded on two complementary definitions of creativity. The underlying conceptual definition that has been used in building a theoretical formulation of the creative process states that: a product will be judged as creative to the extent that (a) it is both a novel and appropriate, useful, correct or valuable response to the task at hand, and (b) the task is heuristic rather than algorithmic (Amabile, 1996). The operational definition upon which the CAT is based is readily applicable to empirical research: “A product or response is creative to the extent that appropriate observers agree it is creative. Appropriate observers are those familiar with the domain in which the product was created or the response articulated” (Amabile, 1996, p. 33). Importantly, this consensual definition is based on the creative product rather than the creative process. Not only has a clear articulation of the creative process yet to be developed but, more importantly, any identification of a thought process as “creative” must finally depend on the fruit of that process — a product or response. Amabile and her colleagues have attempted to capture the essential characteristics of the conceptual definition of creativity in the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) (Amabile, 1982b; Hennessey & Amabile, 1999). First, study participants are presented with tasks that leave room for considerable flexibility and novelty of response. Second, these are tasks for which the range of appropriate responses has been clearly identified in participants’ instructions. Finally, the experimental activities

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employed are all heuristic in nature — judges are only asked to make ratings of open-ended tasks, tasks with more than one solution and a variety of paths to those solutions. We have found that this approach is especially well suited to investigate classroom environmental influences on creativity. Unlike the CAT, the majority of available assessment techniques resemble personality or IQ tests in that they view creativity as an enduring personality trait. Whether they request that unusual uses for a brick be generated, adjectives describing the self be selected, a picture be completed, or remote associations be discovered, most paper-and-pencil measures have been specifically developed to maximize individual differences. They have been constructed to do exactly what my colleagues and I, as social psychologists, are trying to avoid. Researchers taking a socialpsychological approach must control for and work to eliminate withingroup variability in their dependent measures. It is their goal to detect more global, between-group differences produced by their direct experimental manipulations of social and environmental factors. Individual differences constitute the error variance in our investigations involving the impact of the classroom environment on the creativity and motivation of school children. We are not interested in whether a particular child is likely to consistently evidence greater levels of creativity than the majority of her peers, nor do we set out to explore creativity as a relatively enduring and stable trait. Instead, our focus is on an isolated instance of creative performance that we see as the result of a fleeting and delicate motivational state: a state brought on by environmental factors such as the presence or absence of reward. What we require is a creativity measurement tool that de-emphasizes individual differences between study participants, a measure that allows for considerable flexibility and novelty of response and does not depend heavily upon the level of a child’s skills or the range of her experience. The CAT fills each of these requirements. Our creativity “experts”, our raters in the 1986 (Amabile et al., 1986, Study 1) investigation described earlier, were elementary school teachers. Our raters did not know one another, and all had been born and educated in the U.S. Our judges were not permitted to confer with one another prior to or during the rating process. Using seven-point scales and guided only by their own, subjective definitions of creativity, they were asked

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to rate the transcripts of the stories relative to one another rather than against some abstract norm. In this investigation, inter-rater reliability was high (.91) for story creativity. A sum of the ratings made by our three judges was computed for each product, and these calculations were then used as the dependent measure of product creativity in the remainder of the analyses.

6. “Killers” of Creativity — A Review of the Literature Like the investigation just described, the bulk of early studies exploring the effects of environmental constraints on motivation and performance were focused on the impact of expected reward (e.g., Deci, 1971, 1972; Garbarino, 1975; Greene & Lepper, 1974; Kernoodle-Loveland & Olley, 1979; Kruglanski, Friedman, & Zeevi, 1971; Lepper et al., 1973; McGraw & McCullers, 1979; Pittman, Emery, & Boggiano, 1982; Shapira, 1976). In the majority of these research paradigms, study participants produced some sort of real-world product which was then rated according to a set of specified procedures. Since the early 1980s, many investigations of this type have relied on the CAT (Amabile, 1982b; Hennessey & Amabile, 1999). This body of research spans three decades. Over time, experimental approaches have become increasingly complex, but the basic findings have remained the same. Hundreds of published investigations reveal that the promise of a reward made contingent on task engagement frequently serves to undermine intrinsic task motivation and qualitative aspects of performance, including creativity (for a more complete review of the literature, see Amabile, 1996; Hennessey, 2000; Hennessey & Amabile, 1988). This robust effect has been observed across the entire life span, with everyone from preschoolers to seasoned professionals experiencing the same negative consequences. In more recent years, researchers have gone on to uncover the damaging influence of a variety of other environmental constraints, such as deadlines, surveillance, and competition, on task motivation and creativity of performance (e.g., Amabile, 1982a; Amabile, Goldfarb, & Brackfield, 1990). Investigations focused on the impact of evaluation reveal that the expectation that one’s work will be judged may well be the most deleterious extrinsic constraint of all. Perhaps because situations of

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evaluation often combine aspects of each of the other “killers” of motivation and creativity, the promise of an evaluation has been shown to severely undermine the task interest and performance of persons across the entire age span. Persons from all walks of life, preschoolers to seasoned professionals whose very livelihood depends upon the creativity of their work, have been shown to be adversely affected. One representative study of the effects of evaluation was conducted in California by Amabile in 1982 (1982a). The primary goal of this investigation was to examine the impact of a competitive evaluation situation on the creativity of girls, ages 7–11. These young subjects were randomly assigned to either a Saturday or a Sunday “Art Party”. Girls attending the Saturday (noncompetition-control) session were met at the entrance by a table of desirable toys and gifts, which they were told would be raffled off at the end of the party. They then spent the afternoon participating in a variety of fun activities, including a collage-making task that they completed without any expectation of evaluation. Girls attending the Sunday (competition) session had an identical experience, with one important exception. They played the same games and were given the same materials with which to make their art works, but when they arrived at the party and saw the table of prizes, they were told that these items would be awarded to those children who made the “best” collages. Following the procedures outlined in the CAT (Amabile, 1982b; Hennessey & Amabile, 1999), artist-judges assessed the collage designs for creativity and a variety of other product dimensions. Inter-rater reliability on the creativity measure was .77, and analyses revealed that those collages made by girls in the noncompetition condition were rated as significantly more creative than those made by girls in the competition condition. As is the case with the reward literature, studies designed to investigate the impact of expected evaluation have become increasingly complex over the years. Researchers now have a much more sophisticated understanding of evaluation effects and are quick to point out that not all evaluative situations can be expected to have the same damaging impact. For example, theorists now understand that the type of task presented to study participants can, in large part, drive their experimental results. When a task is especially difficult, the delivery of a competence-affirming

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evaluation or the expectation of an impending evaluation can sometimes increase levels of extrinsic motivation without having any negative impact on intrinsic motivation or performance. In fact, under certain, specific circumstances, evaluation expectation can actually enhance creativity of performance. These complex effects of expected evaluation are demonstrated in several recent publications (e.g., Jussim, Soffin, Brown, Ley, & Kohlhepp, 1992; Harackiewicz, Abrahams, & Wageman, 1991). The important element here seems to be the preservation of a sense of self-determination. As Deci and Ryan (1985) explain, any extrinsic factors that support a sense of competence without undermining selfdetermination should positively contribute to intrinsic motivation. Thus, rewards or evaluations that are perceived as informational, useful and informative as to the quality of one’s performance rather than as controlling instruments of coercion can serve to increase involvement in the task at hand and should not be expected to have detrimental effects. Deci and Ryan are not the only theorists who have become dissatisfied with the comparatively narrow and largely hydraulic (as extrinsic motivation increases, intrinsic motivation is bound to decrease) approaches that have been applied to the study of human motivation. Tauer and Harackiewicz (1999) have also worked to bridge intrinsic motivation and performance-based approaches with a concentration on the individual’s phenomenological experience while working under the expectation of evaluation. As these researchers explain, the effects of evaluative contingencies are not universal. The expectation that one’s performance will be evaluated will only be detrimental if the interpersonal atmosphere of the evaluative setting causes the individual to feel intimidated or selfconscious. In situations in which the individual feels in control of her own destiny, motivation and creativity need not suffer.

7. A Proposed Mechanism for These Undermining Effects In summary, a host of Western researchers have found it all too easy to undermine task motivation and creativity of performance with the promise of a reward or an impending evaluation. Demonstrating how to kill motivation and creativity has been fairly straightforward. What has not been as easy is the discovery of the internal mechanisms that bring about the undermining effects of expected reward and impending evaluation.

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What we have come to understand is that the majority of Westerners are not all that in touch with their motivations, their reasons for behaving the way they do. Almost as if they were outside observers of even their own behavior, our study participants seem to use essentially the same rubrics for explaining their own actions as they do for explaining why others behave in the ways that they do. In situations where both a plausible internal and external (intrinsic and extrinsic) cause of behavior are present, our subjects tend to discount the internal cause in favor of the external cause. For example, a preschooler in the seminal “Magic Marker” study (Lepper et al., 1973) might have thought to herself: “I must be making this picture not because it’s fun and I love using markers but because this man has told me that I will get a Good Player Award.” And the young Einstein may have reasoned: “I must be studying all these facts and theories not because I am fascinated by science but because I know that I am going to be graded on my performance and I need to maintain my reputation among my teachers and my peers.” Some social psychologists have come to refer to this thought process as the “discounting principle” (e.g., Kelley, 1973). Other theorists propose a related explanation termed the “overjustification” hypothesis, a formulation derived from the attribution theories of Bem (1972), Kelley (1967, 1973), and deCharms (1968). Whatever the terminology employed, in the Western world, when multiple explanations for their behavior are available, young and old alike have been found to discount their own intrinsic interest in favor of a purely external explanation for task engagement. But how might this tendency to adopt an extrinsic motivational orientation lead to decrements in creativity of performance? Amabile (1996) proposes that an open-ended “creativity-type” task is very much like a maze. There is only one starting point, one entrance, but there are a variety of exit points and many different pathways to those exits. For the problem solver faced with an expected reward or evaluation, the goal is to get in and out of the maze, to complete the task, as quickly as possible. The “safest”, most straightforward route will be chosen, and all behavior, all effort, will be narrowly directed toward assuring that an acceptable product or solution will be produced. In order for a creative idea to be generated, however, it is often necessary to temporarily “step

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away” from environmental constraints (Newell, Shaw, & Simon, 1962) and to become immersed in the problem, the maze, itself. The creative problem solver must be willing to explore the maze and experiment with alternative pathways. Attention must be directed toward more seemingly incidental aspects of the task; yet the more focused an individual is on a promised reward or evaluation, the less likely it is that risky detours will be taken and that these alternative paths to solution will be explored.

8. A Blueprint for the Typical American Classroom? Are children in American classrooms likely to opt for the safest, most straightforward path? Or does their classroom environment encourage them to become immersed in their learning and to experiment with alternative solutions to problems? Incredibly, the list of killers of intrinsic motivation and creativity outlined earlier (Expected Reward, Expected Evaluation, Surveillance, Time Limits and Competition (see Amabile, 1996; Hennessey, 1996)) looks a lot like a blueprint for the typical American classroom. Sometimes I ask my college students to imagine that they are Martians — scouts sent to earth to investigate U.S. educational practices. They land their space ship on the playground of a typical primary school and quietly creep toward the building. They do not know much of anything about American schools, but they do know about the research reviewed earlier in this paper, since the work of Hennessey and colleagues is, of course, intergallactically famous. The Martians peer through the windows and they cannot believe what they see: reward charts and token systems, contests, and competition. They begin to question whether Americans have purposely set out to destroy the motivation and creativity of their children and marvel at how these earthlings have evolved such a seemingly destructive, counterproductive approach. I have to believe that my own nation’s educators have always acted with the best intentions. But the inescapable fact remains that the majority of U.S. schools have managed to incorporate a long list of killers of motivation and creativity into their educational programs. The problem is that teachers and administrators (as well as parents) have wrongly come to assume that incentives are always necessary to motivate children. They are not aware of the far-reaching negative consequences

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of extrinsic motivators promised for tasks that require creativity and that are in and of themselves interesting to students.

9. Moving Toward a Multi-cultural Perspective Whatever a student’s particular talents, skills and creative-thinking abilities are the classroom conditions under which she works can significantly impact the level of creativity produced. In the West, intrinsic motivation has been shown to be a primary driving force behind the creative process; and over 25 years of research evidence tells us that it is the social environment that, in large part, determines this motivational orientation. Investigators interested in specifying this link between motivation and creativity initially focused on experimental settings. They directly manipulated aspects of the social environment of the classroom and looked for accompanying changes in the creativity of the ideas and products produced. More recent investigations have also included non-experimental methods such as surveys, interviews, classroom-based ethnographies and an examination of archival sources. This broadening of investigative methods has further convinced researchers that if student intrinsic interest and creativity are to flourish, current Western educational practices must be thoroughly reexamined. As a researcher and former primary school teacher, I am excited about the possibility of making substantial changes in classrooms; yet, for me at least, there remains one potentially important, even nagging, problem. Each of our theoretical models, like each of the individual investigations upon which they have been based, is entirely grounded in Western (i.e., “American”) cultural tradition. Can my colleagues and I assume that these environmental factors, these same killers of intrinsic motivation and creativity of performance, held across cultures very different from our own? If the young Albert Einstein had been born and raised in a nonWestern setting, would he have been as likely to experience severe negative consequences in a regimented school setting? When promised a reward for task participation, can Asian children be expected to suffer the same deleterious effects as do children in New York? While Asian investigators and theorists have made many significant contributions to the creativity literature (perhaps more than any other

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non-Western group), the focus of their attention has generally not been on the social psychology of creativity. Instead, much of the work coming out of Asia has attempted to illuminate the broad issues of how creativity is viewed or the role that creativity plays in Asian culture (e.g., Rudowicz & Hui, 1997, 1998; Rudowicz, Hui, & Ku-Yu, 1994; Rudowicz & Yue, 2000; Yue & Rudowicz, 2002). Other important Asian work has focused on the interface between personality and creativity (e.g., Rudowicz & Yue, 2003) or on populations of students who have been identified as gifted and talented (e.g., Shi & Zha, 2000). With the exception of only a very few studies, however, Asian investigators have chosen not to focus on the impact of the environment on motivational orientation or creativity. And the same can be said of other non-Western research traditions as well. Simply stated, there is little, if any, empirical data on whether the negative impact of expected reward, expected evaluation and competition is a global phenomenon or whether it is culturally specific. In an effort to fill this research void, my students and I recently undertook a multi-national investigation. Guided by the assumption that the basic experimental paradigm that had served us so well with American participants could be applied to non-Western students, we randomly assigned 58 school children (28 Americans and 30 Saudi Arabians) to either an Expected Reward or a No-Reward (Control) condition. All study participants were tested in their own country. Children made a collage and told a story, and after completing each of these activities, all students were asked to give self-reports of task motivation. Saudi elementary school teachers then rated the products produced by students living in Saudi Arabia for creativity and a variety of other dimensions, while American teachers judged the products produced in the U.S. There have been few published attempts to employ the Consensual Assessment Technique in non-Western settings. But the findings that have been reported lend strong support to the contention that the CAT can be successfully employed across a variety of cultural contexts. Niu and Sternberg (2001) obtained high levels of agreement among Chinese judges asked to evaluate the creativity of college students’ artworks. In fact, in this instance, there was a greater consensus among Chinese judges regarding what constitutes creativity than there was among American

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judges. Similarly, Chen, Kasof, Himsel, Greenberger, Dong and Xue (2002) observed a high degree of reliability among Chinese judges asked to evaluate the creativity of drawings of geometric shapes. And in their study, the researchers found that product ratings made by European Americans were similar to those made by the Asian group. In our own investigation involving Saudi and American raters, we were encouraged by the fact that we too were able to obtain highly reliable product assessments from both groups of judges. Our main experimental question was whether the imposition of extrinsic constraints could be expected to undermine task interest and creativity of performance regardless of cultural context. As expected, data from our American sample paralleled that reported in previous studies: Children in the Constraint (Expected Reward) condition evidenced significant decreases in intrinsic task motivation and were found to produce products that were rated significantly lower in creativity than were those made by children in the Control (No Reward) group. Data collected on the Saudi sample, however, told a different story. On the collage task, the Saudi children appeared to react in much the same way as did their Western counterparts, showing significant decreases in intrinsic task motivation under reward conditions. Yet this undermining of motivation did not precipitate the expected decreases in the creativity of their performance. And on the story-telling task, there were no significant between-group (Expected Reward/No Reward) differences on either the motivation or the creativity measure. In other words, in the Saudi group, the expected reward constraints had a very limited influence in decreasing intrinsic motivation, but this led to no decline in creativity. Can the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity be applied to populations of students in Saudi Arabia? Is there a link between motivational orientation and creativity of performance for persons of all cultures? We had spent months preparing to carry out the Saudi portion of our investigation, and we were convinced that we had thought of every angle, that our methodology and experimental design were as “culture fair” and unbiased as possible. We had recruited native speakers of Arabic to translate our experimental protocol and written measures, and a Saudi college student who herself had attended the school where we gathered our data served as our experimenter. We had pre-tested our

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reward to establish that it was, in fact, highly desirable to children in both cultures and we had also carefully piloted all procedures to make certain that our instructions would be understandable to the children. On the surface, it appeared that we had covered “all the bases”. But what we had failed to do was to step outside our Western framework in an attempt to view our experimental procedures, and the assumptions that underpinned them, from the Saudi students’ perspective. What we had failed to do was to take into consideration the Saudi cultural context. In his book Creativity and Beyond (2000), Robert Paul Weiner reveals that, in the Western world, the word creativity did not exist before 1870 and was not widely used until 1950. In our attempts to translate our research materials for our Saudi study, we learned that modern Arabic is still without a term for creativity. While it is possible to express the notion of creativity in Arabic using a series of short phrases, there is no one word that carries this meaning. It would seem that speakers of Arabic have not found the need to coin such a term, while in the Western world, conversation about creativity and its pursuit is commonplace. The concept of creativity and the positive value associated with it is a by-product of a modern, secular, democratic and capitalistic orientation. Moreover, the global dominance of Western ideas about creativity makes it easy for researchers, theorists and all of us to forget that there may be other conceptions of this phenomenon, conceptions very different from our own. Weiner argues that the focus on creativity of products, the view that objects are individually valuable artifacts, prevents Westerners from considering the larger cultural fabric of which each individual is a part. According to the Western view, creativity must be defined and recognized in its relationship to an observable outcome. The Eastern view of creativity, however, is far less focused on products or other tangible evidence of “work” produced. Instead, creativity is seen to involve personal fulfillment or the expression of an inner essence or ultimate reality (Lubart, 1999). In other words, non-Western cultures may be operating with a different sense of what it means to be creative. Perhaps we were wrong to assume that, in the absence of extrinsic constraints, the Saudi children would be motivated (or would even feel licensed) to exercise their creativity in our experimental tasks. More fundamentally, it is likely that our Western views as to the intrinsic value, the innate “goodness”, of a creative idea

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or a creative product may not have been shared by our Saudi study participants. In their nation, rather than focus on the power or talent of any one individual, the social construction of creativity appears to center on a heightened sense of community and strong awareness of and respect for ancestors and traditions. Moreover, our own observations in the schools coupled with the input from our experimenter who had been raised and educated in Saudi Arabia led us to the understanding that, from a very early age, students are primarily socialized to work toward the advancement of the entire classroom group. Individual accomplishments, including individual demonstrations of high levels of creativity, are neither especially encouraged nor applauded; and it is likely that many of the children participating in our experiment had never before been invited in school to exercise their creativity. In fact, this conflict between an individual’s pursuit of new ideas and art forms and the maintenance of group cohesiveness and tradition is at the core of research and theorizing about creativity across cultures. The preservation of cultural identity and social stability requires continuity and an emphasis on the familiar. Cultures that demand a strong commitment to the group and to the customs and beliefs they have inherited are often termed “collectivist” and “traditional”. Such groups appear, on the surface at least, to have fixed social roles and structures that determine what people can do or say. In contrast, the evolution of societies termed by theorists as “individualistic” or “modern” is determined by the creative activity within them. Thinking along these same lines, it may not be wrong to characterize Saudi society as traditional and our own research paradigm and theories as stemming from a more modern view. But if we are to carry out a valid cross-cultural examination of the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity, it is important that we move beyond this simplistic dichotomy to the recognition that creative behavior is highly complex and multi-faceted. The provocatively titled book Why Asians are Less Creative than Westerners authored by Ng Aik Kwang (2001) offers an especially detailed and precise look at the interaction between the individual and his society or culture. Ng focuses on the conflict between creative and conforming behavior and bases many of his arguments on his first-hand knowledge of both the Asian and the Western experience. It is his view that the

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challenge of being creative is entirely connected to the type of society in which we live. In fact, Ng maintains that because cultures vary so widely, they should not and cannot be directly compared. Such comparisons, he believes, are innately inappropriate and unfair. As an example of this unfairness, Ng points to the fact that the West might seem to have the creativity advantage in that it allows individuals more liberty. Individuality is highly valued, encouraged and expected. Yet, on the other hand, it is people in the East who are typically more in control of their emotions. And, as Ng reminds us, emotions have great weight in the creative process. For my own part, I most appreciate Ng’s emphasis on the “self ” in his theorizing about creativity. Ng draws important parallels between the interaction between the individual and the situation (my own focus as a social psychologist) and between the self and the culture. We learn that there are highly significant differences between Eastern and Western perspectives on the self. And nowhere are these differences more clearly reflected than in cross-cultural comparisons of assumptions about control. In the East, emphasis is placed on control by the environment and the individual is expected to adapt. Asians, in other words, are thought to exercise what Ng terms “secondary control”, shaping their internal needs and desires in order to maximize the goodness of fit with existing reality. In the West, on the other hand, people are expected to rise above externally imposed constraints and even to alter their environment. In this cultural context, it is the individual who needs to feel primary control, and if necessary, he will shape existing reality so that it fits with his own personal needs and desires. Expanding on these contrasts, Ng reminds us that, in the West, training in autonomy starts very early in life. Even infants sleep alone and young children are taught to stand up for themselves on the playground. Yet in the East, the overriding cultural goal is to connect with others. Yielding or giving in to the manipulation of others is not seen as a sign of weakness of character. Rather, the individual’s own, personal exercise of control is directed primarily inward, at those feelings and desires that could disturb the harmonious equilibrium of transaction. In summary, the psychological make-up of the prototypical Asian and Westerner emerge as very much distinct. According to Ng, the two groups are especially different when it comes to their sense of self. With Western

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children constantly striving for their independence and autonomy, it is easy to understand why a teacher’s or an experimenter’s imposition of an extrinsic constraint such as the promise of reward might have an especially deleterious effect. While for more interdependent Asian (and also Saudi) students who view themselves as part of a larger web of social relations, the imposition of a reward contingency might not be expected to undermine intrinsic task motivation or creativity of performance. Does the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity hold across Eastern as well as Western societies? Is intrinsic interest a necessary ingredient of the creative process? Or is the Social Psychology of Creativity very much culture-dependent? Of course, a great deal more research must be carried out before answers to these questions can be found, but the Saudi/American investigation reported above leads at least to the tentative speculation that the promise of a reward from a teacher or other controlling adult should not be expected to undermine the intrinsic task motivation and creativity of Saudi children, while their American counterparts will show motivational and performance decrements. Unlike Ng Aik Kwang, I am not ready to abandon the goal of designing and carrying out additional cross-national investigations of creativity, motivation and related phenomena. I believe that a great deal can be learned by comparing the behaviors and cognitions of persons from different cultures who are exposed to the same environmental circumstances. Clearly, however, the construction of culture-fair studies of this sort will necessitate much more than just careful translation or the judicious choice of an experimental task, performance contingency, or environmental constraint. Researchers must somehow uncover the phenomenology of their study participants. They must view the experimental procedure, particularly its interpersonal aspects, through the cultural “lens” of their subjects. In a recent paper (Hennessey, in press), I argued that despite their training in social psychology, Western researchers interested in the impact of the environment on motivational orientation and creativity of performance most often fail to consider anyone other than the individual doing the creating. Attention is given only to the individual’s impersonal interaction with her environment, and the promise and eventual receipt of a reward (or other contingency) is primarily viewed as a mechanistic

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process. The interaction between experimenters and study participants or teachers and students has been virtually ignored, as has the fact that experimental labs and classrooms are populated with multiple individuals who perform not in isolation but in direct contact and communication with one another. As Ng has observed, Western creativity researchers, like their Western culture as a whole, have tended to focus their attention on individual geniuses and individual acts of creativity. Yet creativity is essentially a social phenomenon. Creative performance does not come about in a vacuum. A delineation of the social context in which creativity flourishes (or fails to flourish) is particularly essential in cross-cultural investigations. Researchers must somehow determine how study participants view their situation — their status and their role in the creative process. Do participants share the same understandings and goals as do the researchers? Do they feel comfortable exploring their creative potential, and do they approach the experimental tasks with a strong and primarily individualistic sense of purpose? Or are they instead willing to “take a back seat” and to defer to the other members of the group? Are they driven by an overwhelming need to feel autonomous and in control of their situation or are they content to look within themselves for evidence of that control? And finally, do they feel capable of and excited about coming up with a creative idea or approach to a problem, or has their lack of experience with such open-ended situations left them uncertain and unwilling to explore the possibilities? Ng Aik Kwang does not really believe that Asians are by nature less creative than Westerners. Instead, his carefully constructed message is that because of their cultural traditions, it is much more difficult for Asians to act, think, and feel in a creative manner. Just as my colleagues and I have worked tirelessly to expose the many ways in which U.S. schools serve to kill the intrinsic motivation and creativity of students, it is my hope that researchers from around the world, investigators who are intimately familiar with a variety of cultural traditions, will be motivated to explore the impact of their own societies’ structure and expectations on the motivation and creativity of their citizens. To accomplish this goal, researchers and theorists must be willing to “start from scratch”. They must not be swayed by existing Western models

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and must instead develop new, and perhaps different, approaches to the study of the social psychology of creativity and the workings of the “creativity intersection” (Amabile, 1997). Researchers examining creativity in Asian cultures, for example, may decide that rather than concentrate on the effect of the environment on task motivation, the focus of their preliminary investigations will be on the culture’s impact on the development of creativity skills. Alternatively, studies involving nonWestern populations might target the motivational component of the creative process and set out to examine whether intrinsic motivation plays a key role in societies where the good of the collective is emphasized over the advancement of any one individual. The possibilities are exciting.

References Amabile, T. M. (1982a). Children’s artistic creativity: Detrimental effects of competition in a field setting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 573–578. Amabile, T. M. (1982b). Social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 997–1013. Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: SpringerVerlag. Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview. Amabile, T. M. (1997). Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do. California Management Review, 40, 39–58. Amabile, T. M., Goldfarb, P., & Brackfield, S. C. (1990). Social influences on creativity: Evaluation, coaction, and surveillance. Creativity Research Journal, 3, 6–21. Amabile, T. M., Hennessey, B. A., & Grossman, B. (1986). Social influences on creativity: The effects of contracted-for reward. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 14–23. Bem, D. (1972). Self-perception theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 6). New York: Academic Press. Berlyne, D. E. (1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill. Chen, C., Kasof, J., Himsel, A. J., Greenberger, E., Dong, Q., & Xue, G. (2002). Creativity in drawings of geometric shapes: A cross-cultural examination with the consensual assessment technique. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 33, 171–187. deCharms, R. (1968). Personal causation. New York: Academic Press.

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Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105–115. Deci, E. L. (1972). The effects of contingent and noncontingent rewards and controls on intrinsic motivation. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 8, 217–229. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum. Einstein, A. (1949). Autobiography. In P. Schilpp (Ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-scientist. Evanston, Illinois: Library of Living Philosophers, Inc. Galton, F. (1870). Hereditary genius. London: Macmillan, London, & Appleton. Garbarino, J. (1975). The impact of anticipated reward upon cross-age tutoring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 421–428. Greene, D., & Lepper, M. (1974). Effects of extrinsic rewards on children’s subsequent interest. Child Development, 45, 1141–1145. Harackiewicz, J. M., Abrahams, S., & Wageman, R. (1991). Performance evaluation and intrinsic motivation: The effects of evaluative focus, rewards and achievement orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 1015–1029. Harter, S. (1978). Effectance motivation reconsidered: Toward a developmental model. Human Development, 21, 34–64. Hebb, D.O. (1955). Drives and the CNS. Psychological Review, 62, 243–254. Hennessey, B. A. (1996). Teaching for creative development: A socialpsychological approach. In N. Colangelo & G. Davis (Eds.). Handbook of gifted education (2nd ed.) (pp. 282–291). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Hennessey, B. A. (2000). Rewards and creativity. In C. Sansone & J. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance (pp. 55–78). New York: Academic Press. Hennessey, B. A. (in press). Is the social psychology of creativity really social?: Moving beyond a focus on the individual. In P. Paulus (Ed.) (Volume Title to be Determined). Oxford University Press. Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (1988). Story-telling: A method for assessing children’s creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 22, 235–246. Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (1999). Consensual assessment. In M. Runco & S. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity. New York: Academic Press. Holton, G. (1972). On trying to understand scientific genius. American Scholar, 41, 95–110.

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Jussim, L. S., Soffin, S., Brown, R., Ley, J., & Kohlhepp, K. (1992). Understanding reactions to feedback by integrating ideas from symbolic intereactionism and cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 402–421. Kelley, H. (1967). Attribution theory in social psychology. In D. Levine (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 15) (pp. 192–238). Lincoln: University of Nebraska. Kelley, H. (1973). The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107–128. Kernoodle-Loveland, K., & Olley, J. (1979). The effect of external reward on interest and quality of task performance in children of high and low intrinsic motivation. Child Development, 50, 1207–1210. Kruglanski, A. W., Friedman, I., & Zeevi, G. (1971). The effects of extrinsic incentive on some qualitative aspects of task performance. Journal of Personality, 39, 606–617. Lepper, M., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic rewards: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129–137. Lubart, T. I. (1999). Creativity across cultures. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 339–350). New York: Cambridge University Press. McGraw, K. (1978). The detrimental effects of reward on performance: A literature review and a prediction model. In M. Lepper, & D. Greene (Eds.), The hidden costs of reward. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. McGraw, K., & McCullers, J. (1979). Evidence of a detrimental effect of extrinsic incentives on breaking a mental set. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 285–294. Newell, A., Shaw, J., & Simon, H. (1962). The processes of creative thinking. In H. Gruber, G. Terrell, & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to creative thinking (pp. 63–119). New York: Atherton. Niu, W., & Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Cultural influences on artistic creativity and its evaluation. International Journal of Psychology, 36, 225–241. Ng, A. K. (2001). Why Asians are less creative than Westerners. Singapore: Prentice Hall. Parnes, S. J. (1987). The creative studies project. In S. G. Isaksen (Ed.), Frontiers in creativity research: Beyond the basics (pp. 156–188). Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited. Parnes, S. J., & Noller, R. B. (1972). Applied creativity: The creative studies project: Part II – Results of the two-year program. Journal of Creative Behavior, 6, 164–186.

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Pittman, T. S., Emery, J., & Boggiano, A. K. (1982). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations: Reward-induced changes in preference for complexity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 789–797. Rudowicz, E., & Hui, A. (1997). The creative personality: Hong Kong perspective. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 12, 139–157. Rudowicz, E., & Hui, A. (1998). Hong Kong Chinese people’s view of creativity. Gifted Education International, 13, 159–174. Rudowicz, E., Hui, A., & Ku-Yu, H. (1994). Implicit theories of creativity in Hong Kong Chinese population. Creativity for the 21st century. Selected Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness (pp. 177– 196), Seoul, Korea, August, 1994. Rudowicz, E., & Yue, X. D. (2000). Concepts of creativity: Similarities and differences among Hong Kong, Mainland and Taiwanese Chinese. Journal of Creative Behavior, 34, 175–192. Rudowicz, E., & Yue, X. D. (2003). Compatibility of Chinese and creative personalities. Creativity Research Journal, 14, 387–394. Shapira, Z. (1976). Expectancy determinants of intrinsically motivated behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1235–1244. Shi, J., & Zha, Z. (2000). Psychological research on education of gifted and talented children in China. In K. A. Heller (Ed.), International handbook for research on gifted and talented (pp. 751–758). New York: Pergamon Press. Tauer, J., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (1999). Winning isn’t everything: Competition, achievement orientation, and intrinsic motivation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 209–238. Torrance, E. P. (1974). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Norms-technical manual. Lexington, MA: Ginn. Torrance, E. P., & Presbury, J. (1984). The criteria of success used in 242 recent experimental studies of creativity. The Creative Child and Adult Quarterly, 9, 238–243. Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Weiner, R. P. (2000) Creativity and beyond: Cultures, values, and change. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–333. Yue, X. D., & Rudowicz, E. (2002). Perception of the most creative Chinese by undergraduates in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei. Journal of Creative Behavior, 36, 88–104.

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Chapter 10 Beauty is in the Eye of the Creator — A Psychological and Cross-Cultural Account of Children’s Understanding of Pictorial Art

Siu Fung LIN School of Psychology The University of Birmingham, UK

1. Introduction “Art does not reproduce what we see: rather, it makes us see.” — Anonymous

“This picture is good because I drew it,” said the child. A 6-year-old girl expressed her preference of her own pencil drawing to a color photo taken by herself. What underlies this statement is that she was the creator of the drawing. The child, as creator, will be the center of interest for the investigation in this chapter. In a sitting room, a plain leather sofa was “decorated” by scribbles and marks all over. A 2-year-old girl did it with a red ballpoint pen in just a minute and was very satisfied with her work, “Grandma’s sofa’s got no picture in it. I wanna make it pretty.” That said, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”; therefore, the child will be studied from two different perspectives: as artist and as beholder.

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2. A Framework: The Interplay of World-ArtistPicture-Beholder 2.1. What is a work of art and what makes an artist? It is next to impossible to define art. John Dewey speaks of it as an experience (1934/1987) while Goodman focuses his discussion on art as representation (1976, pp. 21–31, 252–255). Formalists focus on form, color and space (Bell, 1914/1987; Fry, 1926); instrumentalists emphasize its moral and social functions (Plato, 1965; Tolstoy, 1930). The fusion or union of ideas of all main schools of thought has led to the articulation of a definition that could contribute to a framework of the understanding of art: “A work, whether consciously or unconsciously expressed, is a representation of the artist’s perception of his/her world and/or objects in the world. It has to be a creation with intrinsic aesthetic qualities in its form, such as repleteness and composition. The work itself should transmit feelings and thoughts regardless of the presence/absence of a conscious intention to do so by the artist.”

Besides a slight hint of a possible function of art as transmitter of meaning, the definition specifies four basic and essential ingredients of a work of art: 1) expression; 2) creation; 3) representation; and 4) aesthetic properties. A work of art is thus related to the knowledge and experience of an individual artist; the artist “transfigures” the appearance of ordinary objects by means of his/her artistic skills and insights. Beholders are led to see ordinary things in our world in a new way. Artists borrow ideas from each other, modeling their style upon that of others, using subjects that others have used before, and earning the title of “A Work of Art” by producing in audiences a desired result. In this way artists, beholders, works of art, and the world are interrelated. “Collaboration” (Collingwood, 1938/1958, p. 319) is a very good description of the interrelationship or interplay among them all. For instance, John Matthews, who is a painter and a psychologist, admitted that his paintings and drawings at some stage were heavily influenced by his three children and the relation between movement and image (Matthews, 1994).

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Picture

Artist

World

Beholder

Figure 1. A framework: The interplay of world-artist-picture-beholder.

3. The Child as Creator 3.1. When do children draw? Drawings seem to be almost innate in children. They start drawing as early as they are able to grab something that can make a mark (see Figure 2) or even scratch spilt milk on the carpet (Matthews, 1994). Children’s early creative graphic efforts have intrigued and amazed many Western psychologists (e.g., Cox, 1993; Eng, 1931; Gardner, 1980; Goodnow, 1977; Matthews, 1994, 1999). Luquet (1913) gave an account of children’s drawing development by following his eldest daughter’s drawings and then her influence on her younger brother’s. Eng (1931) studied her niece closely from birth to 8 years old and provided a very detailed record of her drawing development and a general account of the psychology of children’s drawings. Matthews (1994, 1999) recorded a very detailed and closely observed account of his own children’s development in making drawings and paintings. All these accounts lead us to believe that children from all nations start to make drawings as early as they can exercise their fine motor skills and they just draw whenever they want to.

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Figure 2. Mark Six (Bingo Lottery Machine) by Wing Hei (boy, age 3 years old, Hong Kong).

3.2. Why do children draw? “Children draw because they want to represent the things and people they come to know about in their surroundings,” maintained the cognitive developmentalist. “Children’s drawing is nothing but a kind of emotional expression,” said a psychoanalyst. “Children express their emotions/ experiences in a ‘language’ that they know and in a medium that they are able to manipulate.” An art therapist and an art educator agreed fully. “From my observation, it is purely a kind of play or something motor anyway,” the psychoanalyst argued. “Well, don’t forget that the child never lives in a vacuum and they learn from their significant others; they draw because they imitate adults’ acts of writing or sketching,” the behaviorists joined in. “They draw because they are not hungry!” laughed the humanist.

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It is widely held that children’s drawings are a form of emotional expression (for a detailed discussion, see Lin, 1998). Here, our concern is not the validity or the reliability of the use of children’s drawings in assessing personality or current emotional states. In fact, approaches to the study of children’s emotional expressions in drawings have been criticized extensively, including a criticism of a lack of a theory (e.g., Koppitz’s account, 1968, 1984) in explaining emotional expression in drawings (Lin, 1998). However, this does not have an influence on a belief that children draw for the sake of a free and spontaneous selfexpression (Duncum, 1988; Lowenfeld, 1947, 1952; Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1975; Strauss, 1978; Wilson, 1992). To take it a step further, many clinicians and art therapists draw on the concept of catharsis as described in the literature on Freudian psychoanalysis. Cognitive developmental psychologists have been most interested in the use of children’s drawings to explore their cognitive development — for instance, the study of children’s use of space, lines and shapes. Freeman and Cox are the leading psychologists who were most enthusiastic in such investigations during the 1980s. Developmentalists commonly hold that children draw to “represent” the real world that they come to know and understand (e.g., Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). Matthews extends this account by suggesting that children’s earliest symbolic drawings are “action representation” (1984, 1989, 1991) because it is the many explorations and differentiations of the child’s actions and their relationship with the images created. Wolf and Perry (1988) have offered a similar account, describing early drawing acts as “gestural representation”. Cognitive developmental psychologists pay particular attention to the graphic procedures in the drawing task and their age-related variations (e.g., Thomas, 1995; Thomas & Silk, 1990; Thomas & Tsalimi, 1988; van Sommers, 1984, 1989, 1991; and Willats, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1995). They believe that drawing is a complex activity that requires planning, perception of space and shapes and their relationships. Therefore, it is advised that children draw to explore what they know and what they come to know about in their surroundings during their course of development. They are also practicing their skills learned and applying them to the new drawing tasks. It is a metacognitive act.

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3.3. What do children draw? Children draw what they see, what they know, what they understand and what they feel. Put in another way, children draw their very first strokes from their experiences, be it from real life (see Figure 2) or from stories (see Figure 3). Needless to say, human figures remain the most drawn topic among children of all ages. Although the human figures appear in many different forms at different stages of the child’s creation, sometimes identifiable and sometimes not, children never lose their interest and passion for drawing them. They draw them voluntarily — sometimes themselves, sometimes their mother, their father, their grandparents and their siblings. For older children, neighbors, schoolmates and teachers start to appear in their creative works. Other typical topics would be cars, house, the sun, flowers, and animals (Cox, 1992, 1993; Thomas & Silk, 1990) (see Figures 4, 5 & 6).

Figure 3. Untitled drawing by Wing Hei (boy, age 4 years old, Hong Kong).

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Figure 4. Gimme Five by Robert (boy, age 5 years old, England).

Figure 5. Houses and Man by Wing Hei (boy, age 4 years old, Hong Kong).

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Figure 6. Taxi by a boy, age 4 years old (Hong Kong).

In other studies such as those concerning children’s learning, we always ask questions such as how one should motivate children to learn. Likewise, we should ask what motivates children to draw. In an art camp organized for the Vietnam refugee children in Hong Kong, the children were supplied with very big pieces of cloth on the floor in a village school. They were allowed to use the liquid paint freely on the cloth in whatever way they liked. Some children painted quietly on their own without being noticed or disturbed; some children drew in order to communicate with the artist helpers because we did not use the same verbal language. Pieces of cloth were removed and replaced frequently in a morning. Overwhelmingly, the cloths were all filled with boats and sea and a lot of dark and stormy images. Some of the other images looked like fish of all size, but one thing a child kept drawing caught my eyes because it was like a plate with only one eye on it and it was huge. We involved an interpreter and asked the child what it was. The child said it was what he had seen many times when he was still in the sea (on his way to Hong Kong). He did not know what it was but he got excited when he described it to us in his language. Sometime after the camp, I learned that it was a kind of fish we do not normally see in Hong Kong. What did the children draw in this camp? What motivated them to draw or paint? The children drew their experience, an overwhelming experience. They drew what they saw: the sea, the boat, the fishes; they drew what they knew, travelling to Hong Kong; and they drew what they felt, they drew their curiosity, they drew their fear and the darkness in the sea.

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They drew freely because they were safe; they were fed and they felt the support and help coming from the friendly adults around. They were not forced to draw anything or in any particular format. They were free to express. They found listeners, listeners to their inner voices, however weak. This is the route that enhances free expression; this is the route to real creativity and the “loading” of ideas and memory. I could not agree with Maslow more that we have a hierarchy of needs. Before the needs in the lower levels are met, we have difficulty in reloading our inner ideas and thus transforming our ideas into creative thoughts and behaviors. This is by no means a materialistic kind of thought but a call for freedom to create and to be allowed to create freely. Young children draw boldly, readily and confidently as though they are Picasso. Unlike artists and adults, children do not bother about the visual effects. They spend no time on making it “right” in terms of proportion or making it identifiable by any spectator. They tend to draw a picture in one go and then leave it as it is (see also Winston, Kenyon, Stewardson, & Lepine, 1995). This act, I believe, is totally admired by adults (including artists like Picasso, Klee & Kandinsky) because we cannot do it, at least not anymore. Notwithstanding the admiration, the child’s boldness and their productions are rarely honored, at least not commonly amongst the Chinese population. Scribbles on grandma’s sofa were well covered by cushions because grandma thought that the scribbles looked messy and she was not able to rub them off. Adults tend to look for “things” in children’s drawings and expected children to draw “things” that look right according to adult standards. The “desire” of the children in making drawings changes gradually overtime towards “recognizable” and visually realistic objects. There is a “demand” for resemblance. In my view, this is no accident but simply meeting the “requirement” of general spectators and the world we are in (see Figure 1). A mother of a 5-year-old girl told me how much her daughter loves art and urged the child to show me her art works. The five-year-old girl, little Bean, then showed me her pictures done in her private art class on Saturday afternoon, with great care. The pictures were all drawn and colored properly on alternate pages and with a “worksheet” attached on the neighboring page. The worksheet impressed me because it was like an alphabet copybook. Little Bean was required

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to practice how to draw, e.g., nose of a lion, its paws, etc. She showed me her picture which was clearly a very big colorful bird. I noticed a lot of pencil marks above the back of the bird and asked her what they were. Then, she talked to me in an angry tone, “Don’t you know how many times I had to redo this bird?” “Sorry, I don’t. Who made you redo it and why?” “My teacher. Because it was too small. She was not happy with the small birds I drew.” “Did she show you any pictures?” “Yes, it’s like this bird (she pointed to her own picture). I failed to see any delight, let alone great joy, in this child when she talked about her work. Indeed, she was disappointed when I was unable to appreciate how much effort she had put in. Many arguments are brought forward by psychologists and art educators over whether or not children should be taught strategies to draw and whether or not children should learn to draw via copying (e.g., Cox, 1992; Matthews, 1999). My question here is: do children’s drawings have to be representational? Here, by representational, we are facing a matter of the importance of resemblance. John Matthews (1994) reminds us that what is “realistic” to a child may change with age and context. What should be our main concerns for children at this age? One could argue that drawings enhance cognitive development and therefore it is important to reinforce children’s ability to use drawing to represent “things” in various dimensions. Typically, for instance, children have difficulty in making view-specific drawings, especially those under the age of 8 years. Piaget adopted Luquet’s proposition that children’s drawings are essentially realistic in intention and, therefore, if they failed to be so, indicate a kind of conceptual immaturity. But for children older than 7 years old, the same failure will be a lack of concern rather than lack of cognitive ability. However, children under 7 years of age fail to demonstrate this lack of cognitive ability in drawing tasks in which view specificity is induced (Cox, 1981; Davis, 1983). Donaldson (1978) demonstrated that children as young as 4 years old are able to draw partially occluded pictures according to the story being told. If children as young as 4 years old were able to produce view-specific drawings in appropriate circumstances (Thomas & Silk, 1990), how can we not trust that it is the children’s own choice not to present a view-specific one in their free drawings? Likewise, it is the children’s choice to present the

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human figure in their own way (Golomb, 1992). In a recent experiment comparing and contrasting children’s use of the two media (drawing and photograph) in depicting several objects, children demonstrated that they choose to draw, for instance, a doll in front view but make photographs of it in various views (Lin & Thomas, 2001). There have long been arguments between psychologists on the way children depict human figures. As early as 1887, the Italian Corado Ricci proposed that children make no attempt to show the actual appearance of objects but to express their knowledge about them. A century later, Kerschensteiner (1905, cited by Thomas & Silk, 1990) contended that children draw what they know but not what they see. After half a century, Arnheim (1956) adopted the backbone of Gestalt theory — a concern with object’s overall structure and form, and suggested that children “draw what they see”. To date, the argument carries on (e.g., Cox, 1992; Freeman, 1980; Karmiloff-Smith, 1990; Thomas & Tsalimi, 1988) and psychologists find it hard to come to an agreement. If we carry on looking at evidence from different studies, we are becoming more confused than ever. Results from studies are all true but they do not help us to rule out possibilities other than those revealed in a particular experiment. The study of children’s drawings is in itself very interesting and enjoyable but it is also a very difficult topic with intrinsic problems. Firstly, it is difficult because it has got endless variables from within the child and from the environment. Secondly, it is because young children do not speak, and drawing itself is a language of a different kind that we might not be able to find any exact interpretation verbally. Here, I suggest to take a step back and think: “Do we need a language proper to express our emotions?” and “Do we learn how to cry and how to scream?” No. We are born with it. Indeed, the graphic language, “schemata”, employed by young children and used frequently for different topics, considered having perceptual and aesthetic reasons by some (Arnheim, 1956, 1974; Golomb, 1992), if not all (Freeman, 1980). This awaits their response to others’ works of art to confirm (see Section 4). Having said that, I have no objection to art education and its effect on children’s advancement in their creation. According to KarmiloffSmith (1990), young children are “programmed” to draw and children’s drawing strategies cannot be easily altered. Notwithstanding this claim,

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studies done in Birmingham (Thomas, 1995) found more flexibility than that suggested by Karmiloff-Smith’s. Indeed, Cox’s experiments (1992, 1993) demonstrated that children’s drawings can be altered by training provided and that consequences of providing guidance in drawing is evident too in some other studies (e.g., Philips, Inall & Lauder, 1985; Wilson, Hurwitz, & Wilson, 1987). What makes our artistic ability differ depends greatly on our specific learning experiences and other input such as environment and education (Lin & Thomas, 2002). Supposedly, children’s drawings have to be studied from the child’s perspective; however, they have always been studied from the adult’s perspective. In light of the difficulties in our understanding of children’s ability to draw and create images, other measures should be taken and collected from the children’s perspective. Indeed, over a decade ago, Thomas and Silk proposed that “More convincing evidence of artistic capacities in young children would be a demonstration that they respond with appropriate aesthetic judgements to their own and other people’s drawings” (1990).

4. The Child as Beholder As early as 1958 when John Dewey spoke of art, he made it as simple as “doing” and “perceiving”. If “doing” and “perceiving” are not entirely separate entities, interaction and dependency between the two exist. Therefore, it is worth our while to carry out investigations into the other side of the coin — the child as beholder. In order to compare children’s appreciation of their own and other’s creations, I shall begin with the quest into pictorial art which involves comparatively less complications and is more widely taught in schools and commonly used in our daily lives. If very young children have been producing scribbles and tadpole figures of humans, how would they respond to pictures done by others? Is it logical to speculate that very young children like pictures resembling their owns, perhaps those of abstract art or cartoon art that are commonly held by the market (consumer) as children’s favorites? Likewise, if children’s drawings in general gear towards realistic representational ones, would they react to other’s productions in more or less the same way?

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Would they prefer pictures with solid and realistic representation to cartoons and abstracts? It is believed that aesthetic sensitivity can be measured by 1) standardized works of art and 2) evaluating beholder’s verbal responses against a suitable criterion (Child, 1964). Indeed, some progress has been made in researching and conceptualizing the development of art understanding in the West by, for example, Child and his associates (e.g., Child, 1964; Child & Iwao, 1973), the Project Zero team (Carothers & Gardner, 1979; Gardner, 1973, 1976; Rosenstiel, Morrison, Silverman, & Gardner, 1978; Winner, Rosenblatt, Windmueller, Davidson, & Gardner, 1986), Parsons (1987), Jolley, Chi, and Thomas (1995), Freeman (1996), and Lin and Thomas (2002). Among the significant achievements of these research efforts has been the determination of some marked age differences in responses to graphic art (e.g., Gardner, Winner, & Kircher, 1975; Lin & Thomas, 2002; Parsons, 1987). It appears, for example, that younger children have little awareness of the means and skills necessary for its production. They also tend to respond in a piecemeal and superficial way, and it is only children of 10 years and older who spontaneously attend to the expressive aspects of artworks. However, surprisingly, children of all ages responded to graphic art of all genres in more or less the same way and with a focus on the subject matter of the picture (Lin & Thomas, 2002). In Lin and Thomas’s attempt to provide an integrating developmental account to link these discoveries and insights together, some new evidence emerges. First, children of all ages show a strong bias toward the dimension of subject matter regardless of the genre of the picture (i.e., there is no obvious or definite subject matter in abstract art). Second, the children’s response to different pictures of various genres relates greatly to several things: 1) idiosyncrasies; 2) nature and belief; 3) personal growth and specific experiences; and 4) effect of art education. Children see and create what they see. Could it be that what children create ties in greatly with the above factors? It is very puzzling that children of all ages put their focus on subject matter above all. What happens during the course of their development? More importantly, how could we possibly turn their eyes to other aspects in the picture in lieu of subject matter? If this focus in pictorial art could be something cultural

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and not universal, a study into children in the Far East would be the immediate next step.

4.1. HK-UK comparisons of children’s responses to different genres of art Hong Kong, a city governed by the British for 150 years, has been profoundly influenced by British culture and Western ideology. In addition, its international status has brought along with it a fusion of ideas and practices from all over the world, particularly the influences from its neighboring countries, such as Japan and Korea, and the impact of America perhaps because of the media — films and music. Our locally brought up Hong Kong-Chinese have plenty of exposure to all genres of western art and in very similar format as those appearing in England and elsewhere. The pictorial art with which most people have the greatest daily contact comprises pictures in magazines, books, greeting cards, wall paintings, illustrated calendars, music CD covers, and so forth. While not all these examples might be regarded as the highest flowering of contemporary culture in Hong Kong, there is no doubt that they meet our criteria for autographic artworks. Therefore it is feasible to carry out the same research in the same way in Hong Kong as that done in Birmingham, UK. With a population composition of 99% Chinese, Chinese tradition has been well preserved by the first generation who were brought up in Mainland China. Despite the influences from the West, these deep-rooted traditions and conventions have been passed on to the second and now the third generation in Hong Kong via parental influences and child rearing practices. Therefore, it is still a collectivist oriented society (Hui, 1990). Parents and the extended family hold the authority in guiding and making decisions for their children from birth. Therefore, our young people are dependent. In general, Hong Kong children spend most of their time in school from the age of 3 years old and heavy emphasis is placed on academic skills, particularly on numbers and writing. For early childhood, education is mainly for the preparation of primary education and therefore with a great emphasis on pre-academic skills. Opper (1996) criticized that there is an over-emphasis on pre-academic skills whereas social skills are under-emphasized.

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It has long been claimed that creative activities such as art and music are universal. However, very limited evidences can be found in the literature to date. It is expected therefore that a cross-cultural study that includes Hong Kong children and UK children would reflect some cultural differences in two respects: 1) how they see a picture and 2) pictures they like most. The present investigation will have a focus on early childhood and middle childhood when their interests in making drawings are still strong. The study started with children at the age of 4–5 years old on the basis of the general claim in developmental psychology that by the age of 4–5 years old, children are generally able to understand some of the basic principles underlying folk psychology (e.g., Harris, 1992). Also, in the current study, the need to produce verbal responses would have made it difficult to include children younger than this age group. Furthermore, if we are to check what is in the eye of our little creators, we need to know what kind of pictures they are producing by themselves. It is generally held that children at the age of 3–8 years tend to produce schematic drawings (Lowenfeld, 1947). For operation purpose, the schematic drawings here are restricted to the specific type of children’s drawings and not the one put forward by Glyn Thomas (Thomas, 1995). Therefore, children at the age of 4–5 years should be at the “prerepresentational stage” and making schematic drawings (Arnheim, 1956; Winner, 1982). Children at the age of 7–8 years should be moving from schematic drawings towards visually realistic pictures; “X-ray” drawings become rather common at this stage (Thomas & Silk, 1990). If we want to elicit general and natural responses from our children, we ought to examine responses to pictorial art of a kind that is within their daily experiences. As with the study carried out in England, a selection of widely available greeting cards and picture postcards were chosen as stimuli. This had the advantage that nearly all genres of art are available in the form of greeting/postcards. It could be argued that some of the quality of the original will be lost, but because of the advances in technology, art has now become a form in which it enters most people’s daily lives (Berger, 1972). A total of 25 cards were grouped into five genres broadly representative of much of the pictorial art available in this format. These genres were: 1) abstract art; 2) fine art; 3) modern art; 4) humorous art; and 5) cartoon art (for further details, see Lin & Thomas,

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2002). For each genre of art, there were five pictures and they were all labeled as A1–A5 (abstract art), F1–F5 (fine art), M1–M5 (modern art), H1–H5 (humorous art) and C1–C5 (cartoon art). Altogether, 40 children were recruited from a local kindergarten (age 4.5–5.1 years) and from a local primary school (age 7.6–8.5 years) where children graduated from the same kindergarten. This was to ensure that the children involved in the study had received similar art education. Although it is impossible to eliminate all variables from any study in human sciences, it was hoped that, by so doing, variations in terms of general experiences and art education were kept to a minimum level. All children were interviewed separately in a quiet room in their kindergarten/ school. Each of them were shown the five groups of cards, one at a time, during which the child was asked which one they liked most. The most liked card from each of the five genres was put on one side for further interview after the selection. Each child was asked to talk about the pictures and why they liked it separately. Thereafter, the children’s responses were all parsed and analyzed according to the manual devised for this purpose. Briefly, the children’s responses were categorized into nine dimensions: color, subject matter, expression, medium, history, association, romancing, function, and unelaborated (for manual and scoring details, see Lin & Thomas, 2002). Consistent with some early studies (e.g., Child et al., 1967; Rosenstiel et al., 1978; Valentine, 1962) and the most recent one by Lin and Thomas (2002), beholders’ responses became more differentiated with age, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Overwhelmingly, the results of the current study parallel that obtained from the UK study (Lin & Thomas, 2002). Overall, in absolute terms, older children in the current study talked more about a picture than younger children did (see Table 3). Children in the current study, again, as those recruited for the UK study, paid a lot of attention to subject matter in a picture and comparatively less to other dimensions of art (see Figure 7). Younger children tend to talk a lot generally about the subject matter in a picture and this tends to decrease with increasing age among the older children when there is a

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Figure 7. A profile of absolute totals of children’s responses to pictorial art.

trend to increase in verbalizing most other dimensions. Indeed, most of their responses fell also in the first four categories (color, subject matter, expression and medium). Interesting commentaries (Table 3) by children could provide us with useful evidence that was masked by the overall numerical data. Although the current finding looks consistent with the results obtained in a previous study carried out in the UK in quantitative terms, it was worth carrying out a discourse analysis of their commentaries for further information. Children’s responses to questions like “Why did you pick this picture?”, “What makes you like it?” were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively and will be presented in the discussions that follow.

4.1.1. The top 5 What pictures do Hong Kong children like most? Is there a pattern of general liking reflected in the current study?

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4.1.1.1. HK children Surprisingly, the most commonly picked pictures among children of four to eight years old consist of abstract art and fine art (Table 1). It is generally held that cartoons are the favorites of children, particularly young children. In the current study, the cartoon picture was only the third runner-up. In fact, it obtained the same total score as the humorous picture. A closer look into the percentages obtained in each age group revealed that there was a slight difference between the two groups in terms of the order of their most commonly picked pictures. The order for the kindergarten group was H3, M1, F2/C1 and A2 and indeed the scores between these five pictures were very close. A4 stands out in the primary group with a frequency as high as 80%, followed by F2, M1/H1 and C1. There is a slight indication that there is more variation among the preferences of younger children when compared with the older ones. What caused this change in the progression of their lives? Is it the culture or education that has taken our children onto the path of stereotyping? Table 1. HK children’s preferred pictures. Rank FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH

4 years old (25%) (40%) (45%) (40%) (50%) (20%)

Picture

8 years old

A4 [Abstract Art] F2 [Fine Art] M1 [Modern art] C1 [Cartoon picture] H3 [Humorous picture] H1 [Humorous picture]

(80%) (60%) (50%) (40%) (30%) (50%)

The arts are one of the most powerful ways to illuminate a culture’s characteristic values, feelings and beliefs. Therefore, understanding of the arts has been thought of as knowledge in a culturally specific domain by many (e.g., Goldsmith & Feldman, 1988). Unlike Piaget and Kohlberg, Parsons did not seek any evidence for the universality of his stage theory, though his stages three, four, and five were socially constructed and he referred to Chinese and Russians not talking about art in the same way as Westerners do. Sullivan (1973) and Edgerton (1980) point out that as

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early as in the 17th century, the Chinese were acquainted with the depiction of 3-D forms but they chose not to use it and tried to achieve a transcendental space, while in India, it is not hard to find vertical oblique projections of humans and objects in products such as carpets. Some recent investigations have confirmed the effects of variables such as socioeconomic factors on aesthetic judgements (Golomb, 1992; Lange-Kuttner & Edelstein, 1995). Researchers in visual perception have carried out experiments identifying stimuli such as the “rat-man demonstration” (Goldstein, 1989) that show how a beholder’s perception and interpretation can be influenced by his/her expectations and how the meaning of the picture is pre-shaped by what one has seen before. If children had been differently shaped by culture (the beliefs and values that one is committed to, the way that one is trained/taught in schools and families, one’s own personality and so forth) they could then come to a very different perception and/or interpretation when they confront a work of art. It is therefore expected that children from the two cities, Hong Kong and Birmingham would show interest in very different pictures and the possibility of choosing the same pictures should not be very high because there were plenty of choices. This is based on the assumption that traditional values and beliefs, lifestyle and environmental differences would have a general effect on aesthetic understanding and preferences in art among these two groups of children. If it is true that architecture is one of the clearest manifestations of a culture (Marland, 1998), the general taste of people from the two cities, Birmingham and Hong Kong, should be totally different. The architecture in England together with its landscape is the most beautiful I have ever seen. They are grand, noble and classic. The style of living in England, from architecture to household decorations, to the stationery children use, the way children spend their leisure time, their hobbies and the food they like, etc., are all different from that in Hong Kong. In England, in contrast to Far Eastern culture, it is individualism that is operating in the culture. Children are left to learn independently and make choices on their own. They also decide what to eat and wear by themselves, as their parents do. Certainly, they have a good deal of autonomy in having their own favorite songs, books, etc. Less academic pressure is put onto children in England compared

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with that in Hong Kong. At least, there is no such thing as dictation exercises in schools and kindergartens. Notwithstanding all the differences in the culture and practices in child rearing and formal education, the most-liked pictures among the UK children in the current study appear to be exactly the same (first to third) pictures.

4.1.1.2. UK children A closer look at the percentage profiles of these children (see Figures 8 & 9 and Table 2) shows that the preferences of UK children tend to be more evenly distributed than that of the Hong Kong children, or in other words their favorites tend to be more diverse. For Hong Kong children, their selections seem to be more diverse among younger children but become more homogeneous with increasing age. This is worrying. My main concern would be what drives our children towards this kind of homogeneous taste? According to James Mark Baldwin (1911), aesthetic experience is a kind of self-understanding which is personal and is an identification of the observer’s inner life with that of the object. Baldwin contends that things that lack personal meanings are ugly! If children’s responses to pictures are becoming more and more “stereotyped” during their course of development, there can hardly be any personal meaning. Then, what could beauty be in children’s eyes? Indeed, if this reflects how children construct the realities in which they are in, what kind of psychological and physical environment have we provided them with?

Table 2. UK children’s preferred pictures. Rank FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH

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4 years old (25%) (40%) (45%) (40%) (35%) (20%)

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Picture

8 years old

A4 [Abstract art] F2 [Fine art] M3 [Modern art] H3 [Humorous art] A5 [Abstract art] C4 [Cartoon art]

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(80%) (60%) (50%) (70%) (55%) (50%)

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Figure 8. A percentage profile of HK children’s preferences of 25 pictures of 5 genres.

Figure 9. A percentage profile of UK children’s preferences of 25 pictures of 5 genres.

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4.1.2. What makes you like this picture? Table 3. Children’s responses to their preferred pictures. Pictures A4 (abstract art)

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Group

HK Children

UK Children

K

• It’s got rainbow

• Got a rainbow on it • Because it’s got lots of nice colors and it’s got lots of things and interesting • I like the rainbow • I do like this one (red lines). I like the bits and the middle and the light, the dark black that got the light colors just there.

P

• It’s got rainbow • colorful

• It’s just a right picture to have to make someone look happy and smile • Because it’s very bright and colorful, and it’s got a lot of objects in the picture • Because em … it’s like you can imagine the things in it. It isn’t a touchy picture • Em… all the effects and things • Because it’s got a rainbow on it and I like rainbows. Like the colors on it. It’s got my favorite color on it — green • Because there’s so much in it • It’s all different; it looks like all different pictures all going into one and em… looks like everyone’s in everything is in a big brush … it stands out • Because it’s just all the colors and the way it’s drawn • Makes me happy because it’s colorful and very nice to see • It’s an interesting picture... it catches your eye if you walk past and you see it • I don’t really understand what it’s about and things like that. It’s unclear that anything you can really understand is the bird, but you can’t really decide what the other things are. You have to think

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Table 3 (continued) Pictures

Group

F2 (fine art)

K

• a lot of stuff • a beautiful picture • a lot of colors

• Because I like … it’s got some funny tea cups (the jars)… • Because it’s good • The bed is good • Because I always watch it when it’s on the picture; I have seen it before • I like it • I like the bed • Because I like to sleep in beds • Because it’s a chair … two chairs … towel, door and the bottle • Because of that … the bedroom is colorful and yellow cushions; I like the windows • Because it’s old; the house is old • Because it looks very tidy

P

• a terrible picture • a lot of colors • tidy; neat

• Not too colorful, not too bright, not too dark, not too colorful. And that door’s just right • Because I like Vincent van Gogh’s paintings • I like the brush strokes in that, because the colors go well together again, and I like how they mixed in the colors they’ve blended a bit in, the different colors • I don’t know, the colors on it • Because kind of old-fashioned picture drawn by crayon and pencil, that’s it • Because I think it’s very nice and it’s quite a nice picture. It stands out • Because I know who it’s by

K

• I like cat

• Because it’s got … it’s sleeping. Er… it’s funny. And it’s (the cat’s body) got stripes on • Because it’s my favorite, it’s nice • Emm… I just like the color of the picture • Because I like mice • Emmm… I don’t know

H3 (humorous art)

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HK Children

UK Children

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Table 3 (continued) Pictures

Group P

HK Children

UK Children

• a cute sleeping cat

• It’s got details and it looks funny and nice; it’ll make a nice picture on the front of the card to send to your friend you haven’t seen for a long time • Em… I don’t really know. Because I like cats. The mouse is pulling a strange face • Because of the colors of it • I like animals and dogs. It’s funny to see the way he’s relaxing and everything • Well, I like pictures of cats and all sorts of animals • It makes me happy • I don’t know really … just like it … the stomach coming out • I like, em… the cat’s pretending to be asleep, so he got to jump out and catch the mouse • Because er… er…, he ate too much yeah, and he’s sleeping. When he gets up he’ll have a tummy ache. And that’s why I like it • Because it’s funny … because you don’t often see a cat sleeping in a bin and the mouse looks funny and cartoonie

5. Beauty is in the Eye of the Creator: The Child as Artist and as Beholder 5.1. What is in the eye of the child-beholder? Children see what they see, what they know and what they understand, what they feel and what they imagine: • What they see — the subject matter and colors in the picture: rainbow; cat.

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• What they know — the information in the picture: I know who it’s by (Vincent van Gogh). • What they understand — the concept or message in the picture: he’s relaxing; it’s funny; it’s old. • What they feel — the emotions conveyed: It makes me happy; I like cats. • What they imagine — interpreting the picture according to their own experience and imagination: the cat’s pretending to be asleep, so he got to jump out and catch the mouse; he ate too much … when he gets up he’ll have a tummy ache. It is now evident that when children draw like abstract expressionists, they appreciate the work of artists like Kandinsky. They read the pictures creatively even when the figures appear obscurely floating in the undefined space, with discontinued viewpoint, disconnected themes and scales of objects and space. This has led to a conclusion that abstract expressionists like Kandinsky and many others (e.g., Fineberg, 1998; Lyndon, 1936) who have done extensive research into children’s art have gained the love of their child-beholders universally (at least in one city in the East and one in the West). It is perhaps true that the sincerity of children’s drawings, non-carpentered, have the value of genuine feelings and therefore are aesthetically pleasing to adult as well as child beholders? As discussed earlier, there is interplay between the artist, the world and the beholders in it. It is initially the child’s creation that has inspired the abstract expressionists to create child-like pictures. Their efforts have now proved to have produced a desirable result amongst our child-beholders. Unexpectedly, children, also like van Gogh’s painting which introduces perspective and with obvious objects carefully arranged in the frame. This happens in both cities. For the children in the UK, it is easily justified because Van Gogh and his paintings were taught in the art class in school. UK Children like it because they at least know it and have got a lot to talk about. However, this is not the case for Hong Kong children. It was difficult to interpret why they like it because they talk so little about it. Preliminarily, it is the “richness” of the picture that they like because many of them said that it is good because there are a lot of stuff and a lot of colors in it. Together with the various items deliberately

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arranged by Van Gogh, the very strong effect of his brush strokes has created a very noisy and rich effect. Compared with the top picture Cossacks by Kandinsky, it is the only thing in common between them that I can identify. The older children also expressed that it is tidy and neat. Perhaps it is also the sense of balance in the composition that the children felt and liked so much. An attempt to contrast Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles with pictures that are never or very rarely chosen by children in both countries (A1, A3, F4, M4, H4, and C5) revealed that the least-liked pictures are either with very simple composition, few items of subject matter or few colors in general. A further reason would be the difficulty of the message presented in the card like H4. It needs some cultural background as well as specific experiences and perhaps maturity to understand the humor in it. In this light, is beauty not in things that carry personal meaning to the beholders? It is very interesting that children from two different cultures like the same pictures. There are two issues we need to address here: first, children all have a basic understanding of pictures, their understandings are constructed in the same way; second, the perception of art is innate. Overall, the findings from the current study support Arnheim’s claim that “development of pictorial form relies on basic properties of the nervous system, whose functioning is not greatly modified by cultural and individual differences” (1956, p. 167). Children’s responses to Van Gogh’s painting might be what Gombrich considered “some inborn disposition … to equate certain sensations with certain feeling tones” (1971, p. 58). This is perhaps why the UK’s Teletubbies has become so popular in Hong Kong. To date, some cross-cultural differences have been identified in Parsons (1987) as well as the study presented here. Potentially, cultural background and subcultures such as gender differences, socioeconomic background, educational background, economic and political factors would cause differences in the understanding or experience of the aesthetics. However, I would still argue that the understanding of pictorial art is universal. What we need from a psychological account is a framework for the

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process of understanding, some structural principles for evaluating the operation and construct, and a framework that is cross-temporal, crossspatial and cross-cultural. Universality is not equal to homogeneity!

5.2. The child as artist and as beholder “Look for what others don’t see.” — Sternberg & Lubart (1995)

Children first need to see creatively before they can draw or paint creatively (see Figures 2, 10 & 11).

Figure 10. Warplane and Aeroplanes by Wing Hei (boy, age 2 years and 10 months old, Hong Kong).

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Figure 11. Untitled drawing by Wing Hei (boy, age 4 years old, Hong Kong).

On the “seeing” side, children show us that they like the same pictures but they do not talk the same way about the pictures. Implicitly, children from the East and West see the same things but they may not be able to express or discuss verbally in the same way. Evidently, UK children’s discussions of all genres of pictures are a lot more interesting and substantial than that of Hong Kong children (see Table 3). The UK children are more prepared and equipped to talk about art. They are equipped with more vocabulary and perspectives in their expression — “looking on its own is frequently not enough. Finding words to describe and analyze pictures often provides the only way to help us progress from passive looking to active, perspective seeing” (Woodford, 1983, p. 13).

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The overwhelming response to subject matter and much less to other aspects among all children indicates the encouragement of techniqueoriented approach as suggested by Gardner (1994) and the highlighting of skills for realistic representation (Duncum, 1993). Hong Kong children are not taught copying step by step as described by Ellen Winner (1989). There is still much neglect in the areas of art appreciation and expression. Langer (1953) reminds us that art is a form of feeling, and Broudy suggested that art education should be able to “restore and strengthen the ability to perceive what the objects present rather than wonder what it portends” (1988, p. 173). Vygotsky noted as early as in 1933 that children’s responses to art resemble actions in their pretend-play or symbolic-play in which they apply their own meaning to what they imagine. If both “seeing” and “doing” contribute to a child’s development significantly, children’s creative but perhaps non-realistic creations deserve more of our respect and support. There may not be any intention in the child to represent things in an intellectual way. This kind of state is, in Baldwin’s term, “interest” (1911) and in Russell’s term “safer ground” (1989). This reflects a most salient cognitive point, the most “up-front” in consciousness at a given moment and it has also been described by Flavell, Flavell and Green (1983). On the “doing” side of pictorial art, children in Hong Kong will become “robotic” if adults carry on pressing for “carpentered” type of art from them. Indeed, pre/academic skills have been over-emphasized in Hong Kong (Opper, 1996), leaving creative and social development totally unattended. Everyday we are seeing images in the media, books and magazines, and we absorb them (see Figures 2 & 12). Importantly, we see actively and creatively with a critical mind. Eisner also noted in 1998 that the act of creation is not an unalterable schedule one follows, but a journey that unfolds. In this case, can little Bean’s unpleasant experience in her drawing class be avoided? Why rush children towards a realistic representation phase and jeopardize their all-round development?

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Figure 12. Untitled drawing by Wing Chuen (boy, age 4 years old, Hong Kong).

6. Conclusion A framework of the interplay of artist, beholder, pictures and the world helps to construct the possible pathways to the understanding and evaluation of children’s creations of graphic images. This is an epistemological advance. Empirically, the pioneering attempt to study children’s creative act in pictorial art from their own perspectives (children as beholder) reveals exciting results: their taste in pictorial art resembles their own work (e.g., Kandinsky and Klee) and their ideal work (e.g., van Gogh). I am inclined to the view, developed previously by many artists as well as some psychologists, that much of a child’s potential, including that for pictorial art, is innate. A cross-cultural comparison suggests that children’s artistic sensitivity/capacity in pictorial art appears to be universal.

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Acknowledgement The author would like to thank Wing Chuen and Wing Hei in Hong Kong, and Robert in Birmingham for providing the fascinating and charming drawings in the chapter. The author would also like to acknowledge the invaluable help of Prof. G. V. Thomas, Dr S. D. Montford, Dr C. L. Lai and Mr. M. C. H. Wong in commenting on the manuscript. Particular thanks are due to Mr. M. K. C. Lee and Ms. W. W. Y. Lee who have provided all the technical and clerical support, thus enabling all the illustrations and the chapter to be completed successfully and on time. Last but not least, the author is grateful to Ms. Juliet L. C. Lee, the inhouse editor of the book for all her help.

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Willats, J. (1985). Drawing systems re-visited: The role of denotational systems in children’s figure drawings. In N. Freeman & M. Cox (Eds.), Visual order: The nature and development of pictorial representation (pp. 78–100). Cambridge: Cambridge University press. Willats, J. (1987). Marr and pictures: An information processing account of children’s drawing. Archives de Psychologie, 55, 105–125. Willats, J. (1995). An information processing approach to drawing development. In C. Lange-Kuttner & G. V. Thomas (Eds.), Drawing and looking (pp. 27–43). Hertfordshire, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Wilson, B. (1992). Primitivism, the avant-garde and the art of little children. In D. Thistlewood (Ed.), Drawing research and development. London: London. Wilson, B., Hurwitz, A., & Wilson, M. (1987). Teaching drawing from art. Worcester: Davis. Winner, E. (1982). Invented worlds: The psychology of the arts. Boston, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Winner, E. (1989). How can Chinese children draw so well? Journal of Aesthetic Education, 23, 41–63. Winner, E., Rosenblatt, E., Windmueller, G., Davidson, L., & Gardner, H. (1986). Children’s perception of properties of the arts: Domain-specific or panartistic? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 149–160. Winston, A. S., Kenyon, B., Stewardson, J., & Lepine, T. (1995). Children’s sensitivity to expression of emotion in drawings. Visual Arts Research, 21, 1–14. Wolf, D., & Perry, M. D. (1988). From end points to repertoires: Some new conclusions about drawing development. Journal of Aesthetics Education, 2(1), 17–34. Woodford, S. (1983). Looking at pictures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Chapter 11 Blue Apples and Purple Oranges: When Children Paint Like Picasso1

Kay Cheng SOH National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

1. Are Children Creative? “At that age I could draw like Raphael … It took me years to learn to draw like these children.” — Pablo Picasso

Samuel is a 4-year-old boy. He loves drawing, or rather scribbling. Of late, he is passing through the scribbling stage and entering the preschematic stage (Lowenfeld & Brittan, 1987). In this stage, children make their first attempts to represent people and objects. What’s more, they value signs of approval from teachers and peers and are easily discouraged. At the same time, children at this stage are eager to learn but are self-centered. They are also highly imaginative and search for ways to express their ideas (DeBord, 1997). One day, Samuel was entertaining himself as usual with a few big sheets of drawing paper and a box of colorful marker-pens. He drew a few apples and a few oranges, but all in the wrong colors, apples in blue 1

Thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers who have given useful suggestions for improving an earlier version of the paper. As this paper is not meant to be a scholarly exposition but to communicate with practicing teachers and interested parents, an academic style of referencing is avoided. 263

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and oranges in purple. Like many children of his age, Samuel is fascinated with the wide spectrum of colors, but he favors blue and purple. Samuel’s mother was always encouraging towards what he does, but not this time. “What? Blue apples and purple oranges? Apples are green or red, and oranges are orange.” “N…o…! I like blue apples and purple oranges,” replied Samuel. “No. Look here,” the mother tried to convince him, showing a green apple and an orange orange. “N…o…! N…o…! I still like blue apples and purple oranges” Samuel protested persistently. “Let him be. He is creative,” said the grandfather who sat nearby reading a book on child creativity.

Figure 1. The Scream is by 10-year-old C. Courtney from Oklahoma, USA. The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s painting with the same title might have inspired Courtney.

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Sandwiched between two stubborn generations, the mother gave up. Our question here is: “When a young child draws blue apples and purple oranges, is he creative?” Before we move on, let us look at some drawings by children sampled from the Global Children’s Art Gallery on the Net (http://www.naturalchild.com/gallery/).2 These are the masterpieces of children.

Figure 2. From Legend is the work of another 10-year-old but from Canada, U. Alina. It was rendered with Microsoft paintbrush. Those of us familiar with Picasso’s 1937 Guernica which depicts the destruction of a village during the Spain’s Civil War may recognize Alina’s main figure as an overlay of the horse and the woman’s head in Guernica but in the reversed direction.

2

The pictures illustrated have been reprinted with permission of the Global Children’s Art Gallery at http://www.naturalchild.org/gallery, where prints are available as a fundraising item.

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Figure 3. Upside Down, and Inside Out: At Night Time the Sun Will Come Out (what a mouthful title!) is another work using Microsoft paintbrush. The painter is B. Marina, aged 12, from Canada. Is Marina a young van Gogh or Matisse?

The last one we shall see is Mandolin and Guitar. The master is a 42-year-old “child” from Spain and his name is Pablo Picasso. Picasso said, “At that age I could draw like Raphael … It took me years to learn to draw like these children.” He was 75 when he said these words. As we all know, Picasso changed his styles several times throughout his long artistic career. At the age of 15, he produced some very fine works in the classical style that made many of his seniors colorless. Ultimately, he attained the child-like style at an advanced age that made him look naïve. In other words, Picasso seems to have reversed the artistic developmental stages. When he said, “It took me years to learn to draw like these children,” he was perhaps delighted or even elated that he had re-gained his childhood naïveté or his version of sophisticated simplicity.

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Children are creative. This is an observation very difficult to disagree with, especially when we have looked at children’s behavior like that of Samuel and the other children’s colorful brilliance and unusual imagination. Picasso’s admiration for children’s art adds to the weight of such a conclusion. More testimonies can be found in the biographies of many great artists and as observed by Fineberg (1995): “Many prominent artists, including Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro have been intensely interested in the art of children — collecting it, exhibiting it (some times along their own work), and most important of all, taking specific formal cues from it.”

Children are creative. Popular literature and advertisements of children art programs assert. Serious psychological literature also lends support to this. Moreover, studies of age trends of creativity shows that children become less creative once they enter the school, and the longer they are there, the less creative they become (Dacey, 1980). So, we have to agree that children are creative. But, are they, really? When children paint like Munch, van Gogh, Matisse, or Picasso, are they really creative? Maybe. Maybe not. The answer depends on what we understand as being creative.

2. What Is Creativity? This heading sounds trite. There are already in existence a plethora of definitions of creativity. Why would one want to bother to have another go at defining creativity once more? No, we are not going to do that, but we need to re-consider creativity in the context of children’s art (as contrasted with creativity in science). Perhaps, the most frequently cited characteristics of creativity is that given by Jerome Bruner (1962), effective surprise. Effective implies being useful or fitting; we have no quarrel with this. Surprise deserves some thoughts. It implies new, unexpected, unprecedented, unusual, unconventional, etc. In other words, something creative is something deviant, although not all things deviant are creative. In fact, the

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International Child Art Foundation (1999) defines creativity more broadly to go beyond the visual art as “the arrangement of forms, objects, and facts in a new order by conceptual and emotional activity of the mind”. This would, however, embrace creativity in both the art and science. Such phrases as rule breaking and breaking new ground have been used to describe ideas that are considered creative — deviating from the familiar, habitual, and predictable. In the popular parlance of today, to think creatively is to think out-of-the-box (a popularized parlance for thinking beyond boundaries). Rule breaking, breaking new ground and thinking out-of-box imply that the person doing these are aware of rules, boundaries, and perimeters. When Picasso painted like children, he was fully aware that he was consciously breaking old rules, albeit his very own, trying to deviate from the habits he had learned over years. In this sense, he was unlearning what he had learnt. But are children aware of rules, boundaries, and perimeters when they paint like Picasso? When Samuel drew blue apples and purple oranges, he, obviously, from his mother’s (or the adult’s) perspective, broke the rule, deviating from what to adults is familiar, habitual, and predictable. In other words, he drew out of the box. So, he is creative, only from the adult’s perspective. He is not aware that, in the adult’s experience and hence expectation, apples are only either green or red and oranges only orange. This is the adult’s rules, boundaries, and the perimeters. In his mind, apples and oranges can be in any colors that he fancies and the possibility knows no limits. When children like Samuel paint as they like, without being aware of the convention, they are spontaneous. To equate this with being creative stretches the adult’s imagination, though just a little. Perhaps, because adults have long lost their childlike spontaneity, they wish they could paint like children, and such nostalgia leads naturally to admiration and sets in motion the labeling process. Hence, the common observation and the belief that children are creative. Here, Picasso is a good example when he admired the characteristics of children’s drawings. If awareness of convention and if conscious deviation from it are the hallmarks of creativity, the logical conclusion, then, is that children are not creative as we always believe and like to see them as. They are

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simply spontaneous, doing things the ways they like with no knowledge of and concern for what adults expect. Spontaneity may (and may not) be an essential element of creativity, but to equate the two is a different story. Thus, going back to the research finding that children become less creative when they go to school, perhaps, we should re-phrase by saying that children become less spontaneous when they go to school. They are advised, guided, persuaded, even coerced to restrain their natural spontaneity — they are trained to do so and they learn to do so. In a sense, they are “domesticated”. Those children who fail to learn to stay within boundaries or the boxes are seen as being unruly, ill-disciplined, and worse, wild and rebellious.

3. How Can We Maintain Children’s Spontaneity? “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” — Pablo Picasso

If children are by nature spontaneous (though not consciously creative), our problem concerns how we can help them maintain spontaneity (which may be a building block of creativity). The need to remain spontaneous is reflected in the following quotations: “The artist has to look at life as he did when he was a child and if he loses that faculty, he cannot express himself in an original, that is, personal way.” — Henri Matisse

And, “The older I get and the more I master the medium, the more I return to my earlier experiences. I think at the end of my life, I will recover all the force of my childhood.” — Joan Miro

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There is no dearth of advice as to how to encourage child creativity (spontaneity) in books on child development and web pages on children’s art. Going through these, some themes are recurring and they are easily remembered using an acronym SOFT — stimulation, opportunity, freedom, time, and acceptance. Let me elaborate.

3.1. Stimulation Human brain by nature is active. It interacts with the stimulation the environment provides to keep healthy. Studies of sensory deprivation show poor mental functioning among children growing up in poor environment and undergraduates experimentally deprived of cohesive stimulation. Providing children with a wide variety of stimulation ensures healthy minds and affords them with enriched visual, tactile, audio, and kinetic information that they can use to generate more combinations and patterns. These are the essence of spontaneity and hence potential creativity. By implication, school curriculum that concentrates almost exclusively on the left-brain subjects does not maximize the brainpower children are endowed with.

3.2. Opportunity The opportunity to acquire information and materials and to combine and re-arrange them in different ways allows children to “practice” and actualize their inborn spontaneity. Without the opportunity to explore and experiment, the acquired information is reduced to mere inert data, waiting to be used fruitfully. By implication, classroom practices that emphasize drills and reproduction deprive children of the needed exploration and hence discourage child spontaneity.

3.3. Freedom It is self-contradictory to tell students, “Be creative, do it this way.” Exploration and experimentation call for freedom to do as the children see fit. More than the freedom to explore and experiment, children need

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the freedom to ask questions, to disagree, and to make what adults may consider as mistakes. When children stop asking questions, agree with everything the teacher says, and are fearful of making mistakes, spontaneity ends. Rejection of Samuel’s blue apples and purple oranges will make him conscious of adult expectation and cautious in choosing colors (and perhaps other aspects of drawing, too) the next time. This deprives him of the freedom of expression. Accepting children’s ideas, efforts and outputs (even if they are not acceptable by adult standards) will maintain the natural impetus of being spontaneous.

3.4. Time Shortage of time is a modern phenomenon. This is accentuated by the fast developing information technologies. But, shortage of time is the worst enemy of creativity that by definition will come at the end of a period of exhaustive exploration, if it comes at all. Teachers who are always in a hurry and therefore hurry their children are much less likely to have creative ideas coming from their classrooms. Without sufficient time, children will not be able to maintain their spontaneity even if they have access to stimulation, opportunity, and freedom. In relation to SOFT, it is worth considering the common practice and consequences of having a competition and reward. Competition and reward are widely used to motivate children to learn and excel. The assumption of having a competition is that it allows the school to identify excellent achievers. The achievers thus located will then be rewarded for their performance and at the same time they will serve as role models for the other participants to emulate, with the tacit hope that they will also put in more effort to do better the next round. To what extent this really works is a topic warranting research effort. But, one thing is for sure: when we recognize three children, we disappoint all the other contestants at the same time. As for the practice of reward, psychological studies have shown that when children who enjoy drawing were rewarded with things not directly related to the activity, they turned their focus onto the rewards and lost interest in drawing. The irony of reward is that those who are given do

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not need it and those who need it do not get it. To children (and perhaps adults, too) who enjoy an activity, the best reward is further opportunity to engage in that activity, because the coveted activity has motivating power in and of itself, and extrinsic and irrelevant rewards may detract at best and punish at worst. This does not mean that child spontaneity (and hence potential creativity) should not be rewarded. The caution is that the nature, effects, and perceptions of the rewarded children and those not rewarded need to be considered in the choice and administration of rewards.

4. Should Spontaneity and Social Responsibility Go Together? “The world today does not make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” — Pablo Picasso

In our zeal to maintain child spontaneity, do we set limits? If we do, are we not contradicting ourselves? The adult version of this question is, “Should creative people be held responsible to the society?” I am fully aware that here I am treading a dangerous minefield. The romantic image of creative people being isolated, irrational, radical, and unappreciated is fast disappearing. It therefore cannot be considered too early that, while making efforts to maintain child spontaneity, we also develop their sense of social responsibility, so that they will grow up as well-adjusted adults who dare to deviate from the society in a rational and respectful but not confrontational and resentful manner. This means that we need to bring to the awareness of spontaneous children concepts such as appropriate time and place as well as consideration for others, in addition to self.

4.1. Time and place Histories of arts as well as of sciences have witnessed many frustrated creative people who found themselves in the wrong time or in the wrong place, or both. It was the mismatch between the society and the creative

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people that caused conflicts and tension, to the disadvantage of both parties. If the 19th and earlier centuries were guilty of being insensitive to geniuses, the 20th century perhaps erred on the other side. With these lessons learnt, the 21st century should do better. There is an appropriate time and place to be spontaneous, and there is an appropriate time and place to exercise a certain degree of selfrestraint. There is therefore the need for us to develop in children the wisdom to see the difference between the two and to behave accordingly. If the world does not make sense, as Picasso once said, all the more the younger generation should make an effort to make sense of their own world and help other less creative people to make sense of it, too. This can be achieved only when the creative people express, question, and explore not only by using appropriate procedures and media but also at an appropriate time and place. Bamboo is black in classical Chinese paintings but green in the nature. Stars are five-pointed or six-pointed depending on the religions. Red signifies prosperity and white bereavement in the Chinese culture, but they signal danger and purity, respectively, in the West. Differences such as these require of the creative people an awareness of and sensitivity to cultural meanings, especially those growing up and going to contribute in multi-cultural environments. Sooner or later, Samuel will learn that he can have blue apples and purple oranges when enjoying art, but he will have to describe apples as either green or red and oranges orange during a science lesson. (With genetic technology, Samuel’s blue apples and purple oranges may, however, come to pass one of these days.) The wisdom Samuel needs to develop is the ability to differentiate between doing art and doing science while keeping in view other possibilities. To teach this is by no means easy, but we have to teach him and many other children like him just that, if they are to maintain their spontaneity as well as grow up welladjusted and fitting into the future world of theirs.

4.2. Others and self Others and self are mutual complements; one does not exist without the other. It is most unfortunate that, in the past, creative people who needed

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the society and the society that needed them were seen as anti-entities and each behaved according to this view with mistrust toward each other. In the process of creating, creative people have to detach themselves from the surrounding and transcend the crowd. They need to do this in order to give their creativity a free reign, but this is a temporary suspension of reality. Permanent suspension of reality is psycho-pathological. It is a disease both creative people and the society can beneficially do without. Many cases can be cited to illustrate the tension between creative people and the society of the past. But, that is history; the future may be and have to be different. Creative people of the future need to be people who are able to move freely, emotionally speaking, between their own personal worlds and the world of other people, the creative people included. To teach this, again, is easier said than done, but we need to.

5. Art and Beyond Thus far, the discussion has focused mainly on visual spontaneity (or potential visual creativity). This, as you certainly have sensed it, was simplified for the sake of clarity. The same principles propounded here are equally applicable to other forms of spontaneity, be it in sound (music), movement (dance), or words (literature). At least, I hope they do. It may be extended to science, although scientific creativity is said to be more a logical extension than emergence of spontaneity and hence is different from artistic creativity.

6. Conclusion Children are spontaneous but not necessarily creative, if creativity implies breaking away from the familiar. However, spontaneity is essential to creativity and hence effort is needed to maintain child spontaneity so as to enhance potential creativity. To maintain child spontaneity, our education needs to provide children with stimulation, opportunity, freedom, and time. The tension between creative people and society in the future may be disappearing due to a changed context. Children need to be taught to discern the appropriate time and place for spontaneity and creativity and

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be especially aware of cultural differences. In addition, they need to develop a rational relationship between self and others so that both will be mutually supporting.

References Bruner, J. (1962). The condition of creativity. In H. Bruber, G. Terrel, & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to creative thinking. New York: Atherton Press. Dacey, J. S. (1980). Peak periods of creative growth across the lifespan. Journal of Creative Behavior, 23(4), 224–242. DeBord, K. (1997). Child development: Creativity in young children. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Fineberg, J. (1995, April). The innocent eye. ARTnews. Global Children Art Gallery. http://www.naturalchild.com/gallery/. International Child Art Foundation (1999). http://www.icaf.org/why.htm. Lowenfeld, V., & Brittan, W. L. (1987). Creative and mental growth (8th ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

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Chapter 12 Singapore’s Creativity Education: A Framework of Fostering Constructive Creativity

Ai-Girl TAN National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This chapter presents Singapore’s creativity educational contexts from which a framework of constructive creativity emerges. The chapter first delineates an overview of Singapore’s creativity education. Then, it presents a framework of constructive creativity with special discussions on its meanings for education. The chapter also implies how this framework can help to facilitate teachers’ openness to embark on constructive creativity in education.

1. Introduction 1.1. Reflection Recent reviews of the reception of creativity in Singapore evidently point to some considerations in creativity education (Tan, 2000). Among them is the proposal of a general framework of creativity that highlights the importance of teachers’ conceptions of creativity, their understanding of creativity processes and their professional competence and dispositions suitable for fostering creativity. The framework was employed to facilitate discussions on teachers’ conceptions of creativity for primary school children of different learning abilities (Tan, 2003a; Tan & Goh, 2003).

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It is argued that a general framework is indispensable as it provides an intellectual and emotional platform for teachers to work through their beliefs of and to work with their engagement in creativity education. This claim is valid if we refer to teachers’ self-reports of classroom experiences pertaining to enhancing creativity, from which surfaced a distinct discrepancy between their understanding of knowing what is good and their act of doing what may work. In a retrospective study, we learned that teachers seldom conduct learning activities they believed could enhance creativity. Instead, they spent most of their instructional time carrying out routine and teacher-centered activities. Teachers attributed their inconsistent behavior to reasons such as insufficient curricular time, inadequate support, incompetence and low self-confidence (Tan, 2001). All teachers agree to a certain extent with the statement that every child or person has the potential to be creative in one or more domains (see Gardner, 1985). Our survey of 207 teachers confirmed this claim. Of the total, 91.8% rated “Agree to a great extent” and “Totally agree” to the statement that every child has the potential to be creative. Asked if “every child can think creatively”, only 70.6% chose “Agree to a great extent” and “Totally agree”. Nearly one third had a reserved view. There seemed to be a gap between teachers’ views of having the potential and having the ability to be creative. Also, teachers find it difficult to remove the societal stigma that creative persons are unpopular among friends. The creative persons are perceived as less hard working. Creativity is associated with academically able groups (Tan, 2003a). Given a choice to facilitate intervention programs to enhance creativity, teachers are likely to choose high academic achievers (Tan & Goh, 2003) or gifted students (Ng-L, 2001). At the organizational level in Singapore, in place to support creativity education are symposiums, workshops and conferences on creativity. Nonetheless, at the individual level, queries related to the inclusion of creativity to education are still centered on the question of “can creativity be taught?” (e.g., Tan, 2003b) It seems that there exists an interface gap between organizational commitment and individualized engagement in unfolding creative potentials. What is the cause of this gap?

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In a 2-hour session, a group of course participants held a dialogue with an invited speaker to their weekly meeting on the module “On Becoming a Creative Teacher”. The meeting introduced free discussion on the current status of creativity education in Singapore. In the midst of the discussion, a course participant released her stress related to her difficulties in carrying out creative activities in the classroom. She was in search of a direction from a higher authority (Tan-K, 2003). Her voice transmitted distinctly her internal struggles to regulate her roles as a young professional who was embarking on unconventional ways of fostering creativity in a systematic and structural educational system that values high academic performances and competitiveness. The experiences cited above stimulate our reflection on the aim of education. Did the gap emerge from the unclear aims of education or the indistinct roles of creativity in education at the individualized level? “A framework” instead of “the framework” is used to indicate to the readers the scope of our presentation. Our framework is specific, as it is derived from our teaching and supervision experiences in Singaporean society, a young nation that has attempted to strive for excellence in the socio-economic, educational, technological and political domains. Building upon our previous framework that had addressed general issues of concerns in creativity education (Tan, 2003a; Tan & Goh, 2003), our revised framework discussed below focuses on individualized creativity in the context of enriched educational infrastructures. Specifically, our revised framework highlights the nurturing of constructive creativity, or creative behaviors that are ethical, beneficial and useful for humanity and mankind (Tan, 2003c).

1.2. Organization This chapter is organized into four parts. Part I presents the contexts in which our framework of constructive creativity emerges, and the organization of this chapter. Part II delineates an overview of Singapore’s creativity education. Part III presents our framework of constructive creativity with special discussions on its meanings for education. Part IV implies how this framework can help to facilitate teachers’ openness to embark on constructive creativity in education.

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2. An Overview of Singapore’s Creativity Education 2.1. The city-island country Singapore is an island country in Southeast Asia, situated off the southern tip of Malaysia. The country has limited land area (682.3 square kilometres, as of 2001). Singapore’s total population count (residents and foreigners) as of June 30, 2000, stood at 4.0 million people. Of the total, 76.8% were Chinese, 13.9% Malays, 7.9% Indians, and the remaining 1.4%, other ethnic groups. From a total of 2.6 millions of residents, half of them believe in Buddhism (42.5%) and Taoism (8.5%), nearly one third of them are Christians (14.6%) or Muslims (14.9%) and 4% believe in Hinduism. The population’s life expectancy at birth for male is 75.6 years and for female is 79.6 years (June 2000). Since its independence in 1965, over a span of three and a half decades, Singapore has achieved a relatively high living standard. Singapore has withstood the Asian economic crisis well. After hitting the trough in 1998 with a growth rate of 0.4%, Singapore achieved a real economic growth rate of 5.4% in 1999 (Economic Survey of Singapore, 1999). It has a zero inflation rate and a significantly low unemployment rate (4.4% of the total population) (for details, please refer to the website at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/STATS). The English language and/or mother tongues (Mandarin, Malay and Tamil) are Singapore’s official languages. Adopting the meritocracy system, the country has successfully educated qualified professionals and skilled workers. Singapore’s literacy rate is high, at 93%, with mean years of schooling numbering 7.8 (Teo, 1999). Based on statistics from the World Competitive Yearbook (1999, extracted from Teo, 1999), Singapore’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure ranked moderately high (11 out of 47 nations), with 344 computers per 1000 people and 13.45 hosts per 1000 people connected to the Internet (ranked 19 out of 47 nations). With respect to academic achievement, Singapore ranked first (out of 53 nations) in a survey reported in the Global Competitive Yearbook (1998, extracted from Teo, 1999). Successful socio-cultural systems depend on the continuous availability of creative ideas and innovative actions (see e.g., Simonton, 1988). To

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maintain growth, as stated in the handbook of educational desired outcomes (Ministry of Education, 1998) and speeches by Ministers (e.g., Lee, 1996; Teo, 1996) and the Prime Minister (e.g., Goh, 1996; Goh, 1999), enhancing creativity is a necessity for Singapore’s socio-economic, technological, and educational advancement. It was in this context that creativity in education took off in Singapore.

2.2. Before the 1970s The Guilford’s (1950) historical message marks the start of scientific creativity research in the modern era. The new scientific venture into the study of creativity attracted researchers across disciplines (e.g., education, psychology and economics) and resulted in the publication of the first international creativity journal in 1967, the Journal of Creative Behavior. During this period, creative imagination was regarded as one of the essential aspects for Singapore’s educational reform (Goh, 1972). Nonetheless, there was a lack of systematic studies and writings on this theme.

2.3. The 1980s The second impulsion of creativity research was observed in the 1980s. Socio-cultural theories, models and frameworks of creativity were developed (e.g., Amabile, 1983; Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; Runco & Albert, 1990; Simonton, 1988; Sternberg, 1988), drawing upon the earlier, yet less appealing idea that the study of creativity has to include four aspects: Person, Process, Product and Press (4Ps) (Rhodes, 1961). The effort in constructing socially acceptable connotations for creativity was observed. Creativity is not only a product of geniuses, talented or eminent people, but also a possible product of the common people (Sternberg, 1985). In 1988, the second international creativity journal, the Creativity Research Journal, was inaugurated. During this period, Asian leaders from some of the modernized and industrialized societies overtly addressed the importance of nurturing innovative and inventive minds.

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In Singapore, the intensity of the drive to foster creative minds increased (Lim & Gopinathan, 1990). Innovations in the areas of curriculum (Ang & Yeoh, 1990), pedagogy (e.g., multimedia systems) (Chin, 1983), school management (Tan-J, 1996), learning activities (e.g., games and team teaching), economy (e.g., National Productivity Board, 1986) and science and technology (e.g., Seminar on Engineering and Innovation in the 80s, 1980) were highlighted. Towards the end of the 1980s, Thinking Programs were initiated in several secondary schools.

2.4. The 1990s A continuous momentum of creativity research from that of the 1980s was experienced before the end of the twentieth century. Two handbooks (Runco & Pritzker, 1999; Sternberg, 1999) and several books (e.g., Amabile, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi, 1997; Simonton, 1994, 1999) on creativity were published. One of the highlights of these publications was the acknowledgement of the intimate interaction between the individual and socio-cultural contexts in creativity endeavour. Another highlight was seen in the introduction of the creative cognition framework, employing cognitive psychological approaches to understanding cognitive processes in creative contexts (Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992). Its introduction opened up a practical and an empirical paradigm for creativity research (Smith, Ward & Finke, 1997; Ward, Smith, & Vaid, 1997). In Singapore, aspirations to enhance creativity became prevalent in the 1990s. Various institutions such as the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA, 1992), the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB, 1994) and the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB, 1991) initiated awards for talented artists, business organizations and researchers in science and technology, respectively. During this period, attaining high academic achievement was a “norm” in education. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Singapore eighth graders’ scores in science (1995: 580, 1999: 568) and mathematics (1995: 609, 1999: 604) were far above the international average (1999: mathematics = 487, science = 488) (Ministry of Education, 2000a). Despite the fact that education held great promises for high academic achievement, Singapore’s leaders called for educational innovations.

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Three major programs were released in 1997. The National Education (NE) program called for national aspirations to implant a strong sense of community (Lee, 1997). The Information Technology (IT) Master Plan embarked on a journey to improve the IT infrastructure of educational institutions and the skills of educational officers, educators, teachers and students (Teo, 1997). The Thinking Schools and a Learning Nation (TSLN) framework outlined the directions for cultivating habits and culture of thinking (creativity, problem solving and critical thinking) among students of all levels (Goh, 1997). Collectively, they brought forth a new educational paradigm that addresses holistic development (affective, infrastructure and cognitive) of the individual through citizenship education, character building and inculcation of moral values. In relation to this aspiration, a document — the Desired Outcomes of Education (DOE) (Ministry of Education, 1998) was released, spelling out explicitly the desirable values and skills of students at each level as well as of future leaders of the society. Subsequently, the Ability Driven Education (ADE) paradigm was proposed with the intention to develop the full spectrum of talents and abilities in every child. Embedded in this paradigm is the desire to modify teaching and assessment methods for nurturing creativity and thinking skills, and for encouraging knowledge generation and application (Ministry of Education, 2000b). Subsequently, numerous initiatives emerged which included the endorsement of a 9-year compulsory education for all, preschool and special education school curricula and structural changes, the establishment of the Teachers’ Network, cluster schools and large-scale school physical environment up-grading projects (PRIME). Supporting the child-centered, person-centered and client-centered approaches are the introduction of the School Excellence Model, efforts to reduce class size, allowing of choices in the secondary curriculum and the setting up of pastoral care units in schools. Other infrastructures that support the implementation of educational excellence are such as recruitment of graduate teachers, revision of teachers’ salaries and career tracks, opportunities for continuous education and annual teacher conferences.

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2.5. The 2000s Prior to and after the turn of the century, this nationwide aspiration to cultivate creative minds was revealed in the East Asian and Southeast Asian regions. It was documented in an annual report on the promotion of science and technology by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MECSST) in Japan (http://www.mext.go.jp, 2001). In 2003, Japan implemented its new curricula that embedded the intention to individualize education for the wellness of every child. There are the Japanese creative artistic activities (the Japan Arts Fund) and creativity in science and technology (http://www.mext.go.jp). Likewise, in Singapore, the efforts of TSLN, ADE and other programs continued. In Malaysia, there is the SMART school project (e.g., http:// www.geocities.com/smkbainun). Then there is Brunei’s Thoughtful Schools concept (Sim, 1999). A similar line of thought is observed in Hong Kong (http://www.ed.gov.hk, http://www.e-c.edu.hk), Macau (http://www.macau.gov.mo), Taiwan (http://www.edu.tw) and China. Cross regional collaborations and support were observed among educators and academics in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China (Soh, 2003). The new millennium began with a clear status of creativity’s importance within Singapore’s education system. Emerging from the shadow of “thinking”, creativity research in education, pedagogy and practice in education received somewhat significant attention. There are five main features associated with creativity in Singapore since 2000. First, the multidisciplinary nature of creativity has gained gradual acceptance in Singaporean society. I cite some evidence to support this statement: (i) The Teachers’ Network and the Civil Service College regularly organize creativity workshops, and these always attract a large number of participants across subject matters. (ii) Project work was introduced to primary and secondary school curricula for interdisciplinary themes. Creativity was included into the list of assessment criteria. (iii) Some secondary schools, such as Raffles Institution (RI), Raffles Girl’s School (RGS) and Chinese High (CH), have included creativity as a subject in their curricula.

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(iv) An annual forum on creativity in arts, science and technology was initiated by multiple community organizations. The forum is interdisciplinary in nature as displayed by its line-up of speakers, themes and agencies that sponsor and organize the forum. Second, in 2000, Singapore identified life sciences as a niche domain for economic investments and scientific breakthroughs. Extensive funds have been allocated to life sciences research and education. At the school curricular level, in 2001, the Ministry of Education increased the proportion of cellular and molecular biology in the curriculum. Biotechnology and genetic engineering were introduced as subjects for the Ordinary-level examinations (student age: 16 years). Primary school students were introduced to basic life sciences. Older students who show exceptional promise in the sciences were sent on mentoring programs to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other renowned institutions to work with professors on research projects. As a new pillar of economic growth, life sciences attracted investments from Singapore’s Economic Development Board, in biomedical companies and corporate research centers. The new Genome Institute of Singapore and the new DNA center were established and housed on the campus grounds of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). In 2002, at NTU, a new school of biological sciences was established. At the National University of Singapore (NUS), a new life science cross-disciplinary program was initiated, offering undergraduates a base in molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, microbiology, bio-informatics and genetics studies. The NUS research teams brought forth breakthroughs in gene therapy for treating water pollution, and embryonic stem cells that can be used to regenerate damaged organs. Polytechnics (e.g. Ngee Ann; there are in total, six polytechnics in Singapore) offer life science courses at the Diploma level. The DNA center and its new learning laboratory at NIE and the Singapore Science Center (Teo, 2003) are led by teams of eminent scientists. The teams work closely with the Ministry of Education to provide learning and research opportunities for the young. To complement researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR, a government initiative focused on developing scientific talents) centers,

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the DNA teams (motto: learning and discovery) also scaffold talented secondary school students to develop their research talents. Third, in March 2003, a Dean was appointed to head the Center for Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP, a new educational research center). The CRPP within the NIE structure would house 30 full-time staff. The center is mandated to embark on longitudinal classroom-based projects nationwide in the areas of English literacy, science and mathematics literacy, as well as information and communication technology, and with foci on the following: thinking skills, social contexts of learning, brain research and socio-emotional and physical development. The goals of the classroom-based projects are to develop different teaching and learning models and design interventions that enable the potential of different groups to be maximized. Post-graduates and post-doctorates have been invited to manage the research projects. Experts in the areas of pedagogy and other disciplines are encouraged to attach themselves to the center to assist and design interventions, including those for fostering critical and creative thinking. Fourth, developing talents by maximizing potential that may surface in non-academic domains (e.g., sport, arts and music) is included in Singapore’s broad-based education system. All students, regardless of academic performance, are required to take part in co-curricular activities (CCA). The CCA record serves as a document to support local university admission application. CCA cover areas such as community services, music and choir and visual and performing arts. It is believed that broadbased education provides interdisciplinary opportunities and can help develop flexible, non-academic and creative talents. Accordingly, visual and performing arts are perceived as a motivating force to help generate a vibrant and colorful school and community culture. Choral and music education was introduced to develop students’ habits for aesthetic appreciation. Culture weeks are often scheduled at university halls of residence. During these weeks, student residents take part in stage performances which include composing songs and designing dances. Fifth, creativity is conceptualized in the socio-psychological contexts of education and are seen in dissertations at the Master level. Examples of such dissertations are: Exploring children’s conceptions of the creative characteristics of a teacher (Raslinda, 2001), Creativity in learning science

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using computers (Ng-L, 2001), Using metaphor to enhance creative Chinese writing (Teo, 2002) and Using Information Technology (IT) to foster creative English writing (Dianaros, 2001). There are also the increased academic writings on creativity for science education (Tan, Lee, Goh, & Chia, 2002) and reasons for Asians’ low creativeness (Ng-A, 2001). Singapore is fortunate to receive substantial support from its top leaders for creativity education and research. With such support, Singapore in a short period of time has successfully installed pipeline research and technological infrastructures. Our question is: how can these infrastructures facilitate individualized creativity?

3. Constructive Creativity 3.1. General framework A framework of constructive creativity is built upon the main points delineated in a general framework for fostering creativity. Fostering creativity refers to a teacher’s efforts to uncover and develop the potential of every individual pupil. A general framework for fostering creativity is meant to enhance every person’s creativeness. First, it is assumed that every individual has the potential to be creative in one or more domains (see Gardner, 1993). There is a continuum from the low levels of creativity observed in everyday life to historically significant advances in science, literature and the arts. The assumption implies that every individual is able to produce work that is creative to some degree and in some domain of endeavor (Amabile, 1996). Second, creativity can be nurtured when the pre-requisite components (e.g., motivation, intelligence, knowledge, skills) (Amabile, 1983) exist within the individual, and between the individual and his/her environment (Csikzentmihalyi, 1997). Specific cognitive processes and structures contribute to the creative acts and products (Finke et al., 1992). Social, cultural and environmental factors can affect the kinds of cognitive processes employed in a particular situation or context. Third, creative processes are individualized cognition involving the idea generation and exploration phases. During the idea generation phase,

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the individual proposes numerous pre-inventive structures which may be ambiguous yet novel. These structures can be refined in the exploration phase (Finke et al., 1992). The individual can either evaluate the structures (intrapersonal) or invite other people to appreciate and judge them (interpersonal). For the latter, a consensual technique of assessing can be adopted, so that invited experts (i.e., colleagues) (Amabile, 1983) and novices (e.g., students or peers) (Finke, 1990) can evaluate the creative products. Fourth, teachers must acquire pedagogical competence (e.g., planning lessons, selecting suitable teaching models and managing behaviors). They should possess sufficient content knowledge and skills and must be interested in teaching effectively and creatively. In addition, they should also acquire creative skills and techniques, as well as cultivate dispositions related to fostering creativity. To enhance their professionalism, it is indispensable for teachers to receive ample social support (e.g., from colleagues and parents) and have opportunities to display and develop various role-identities (e.g., being caring and creative) (see McCall & Simmons, 1978; Petkus, 1996).

3.2. Individualized framework For an individualized framework of creativity, we highlight the fostering of constructive creativity in education. The adjective constructive entails connotations such as being open to all experiences (Rogers, 1961), being useful, being ethical, having self-care and care for others and being humanistic. A framework of constructive creativity, in addition to the four main points delineated in a general framework of creativity, has the following points. First, the essence of education, pedagogy and teaching is to develop a person fully. Education is “person-centered” and focuses on the personal development of the individual (Hinchliffe, 2001). The outcome of education is growth, to become a person, fully human (e.g., Dewey, 1938/1997; Freire, 2002). The persons in the process of education “being more fully human” (Freire, 2002, p. 44), restore true generosity, conquest

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freedom and use “their power to create and recreate in their power to transform the world” (Freire, 2002, p. 48). “An educated person is one who seeks to understand what this world has been and is and how that explains, if only in part, what that person is and wants to become” (Sarason, 1993, p. 28; italics in the original sentence). The act of seeking refers to taking responsibility for the scope and direction of his/her education and teaching the child to acquire skills, and also to meld the world of the child with the world of adults. In order to be or become, education is constantly made into praxis (Freire, 2002). Pedagogy sees to the social and economic role which the individual might play (Hinchliffe, 2001). Originated from the Greek word “paidagogia”, pedagogy means “the leading of a slave or child”. The term pedagogy thus seems to be connected with ideas of training and disciplining with the purpose of developing a well-formed person. Pedagogy relates to social, economic and political requirements which a state requires from its education system. It addresses skills which society needs. The nature of pedagogy is to develop critical powers concerned with “the developing of the learner in a certain direction so as to develop the appropriate qualities of creativity, adaptability and flexibility” (Hinchliffe, 2001, p. 37). Hence, an element of education is needed to complement all this. What education does is to focus on the needs and development of the individual. Education should be viewed as a way of exploring and expanding our understanding of our future optimistically in relation to humanity’s history, accomplishments and purposes (see Sarason, 1993). As such, teaching is an interactive, experiential and creative profession, as cited below. “Teaching is performing before and with an audience. Knowing that his or her audience has been ‘captured’ is truly a moving, satisfying experience for a teacher … Teaching challenges your creativity. Teachers … have to feel they are alive, interested, and belong … Teaching has to become a social profession” (Sarason, 1993, pp. 53–72; italics in original). Second, education is a process to become a person who self-cares and cares for others. Care is value-guided practice. It emerges as a response to a need. It explicitly acknowledges and equally respects all aspects of a need. Care includes everything that we do to maintain, continue and repair our world

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(i.e., our bodies, ourselves and our environment) so that we can live in it as well as possible (Tronto, 1993). “Care implies responding to another out of something more than pure interest. Care also implies that this response will lead to an action” (Pantazidou & Nair, 1999, p. 207). There are five phases of care (Tronto, 1993): caring about (attentiveness), taking care (responsibility), care giving (competence), care receiving (responsiveness) and the ethic or integrity of care. (i) Care about: the phase of recognizing the correct need and realizing that care is necessary. (ii) Taking care: the phase that involves assuming some responsibility for the identified need and determining how to respond to it. (iii) Care giving: the phase where the need is met. (iv) Care receiving: the phase where the object of care will respond to the care it receives. (v) The ethic of care or integrity of care: the four moral elements of care are integrated into an appropriate whole. The ethic of care is best expressed as an activity. It is about respecting a person’s wishes, desires, needs and wants. It is about empowering a person with basic needs and ample support for his/her optimal functioning. It thus means providing a person with opportunities to grow physically, emotionally, cognitively, socio-culturally and spiritually. Also, it refers to ensuring a person’s quality of life and wellness as the forefront of all human relationships. Care is in a relation. “To make care central in society means that we pay attention to others’ needs, that we take up our responsibility to do something about these; that we develop the competencies and the adequate means to achieve that, and that we listen how others evaluate our actions” (Smeyers, 1999). Care for the person includes care for those around him/her who support his/her growth. Hence, the unit of care is the person and his/her loved ones, as well as his/her contemporaries, predecessors and successors. Care involves feelings of acceptance and acts of giving and sharing. Patience, friendliness, trust, forgiveness, respect, love and happiness are examples of qualities that support the growth of caring dispositions and competence. Trust, for instance, reflects the value of respect for persons and the value of care. In a care-giving context, a person’s dignity and

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quality of life is of paramount importance (see Saunders, 1990). The caregiver and the care receiver are obliged to self-care. Self-care is about knowing where to get and how to gain access to resources of all kinds that benefit one’s growth. Care is thus holistic, encompassing socioeconomic, cultural, psychological and spiritual perspectives. The care of the self concerns a life of receptivity (Gelassenheit), or “letting things be” (Edwards, 2000). Third, education is experiential. Continuity in growth is dependent on present experiences that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences, as creativeness in the present experience can become a moving force for growth (Dewey, 1938/1997). A person who is open to all experiences is creative, and his/her creativity is constructive. Rogers (1961) delineated the importance of unconditional positive regards to support the unfolding and experiencing of all positive, negative and neutral experiences one has. A person has to feel non-threatened, fully accepted and warmly supported, in order to embark on the journey of openness. Creativity involves ultimately individualized cognition (see Finke et al., 1992), emotion and motivation. In constructive creativity programs, teachers provide opportunities for a person to experience internal freedom (e.g., thought, desires, purposes, observations and judgment) and external freedom (e.g., speech and movement) (see e.g., Dewey, 1938/1997; Freire, 2002). A person should learn to deal with his/her emotions as they are related to motivation, goal mastery and cognition (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). Self-discipline is the best management technique. Empowering a person to manage his/her own behavior, task, time and responsibility enables the person to learn how to manage him/herself and how to free him/herself from stress. Positive affects generate transforming behavior; a person with positive affects perceives difficulties as challenges for selfgrowth and self-transformation (Meyer & Turner, 2002). People with positive emotions are resourceful and are able to widen their scope of resources (Fredrickson, 1998). Fourth, education is about self-transformation. Dialogue, problemposing education and appropriate intervention are some of the tools used to achieve this process. Dialogue exists in humility, with love to commit to others, with faith in humankind and with hope. It engages in critical thinking, and is carried

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out by the course participant and the instructor, mediated by the contexts of a specific theme related to creativity and cultivating constructive creativity. Each dialogue has two dimensions: action and reflection. During dialogue, persons name the phenomenon, reflect on it, create it into action, reflect upon the created action and recreate it with love or other positive emotions (Freire, 2002). Problem-posing education is liberating, humanistic and revolutionary. It regards “dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality” (Freire, 2002, p. 83). “It is based on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thereby responding to the vocation of persons as beings who are authentic only when engaged in inquiry and creative transformation” (Freire, 2002, p. 84). In problem-posing education, the teacher-student contradiction is to be resolved through dialogical relations. The students are in dialogue with the teacher and with their fellow colleagues, and the teacher is in dialogue with the students. The teacher and his/her students are “cognitive actors to cooperate in perceiving the same cognizable object” (Freire, 2002, p. 80), and thus they become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow. Intervention is a process, an intrusion into value systems, and based on a relationship of trust and expectations (Bruhn, 2001). The elements that must be specified in an intervention are the agent (who should intervene), the target (whose actions are to be changed in some way), the mechanism (how to intervene) and the time and space (when and where a concrete social intervention takes place) (Weiss, 2000). Accordingly, intervention for fostering creativity has to take into account efforts of imparting creative techniques that engage the wish to identify factors that support an acquisition of a technique or skill. Such interventions should draw upon the strengths of the individual participants and the existing infrastructures.

4. Implications for Singapore’s Education For an analysis of the framework we propose, we tabulate the relevant main points into the following headings: General framework of creativity, constructive framework of creativity, query about fostering creativity, and insights into creativity education (see Table 1).

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Table 1. Main points of creativity education General framework

Constructive framework

Query: fostering creativity

Insight into creativity education

Every individual has the potential to be creative in one or more domains.

Education is about developing a person fully.

Can creativity be taught?

It depends on the conceptions of education. Some skills and techniques can be imparted.

Creativity can be nurtured given the presence of individual and socio-cultural conditions.

An educated person self-cares and cares for others.

What is the aim of education?

Does education mean accepting a person’s strengths and weaknesses and providing support? Does education mean meeting societal needs (pedagogy)? Is teaching a social profession?

Creativity processes require individualized cognition involving the generation and exploration phases.

Education is experiential and individualized.

Is creativity part of education?

Creativity is a prerequisite for innovation, invention, and discovery.

Teachers’ professional competence and dispositions are prerequisites: pedagogical, creative and motivational.

Education is selftransformation. Tools helpful for this process: dialogue, intervention and problem posing.

Who is responsible for creativity education?

Creativity is an outcome of personal growth. Creativity is a result of group dynamics.

Note: The points are listed arbitrarily in the columns.

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The general framework is proposed for teachers to understand what creativity is and how it can be integrated into their teaching profession. The constructive framework complementing the general framework attempts to ingrain the importance of linking creativity to the fundamental aim of education, the function of pedagogy and meaning of teaching. Creativity is part of education. It is a prerequisite for innovation, invention and discovery. It accompanies personal growth and development. Real life experience, authentic learning, problem-posing education, open communication and appropriate intervention feature experiential and individualized education, and hence facilitate full human growth characterized by creativity. The question is not whether or not creativity can be enhanced, but how it can be enhanced. The query does not lie in whether or not creativity is a part of education; instead it is about how educational opportunities and environments support the person’s growth and hence openness to all experiences. The doubt is not about finding someone to be responsible for enhancing creativity, but about meeting one’s own expectations to develop and grow fully. In the following, we cite some exemplary experiences on how constructive creativity can be facilitated in the Singaporean educational context.

4.1. Dialogue In this example, dialogue was used as a tool for reflective communication on the conceptions of creativity. The dialogue centered on the theme “my views of creativity”. The following is an excerpt of the conversation. In the dialogue, the instructor related the theme to real life or authentic experiences such as drawing in a mall and the fall of the Twin Towers. Dialogue happens in a relation. In this relation, the two persons created an intellectual and emotional space, to engage in understanding a new phenomenon. Our dialogue below shows that learning happens when a person adopts a care-giving role as an instructor, while the other, the care-receiving role as a course participant. Instructor (I): What do you understand by the word “creativity”? Course participant (P): To me, creativity is something new and different.

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I: You relate creativity with the quality of novelty. Would you like to suggest an example of a creative behavior? P: If a child uses purple to color an orange … I: A creative behavior is about using the unconventional color. Let me pose a scenario, which you often see in our malls. Children are gathered to color a picture with sophisticated materials under coaching. Would you consider them as creative, if these children color the picture of an orange purple? P: Well … perhaps after a while, coloring an orange with purple becomes less interesting. I: Let’s see. Perhaps there are other qualities important to creative behavior. We can refer to our young who color and straighten their hair. Do you have any comments related to their new behavior? P: We accept the new behavior quite well. It has become part of the young’s culture. I: I agree. When it is part of the young’s culture, is it still different? P: Yes, it is different from that of the elderly, but not among the young anymore. It became normal. I began to see the subjectivity of creativity. I: Do you think that within subjectivity there are some universal qualities in creativity? What is your view of the act of bringing the Twin Towers down by an aircraft? Is it a unique, new and different behavior? P: (Pause). I would not like to think so … I: You seem to disapprove such behavior. Perhaps you have a reason for your view. P: It just caused too much pain, unsettled sentiments and loss in human spirit. I: I can see that you are moaning. How do you like to share this theme with your fellow colleagues or students? P: I will have to tune the conversation to their level; the colleague and the student may not be of the same level of acceptance regarding the incident. I: You are thinking of adjusting the conversation according to the audience’s background. P: Yes. I: How would you like to approach this, if the theme is discussed within the context of invention and inventor in the primary school context? P: If the time allows, I will alert them to the happening. It is good to let the children understand the dark side of invention when it is not used properly. I: Would you like to summarize what we have discussed in the past half an hour?

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P: I’ve learned that creativity is not a simple concept. It is subjective. It does have good and bad sides. I need to find out more about it, before I can help foster children’s creativeness.

4.2. Positive outcomes in a caring environment The following example illustrates how a caring environment can facilitate rewarding learning outcomes. During a module “On becoming a creative teacher”, course participants were encouraged to voice their views (e.g., dialogue), to get in touch with their feelings (e.g., being happy and dealing with emotion sessions) and to put what they learned into practice (through an assignment). They learned how to work with their peers and to care for oneself and others. The module was experiential and was aimed at assisting the participants to be or become creative teachers. As part of the program, the course participants visited a local hospice. They were exposed to the total care concept, welcomed by the interdisciplinary team of caregivers and experienced how to take care of the terminally ill. The visit was optional for those who had suffered loss in the past three years. In a follow-up session, they interacted with a medical consultant who headed the intensive care unit of a local hospital. In this session, they explored the meaning of “happiness” (Tan-K, 2003). Thereafter, they were coached by an experienced teacher on the use of a creative technique known as SCAMPER (an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate and Reverse; see Dianaros, 2001). Throughout the module, the participants were reminded of the importance of fostering creativity that serves the needs of mankind, one that is non-destructive and ethical. SCAMPER was introduced in the 10th session (one session per week, each lasting two hours). In one sitting, the participants learned the technique and used SCAMPER to improve nursery rhymes. In a group, they presented the newly innovated rhyme willingly and joyfully to their peers (Dianaros & Tan, 2003). Their positive learning outcomes can be attributed to the caring learning environment that had explicitly surfaced their positive emotions. The outcomes suggested that the cultivation of positive affects help construct caring environments and subsequently, positive learning outcomes.

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4.3. Intervention Two studies as described below, show the difference between an appropriate intervention and a less appropriate one. A group of children undertook an intervention-writing program by using either the Internet or a new creative technique called SCAMPER (Dianaros, 2001). Over a period of four weeks, the children of the Internet group showed improved writing based on the scores of creative-related components. The researcher who conducted the study during the children’s vocation credited the improvement to the familiarity of children with their prior knowledge and skills in the use of the Internet. During the four sessions, the children could spare learning time to acquire basic skills, but instead embarked extensively on searching for relevant information and interacting with peers for feedback. In contrast, the children of the SCAMPER group learned the technique one session (literally, one week) prior to the actual sessions and were not able to assimilate and accommodate the technique freely to their performance. This study indicates that a creativity intervention program demands a substantial period of time for learners to accommodate skill acquisition from an intervention technique. In another study, the Biyu (a compound word for metaphor, analogy and simile in Mandarin Chinese) was introduced to secondary school students during their curricular time. Over a period of eight sessions (each lasting one and half hours) in two months, the students mastered the basic understanding of Biyu, were taught to identify different types of Biyu, constructed sentences using Biyu and learned how to evaluate writings of their peers that embedded Biyu. The participants in the Biyu intervention program, regardless of their prior knowledge of Biyu, showed a significant improvement in the components of creativity as compared to their counterparts who did not attend the intervention program (Teo, 2002). Biyu is not an unfamiliar concept for students who learn the Chinese language; it is found in everyday texts. The intervention program was built upon the participants’ relative familiarity with the concept. The participants benefited in their learning from the instructors of the intervention program, who constructed friendly and peer-supportive learning environments and continuously used positive phrases to encourage the participants to write metaphorical essays.

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4.4. Concluding remarks In this chapter, I analyzed the current status of creativity education in Singapore. Reflectively, I discussed some issues of concerns in creativity education, highlighted individualized experiences and proposed constructive creativity as a key focus. Before concluding, I would like to iterate a retrospective overview of the reception of creativity in Singapore after the inception of the TSLN in 1997. The first three years (June 1997–1999) after the release of the TSLN, educators in Singapore engaged intensively in conceptualizing working frameworks that supported national aspirations to nurture creative minds, critical thinkers and effective problem-solvers. Educators gradually adopted the philosophical and empirical frameworks of creativeness of the two eminent keynote speakers of the Seventh International Conference on Thinking, Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg. Gardner’s (1985) seven or eight intelligences model had been accommodated and modified into the creativity-related curricula. Sternberg’s (1985) people’s conceptions and other theories of creativity had become important research references. During these initial years, educators and teachers clarified their conceptions of creativity for educational purposes. The subsequent three years (2000–present) showed an increase in the integration of the creativity spirit into formal and community educational program. Media and popular magazines are relatively at ease with employing the term “creativity”. In the new school textbooks for elementary and secondary school children, themes and topics on facilitating original ideas and inventions are highlighted. At the school, community and higher educational institutional levels, seminars and workshops nationwide have been organized to support the creativity spirit. Instead of asking what creativity is, or how different creativity is from thinking or problem solving, questions have been posed related to the fostering of creativity: Can creativity be taught? How can creativity be taught? I conclude this chapter by sharing with the readers an email I received immediately after the module ended. The email summarizes the sentiments of a teacher who was pleasantly surprised to participate in unconventional, positive and individualized learning. His sentiments represent the needs of Singaporeans to be empowered trust and opportunities to get in touch

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with their emotions, cognition, motivations and interpersonal relationships in an open, supportive and caring environment. “I am a course participant of your module. It was really an emotional moment for me last Saturday because it was the end of this module. Nevertheless, I would like to thank you for sharing with and imparting in us the concepts of Care and Being a Happy Person. When I registered for this course, I did not expect myself to be exposed to such caring concepts. I thought it would be another typical lecture-based General Electives with tests and assignments. However, spending the last ten weeks or so with the course-mates, I realised that I had made the right choice and would strongly encourage my fellow peers to take up this module in the upcoming semesters. Sad to say, all good things must come to an end. Hence, I would like to send this mail to you to thank you for sharing with me the experience and concept of Care and remedy of being a happy person. I wish that this end will mark a new milestone for me and hope that we can share our views on the caring and happy concepts in the many years to come. Meanwhile, I wish you good health and happiness always.” (received on March 30, 2003; edited merely to observe confidentiality of the writer’s identity)

What direction should Singapore’s creativity education take in the years to come? A thorough answer to this question is essential, but is beyond the scope of this chapter. Convincingly, the future and the success of creativity programs in Singapore lie in the presence of Singaporeans’ openness to stimulate individualized and positive experiences of every person in constructive and caring environments, with the support of dedicated leadership and appropriate infrastructures.

Acknowledgments The conceptualization of the contents of this chapter was supported by the National Institute of Education (NIE) Research Fund (RP 15/02 TAG). The author would like to thank Benjamin Kiu for his invaluable comments on the early drafts. Part of the contents of the chapter was presented to student teachers of the NIE participated in the module “On Becoming a

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Creative Teacher”. And some of it was discussed in sharing sessions with teachers of the Little Bodhi Student Care Center and Sunday school, teachers at the Mahaprajna Temple. Prof. Morris Stein’s continuous encouragement deserves the author’s words of appreciation. Dr. Kenneth Tan’s willingness to dialogue with the NIE student teachers stimulated reflections on happiness and creativity. Dover Park Hospice’s reception of the NIE student teachers and its presentation on the total care concept enhanced the significance of constructive creativeness. The author expressed her gratitude to the above mentioned persons and organization for their voluntary and enthusiastic engagement in creativity dialogues.

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Simonton, D. K. (1988). Scientific genius: A psychology of science. New York: Cambridge University Press. Simonton, D. K. (1994). Greatness: Who makes history and why. New York: The Guildford Press. Simonton, D. K. (1999). Origins of genius: Darwinian perspectives on creativity. New York: Oxford University Press. Smeyers. P. (1999). “Care” and wider ethical issues. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 33(2), 233–251. Smith, S. M., Ward, T. B., & Finke, R. A. (Eds.) (1997). The creative cognition approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Soh, K. C. (2003). A personal dialogue on creativity in the Asian region. Singapore: National Institute of Education. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Implicit theories on intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 607–627. Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (1988). The nature of creativity: Contemporary psychological perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (1999). Handbook of creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Tan, A. G. (2000). A review of the study of creativity in Singapore. Journal of Creative Behavior, 34(4), 259–284. Tan, A. G. (2001). Everyday classroom learning activities and implications for creativity education: A perspective from the beginning teachers’ experiences. The Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving, 11(2), 23–36. Tan, A. G. (2003a). Student teachers’ perceptions of teacher behaviors for fostering creativity: A perspective on the academically low achievers (EM3 students). The Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving, 13(1), 59–71. Tan, A. G. (2003b). Creativity in Singapore after half a decade of nationwide involvement: Current status, reflections, and future directions. Paper accepted to be published in Global Correspondence 2003. Tan, A. G. (2003c). Thinking outside the box. An interview to be published by the Motherhood Magazine, Singapore. Tan, A. G., & Goh, S. C. (2003). Singaporean student teachers’ perception of teacher behaviours important for fostering creativity. Education Journal, 30, 2. Tan, A. G., Lee, L. K. W., Goh, N. K., & Chia, L. S. (Eds.) (2002). New paradigms in science education: A perspective of teaching problem solving, creative teaching, and primary science education. Singapore: Prentice-Hall.

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Tan, J. E. T. (Tan-J) (1996). Independent schools and autonomous schools in Singapore: A study of two school privatization initiatives aimed at promoting school innovation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Faculty of Education, State University of New York, Buffalo. Tan, K. H. S. (Tan-K) (2003). Happiness and creativity. A dialogue with the student teachers of the National Institute of Education, Singapore, on March 15, 2003. Teo, C. H. (1996). Innovation — The key to future success. Speeches, 20(4), 96–100. Teo, C. H. (1997). Opening the frontiers in education with information technology. Speeches, 21(2), 92–98. Teo, C. H. (1999). Building competitiveness in the knowledge economy: How is Asia facing up with his task? Speech by Minister for Education at the East Asia Economic Summit Plenary Session, World Economic Forum, Suntec City, October 19, 2003. Singapore Government Press Release. Teo, C. H. (2003). Opening the DNA learning laboratory at the Singapore Science Centre. Retrieved March 30, 2003, from http://www1.moe.edu.sg/speeches/ 2003/sp20030329 Teo, T. T. (2002). Learning activities useful for fostering creativity. Unpublished dissertation, Department of Specialized Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Tronto, J. C. (1993). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. New York: Routledge. Ward, T. B., Smith, S. M., & Vaid, J. (Eds.) (1997). Creative thought: An investigation of conceptual structures and processes. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Weiss, J. A. (2000). From research to social improvement: Understanding theories of intervention. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(1), 81–110.

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Chapter 13 Inspiring Creativity Through Music

Mayumi ADACHI Department of Psychology Hokkaido University, Japan Yukari CHINO Yamanashi University Elementary School, Japan

1. Introduction The base of the current Japanese music education is the product of East meeting West in 1868 (the Meji Restoration). Children learn music via western musical symbols and western instruments (such as the piano). Why do Japanese children learn music in this way? What happened to children’s acculturation in Japanese traditional music? These are hot issues among music educators in Japan. From a view of “creativity”, however, it does not matter whether children use “western” instruments or “western” musical symbols. Instruments and symbols are mere creative media, which stimulate imagination, divergent thinking, and efforts to try creating something new, something different, something we like better, and so forth. From our view, the key to inspiring creativity through music in the classroom is not what to use in composition but how to choose creative media and how to present them to students. We shared some of our ideas in a workshop in the 2001 symposium (Adachi, Chino, & Fukazawa, 2001). It was well received by the packed attendants who were primarily Chinese. The present chapter recapitulates the practical content of the 2001 workshop with a more detailed theoretical background and rational for each creative activity. We have also included students’ 305

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own afterthoughts, wherever possible, to highlight what happens when creativity is inspired through music. But, first, we begin with the problems interfering with the creative activities in the music classrooms of Japan (and very likely of many other countries).

1.1. Problems of creative music making in Japan For a long time, children’s creative activity in Japanese music classrooms was limited to composition of melody by means of western musical symbols. In 1989, the Japanese Ministry of Education published a revised guideline for compulsory music education (i.e., grades 1–9). This guideline introduced a new concept of music composition, creative music making, expanding the notion of music composition by including intuitive exploration and construction of various sound materials. This concept was first introduced to the elementary school, and then to the junior-high school in the further revision of the guideline (Ministry of Education, 1989, 2000). The inclusion of creative music making in the guideline was an official announcement for such “unconventional” creative activities to be implemented along with “conventional” music composition as imperative portions of elementary and junior-high school music curricula. Since then, many “how-to” books and workshops by leading authors became available for in- and pre-service teachers (e.g., Shimazaki, 1996, 1997; Tsubono, 1995, 2001). Despite the governmental push by the official guideline and the availability of experts’ support, creative music making does not appear to have been implemented fully in Japanese compulsory music education. According to a recent survey, creative activities were incorporated in compulsory music education by only 66% and 47% of respondents from elementary and junior-high schools, respectively.1 Plenty of anecdotes suggest at least two reasons for why creative music making is not practiced in actual music classrooms.

1

The survey, collaborated by Hajime Takasu and Yoko Ogawa, was supported by Grantsin-Aid for Scientific Research B1, No. 14310124.

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First, people develop a conventional understanding of what is and is not music at some point, and come to believe that only exceptional people with a special talent or extensive training can actually create such music (e.g., Sloboda, Davidson, & Howe, 1994). These preconceptions provide significant disadvantages to elementary school teachers in Japan, who are often required to teach music to their students even though they are not specialized. Music specialists teaching in junior-high schools can also suffer because the majority of their students belonging to the general population do not possess sufficient enough musicianship to allow them to create music. Second, there is no effective guidance for teachers to organize their instructions from long-term perspectives. Teachers might obtain ideas for various creative activities for music classrooms from the “how-to” books and workshops provided by advocates of creative music making, but these ideas are like fireworks, which can be enjoyed only at a particular brilliant point of time but are isolated from current or future activities. The first problem derives from the popular notion shared among the general population: Music must sound comfortable to ears and have a reasonable structure. Musically inexperienced people are aware that such music becomes available only by means of “convention,” i.e., special rules unfamiliar to them. This awareness and uncertainty of adequate rules may transform to fear of making mistakes, one of major obstacles suppressing creative potentials (Ng, 2001). Interestingly, infants and young children, whether possessing musical talent or not, explore various features and functions of music and often create their own songs during their free play (e.g., Adachi, 1994; Campbell, 1998; Moorhead & Pond, 1941, 1942; Omi, 1994). Whether children’s spontaneous music making derives from the nature’s command or the caregiver’s nurturing, children as young as 12 months of age produce rhythmic fragments while exploring toys and singing tune-like phrases without explicit guidance (e.g., Kelley & Sutton-Smith, 1987; McKernon, 1979). These spontaneous behaviors are motivated by their curiosity and enjoyment in reproducing their own vocal sounds, imitating previously heard sounds, mixing up various sound fragments, and exploring phonemes (and later words) along with different pitches and rhythms. When, or how, do we lose our playful mind?

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Gardner (1982) warned that by age 10 a child’s creative mind can be lost as a consequence of improper schooling. In the case of Japanese children, whose self-expressions are not encouraged in preschools (Ng, 2001), suppression of creative mind is observable even in the first grade. For example, when Japanese and Canadian first graders were asked to create a song to make an audience feel happy or sad, only 20% of Japanese children actually created their own songs while approximately 80% of Canadian children did so (Adachi, 2000). These Japanese children were engaged in singing and learning many songs, but they were not encouraged to modify or create songs when they were in preschools (Adachi, 2001). When the same task was given to Japanese first graders who had been encouraged to express their own ideas and feelings by creating songs in their preschool, more than 60% created their own songs (Adachi, 2002). It is reasonable to suspect that many teachers in Japan, as the result of a similar indoctrination, may have had their creative potentials mentally blocked for the majority of their adult lives. Creative potentials of the general population may simply be misplaced or buried under layers of conventions and mental blocks, and can be rediscovered with appropriate guidance. To improve this situation on a grass roots level, we have provided undergraduate education majors with various kinds of hands-on creative music experiences as part of their prospective teacher training. Its main objective is to facilitate their own self-assurance for their creative potentials in music and to build up confidence. In addition, students can gain at least the basic level of knowledge and skills in music and at the same time begin to think about what actually constitutes music, perform their intentions, and evaluate their own as well as others’ works. Contrary to the general belief, creative music making and acquisition of musical knowledge and skills go hand in hand rather than the former following the latter (Pace, 1999). What we do for undergraduate students is applicable to children in compulsory education; in this sense we provide undergraduate students with a list of examples for music making activities as do practical books and workshops. However, our approach is more effective because we provide a conceptual tool to help prospective teachers understand cognitive processes involved in creative music making, so

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that they can use our creative exercises simply as a reference for how to organize their own original classroom activities in the future. The main objective of this chapter is to demonstrate how teachers can organize creative music making for their students by sharing our own experience of teaching to musically inexperienced undergraduate students and elementary school children. Just as we have done for undergraduate prospective teachers, we will first explain cognitive aspects of creative music making and then illustrate creative exercises with the rationale for each task.

1.2. A cognitive approach to creative music making Any kind of creative music making can be considered as a problemsolving task involving particular prerequisites and cognitive steps (Pace, 1999). Just as any other kind of problem solving, creative music making requires an explicit step-by-step guidance when problem solvers are unfamiliar with the task. Teachers have to be able to analyze the task and identify prerequisites and steps necessary for a particular creative music making experience. From cognitive perspectives (Johnson-Laird, 1988; Vygotsky, 1991; Webster, 1987), absolute prerequisites for creative music making are past experience and conceptual knowledge related to a given task. These prerequisites trigger off imagination, which, in turn, facilitates divergent thinking, i.e., brainstorming of possible ideas and materials (Vygotsky, 1991; Webster, 1987). Theoretically, we can select particular ideas and materials at our own will; however, this selection is not made at random but within a particular frame offering some levels of both freedom and constraint (Johnson-Laird, 1988). This frame, together with craftsmanship and aesthetic sensitivity (Webster, 1987), filters particular ideas and materials into a coherent structure, i.e., the process known as convergent thinking, wrapping up the creative process. Subsequently, the completion of the current music making becomes a new creative experience, leading to the next cycle of a future creative activity (Vygotsky, 1991). This cognitive process (Figure 1) expresses variables that need to be taken into consideration in teaching creative music making. For example, teachers must set up a task that can be linked to students’ past experience and be

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New Experience

?????

Craftsmanship & Aesthetic Sensitivity

Imagination

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Frame: Freedom & Constraint

Convergent Thinking

Conceptual Knowledge

Past Experience

Figure 1. A cognitive model for creative processes in music, adapted from Adachi and Trehub (2000).

referred to what they already know; otherwise, they cannot move onto the next step. Teachers must also define a frame with which students can work comfortably based on their conceptual knowledge and musical skills. The definition of creative music making in the Japanese compulsory music education includes two types of frames: musically free and musically conventional (e.g., Shoto-ka-ongaku-kyoiku-kenkyukai, 2000). A musically free frame allows the maximum liberation from musical conventions, both element-wise (e.g., beat, rhythm, melody) and instrument-wise (e.g., the use of musical instruments), but it also involves other types of constraint associated with the target theme or image. A musically conventional frame, on the other hand, consists of structurally organized musical elements (e.g., beat, meter, rhythm, scale, harmony, form). Because each musical element can serve as a separate sub-frame to be organized, interactions between freedom and constraint are inevitably multi-faceted. A creative task within a musically conventional frame can be quite challenging, but if students’ experience is built up sequentially over the years of the compulsory education, they will enjoy the challenge while handling the task by transferring their past creative experience and knowledge (Adachi & Chino, 2000).

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Understanding (or at least awareness) of variables and processes involved in creative music making is critical for teachers who organize and strategize students’ learning. In the following illustration, we will share specifics of our strategies and devices as well as rationales behind them. While going through our illustration, think how you, the teacher, can alter our suggested activities to fit better your own as well as your students’ backgrounds. The ultimate goal is to provide you with an opportunity to begin thinking about creative music making for your students based on their needs and experiences rather than simply reproducing activities suggested in this chapter.

2. Creative Music Making within a Musically Free Frame The greatest advantage of working with a musically free frame is that it does not require any music-specific knowledge or skill; this can be a good start for students’ creative endeavors in music. Explorations of various sounds and combinations of sound fragments can be classified as legitimate music making activities under this category. These activities are similar to the spontaneous music making of infants and young children; in this sense, the primary goal is to rediscover creative potentials that have been lost and forgotten. Another important goal is to introduce the basics of musical conventions in a friendly manner by means of sound productions that are comfortable and enjoyable to students.

2.1. Example 1: Depiction of spring by using everyday objects In Japan, each season has its own character. Spring, in particular, is associated with a new start (as the school calendar starts in April), cherry blossoms, streams of melting snow, singing birds, warm sunlight, and so forth. Students have a large frame of reference for the image of spring. Some images are solely visual; this task may require cross-modal (i.e., visual-auditory) imageries, which can be more challenging than withinmodal depictions. Students can create sounds by matching their everyday images metaphorically; this was presented to 40 sophomore and junior undergraduate students and 2 in-service elementary school teachers in the spring 2001.

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Preparation. Students were asked to bring from home anything except musical instruments that could be used to make sounds. Students were told that if they brought an item that the teacher (the first author) did not predict, they would be given a bonus point. In a sense, this preparation served as the initial warm-up for creative thinking. Warm-up. Students expressed objects, events, and scenes associated with spring. When an image associated with a sound (e.g., stream of melting snow) or a motion (e.g., falling cherry petals) was mentioned, students were asked to express the sound not by using onomatopoeia or mimesis but by using other means (e.g., tone of voice, tapping a pencil). These warm-ups allowed the teacher to confirm two prerequisites for the subsequent activities: students’ ability to relate the theme to their past experience and conceptual knowledge, as well as their willingness to try something unusual. After several examples of how a particular image could be depicted into a sound, students were presented with the actual task: “Create a sound piece depicting some image of spring in a group. The image can be a snapshot of a particular scene or object, or a sequence of events. The piece should last at least 30 seconds and no longer than 2 minutes.” Activity 1. Students fell into groups of 5 to 6. Most groups began this activity with showing what they brought from home to each other. Inservice teachers shared their original instruments; students were fascinated by the cleverness at transforming ordinary household items into musical instruments. In each group, students explored various ways to make sounds with their everyday objects while discussing what they could or would like to express. Students brought plastic bags, aluminum foils, tissue paper, air bubbles, pop cans, plastic bottles, carton boxes, wine glasses, various kitchen utensils, and so forth. Many groups were trying to find ways to depict soft spring breeze, for example, by shaking a plastic bag, by waving an aluminum foil, and by rubbing tissue paper. Although the overall image may be similar, different materials induce different nuances. Here, students were engaged in divergent thinking guided by the task of metaphorical matching between images of spring and sound samples. All groups settled with their initial images of spring, which would serve as a temporary frame of their piece that could be modified in the course of the following activity.

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Activity 2. Each group then tried organizing their selections of sounds into a whole composition. An initial image was often replaced when someone in a group recognized a particular sound closer to an alternative image. For example, one group was initially going to begin their piece with spring breeze by rubbing a glass edge with wet fingers (i.e., glass harmonica). One student in that group perceived the sound of glass harmonica as somewhat mysterious and abstract rather than as referential, and suggested that their piece begins with an abstract image of anticipation for spring rather than a concrete, referential image of spring breeze. In another group, students’ wide selection of sound materials reflected their focus on varying sounds of the air when the breeze passes trees, leaves, and clothes on a laundry line. These students’ attitudes represented their own levels of craftsmanship and aesthetic sensitivity that served as constraint for their potential piece. In some groups, such refinement continued until right before the time for their presentation. Performance and evaluation. Each group’s piece was presented twice. First, the group performed without explanation. Before the second performance, they described their intended images, their sound devices, encountered difficulties, and the best part of their depiction. For both times the audience listened with their eyes closed, so that they could construct images solely out of the sound (for the first performance), as well as they could evaluate how well the intended images were depicted (for the second performance). For the audience, each listening experience involved a creative cycle for their auditory imagery, with the second one more constrained by the performer’s intention relative to the first one (see Figure 1). After the second performance, the audience expressed their impression and obtained further information from performers. For example, one student, impressed with vivid image of flying birds, asked performers how they expressed the sound of wings. The performing group simply shook small plastic wrapped paper pocket tissues. In addition to peer comments, the teacher also provided comments for what could have been done to improve the depiction while congratulating and highlighting the performers’ efforts. One group depicted a series of scenes encountered by a first grader on her way to the school. Students in this group added footstep sounds as the child passed a different scene, depicting the increasing number of children walking beside her to the school. The

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teacher commented on this effort as a simple but effective simulation that added a film-like texture in the performance. Postscripts. Goals of the above task were exploration of sounds in everyday items (Activity 1) and organization of sounds to express students’ own images (Activity 2). Even though these students had had at least 9 years of compulsory music education prior to the activity, they had neither created their own instruments nor expressed their own images by means of original sounds. These students had been given plenty of experience in reproducing pre-composed pieces while learning to play conventional instruments, but they had never been given a chance to think otherwise. The above task managed to convince many (if not all) students that music could be a way of expressing their own ideas, images, and feelings even without extensive training. Applications. A task like the above can be combined with other creative activities. For example, students can express their image by means of movement (i.e., expressing images by freely moving body parts), a visual form (e.g., drawing, painting, see Figure 2), and a verbal form (e.g., a

Figure 2. An example of visual representation for a sound piece, Autumn Colors, created by undergraduate students: A scene of a falling maple leaf.

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poem, a short story). This form of creative activity can be identified as a planned improvisation: a piece is planned and practiced by performers in advance, but it may sound slightly different each time. In a planned improvisation, a visual representation of sound images can also serve as a timing score, i.e., an aid for performers to record their roles and the timing of when to join and how to play (see Figure 3). The timing score and any other visual form of a created piece represent means to record a sound object for the purpose of later reproduction, serving as introductions to the concept of music notation. (S1)

(P4)

(S2)

(S3) (S4)

(P3) (P1)

(P2)

Figure 3. A timing score prepared by the fifth graders for their music inspired by a story about a boy in Hiroshima (see Nakazawa, 1945/1987). The score consists of information prompted by the teacher (P1–P4) and added voluntarily by children (S1–S4). The teacher’s prompts include your name (P1), your role (P2), Let’s depict what you want to express graphically (P3), and your choice of story (P4). Children divided the space for the expression (P3) into four sub-sections, and described the four scenes: “People were living their lives peacefully” (S1); “The war broke” (S2); “ominous silence” (S3); and “A bomb was dropped” (S4). The score indicates verbally that children played a familiar, fun tune on glockenspiel for the first scene. For the second scene, children graphically depicted “people’s foot steps”, “bombers’ sound”, and “uncanny sound”. For the third scene, children depicted “silence” with mimesis, and finally “explosion” with a destructive picture played on a big drum.

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For younger students, simple exploration of sounds and their depictions may be a good creative exercise. For example, have students play with two chopsticks (or any familiar objects) and see how many different sounds they can create. For each sound or sound sequence, let students think what it sounds like (e.g., someone knocking the door, the rain falling onto a roof, the sound of peeling potato skins). With this exercise, students can add sound effects to a story they are reading. Moreover, encourage students to manipulate a particular sound by making it faster or slower as well as louder or softer, and have them realize how such simple manipulations can change the image of the sound. Manipulations of the speed and the loudness can be a casual introduction to musical elements of tempo and dynamics, respectively, linking a creative exercise within a musically free frame to that within a musically conventional frame.

3. Creative Music Making within a Musically Conventional Frame While a musically free frame allows the use of metaphors (e.g., images and feelings) in organizing sounds, a musically conventional frame requires the use of structural and expressive elements of music (e.g., beat, meter, rhythm, contour, pitch, interval, harmony, form, tempo, dynamics, timbre, intonation, articulation). This type of creative music making, involving manipulations of these musical elements, falls into two categories: a variation of an existing music and an original composition. Making a variation or an original music may sound intimidating. However, if a task can be referred to a familiar event (e.g., happy or sad experiences), children as young as 4 years of age can create happy and sad versions of a familiar song by manipulating expressive elements of music (e.g., tempo, dynamics, pitch range, tone of voice), and by modifying lyrics or a tune (Adachi & Trehub, 1998). Thus, a familiar theme such as emotion is a good start in merging intuitive music making into a musically conventional frame (Adachi & Trehub, 2000). Before going into making variations of a familiar tune, students had better become familiarized with the basics of structural and expressive elements of music that would serve really handy when they compose a

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conventional piece. The following exercises will train such skills while introducing various strategies for music making within a musically conventional frame.

3.1. Example 2: Making an original rhythm ensemble Rhythm is a combination of sound and silence in different durations; its production does not require any special skill. Those who can make sound by clapping, tapping, and coordinating objects are entitled to create an original rhythm. A rhythm piece is a sequence of rhythmic motives. You can even create a grand piece by combining simple motives while managing the timing and the order of their entries. The most fundamental concept of music is that its structure consists of at least the beginning and the ending; a better structure also includes the middle section in which the beginning section turns into some kind of development. Bear in mind that the sense of structure also exists within a musically free frame (e.g., Example 1), in which the structure of an original piece could be set by an extra-musical image (e.g., a story). The current task, on the other hand, requires students to think of an appropriate beginning and ending in a purely tonal sense. In the fall of 2001, 37 undergraduate sophomore and junior students participated in the following. Warm-up. Students watched a video of a rhythm ensemble performed by high-school and college students in an art festival.2 The rhythm ensemble consisted of combinations of simple rhythmic patterns played on original instruments (e.g., horns, drums, xylophones) made of various sizes of bamboo that had been harvested and crafted by performers. The primary purpose of this video presentation was to elicit students’ desire to try creating their own piece; their spontaneous applause toward the video performance proved to be a good start. Activity 1. Students, divided into groups of 6 or 7, were presented with 2-meter-long paper tubes (looking like bamboo) and were encouraged to create instruments they would want to play. Along with these paper

2

The rhythm ensemble was performed in the opening ceremony of The Konda Art Festival, 5 January 2001, Habikino City, Osaka.

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tubes, various items were prepared for students’ use: nails, paper clips, chopsticks, rubber bands, plastic straws, plastic threads, rubber balloons, craft tape, scotch tape, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, waxed paper, rice grains, rice skins, red beans, paper cutters, and paper scissors. Prior to the activity, students were shown sample instruments made of the same materials. Students explored various possibilities in the use of given materials while sharing ideas with their group members. For example, one student was exploring various maracas-like sounds by changing the materials (e.g., paper clips, rice grains) in closed paper tubes. Many students made drum-like instruments by pinching and releasing a balloon material covering one end of a paper tube. Manipulations of the tube length allowed students to create multi-pitched instruments, consisting of a sequence of paper tubes with different lengths, one end of which is covered with a craft tape and the other with a balloon material (Figure 4a). Some students made a kind of guiro by rubbing a chopstick against the bumpy surface of the paper tube with many stubbed nails (Figure 4b). One student created a multi-functioned instrument that allowed

(a)

(c)

(b)

Figure 4. Examples of original instruments by means of paper tubes: (a) multi-pitched drum, (b) guiro, and (c) multi-functioned instrument. Photographs by courtesy of Y. Aoyagi.

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him to enjoy three different sounds by plucking a rubber band, by shaking it with paper clips inside, and by blowing into a straw (Figure 4c). Driven by the motivation to create something original, the majority of students tried to make more than one instrument. Activity 2. After creating their own instruments, students were presented with the aforementioned bamboo ensemble again. This time students identified different rhythm patterns in the ensemble by using onomatopoeia or rhythmic mnemonics, which in turn were depicted graphically by the teacher (the first author). Students also described how the piece began and ended, preparing themselves for thinking about how their piece could progress. With their own instruments, students created a rhythm ensemble piece in each group. Students were encouraged to explore various rhythm patterns on different instruments, so that they could determine which instrument’s sound would be suitable for each pattern. Moreover, students were instructed to think explicitly how they could make the sequence of their piece (i.e., its beginning, development, and closure) musically cohesive. Students’ struggles, efforts, and feelings during this activity were expressed in their comments recorded by an in-service teacher who was observing the class. “We spent all our energy and time in creating instruments, and didn’t have much time discussing what to do with the rhythm. We struggled until last minute.” “We tried to create a scale but failed. We were facing no way out. But, we kept our spirit up and tried many different ideas … I enjoyed the process of creating our rhythm. Perhaps, this is why I was enjoying myself even when our discussion was facing a dead-end.” In the end, students managed to create and to practice their piece despite the limited time allocated for their group discussion. Performance and evaluation. Prior to each group performance, students introduced the sound of their own instruments to their audience. Each group performed once, and the audience commented on it. Group performances demonstrated students’ collective efforts in exploring structural possibilities for ensemble piece. The aforementioned in-service teacher, an observer, described her impression as follows: “Subtle tones played throughout a piece provided coherence. The sudden appearance of tones were truly effective. Mysterious scales created primarily by accident sounded as an ethnic music. [Structural features of] each piece

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depicts students’ musical images as a group consensus … Creating an original music with original instruments has expanded students’ conception of what makes music. This particular experience will help students accept, or even enjoy, unfamiliar sounds of modern art and world folk musics.” Postscripts. Creation of a rhythm pattern does not involve any more motor coordination or vocal skills than everyday requirements, and is perhaps the most accessible way to the world of music for the general population. Creation of a rhythm ensemble piece (Activity 2) was slightly more complex, because multiple rhythmic patterns needed to be coordinated into a specific structure. Structural consideration stimulated students’ awareness of diversity not only in rhythmic patterns per se but also in possibilities of timbre, dynamics, and pitch deriving from combinations of instruments. The goodness of fit between an instrument and a rhythm pattern, as well as the cohesiveness in the structure, served as the constraint stimulating students’ convergent thinking. Generally speaking, it is better to provide time for each group to share its work-inprogress with others, so that the audience’s comments would be incorporated into the final piece (Takasu, in press). Just as observed in instrument-making process (Activity 1), one group’s performance could be inspired and improved further by the other’s. A student’s comment verifies this possibility: “While listening to other groups, I often wondered, ‘Ah, that’s interesting. Why didn’t we think of it.’ I was really amused with the variety of rhythms, instruments, and ending patterns demonstrated by group performances.” Additional tips for non-musicians. In western music (the primary focus of Japanese school music education), rhythm exists on the base of beat, that is, a particular duration of tone serving as the unit for the piece (or its particular section) that governs the sense of meter often represented in the way a player counts (e.g., “One two three, one two three.”). In other words, each rhythm implies a particular meter and its unit beat. It is helpful for students, in creating rhythm patterns, to know (or at least to be exposed to) the basics of relations among beat, meter, and rhythm. Students in Example 2 had enough exposure to such basics through compulsory music education or extra-curricular activities, and had enough repertoires — whether they were aware or not — in possible rhythmic patterns suitable for the meter of their choice. For less experienced

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students, exercises such as Copy Cat (Pace, 1972, p. 26; 1974a, p. 10; 1974b, p. 8; see also Example 3) may serve as an adequate preparation for the activity like Example 2.

3.2. Example 3: Making a simple melody by means of a call-response structure Following the activity for thinking about the beginning and the ending of a rhythm piece, we now turn our focus to how to begin and end a melody. Unlike rhythm, production of melody often intimidates people due to their lacking skills in singing or playing an instrument. In the present example, we demonstrate that creating a melody can be as easy as creating a rhythm by setting up activities targeted to young children. Traditionally, when Japanese children visited their friends at home, they used to call their friends’ names in tune and their friends also responded in tune. Warabe-uta (Japanese child folk songs) as such, deriving from children’s spontaneous play songs, have been transmitted from one generation to the next. This particular warabe-uta consists of a call-response structure, the simplest form of a melody, and illuminates an intuitive function of song as a communicative tool. We start with this traditional call-response song that can be found in most guidebooks for creative music making in Japan. Unlike Examples 1 and 2, which illustrates a particular classroom activity from the beginning to the end, Example 3 lists up activities and instructional sequences effective to be introduced to children (and even musically inexperienced adults). Call-response song. The teacher calls each child’s name by using the familiar melodic pattern from warabe-uta, and the child responds by using the same melodic pattern (Figure 5). The activity can be done among children. The child does not have to produce exactly the same pitch as the teacher’s during this warm-up. What is important is to keep the beat from the beginning of the calling pattern to the ending of the response pattern, i.e., the basic mechanism of music improvisation (Pace, 1999). This activity allows children to complete a call-response structure by means of imitation, or Copy Cat (see also Pace, 1974a, p.11; 1974b, p. 9). In this activity, children can learn many simple patterns — melodic motives — that can be extended to a tune.

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< Call >

“[The child’s name.]”

< Response >

“Here I am.”

Figure 5. An example of call-response structure adapted from a Japanese child folk song.

Question and Answer. In the above activity, children simply “imitate” a calling pattern. In the current activity, children “create” their response patterns by modifying the given pattern. We use three tones that can be identified as “low”, “middle”, and “high”, such as the first three pitches of a major (“do-re-mi”) or a minor (“la-ti-do”) scale. To familiarize the verbal identifiers for three tones on the card, you can first sing and shape each pattern by means of the verbal identifiers (rather than children’s names). Then you can have children match up backward pairs of the cards. Now, the activity becomes a game called Question and Answer (“Q & A”), whose rule is an application of Copy Cat: Someone presents a melodic question (i.e., singing the first three tones of a card while shaping), and the others create its melodic answer (i.e., singing the question backward). This can be done in a small group or even in a pair. If children are not comfortable singing, you can use chime bars (Figure 6) or three black keys on the keyboard. Once children become comfortable in the game of Q & A, we introduce a parallel answer, that is, creating an answer by imitating the beginning part of a given question but always going back to “home” (i.e., “low”. See Figure 7). Applications. The above activities can be incorporated to the beginning instruction for a musical instrument. For example, Japanese children are exposed to soprano recorders and keyboards during classroom music instruction; the above creative activities can be used as introductory sessions for particular sets of two or three pitches and corresponding fingerings involved in these instruments. In the introductory keyboard instruction, in particular, doing the above activities by means of black twins or triplets develops children’s awareness of black keys, which is a prerequisite for learning specific key names of white keys (Pace, 1972, 1977b).

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Figure 6. Chime bars and a mallet, an alternative means for call-response activities.

&



&

“high” “middle” “low”

“Home-tone” Figure 7. Examples of Q & A by means of parallel answers. Filled circles located at the bottom, the middle, and the top depict the first three pitches of a major scale (i.e., do, re, mi), respectively. In each pattern, the rest on the fourth beat is implied when it is sung in a duple meter.

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Through creation of call-response patterns, children develop a sense of continuation and closure in melody. Moreover, some children intuitively understand that they can extend a melody simply by arranging 3-tone cards (Nakajima & Adachi, 2001; see Figure 8). Once children become familiar with Q & A, they explore longer melodies by arranging 3-tone cards. At this point, children’s quest for extended melodies can be solely exploratory without worrying about phrasing, meter, or even going back to “home”. Children expanding possibilities in melody will be recreating the explorations of the 20th century composers. An amazing number of different melodies can be made only with three pitches. Along with such free melodic expansions, practicing divergent thinking, it is also important that the teacher shows children how to generate longer melodies within conventional structures (for extended questions and answers, see Pace, 1977a, 1977b), so that they can create reproducible melodies.

Figure 8. A song, Letting Doves Fly Away, created by a 6-year-old boy who had participated in weekly music class including Q & As by means of 3-tone graphic notation. The melodic structure reflects a series of 3-tone patterns exposed in his music class. The lyric reads, “I saw the ocean. I saw an island too. Our doves became excited, and finally flew away.” Pictures under the lyrics also depict its content. The score was made available by courtesy of the boy’s family.

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Postscripts. Singing the 3-tone cards while shaping them into the air helps children pay attention to the properties of a melody: contour, pitch, and interval between consecutive pitches. Positions of the arm and the hand as well as visual cues from 3-tone cards provide alternative paths in manipulating melodic motives. These enactive and iconic signs are particularly useful in uplifting creative spirits of children and adults with limited auditory sensitivity. Once children become familiar with basic 3tone patterns, this activity can be done only by ear.

3.3. Example 4: Making variations of a familiar tune by manipulating a motif Various exercises of Q & A (see Example 3) introduce the concept of a motif: A pattern consists of a combination of two or more tones with particular durations and pitches. A motif or motives are building blocks for music; they can be repeated, inverted, extended, and transformed into a large cohesive piece. Motives can be found not only in a melody (i.e., the most obvious part of music to our ears) but also in its accompaniment (i.e., less obvious part attached to the melody, chords, or both). The present example illustrates activities to stimulate awareness for manipulability of motives in music. The tasks at hand were given in January 2000 to the sixth graders (18 boys and 20 girls) who were about to say good-bye to their six years at the elementary school. Their music teacher (the second author) set up the final music project “Let’s Create Our Song!” that would reflect children’s memorable scenes, feelings, and experiences from their school lives. These children had been involved actively in creative music making since the third grade. Their creative activities had been conducted in small groups in which, we suspected, a handful of children with extensive musical training may have taken initiatives while others may have followed their lead. For this final project, therefore, we were determined that every child would be involved actively not just as a “performing” but as a “creative” member of each group. There are at least two approaches to composing a melody for the song: creating one from a scratch and making variations (i.e., adapting a tune from a well-known song). To accomplish our goal, we employed

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the latter. More specifically, we taught specific recipes for how to make variations of a refrain of a pop song, The Flower (HAL/Otohime, 1999), while manipulating motives visually by means of graphic notation. We devised our instruction such that even children with lesser musical skills would become aware of the simplicity in making music, liberated from the history of hesitation or intimidation, and genuinely motivated to work on his or her own song. Introducing recipes for music making summarizes a 90-minute special session in which a guest teacher (the first author) guided children step by step to simple but effective ways to create variations on the keyboard by means of graphic notes. Children were also exposed to a live piano improvisation performed by a graduate student majoring in music composition at the end of this session. Postscripts illustrate children’s reactions and how they incorporated their new experiences into their song-making project.3 Introducing recipes for music making. This session was organized soon after children began their song-making project by selecting The Flower (HAL/Otohime, 1999) for the basis of their song and brainstorming scenes and events to be expressed in their songs. Children already fell into five groups that would work on each section of their classroom song (Introducing Our Class, Field Trip, Sport Festival, Optimistic Class Recovering From A Good Scolding, The Graduation); members of each group were sitting nearby. In the beginning of this session, the guest teacher introduced herself to children; she was not totally a stranger due to her occasional observations of their music classes over a year. Children were told that they would be presented with recipes for making variations of The Flower, and were assured that what they learn would be useful in their current song project. Children, sitting at keyboards, looked welcoming and even excited by the unusual occasion of learning something from a guest teacher. After the short introduction, children were familiarized with rectangular-shaped graphic notes. These graphic notes represent relative pitch and duration among tones, and unlike standard music notation, a particular combination of notes can be played on any specified positions 3

The detailed process was originally described in a paper written in Japanese (Adachi & Chino, 2000).

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on the keyboard (see Figure 9). In this graphic notation, children do not have to know one-to-one relations between notes and keys on the keyboard. Once they understand the system, children without any keyboard training can interpret how to play a simple motif or even a melody at first sight (e.g., Adachi, 1992).

Figure 9. An example of a simple pattern and two possible positions the pattern can be played on the keyboard. Rectangular-shaped notes depict relative pitches and durations of tones.

After short exercises in using graphic notes, children were presented with the graphic score of The Flower (see Figure 10) on the board. The teacher played the melody while someone else pointed to each note. Children had never seen this form of music score before; some showed interests and some looked bewildered. A reduced copy of the same graphic score was distributed to each child. The first task was to find the same four-note patterns as the beginning, and to mark them with brackets (i.e., the patterns highlighted with asterisks in Figure 10). The teacher confirmed that children knew numerical identifications of five fingers (i.e., 1 as a

RH LH Figure 10. Two forms of visual representation for a refrain of The Flower (adapted from Adachi & Chino, 2000): standard notation (the top) and its graphic version (the bottom). “RH” and “LH” indicate fingering for right hand and left hand, respectively. The target patterns to be modified were marked with asterisks (*) in the graphic version.

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thumb, 2 as an index finger, 3 as a middle finger, 4 as a ring finger, 5 as a little finger). Next, the teacher showed how to play this particular pattern by moving fingers (as indicated on the score) in the air while singing the fingering (i.e., “4-3-2-2”) and encouraged children to imitate her. Then, the positions on the keyboard were shown with colored magnets differentiating right and left hands. Children were instructed to move their fingers while singing the fingering for the target pattern, first on the lap and then on the keyboard, and to sing the rest of the melody with “la, la, la”. Once children became comfortable playing the target patterns before long; they were ready to tackle instant variations. First, the instructor changed the layout of the target pattern from “4-3-2-2” to “4-4-4-2”, and asked a child to change the layout of the other target patterns on the graphic score accordingly. After confirming the fingering for this new pattern, children played the transformed melody to see how it would sound. Children commented on this transformed melody. Some liked this one better; some liked the original better; and some liked both. Now it was children’s turn to try transforming the melody by changing the layout. Children appeared to enjoy moving around the target patterns like puzzles and checking out the sound of visually transformed melodies. Second, the teacher demonstrated how the image could be manipulated by means of finger positions on the keyboard. The teacher played the original score of the melody — involving exactly the same finger movement — on different key positions implying Ryukyu scale, wholetone scale, and blues scale (for illustrations see Adachi & Chino, 2000, p. 29). Each position elicits each nuance and image that could be enhanced by changing tempo, dynamics, the range on the keyboard, an accompaniment and so forth. Children were amazed with the mystery of what each scale could do to the tonal image. Finally, children were introduced to another guest: a graduate student who was studying music composition. The teacher, having given him the standard score of The Flower in advance, asked him to improvise the entire tune into a blues version. Unlike changing only the refrain of the tune, the improvisation of the entire piece possessed the feeling of wholeness. All children listened to his performance attentively. As soon as his performance ended, some children shouted, “It’s completely a

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different tune!” Children were even more surprised when they were told that the guest performer was improvising simply from the original score. After exchanging comments, one girl told that her group members wanted to make their song (The Graduation) sound like a ballade but they had been unable to come up with any idea for how to do it. When she asked him to play a ballade-like version, everyone began shouting “Encore!”; the guest performer kindly accepted children’s request. Despite overtime, children truly enjoyed his additional improvisation. Postscripts. After the special session, several girls — all good pianists — came up to thank the guest teacher. Most piano lessons focus on techniques and the accuracy of performance (Pace, 1982); perhaps, “recipes” provided something new even for children with extensive musical training. The next morning, children’s teacher (the second author) observed something unusual. Boys, gathering around an electric keyboard, were playing the refrain of The Flower by placing the graphic score vertically! “This way, we could see better which key should be pressed next,” said someone. Up to that day, it was girls who would play the keyboard in the classroom; boys would check out its mechanical functions by pressing buttons. Day by day, an increasing number of boys joined practicing the refrain during recess. Many of them tried transposing the tune into different keys while moving their fingers exactly the same way. In music classes, boys (as well as girls) had been given opportunities to play tunes and accompaniments on the keyboard, but the majority had to ask for assistance due to their struggle identifying keys to be played from the standard notation. These boys appear to have finally discovered their own way to approach the keyboard. We believe that boys’ breakthrough could not be possible only with our graphic score; it was their creative use — reading the score from top to bottom — that triggered off their genuine moment of “Aha”! Boys’ confidence in playing the keyboard by means of the graphic score encouraged them to become active contributors for their songmaking project. For example, children who assumed responsibilities only in roles of percussionists or vocalists in their previous group activities volunteered for the first time to play more challenging instruments such as keyboards, xylophones, and vibraphones. Passive participants began to speak up: “We’d better include the word ‘Class 2’ in introducing our

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class”; “The tune would express friendly and fun atmosphere of our class by moving from lower to higher tones”; “Too many rhythmic tones make the tune too restless, and it’s not good.” The effectiveness of the special instruction was also observed in each group composition. Children manipulated motives in creating the tune for their song. In the song Optimistic Class, the original tune was transposed to a minor mode and sung slowly without any accompaniment when the lyrics depicted children being scolded. Later on, the song went back to a major mode and sung in the faster tempo with the accompaniment of various instruments when the lyrics expressed recovering from the scolding. The song The Graduation incorporated arpeggios (used in the graduate student’s ballade-like version) and included its own introduction and ending played as a solo improvisation by a good pianist in their group. Finally, all groups except The Graduation recorded their songs by means of graphic scores. Thus, children were able to digest and to apply new experiences and leading into the spiral cycle of their creative endeavors (see Figure 1). This clearly demonstrates a successful case of reciprocal relations between children and the instructional support (Bruner, 1966; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1984).

3.4. Example 5: Making variations of a familiar tune by borrowing ideas from another tune We now turn into another strategy to make instant variations, i.e., to integrate musical features of multiple tunes. Japanese undergraduate students know basic musical terms such as tempo, dynamics, timbre, harmony, and major/minor keys; many of them can even identify titles of famous classical music pieces (e.g., Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Dvorák’s The New World ) because they used to memorize such information for paper tests in junior-high schools. However, very few — including music majors — can describe how these pieces are different from each other by referring to musical elements such as tempo, dynamics, timbre, forms, and keys without explicit prompts. In other words, Japanese students are neither used to listening to music analytically nor to applying their knowledge of musical elements into practice. Example 5 builds a bridge between what students already know and how they can

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apply it in music making. The following tasks were presented as class activities for 40 sophomore and junior undergraduate students in the spring 2001. Warm-up. Students listened to Canadian children’s happy and sad renditions of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in which manipulations of tempo, dynamics, rhythm, articulations, and tone of voice were clearly identifiable (Adachi & Trehub, 1998, 2000). After each song, the teacher (the first author) asked students whether it sounded happy or sad as well as why they thought so. The teacher encouraged students to use the above terms to direct their focus onto the corresponding elements in children’s songs, and refreshed students’ knowledge of such terms. Activity 1. Students listened to the beginning section of Yamato Dawn (Neptune, 1988) and identified instruments (koto and shakuhachi) used in this piece. Students described how it sounded in terms of feeling, and the instructor guided them to connect their feelings with features of musical elements (tempo, dynamics, rhythm, etc.). When some students identified rhythmic features as “interesting combinations of long and short tones” (i.e., syncopation) and melodic features of the accompaniment as “skipping tones” (i.e., arpegio), the instructor drew these features graphically, such that students could come back to these ideas in the following activity. Activity 2. After students grasped musical characteristics underlying the piece, the instructor presented the main task: to create a variation of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (“Twinkle”) by borrowing ideas from Yamato Dawn (“Yamato”). First, students were instructed to compare rhythms of these tunes. Twinkle’s rhythm consists of evenly sounding tones (Figure 11a), whereas Yamato’s consists of unevenly sounding tones (Figure 11b). By means of a specially tuned koto,4 students tried to see how it would sound if Twinkle’s rhythm were replaced with Yamato’s,

4

While it would be difficult to play the melody on Shakuhachi without extensive training, anyone can make sound on Koto simply plucking a string. Koto traditionally consists of 13 strings, whose pitches are tuned specifically for each piece by moving triangle pieces called Ji. For this activity, the teacher tuned 12 strings (excluding the closest string) such that students (who were not familiar with this instrument) could play the Twinkle melody by moving from one string to the next: do, so, la, so, fa, mi, re, do, so, fa, mi, and re.

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while experimenting various tempi as well. In the end, the entire class approved of the Twinkle melody incorporating Yamato’s rhythmic motif when it was played slowly and peacefully (Figure 11c). Second, students discussed on the accompaniment. Yamato’s arpegios (or skipping tones) move from lower to higher pitches, including sevenths (and sometimes ninths) that would induce a jazzy feeling. For the accompaniment, students were given chime bars (see Figure 6), because they could explore different combinations of tones for arpegio simply by replacing bars. Students tried to use similar ascending sevenths (e.g., so-ti-fa, la-mi-so), but they did not match the modified Twinkle melody. Then, the instructor suggested an alternative form of ascending arpegio (so-do-fa), applying a quartal harmony often used in jazz and contemporary art music. Students liked this sound, and decided to use a slightly modified ascending pattern (so-do-fa-so) as ostinato (i.e., an accompaniment consisting of a simple recurring motif). In the final version, students added an introduction and ending by means of the same ostinato, as well as repeating the beginning section twice. One student commented that the timbre of chime bars sound like twinkling stars. (a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 11. Graphic scores of (a) the beginning phrase in Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, (b) Yamato Dawn , and (c) a variation of Twinkle by incorporating Yamato’s rhythm.

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Postscripts. A French pianist François Glorieux (1977) played The Beatles’ Yesterday and Hey Jude while turning them into Chopin’s Ballade and Bach’s Prelude and Fugue, respectively. Each piece of music possesses its own character in rhythm, melody, harmony, instrumentation, and so forth. Because of this character, we can identify Yesterday or Prelude and Fugue no matter how different it sounds from the original version, and we can determine a specific style of composer that has been incorporated into the original version. By extracting musical features of Chopin’s and Bach’s pieces, Glorieux successfully gave new identities to The Beatles tunes. In Example 5, we demonstrated that even musically inexperienced students could be guided into creative maneuvers similar to what Glorieux did. Students’ accomplishment was basic and simple, but this experience gave them opportunities to understand musical elements from analytical listening, and to use their knowledge not for the purpose of getting a good score on the test but for the purpose of creating and exploring music. Applications. The activities described in Example 5 have been applied to the fifth grade music classroom by the second author. Children listened to many different pieces of music, selected a piece from which they would extract musical features, and integrated the features with the Twinkle melody. Through their analytical listening, children identified characteristics of their selected piece in tempo, rhythm, meter, melodic motives, contour, articulation, instrumentation, and structure, and successfully generated six new Twinkles incorporated with Elgar’s The First Pomp and Circumstance March, Tchaikovsky’s March and Sugar Plum Fairy (both from The Nutcracker Suite), and Japanese tunes including Japanese Folk Festival Drums (Chino, 2001). On the basis of this creative activity, the same children extracted “scales” from existing pieces of Asian music, and composed original pieces of music by means of a particular ethnic scale of their choice in their sixth grade music classroom (Chino, 2002). Thus, the cognitive cycle of creative music making (see Figure 1) can be substantiated in elementary school music classroom by a teacher who can carefully guide children’s current learning into the future learning, as suggested by Bruner (1966).

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4. Conclusion: “Making Music Is Easy.” Just as a good bedtime story has its conventional structure, music has its own. What we tried in this chapter is to reveal structural elements that would make any sound into music, or, at least, music-like sound objects. We also tried to build up awareness in readers for how different patterns can be combined into a whole, how to organize beginning, middle, and ending sections, how to manipulate motives, and how to discover what makes each piece of music unique. All the above examples are our originals, but we have adapted many ideas — specifically those described in Examples 2–5 — from the Pace Method, a piano method proposed by Robert Pace, that facilitates “comprehensive musicianship”, allowing students to become able to analyze, sight-read, transpose, improvise, and compose music. In this method, creative activities function as an “enzyme” that allows students to absorb their current musical experience and theoretical information into their understanding of music (Pace, 1979, 1982, 1999). The goal of this method is to develop students’ internal motivation while guiding them into independent learners able to analyze, perform, and compose for themselves at each level of learning (e.g., Adachi, 1992; Katsuyama, 2001; Sampei, 2001). Of course, we appreciate the purely emotional, unexplainable, artistic realm of music. However, this artistic or unexplainable feature of music has been given too much attention. Cognitive and metacognitive processes governing performance and composition are rarely discussed. In this sense, Pace’s (1982, 1999) approach is a rare value in promoting creative accessibility of music into ordinary people. We believe that making music is no more mysterious than telling your own bedtime story to children. Levine (1984) argues that the rationale behind children’s creative thinking develops from metaphoric (or subjective) to objective. Our experience with teaching creative music making suggests that this developmental path be true even for adults. Metaphoric thinking stimulated within a musically free frame or through creating musical instruments helps musically inexperienced adults rediscover the joy in creativity while trying something new even within the unfamiliar territory of music. On the basis of confidence and motivation, musically inexperienced children and adults would not mind challenges involved in creating music within

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a conventional frame as far as they know that they can function independently. Various types of iconic representations of tones, instruments, and timing, as well as unconventional use of instruments, play pivotal functions that allow children and adults to go back and forth between subjective and objective thinking. From our teaching experience, such freedom takes the unnecessary burden off the shoulders of inexperienced students, letting them focus on creative (rather than technical or conceptual) portions of music making, and builds up further confidence and motivation that will eventually lift them up to musically objective thinking. Sophomores who discovered a joy of exploring their own sounds produced by their own instruments will be more curious and open to contemporary or ethnic music. Students’ musical compositions may become more conventional and artistic without explicit guidance, and the development of musical creativity may be determined by biological and cultural maturity (Swanwick & Tillman, 1986). We do not deny such possibilities, but as our work shows, it can also be guided. Students learn not only from their teachers but also from their peers if they are placed in such cooperative learning environments (Takasu, in press). Our anecdotal experience can be explained better in a Vygotskian, or sociocultural, perspective than in a Piagetian perspective. Today’s child exposed to various activities of creative music is tomorrow’s more confident college student, more apt to compose music and much more. Instruction built upon long-term planning can foster musical creativity. Such instruction can provide creative experiences otherwise never encountered, and provide a sense of achievement in every student, and in some lucky cases a true epiphany. The unlocking of creativity through music making activities can inspire a confidence lacking in Japanese students. A new creation is never wrong. Our approach incorporates creative activities with reading and writing in music (whether by means of graphic or standard notation), singing, playing instruments, and analytical listening of music. In this chapter, we focused on how these activities can help students’ creative thinking. However, creative activities can, in turn, facilitate students’ understanding and skills in these other areas of music learning. The efficacy of these activities is reciprocal (Pace, 1999).

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Music making can also be incorporated with other subject areas, such as arts and crafts, story-making, and acoustical science. For those who are still hesitant with the idea of music making, we suggest that you pick something you are good at and try to think how you can make a bridge between your area and music. If you cannot think of it, try making an instrument out of anything you find at home. Before closing our chapter, we should point out one more thing. Yamato Dawn, used in Example 5, is a piece written by John Kaizan Neptune, an American Shakuhachi Master residing in Japan. When Japan began importing western music at the time of the Meiji Restoration, who would have imagined that a westerner would master Japanese music and integrate musics from the East and the West? In other words, rules are meant to be broken, especially when it comes to making music. Even composers of the 20th century western art music rebelled against the tonal harmony, leading to the discovery of new motions and colors in tones (e.g., Debussy), as well as to the cultivation of new structures such as atonal (e.g., Webern), compound meter (e.g., Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, minimal (e.g., Philip Glass), and even imaginary (e.g., John Cage’s 4’33" ). Creative music making uncovers the essence of music; it simulates the course taken by the 20th century composers within the realm of the general population. We hope you try a few of our examples and discover for yourself other means of creative music making that you can incorporate into your classroom settings. We found our exercises liberating and hope you do as well.

Acknowledgments Many of the materials included in this chapter became available by courtesy of Yumi Aoyagi, Mitsuko Nakajima, Hisako Katsuyama, Yoko Jimbo, and Robert Pace. We would like to thank for their support. We would also like to thank Katsuko Noda for her contributions for undergraduate classes, as well as Masakazu Yamamoto for his live performances for children. We are grateful for Sing Lau, Gary Vasseur, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript. All examples in this chapter derive from regular music classes for undergraduate education-major students at Yamanashi

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University (the first author’s former affiliation) and children at Yamanashi University Elementary School. Samples of music created by elementary school children and undergraduate students are available upon request. Address reprint and music sample requests to Mayumi Adachi, Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, N 10 W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0810, Japan ([email protected]).

References Adachi, M. (1992). Development of young children’s music reading via instruction. Proceedings of the Fifth Early Childhood Music Education Seminar (pp. 83–107). Tokyo: Kunitachi College of Music. Adachi, M. (1994). The role of the adult in the child’s early musical socialization: A Vygotskian perspective. The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning, V(3), 26–35. Adachi, M. (2000). Expression of emotion in songs of Japanese school children. Proceedings of the Fall Meeting of Japanese Society for Music Perception and Cognition (pp. 65–68). Kyoto: Kyoto City University of Arts. (in Japanese with English abstract) Adachi, M. (2001). Why can’t Japanese first grade children make up songs? In Y. Minami & M. Shinzanoh (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, Vol. II (pp. 49–50). Nagoya, Japan: Aichi University of Education. Adachi, M. (2002). Happy and sad songs sung by Japanese first grade children with song-making experience in preschool. Unpublished raw data. Adachi, M., & Chino, Y. (2000). Involving every child in music making. Journal of Applied Educational Research, 6, 25–35. (in Japanese) Adachi, M., Chino, Y., & Fukazawa, K. (2001, June). Creative music making for everyone: “Making music is easy!”. Paper presented at the Second International Symposium on Child Development, Hong Kong, on June 26– 28, 2001. Adachi, M., & Trehub, S. E. (1998). Children’s expression of emotion in song. Psychology of Music, 26(2), 133–153. Adachi, M., & Trehub, S. E. (2000). Emotion as a stimulus for creative music making. In Japan Academic Society for Music Education (Ed.), Music Education Research, Vol. I: Theory (pp. 46–57). Tokyo: Ongaku-no-tomosha. (in Japanese with English abstract)

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Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Campbell, P. S. (1998). Songs in their heads: Music and its meaning in children’s lives. New York: Oxford University Press. Chino, Y. (2001). Listen, feel, and express: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” In Yamanashi University Elementary School (Ed.), Open School Year 2000– 2001: Collected works of instructional plans for demonstration classes (pp. 62–65). Japan: Yamanashi University Elementary School. (in Japanese) Chino, Y. (2002). Listen, feel, and express: Musics in Asia. In Yamanashi University Elementary School (Ed.), Open School 2002: Collected works of instructional plans for demonstration classes (pp. 160 –163). Japan: Yamanashi University Elementary School. (in Japanese) Gardner, H. (1982). Art, mind, and brain: a cognitive approach to creativity. New York: Basic Books. Glorieux, F. (1977). François Glorieux plays The Beatles [Record]. Tokyo: Victor. HAL/Otohime (1999). The flower [Recorded by KinKi Kids] [CD]. Tokyo: Johnny’s. Johnson-Laird, P. (1988). Freedom and constraint in creativity. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 202–219). New York: Cambridge University Press. Katsuyama, H. (2001). Case report: a boy who is recovering from suspected MELAS through weekly music instruction. In Y. Minami & M. Shinzanoh (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, Vol. II (pp. 61–66). Nagoya, Japan: Aichi University of Education. Kelley, L., & Sutton-Smith, B. (1987). A study of infant musical productivity. In J. C. Peery, I. W. Peery, & T. W. Draper (Eds.), Music and child development (pp. 35–53). New York: Springer-Verlag. Levine, S. (1984). A critique of the Piagetian presuppositions of the role of play in human development and a suggested alternative: Metaphoric logic which organizes the play experience is the foundation for rational creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 18(2), 90–108. McKernon, P. E. (1979). The development of first songs in young children. In D. Wolf (Ed.), Early symbolization (pp. 43–58). San Francisco: JosseyBass. Ministry of Education (1989). National curriculum standards reform for elementary school. Tokyo, Japan: Ministry of Education. (in Japanese) Ministry of Education (2000). National curriculum standards reform for juniorhigh school. Tokyo, Japan: Ministry of Education. (in Japanese)

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Moorhead, G. E., & Pond, E. (1941). Music for young children: I. Chant. Santa Barbara, CA: Pilsbury Foundation for Advancement of Music Education. Moorhead, G. E., & Pond, E. (1942). Music for young children: II. General observations. Santa Barbara, CA: Pilsbury Foundation for Advancement of Music Education. Nakajima, M., & Adachi, M. (2001). Knowledge- and skill-transfer into preschool children’s song-making activities. In Y. Minami & M. Shinzanoh (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, Vol. I (pp. 33–36). Nagoya, Japan: Aichi University of Education. Nakazawa, K. (1987). Barefoot Gen: A cartoon story of Hiroshima. (Project Gen, Trans.) Philadelphia, PA: New Society. (Original work published in 1945) Neptune, J. K. (1988). Yamato dawn. Tokyosphere [CD]. Tokyo: Victor. Ng, A. K. (2001). Why Asians are less creative than Westerners. Singapore: Prentice Hall. Omi, A. (1994). Children’s spontaneous singing: Four song types and their musical devices. Journal of Kawamura Gakuen Woman’s University, 5(2), 61–76. Pace, H. (1974a). Moppets’ rhythms & rhymes. Chatham, NY: Lee Roberts. Pace, H. (1974b). Moppets’ rhythms & rhymes: Teacher’s book. Chatham, NY: Lee Roberts. Pace, R. (1972). Music for moppets: Teacher’s manual. Chatham. NY: Lee Roberts. Pace, R. (1977a). Kinder-keyboard. Chatham, NY: Lee Roberts. Pace, R. (1977b). Kinder-keyboard: Teacher’s manual. Chatham, NY: Lee Roberts. Pace, R. (1979). Forward. In The Robert Pace keyboard approach book 1: Music for piano. Chatham, NY: Lee Roberts. Pace, R. (1982). Position paper. Paper presented at the National Conference for Piano Pedagogy, Madison, WI. Pace, R. (1999). The essentials of keyboard pedagogy: II. Improvisation and creative problem-solving. Chatham, NY: Lee Roberts. Sampei, S. (2001). Effects of spiral learning on intermediate piano students’ sight-reading and memorization processes. In Y. Minami & M. Shinzanoh (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, Vol. II (pp. 10–13). Nagoya, Japan: Aichi University of Education. Shimazaki, A. (1996). Be friend with sound: Music play. Tokyo: Ongaku-notomo-sha. (in Japanese) Shimazaki, A. (1997). Music games in Japan. In E. Choi & M. Auh (Eds.), Proceedings for the First Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research (pp. 299–301). Seoul: Korean Music Educational Society.

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Shoto-ka-ongaku-kyoiku-kenkyukai (Ed.). (2000). Teaching methods for elementary school music education. Tokyo: Ongaku-no-tomo-sha. (in Japanese) Sloboda, J. A., Davidson, J. W., & Howe, M. J. A. (1994). Is everyone musical? The Psychologist, 7(8), 349–354. Swanwick, K., & Tillman, J. (1986). A sequence of musical development: A study of children’s compositions. British Journal of Music Education, 3(3), 305–339. Takasu, H. (in press). Discourses in group work: Qualitative analysis in children’s composing activities. Proceedings of the Fourth Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research. Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Institute of Education. Tsubono, Y. (1995). Ideas in music making. Tokyo: Ongaku-no-tomo-sha. (in Japanese) Tsubono, Y. (2001). Playing traditional pattern “Sarashi” and creating new music on it with traditional Japanese instruments. In Y. Minami & M. Shinzanoh (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, Vol. I (pp. 215– 217). Nagoya, Japan: Aichi University of Education. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1991). Imagination and creativity in childhood. Soviet Psychology, 28(1), 84–96. Webster, P. R. (1987). Conceptual bases for creative thinking. In J. C. Peery, I. W. Peery, & W. Thomas (Eds.), Music and child development (pp. 158– 174). New York: Springer-Verlag. Wertsch, J. V. (1984). The zone of proximal development: some conceptual issues. In B. Rogoff & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), Children’s learning in the zone of proximal development (pp. 7–18). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Chapter 14 Creativity and Multiple Intelligences: The DISCOVER Project and Research

C. June MAKER Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, & School Psychology College of Education The University of Arizona, USA

What is more important, to be creative or to be intelligent? Are creative people also intelligent? Are intelligent people usually creative? What do we want to foster in our children and youth? What is best for our society or nation? How do schools need to be different if we want to develop students’ creativity as well as their intelligence and skills? What experiences and research can be helpful in answering these questions? In this chapter, I will argue that intelligence and creativity are not really different, but result from responses to certain prompts in the form of tests or teaching activities, or from adults’ attitudes toward a child’s responses to tests, questions, or products. I also will present evidence from my own and others’ research to support my arguments and give specific ways that researchers, teachers, parents, and other adults can foster the natural abilities of children and youth — helping them to develop their problem solving and adaptability for the world of the future.

1. Research and Theories: Creativity versus Intelligence? At a “macro” level, educators and psychologists have studied the relationships between creativity and intelligence by examining the results of IQ tests and tests of creativity. In classic studies, researchers separated 341

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both IQ and creativity into “high” and “low” quadrants, and examined the scores of individuals in each category. For example, Getzels and Jackson studied those in the “mismatched” groups — those with high IQ and low creativity and those with low IQ and high creativity. Wallach and Kogan studied all four groups — those with high IQ and high creativity as well as those with low creativity and low IQ. Out of this research and many subsequent studies emerged a “threshold” theory of the relationship between the two constructs — a certain level or threshold of IQ was necessary to be highly creative. Torrance suggested that this threshold IQ was about 120. At the “micro” level, researchers (Cropley, 1999; Guilford, 1967, 1984; Runco, 1986, 1991) have studied the relationships between convergent thinking and divergent thinking. Convergent thinking requires a person to derive the best or correct solution from information provided or stored in memory. The main task of the thinker is to go back to her/ his information (Puccio, Treffinger, & Talbot, 1995) and use that information in meaningful ways to solve a problem that has a correct answer. The thinker also may be required to use the information to achieve a clearly defined goal. Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is deriving as many solutions as possible, and requires the thinker to generate many answers (fluency); novel, appropriate answers (originality); answers that are diverse (flexibility); and answers or solutions that are detailed (elaboration). Divergent thinking also requires the thinker to perceive the problem or goal in a broad rather than a narrow way, and to “think outside the box” of the usual ways of perceiving or using stored or available information. In general, this approach has led to a “style” theory — individuals have certain cognitive and personality styles that lead them to a tendency toward convergent thinking or divergent thinking. Although divergent thinking is not considered synonymous with creativity, in general, however, the two approaches to studying creativity and intelligence are very similar. IQ tests consist almost exclusively of items requiring convergent thinking. In fact, the only well-established IQ test that contains a divergent thinking item is an old version of the Stanford-Binet. Creativity tests, on the other hand, consist almost exclusively of items requiring divergent thinking. The only test of creativity with “correct” or “best” answers is the Remote Associates Test. Not

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surprisingly, of all the tests of creativity, this one has the highest correlation with IQ. Other approaches to the study of creativity have included realworld problems and situations in which a response to a prompt is evaluated on its level of quality or its uniqueness rather than whether it is correct. Based on a belief that we have perhaps created an artificial distinction between creativity and intelligence, I proposed (Maker, 1993) that we study “problem solving” in a mindful way, noticing what types of questions or problems are presented in our assessments, and placing them on a continuum of open-endedness or structure in the problems presented.

2. DISCOVER and Multiple Intelligences When Howard Gardner’s revolutionary book on multiple intelligences was published in 1983, I saw it as an important base for the work I was doing. His theory fit my beliefs about intelligence and how it develops, he had done the work of finding empirical support for these ideas, and he had articulated them in a consistent and well-developed framework. My colleague, Dr. Shirley Schiever, and I were teaching a research seminar on theories of intelligence at the time, so we and the students decided to structure a series of studies that together could constitute a validation or elaboration of the theory. The results of those studies and similar ones are summarized in an article in Gifted Education International (Maker, 1993), and they formed the basis for what has become my life work: Discovering Intellectual Strengths and Capabilities while Observing Varied Ethnic Responses (DISCOVER). We have received funding from several governmental sources to continue this work. What we did in the first studies was to find adults (a man and a woman) and children (a boy and a girl) who were considered highly competent and adults (a man and a woman) and children (a boy and a girl) who were considered competent in each intelligence. Using our previous ideas about problem solving based on the work of creativity researchers Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1967, 1976), we structured problem solving experiences in each of the seven original intelligences — spatial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic (see Figure 1), musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal — and presented them to the children and adults in our studies. We observed the participants as they solved problems ranging from highly structured

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Figure 1. DISCOVER I bodily kinesthetic problem solving.

to completely open-ended in the intelligence we were studying, and then interviewed them about their thinking and problem solving processes. The entire session was videotaped so we could review it later in more depth. In these early studies, we found support for Gardner’s theory and support for our problem solving continuum, so we continued on this path. We saw that the participants exhibited the core capabilities outlined by Gardner in each of the intelligences, and that the participants’ thinking processes were distinctive. For instance, when solving the linguistic problems, highly competent individuals exhibited sensitivity to the meaning of words; sensitivity to the order among words; sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, inflections, and meters of words; and sensitivity to the different functions of language. When solving musical problems, highly competent individuals showed a sense of rhythm, heightened aural

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awareness and sensitivity, aural imagination, and tonal memory. We also found that the highly competent individuals, as a group, had certain commonalities. They preferred the open-ended problem solving activities in their dominant intelligences, while those who were competent (rather than highly competent) in a particular intelligence usually preferred the more structured problem solving experiences. In fact, the motivation and interest of the highly competent individuals increased dramatically as we progressed from structured to unstructured experiences, while the individuals considered competent in a certain intelligence became more anxious as they moved to the unstructured exercises. Later, we also found this preference for open-endedness even in highly competent individuals when they were working in their non-dominant intelligences. So, we can make the general statement that people prefer structured problem solving experiences in their weaker ability areas, and prefer open-ended ones in their stronger areas of ability. Other interesting results that provided an elaboration of the theory were in the area of problem solving strategies. We found, in these and later studies (Maker, 1997) that the core capabilities in each of the intelligences were important, but that other problem solving strategies also were valuable. Many of the problem-solving strategies were employed by the highly competent individuals regardless of the area of intelligence in which they were working. Some examples of general problem solving strategies are the following: asks questions about the task; follows through to completion; works continuously; is focused on own task; persists on tasks that are difficult; makes new, original, or different products or solutions; constructs products from a unique perspective; and incorporates clues and new information into problem solving strategy. These behaviors were similar to those found in the literature on creativity and motivation. These are only a few of our results. However, since I have only 40 pages to write about what I have been doing for the last 14 years, I want to focus on this concept of problem solving and its implications for psychology and education. I believe these ideas have led me to a way of integrating the concepts of creativity and intelligence that is useful for both individuals and societies.

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3. Problem Solving: A Key Concept for Integrating Creativity and Intelligence Traditionally, intelligence has been defined in the psychological literature as “the score an individual gets on an IQ test” and in practical situations as the ability to adapt to situations and people. Gardner (1983) defined intelligence differently: “Human intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties … and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems — thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge” (pp. 60–61). As you can see, he included both the psychological ideas and the practical ones, and went beyond the traditional to view creativity as integral to intelligence! In other words, within each intellectual domain, people can merely adapt to the world around them and solve problems in ways they have learned, and they can also conduct research on the frontiers of knowledge, thereby making new advances in knowledge and creating new innovative products. What we have done in the DISCOVER Project is to make these ideas more practical by using a continuum of problem solving situations derived from the work of researchers in creativity. In our model, problem-solving situations are categorized according to whether the problem, method, or solution is known by the presenter or the solver. Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1967, 1976) used three problem types, and we added two to complete the gap between their first and third. In our model (Schiever & Maker, 1991, 1997) the first type is one in which the problem and method are “known” by the presenter and solver, and the solution is known only by the presenter. The solver’s task is to apply the known method to reach the solution already known by the presenter (i.e., the teacher or the author of the test). In math, for example, 4 + 7 = ___ is a Type I problem. The second type is close to the first in structure, with a problem known to the presenter and solver, and both method and solution known to the presenter but unknown to the solver. Again, in math, a Type II problem is what we call a magic square. Using a specified mathematical operation, students must complete the problems correctly. In the third problem type, more than one method and more than one solution are acceptable. However, the methods and solutions are

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known to the person presenting the problem. An example from math is to give students 3 different numbers — 2, 5, 3 — and ask the students to write correct addition and subtraction problems using only those numbers. They can use 2 different methods and can reach 4 different solutions. The fourth problem type has a clearly defined problem, but an unlimited number of methods and an unlimited number of solutions can be identified or developed. The person presenting the problem does not have acceptable methods or solutions in mind. If you give students any number, and ask them to develop as many problems as possible with that number as the answer, the number of possible methods is unlimited, as is the number of appropriate solutions. The fifth problem type is one in which problem, method, and solution are “unknown” by both presenter and solver. A math problem situation of this type is to “choose a number, an operation, or any other math idea, and show it in as many ways as you can”. In Type V problem solving situations, the problem solver must define the problem to solve before attempting to solve it. This type permits the most individual creativity, and requires the ability to “find” or “define” a problem contained in a situation (see Figure 2). Types I, II, and V comprised the original matrix; Types III and IV were added by Schiever and Maker (1991, 1997) so the Types could be perceived as being on a continuum of decreasing structure. Types I and II require what has traditionally been labeled intelligence (convergent thinking), or knowing the correct solutions and methods, while Type III begins to require what has been labeled creativity (divergent thinking) as well, and Types IV and V require and develop the most creative and productive thinking. However, even these open-ended problem solving situations continue to require convergent thinking if the individual must eventually decide which idea or ideas to use. Our research has shown that to develop each of the intelligences to its full capacity, and, I would add, to increase the capacity of our nations to compete in the global economy, we must emphasize and develop our children’s ability to solve a variety of problem types. We must not restrict their work in school to the solving of problems with right answers and known methods, and then expect them to go out into the world and suddenly become capable of creating new products and generating new ideas. Do not forget, either, that this emphasis on open-ended problem

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Figure 2. Real-Life (Type V) problems identified by Chinese and American secondary students in the Global Interactive Learning Center (GILC) in Beijing.

solving is essential for those who are the most highly competent in a particular area — math, writing, speaking, dancing, athletics, science, or engineering. Highly competent people of all ages are motivated and interested if given the challenge of struggling with an unstructured, and often complex, problem rather than one they know already has been solved. Here are a few examples of what I mean. During our assessment of spatial artistic ability, one 5-year-old may become interested in how she can convince another child to give her something she wants or needs to complete her construction (an interpersonal problem) while another 5-year-old is focused solely on how he can make his construction stand up by itself (a spatial problem). An engineer may become interested in creating a new toy that will capture the attention of children and make

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money for his company (a spatial and interpersonal practical problem), while an artist often wishes to find new ways to convey moods and emotions through the use of colors and shapes (a spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal problem) and an athlete spends much time during her/ his early years developing the ability to act with precision, flexibility, and beauty to accomplish specific goals (see Figure 3) (a bodily-kinesthetic and spatial problem). A musician, on the other hand, uses her or his body with precision to convey moods, ideas, and images through the production of harmonious sounds (musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal problems). Many scientists and medical professionals spend their entire lives searching for a cure for a previously incurable disease while others wish to map and understand the complexity of the universe (naturalist, logical-mathematical, and interpersonal problems).

Figure 3. A student in Zhuchen demonstrates his bodily kinesthetic intelligence.

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3.1. Assessment 3.1.1. Development We have found that the problem continuum is useful in structuring assessment instruments that help us understand the interacting interests, motivations, and abilities of children and youth of all ages. After the initial studies designed to validate Gardner’s theory and test the usefulness of our problem continuum in the context of multiple intelligences theory, we began to design group assessments of children’s abilities. Because we also wanted our assessment to be practical and beneficial to educators on a broad scale, we began by developing assessments of the intelligences that are most relevant to children’s experiences in school — linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, and interpersonal. Using the problem continuum, we designed interesting, “intelligence-fair” (Gardner, 1992), developmentally-appropriate problem solving tasks that were engaging to individuals of varied ages, abilities, languages, ethnicities, and environmental backgrounds. Observers, also from varied ages, abilities, languages, ethnicities, experiential and theoretical perspectives, watched and documented the problem solving strategies and characteristics of products created by the students. After each observation, informants were asked to tell which students were “effective, efficient, economical, or elegant problem solvers”, and to provide detailed descriptions of the superior behaviors they observed that led them to nominate each student. These behavior descriptions were recorded and maintained. Data from observations of over 5,000 children (Lori, 1997; Maker 1996) along with the results of the first set of studies of highly competent and competent children and adults with varied ability patterns (Maker, 1993) were used to develop a checklist of observable behaviors that could be used to guide decisions made about problem solving behaviors in students, grades K-8. A similar process has been followed with a smaller (but increasing) sample of secondary school students (Maker, 1994). Repeated assessments, revisions, feedback, and on-going data collection have resulted in a set of activities for each of four grade levels (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12), standardized procedures and directions, a behavior checklist to provide consistency in evaluations, and a “debriefing” process for increasing interrater reliability. Assessments are conducted in the

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familiar classroom environment with a teacher as the facilitator along with other classroom teachers; specialists in education of the gifted, bilingual education, or special education; preservice educators, counselors; community members; administrators; and other experts as observers. Students, in groups of 4 or 5 peers, are encouraged to interact and meet the challenges presented. Bilingual observers and teachers present instructions in the dominant language(s) of the students. A belief in the distinctiveness of certain domains of ability based on the Multiple Intelligences Theory of Gardner (1983, 1999) and the Triarchic Theory of Sternberg (1985) led to the creation of exercises in which abilities in one domain would not be assessed through the “filter” of another domain. That is, the activities are “intelligence-fair”. For instance, a task designed to assess spatial-synthetic abilities would have as little language as possible and would require creative, but not analytical abilities — to the extent possible. At this point, the set of DISCOVER recognized problem solving activities includes spatial artistic (see Figure 4), spatial analytical (see Figure 5), oral linguistic (see Figures 6 & 7), written linguistic (see Figure 8), and interpersonal assessments.

Figure 4. Spatial artistic DISCOVER assessment.

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Figure 5. Spatial analytical DISCOVER assessment.

Figure 6. Oral linguistic DISCOVER assessment.

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Figure 7. A Bahraini student telling a story.

Figure 8. A written linguistic example from a DISCOVER assessment.

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3.1.2. Research on validity and reliability The DISCOVER Assessment has been used with varied multicultural populations in the United States and abroad, and with students from varied economic levels (Lori, 1997; Maker, 2001). One well-established aspect of its validity is that when used to assess abilities, the percentage of students who receive the highest ratings is similar across ethnic, racial, language, and economic groups (Maker, 1997; Nielson, 1994; Sarouphim, 1999a). Shonebaum (1997) also found that deaf students can be assessed effectively with DISCOVER, and that the only modification needed is to videotape rather than audiotape students’ storytelling. Flores (2001) showed the usefulness of DISCOVER with students diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. Initially, the DISCOVER Assessment was based on the theory of multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner. From a simple view of this theory, one would expect that all of the intelligences or domains he outlines are different, and that no “general intelligence” exists. Thus, no significant correlations would be expected between activities designed to assess different intelligences. However, Gardner also states that no human activities require the use of only one intelligence. In fact, we all draw upon our storehouse or “toolkit” of abilities as we strive to achieve a certain objective. Not everyone uses the same processes or strategies to accomplish the same task or objective. Sternberg (1985) includes a similar idea and assigns it a higher level of importance by calling it a component of intelligence. He discusses the metacognition, saying that an individual uses this ability to monitor her or his own thinking. Metacognition includes the ability to decide which of your own abilities to use at a particular time — when to be creative or when to be critical, for instance. It can be thought of as a “main-frame” computer that monitors and assigns tasks to different aspects of the mind or personality. An interesting observation during some of our early case studies was that people tended to draw on their dominant intelligences even when the task could be considered only peripherally related to their strengths. Two examples can be used to illustrate this observation. One woman, nominated because of her accomplishments in math, described her mental processes as she solved the musical problems we presented. She explained how she

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listened to each note and attempted to predict which tones should come next based on her logical analysis of the distances between the tones. Her explanation combined with our observations as she performed the tasks showed that she used core capabilities of logical mathematical intelligence: skillful handling of long chains of reasoning, recognizing patterns, and discovering a promising idea and drawing out its implications. A jazz musician described how he wrote poetry during the linguistic tasks we presented. He repeated the words to himself or out loud, focusing on the sound and rhythm pattern of the combinations of words instead of their meanings. Although a core capability of linguistic intelligence is sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, inflections, and meters of words, he essentially ignored other processes of linguistic intelligence such as meaning, order, and function. His musical core capabilities — sense of rhythm, heightened aural awareness and sensitivity, aural awareness and sensitivity, and aural imagination were more dominant in his performance of the task than were his linguistic ones. The point I am making is that the relationships between and among abilities are complex, not simple, so we cannot expect simple correlational research to provide answers to questions about the theoretical validity of any test instrument. During the development of the DISCOVER Assessment, research teams recognized that the core capabilities considered to be the essence of each separate intelligence could be observed during different tasks. For instance, as children told stories and talked about their constructions during the spatial artistic assessment, we could observe their linguistic ability. As they struggled with difficult tangram puzzles, we could observe their interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities. One Navajo Indian boy who solved the difficult tangram puzzles very quickly noticed that the other students in his group were getting discouraged by his performance. He then began to pace himself so that he completed each puzzle just before the students who were closest to being finished with the puzzles. Others used humor to break their own and others’ tension as they worked on the complex puzzles. Through the students’ oral and written stories, we also could see how well they understood themselves and others — core capabilities in interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. One of my favorite stories written by a 7-year-old child clearly illustrates her understanding of complex personal relationships. In this simple story,

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Felicia demonstrates she knows that if two children who are very different go to school, the other children will make fun of them, and they will cry. She also knows mothers will do their best to fix the problem! The checklists of superior problem solving behaviors we developed to summarize the results of a DISCOVER Assessment are designed to show these complex relationships. The behaviors are categorized according to the intelligences, but a column is included for each activity so that the observer can indicate during which activity the behavior was observed. At the end of the assessment, we can see the ways students draw upon different abilities across tasks, thereby gaining a more complete picture of the student’s abilities and preferences. In studies conducted by Sarouphim (2000) most of the results for a sample of kindergarten, fourth and fifth graders showed support for the theory of multiple intelligences. Significant correlations were found between the oral and written linguistic activities (both measures of linguistic intelligence) in kindergarten (r = .295, p > .01) and in grades 4 and 5 (r = .354, p < .05). She found significant correlations between the spatial analytical and math activities (r = .331, p = .01), a result some may believe should not be found because spatial and logical-mathematical intelligences are supposed to be different. However, research based on other theories has consistently shown that analytical skills using nonverbal content are related to logical-mathematical ability. Sarouphim found unexpected significant correlations (r = .257, p < .01) between the spatial analytical and oral linguistic activities. Since these correlations were low, one can infer that the overlap is small, but clearly the results are not consistent with a simplistic view of the theory of Multiple Intelligences. Lori (1997) conducted the DISCOVER Assessment with 100 Bahraini boys and girls. He found the assessment to be useful with students from this culture, and also identified a significant correlation between storytelling ability and personal intelligences in the Bahraini children. This is an easier relationship for me to explain. I believe good storytellers use content that will appeal to and be easily understood by their audiences. Gardner lists only one core capability for interpersonal intelligence: to notice and make distinctions among other individuals (e.g., moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions). Certainly this capability is present in someone who relates well to his or her audience. The other

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personal intelligence, intrapersonal, includes core capabilities such as access to one’s own feeling life; the ability to make discriminations among feelings, label feelings, find ways to express these feelings, and use them to understand and guide one’s behavior. A definite characteristic of good storytellers is that they can use information about their own feelings to help them relate to others. Sarouphim (2000) found no gender bias in identification of giftedness using the DISCOVER Assessment. She also found that student behavior observed corresponded to abilities the activities were designed to measure. Another important finding was that the behavior most frequently observed in students, regardless of the rating they received was “follows through to completion”, indicating that the activities are engaging to students of all age and ability levels (Sarouphim, 1997). Designing studies of the concurrent validity of the DISCOVER Assessment presents a challenge. Since most tests include either items to measure convergent thinking or items to measure divergent thinking, no tests are available for direct comparisons. In a study of concurrent validity, for instance, researchers usually administer the new test and a wellestablished test to the same participants and determine the correlations of the scores. High correlations would indicate that both tests are measuring the same construct, while low correlations would indicate that they are measuring something different. Usually, researchers would like to see low correlations between a new test and measures of constructs thought to be different, and would like to see moderate to high correlations between the new test and established measures of what they consider to be measures of a similar construct. They would also like to see that the correlations are not too high, or are not perfect, because no one would have need for the new assessment if it measures exactly the same thing as another well-established test. Of course this wouldn’t be true if the new assessment were much less expensive to administer but gave the same results as the expensive version. Here is an example of the difficulty of designing concurrent validity studies of the DISCOVER assessment. The verbal subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales (e.g., Vocabulary, Information, Comprehension) would be expected to have higher correlations with our oral and written linguistic tasks while the performance subtests (e.g., Block Design, Object Assembly,

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Picture Arrangement) would be expected to correlate more highly with the spatial analytical and spatial artistic tasks in the DISCOVER Assessment. However, the so-called verbal sub-scale of the Wechsler Scales also includes math tasks and memory tasks, so direct comparisons between sub-scales are difficult, And then, when we add the fact that all the Wechsler subtests require only convergent thinking and the DISCOVER Assessment includes both convergent and divergent thinking, expected correlations are not so easy to describe. Nevertheless, studying the relationships is essential to establishing the new assessment as a valid measure of human abilities. In a study of 55 gifted Caucasian students in a private school, without correcting for restricted range of IQ, Stevens (2000) found significant correlations between DISCOVER spatial artistic (r = .373, p < .01) and written linguistic (r = .34, p < .05) activities and Full-Scale IQ. He found significant correlations between spatial artistic (r = .27, p < .05) and written linguistic (r = .388, p < .01) activities and verbal IQ. The only significant correlation with performance IQ was the spatial artistic activity (r = .369, p < .01). Since the correlations in Stevens’ study were relatively low, we can conclude that the tests are not measuring exactly the same things, but that they do overlap. Griffiths (1997), however, did not find significant relationships between DISCOVER and WISC III or WPPSI verbal or performance IQ or full-scale IQ in her study of 34 Mexican American kindergarten students identified as gifted using DISCOVER. In this case, IQ scores ranged from 88 to 137 with a mean of 115. Two possible factors contributing to the differences in results obtained in these two studies is that Stevens was studying Caucasian children while Griffiths studied Mexican American children, and that Stevens’ study included students aged 5 to 11 while Griffiths studied only 5-year-olds. As I reported earlier, researchers in France are finding that abilities are more differentiated in young children, then become more related when students are in elementary school, and start to be differentiated again at the end of elementary school and in middle school. One of our studies supported the idea that abilities may have a different pattern of relationships in different cultures (Maker, 2001). Sarouphim (2001) studied the relationship between scores on the Raven Progressive Matrices in 257 kindergarten, second, fourth, and fifth grade

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students. In this group of predominately Navajo and Mexican American students, she found the highest correlations with spatial artistic (r = .58, p < .01), spatial analytical (r = .39, p < .01) and math (r = .35, p < .01) as one would expect, since the Raven is a measure of non-verbal logical reasoning. Lower correlations appeared between Raven scores and oral (r = .20, n.s.) and written linguistic (r = .093, n.s.) DISCOVER ratings. In a different concurrent validity study, Sarouphim (1999b) found that DISCOVER assessment results for spatial, logical-mathematical, and linguistic abilities were consistent with independent ratings made by both classroom teachers and a researcher who observed students in the classroom. In general, the results of these and continuing studies of concurrent validity show that DISCOVER is a promising new assessment and that studies need to continue so we can sort out its connections with established tests. Most importantly, we need to confirm the DISCOVER Assessment’s usefulness in providing valid information about the abilities of children and youth that will enable teachers and caregivers to build on strengths and help to meet challenges.

4. Developing Creativity and Problem Solving No assessment tool is worth using in schools unless its results are helpful to us in developing curriculum and teaching strategies. To make clear the connection between the DISCOVER Assessment and Curriculum Models, I will first discuss the three components necessary for high level talent to develop: ability, motivation, and opportunities. During this discussion, I will show how these interacting components are part of the DISCOVER Assessment. Then, I will show how ability, motivation, and opportunities are provided for in the DISCOVER Curriculum Model.

4.1. Conditions for development of talent 4.1.1. Ability The first requirement for high level talent is ability. Some people believe ability is determined mainly by heredity while others believe the environment has a greater effect than one’s genes. I will not enter that

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debate, but I will say that I believe the environment has a tremendous effect, and research such as that of psychologist Ericsson (Ericsson & Charness, 1994; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993) is showing this to be true. Psychologists and educators of the gifted also have spent many years attempting to define ability (or intelligence), and I do not think I will resolve that debate today either! However, my ideas on this subject are a bit different from the traditional ones. As you know from the first part of the chapter, I believe we have made an artificial distinction between convergent and divergent abilities — between creativity and intelligence. People also have assumed that both intelligence and creativity are general abilities. New evidence is being found to support the idea that both “creativity” and “intelligence” are domain-specific rather than general (Han & Marvin, 2002; Lubart, 1994), particularly at certain ages. Researchers in France, for example, are finding that the relationships among abilities change over time (Lubart, 1994; Lubart & Lautrey, 2001). Young children’s abilities are more differentiated; around ages 10 and 11, they start to be more related; and then these abilities become differentiated again at ages 14 and 15. Our research also provides support for this view (Sarouphim, 2000). Another fairly recent understanding is that abilities are dynamic, not static (Perkins, 1985; Perkins, & Salomon, 1989). They change and develop over time. What, then, is ability? Defining ability is a bit like the classic story of the blind men and the elephant. Do you know that story? As the story goes, 7 blind men had met an elephant. One insisted it was like a rope (he was feeling the tail), while another insisted it was like a wall (he was touching its side), and another thought it was like a tree (he was touching one of its legs). None of them had the “whole picture”. The lesson of this story is that what we think something is depends on our perspective — the lens we use to view it. Maybe there is just one ability “elephant”, but clearly, its foot and its tail are different, and its trunk is not at all like its stomach! I decided several years ago to define ability in a general way, as the ability to solve complex problems, and to use Howard Gardner’s (1983, 1999) intelligences as the “domains” in which effective problem solving occurs. I also suggest that you decide from your cultural perspective how you will define these domains or areas of ability. To me, giftedness, the highest level, is “the ability to solve the most complex problems [within

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and across many different domains] in the most efficient, effective, ethical, elegant or economical ways” (Maker, 1993, p. 71).

4.1.2. Motivation The second requirement for high level talent to develop is motivation. Defining motivation may be even more complex than defining ability. Some (my first grade teacher being one of them) define motivation as the willingness to do whatever the person in charge tells you to do — and with a smile! Others, such as Renzulli (1978) define motivation as commitment to a task until completion is achieved. Similarly, Ericsson (Ericsson et al., 1993; Ericsson & Charness, 1994) has found that “deliberate practice” for many hours is essential for individuals to become highly accomplished, and is more important than innate ability. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) called this quality “flow” and defined it as a pleasurable experience — being so involved in something that you lose all sense of time and want to continue. In other words, the activity itself is rewarding. Vygotsky (1978), the famous Russian psychologist, brought us the idea of the “zone of proximal development”, and an understanding of the need for a task to be challenging to enable optimal development to occur. Indeed, Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990, 1997) research provides support for Vygotsky’s ideas — for an individual to experience “flow,” the activity has to be challenging — difficult enough yet possible for the person to do. Using these ideas about the relationship between ability and motivation, we developed a way to look at motivation based on the degree of challenge presented by a particular task. If something is very easy for us to do, it’s boring. If it can be done with relative ease, it’s comfortable; and if it can be done, but with effort and “stretching” of our minds or bodies, it’s challenging. If it is out of our reach — we cannot do it no matter how hard we try — it’s frustrating. In many cross-cultural studies, Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues have found that certain elements are necessary for people of many ages, abilities, and occupations to experience “flow”: (a) the activity is challenging to you, (b) you are interested in doing the activity, and (c) you can see that you are accomplishing your goal or at least making progress toward reaching it. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

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When we combine some of these ideas and recognize that each individual has a unique pattern of strengths, we can see that each person also has unique zones of boredom, comfort, challenge, and frustration. Let us look at some real examples of gifted children. Krystal is gifted in math. She easily designs unique solutions to problems she has never seen before, and she has learned to use Excel on her own to create graphs and charts. Felicia loves words. She writes free form poetry and has made her own storybooks since she was 3 years old. Her mother says that she writes all the time. Roddrick, on the other hand, loves people. He can sense what others need, wants to help all the other students, and takes care of every visitor who comes into his classroom. Little Joe loves art! He studies the techniques used by every artist, and tries to use them. He “doodles” all the time and he would much rather draw a picture than write something. Eryck is a musician and a dancer. He loves to move and he tries to play every instrument. The only time you can get Eryck to read a book is when it is about dancing or yoga. The types of activities that would be boring, comfortable, challenging, and frustrating for each of these students would be different in different intellectual domains.

4.1.3. Opportunities The third requirement for high level talent to develop is opportunities. If you have never been exposed to a skill or an idea, you will not learn it! I often think about Mozart. Obviously, he had high level ability in music. However, he also had incredible opportunities to learn and practice music. His family had musical ability, and they valued it. My good friend Bruce Stoller, who is a classical pianist and an accomplished flutist, started climbing the legs of his mother’s piano when he was two. His mother, who was a great jazz pianist, made certain he had the best piano teacher in New York, and helped him get scholarships to the best music schools in the country. An important aspect of “opportunity” is having an excellent teacher or a mentor, and this factor has been shown repeatedly in studies in varied domains (Bloom, 1985; Ericsson et al., 1993; Ericsson & Charness, 1994; Zuckerman, 1977). Finally, we must recognize that these three requirements for talent development interact, and that each individual is part of several systems (cultural, familial, religious, environmental) in

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which the development of their talent is either encouraged or discouraged (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997).

4.2. Curriculum and teaching strategies: How can teachers help children develop their talents? As I was talking about the patterns of ability of just five students, the teachers reading this chapter were probably thinking of the many students they have in their classes, and thinking “it’s IMPOSSIBLE” to provide interesting and challenging activities for all those students. Indeed, it is, if you believe you have to design group activities for all these levels of ability and that you have to do this on a daily basis! I believe, and I have seen repeatedly, that when we change the way we think about teaching, and look at it from the point of view of providing options and choices for students, the task of teaching for talent development becomes much easier and infinitely more fun — for both the teachers and the students! Initially, you may need to put in extra hours to develop the options, but once developed, you can use them over and over with new groups of students. You also can share the development of these experiences with other teachers who work with the same age students. Many students have never experienced “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) in school. They never have had the experience that learning itself can be an enjoyable experience they want to do “for its own sake”. Some have never experienced a truly challenging task in the areas of most interest to them. Some are not given the opportunity to do something that interests them. Others are not given the time in school to accomplish a goal important to them. When students have opportunities to set learning goals matched to their interests and strengths, they undertake more challenging tasks, use more complex thinking skills, persist in solving more difficult problems, and are less threatened by mistakes than if all students had the same task and success was defined by comparing their scores with others (Collopy, & Green, 1995). Learners are more engaged when activities are varied, when they have choices among tasks, when they can learn through varied symbol systems, and when they interact with peers in problem solving and product creation.

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4.2.1. Choices and options: Problem solving Many different kinds of choices and options can be provided for students. You could use many different theories of ability and learning to design your learning activities. I would like to give you examples using my particular view of the ability “elephant”. First, because of my definition of giftedness, I would provide a variety of problem solving experiences. I recommend providing students of all ages and ability levels the opportunity to solve a wide variety of problems across areas of ability. Thus, the DISCOVER Curriculum Model includes use of the problem continuum outlined earlier in this chapter to structure a variety of problem solving experiences. The teacher uses it to develop learning activities, and also helps students choose learning experiences and later learn about themselves by analyzing their choices of learning experiences. Later in this section, I will include examples from some classrooms at different levels in which teachers have used the problem continuum and integrated it with academic content.

4.2.2. Choices and options: Domains of ability Depending on the theory or perspective you have of intelligence or giftedness, you may choose a different structure or way of making certain you have provided options to meet the needs of those with varied abilities and talents. In the DISCOVER Model, in general, we use Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1992, 1993, 1999). From this perspective, then, the choices and options provided must include all eight intelligences: linguistic, spatial, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, and musical (see Figure 9). I would go beyond the surface of Gardner’s theory, however, and make certain the choices and options include the core capabilities in each of the intelligences. These were discussed earlier in the chapter because we observed these core capabilities in our early case studies of competent and highly competent children and adults, and we also observe these core capabilities during DISCOVER Assessments. They have been used to structure the items on the behavior checklist so that teachers and parents receive a report of the problem solving strategies used by the children

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during the assessments. Here is an example from a domain not included in earlier discussions. Spatial intelligence does not just include drawing things or using one’s visual abilities. It includes perceiving the visual world accurately; performing transformations and modifications upon one’s initial perceptions; recreating aspects of one’s initial visual experience in the absence of the actual physical thing, recognizing instances of the same element; transforming or recognizing a transformation of one element into another; making mental images and then transforming those images; and producing graphic likenesses of spatial information. Since I also believe in the importance of Sternberg’s theory (Sternberg, 1985, 2000), I would make certain each of the eight areas includes analytic, synthetic, and practical types of activities. For example, in the domain of spatial ability, artistic expression is usually synthetic, while making a graph is analytic, and fixing an engine is a practical use of spatial abilities.

Figure 9. A Chinese student demonstrates her musical intelligence.

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4.2.3. Choices and options: Content To satisfy the varied interests of students and to help each student gain the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve success in our modern world, we also must provide choices and options in content — the ideas, skills, and knowledge our societies have decided are necessary and important. That means, at the most basic level, we need to teach math, language arts, science, and social studies. Many of us also believe that we need to teach the visual and performing arts, use of technology, and physical education. Those who may be familiar with past approaches to the development of creativity will know that some have emphasized the assessment and development of creativity outside the context of academic subjects. For instance, a common item on tests of creativity is to list all the possible uses of a brick — and many have extended this idea to creativity development by having students list all the uses they can think of for all sorts of common objects (pencils, tables, chairs, a sheet of paper, a string). While these activities may be fun for students, little evidence can be found that they transfer to the development of creativity in a meaningful way in real-life situations or in academic domains. So, as students are being asked to be creative and to think divergently, they need something meaningful to think about! They need to apply their productive thinking to important problems and situations. I also believe, and have written in many publications, that we need to develop students’ understanding of various levels of content: data or facts, concepts, principles or generalizations, and theories (see Figure 10). Here is where some of my earlier work in curriculum modifications for gifted students is applicable. In 1981, I outlined levels of content as data or facts, concepts, principles or generalizations, and theories. I said that gifted students, in particular, must be led to an understanding of ideas that go beyond the isolated concrete facts often emphasized in our standardized tests. I also believe that all competent and highly competent individuals must understand theories, principles, and generalizations that can be used to integrate and go beyond the immediate situation or data available — especially in their areas of strength (Maker & Nielson, 1996). To reach these higher levels, however, students must have exposure to all the levels

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of content, and to a variety of data, concepts, generalizations, and theories across academic content areas. In other words, we must not place all our emphasis on the learning of specific facts that can easily be tested. We must help students of all ages to struggle with ideas and concepts, and to think about the implications of their ideas for the development of theories and generalizations with applicability across traditional academic disciplines. This kind of thinking will prepare them for real-world problemsolving experiences where ideas and information are not neatly compartmentalized or judged easily as “right” or “wrong”.

Figure 10. A hierarchy of types of content.

The lowest level of content is data or facts — “specific information about a particular event, object, action, or condition that can be verified by the senses” (Maker & Nielson, 1996, p. 70). Some examples include a story about how I fell off my horse and broke my toe, a list of wars that occurred in the United States, use of traditional techniques of Chinese painting, a musical theme and its notation, and demonstration of a dance step. The second level of knowledge is concepts — classes or groups of objects, events, and processes. A discussion of concepts is concerned with class inclusion or exclusion, and is focused on the common characteristics of the items in the class. Concepts include relatively

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concrete categories such as family, animal, house, and car as well as relatively abstract categories such as nation, culture, system, and freedom. The third level of content is generalization — “statements of the relationships among two or more concepts …” (Maker & Nielson, 1996, p. 72) and provide a way to represent connections between ideas in an organized way. They also can be referred to as principles or laws. Two important criteria are used to distinguish between a generalization and a concept: (a) a generalization involves two or more concepts; (b) data are not included in the statement or topic focus; (c) the two or more concepts are interrelated, and comparisons are made between or among the concepts; and (d) the topic focus is on a large idea having broad applicability. The following list of generalizations and non-generalizations illustrates these characteristics:

Table 1. Generalizations versus non-generalizations. Generalization

Non-generalization

Great men make history. Living things grow in cycles. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Kofi Annan is a great man. Describe the life cycle of a bat. The statement “My wife is beautiful”.

The highest level of content is theory — “a set of testable interrelated lawlike statements or high level generalizations” (Banks, 1990, p. 102). Theories are developed to explain and predict wide varieties of observed phenomena and experimental results in simple and efficient ways. They include all the other levels, and express relationships among generalizations. Some examples of theories are “survival of the fittest”, “the theory of relativity”, “systems theory”, and “creation versus evolution”. In essence, when moving to the higher levels, content becomes more integrated. The information is no longer divided easily into traditional academic areas, but rather is interrelated and interdependent. Most theories, for instance, draw from several disciplines for their support, and can be used to guide varied types of research and practice.

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4.2.4. Teaching examples Now, I would like to put these ideas together and show you what might happen in a classroom based on the DISCOVER Curriculum Model. We advocate that teachers use a matrix of problem types and multiple intelligences to create units of study based on varied types of content within and across academic disciplines. For example, in a classroom of 7- and 8-year-old students, one teacher was introducing the idea that certain natural phenomena develop and operate in cycles — repeating patterns and events. She developed a Type I problem in each of the intelligences. • Linguistic: Select the words from Worksheet #1 that pertain to the seasons and weather cycles. • Logical-Mathematical: Find the current temperature in the classroom and outside. Keep temperature records for one week. • Spatial: Study the picture of the cottonwood tree posted in the center. Make an illustration that shows how this tree would look at this time of the year. • Musical: Sing the song, “The Cycle of Seasons”, for one of your classmates. • Bodily-Kinesthetic: Use you body to represent a tree in a gentle breeze, in a gust of wind, a severe windstorm, and a tornado. • Interpersonal: With your group, list differences between temperatures inside and outside the classroom. • Naturalist: Draw one plant that lives in front of your house as it looks during winter and summer. She also developed Type II, III, IV, and V activities in each of the intelligences. Let us look at the Type V activities to contrast with the Type I experiences. • Linguistic: Using words, create a literary product about a cycle of your choice. • Logical-Mathematical: Using anything from the math center, create your own experiment to test a hypothesis about a weather phenomenon.

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• Spatial: You have been asked to design a cover for a book about the Seasons. What will you do? Show your final product. • Musical: Using anything from the music center, create a musical product related to seasons or weather cycles. • Bodily-Kinesthetic: You have been asked to perform an original bodily-kinesthetic work for a conference of weather specialists. Share your product. • Interpersonal: With your group, develop an interactive product to illustrate a cycle of your choice. • Intrapersonal: Think about a cycle that causes a personal emotional response. Show your feelings about it in some way. • Naturalist: Using real objects from the environment and anything else you need, create something that shows what you know about the cycles of nature. Each activity in the matrix is designed to do two things: develop higher competence in the intelligence and develop an understanding of the academic content being taught. At this point, I would like you to notice two things about this example. First, please notice the levels of content, and how they are related to the problem types. In general, Type I problems are concerned with the lowest level of content — data or facts. Type II problems are mostly concerned with data or facts, but can also begin to move to a higher level. Type III problems usually include content at the level of concepts, while Type IV and Type V problems must reach at least the level of generalizations and can go to the level of theories. Second, I want to talk about classroom management. A key aspect of a classroom designed to develop multiple intelligences and problem solving is learning centers — centers that contain the “tools” of the different intelligences (see Figure 11). For example, some tools of spatial intelligence are pencils, pens, watercolor paints, drawing paper, clay, construction paper, glue, scissors, brushes, pastel paints, cloth, string, yarn, and an infinite variety of materials that can be used for constructions. Recycled materials also can be included to reduce the cost of centers. A center can be elaborate — a corner of the room with couches, soft chairs, and books to read — or as simple as a plastic bin with manipulative

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Figure 11. A learning center for the naturalist intelligence.

materials. The most important aspect of the center is that students have access to the materials for use in their projects as needed. In a small classroom with little space and lots of students, the materials can be stored in containers and placed on shelves, either in cabinets or out in the open. In a larger classroom, these materials can be in permanent places on tables and shelves. They also can be changed throughout the year so that students are encouraged to try different ones, or they can change with different teaching units or content being taught. Teachers can use the problem matrix they have devised in many different ways, depending on their willingness to allow students to make their own choices. At the very least, however, students will be able to choose what problems to solve when they work on Type V Problems (due to the nature of the problem type), and will be able to select their own methods and devise their own solutions to Type IV problems. Some of the activities in the matrix can be done as whole-group activities and some of them can be assigned to certain small groups of students, and

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some can be optional activities students find in the learning centers or choose from a list of optional activities. Some teachers develop a problem matrix and make all the activities optional, while others may require that all students do the Type I and Type II problems to ensure that each student experiences all intelligences, but allow students to “specialize” by choosing to do the Type III, IV, and V problems in one or two intelligences of their choice. What I want to discourage you from doing, however, is a practice I continue to see in classrooms supposedly based on multiple intelligences theory: developing activities based on all the intelligences (designed to teach some fact or skill), and having all the students rotate through these centers. Often teachers who do this will set a timer, and when it rings, the students must move to the next center whether or not they have finished what they are doing, and they are not allowed to skip a particular center. How boring! Essentially, this is a version of the old group teaching experience. Students simply are having the same group experience at different times. I am not suggesting that you may not want to require all students to experience problem solving in all intelligences. You may wish to do this occasionally, or to invite them to participate in activities in intelligence areas they seldom choose. However, requiring everyone to do all the activities all the time ignores the importance of individual differences in student abilities, interests, and motivation (see Figure 12). An important aspect of this approach is allowing students to “show what they know” in many ways or in ways they may choose. One student may choose to tell what he knows about cycles by drawing an animal in different stages of its growth cycle. Another may choose to tell what she knows by writing and performing a puppet show about how animals and plants are affected by the seasons and weather, while another might perform a mime showing the repetitive nature of a cycle. A student interested in music might create a song in which different sounds are used to illustrate how the water cycle works. A group of students working together might gather observations of the local weather and create a graph showing their observations, while another group might interview people about their reactions to seasons and weather cycles and present their results in a play.

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Figure 12. Chinese and American students in the GILC working on solutions to real-life problems of interest to them.

4.2.5. Teacher-student interaction The way teachers interact with students can either encourage or discourage problem solving and the development of creativity. Let us suppose, for example, that the teacher says students can solve a problem in any way they choose, or encourages the students to “make anything you want to make”. Then, when he sees that Jane solved the problem by a unique method she developed on her own and Michael solved it by using a more conventional method the teacher has been teaching, the teacher praises Michael and barely acknowledges Jane’s solution, the students will know that the teacher really did not mean what he said. He really wanted all of them to use the method he was teaching that week. New or novel solutions were not really encouraged. Let us suppose, for another example, that the teacher has said “make anything you want to make that shows what you know about cycles”. Hyong gets very interested in using music and sounds to convey meanings, so he creates a new composition using various instruments he finds in the music center. Nancy, who loves to

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write, makes a poem about her personal reactions to the rain yesterday. The teacher, who is a musician and plays guitar with a local band, is so excited about Hyong’s composition that he praises it in front of all the children and asks Hyong to play it for them. He writes “good” on Nancy’s poem, but says nothing else about it. Nancy may then wonder whether her poem was not good enough, and if this reaction by the teacher continues, may soon learn that “make anything you want to make” is not really true. One way to avoid situations like these is to do what many DISCOVER teachers do. They arrange a time for sharing products. All students share what they have made, and the other students can ask questions to learn more about both the process and the content of what was done (see Figure 13). Prior to the presentations, the teacher also holds a class discussion about the audience’s responsibilities. The group also develops criteria for evaluating all the presentations, and discusses each presentation and how it met the established criteria. For example, I watched the presentations of the class after they developed their own way to “show what they know” about the water cycle. The children decided they should notice whether the person presenting included all parts of the cycle. They also thought that if a person used music they should create a visual image of a cycle through the sounds they used. They also decided their role as an audience included listening carefully, asking good questions, and giving suggestions for improvement. After each presentation, the other children clapped, and the child or children making the presentation asked if anyone had questions. They answered these questions, and then the teacher asked for an assessment of the performance using the criteria they had chosen. Most of the children’s questions were concerned with the process other students had used to create their products. However, some asked what different symbols were designed to represent. For example, when two boys played a musical piece, the other students wanted to know what each sound was supposed to represent, and when an abstract design was presented, others wanted to know how students had decided what colors or shapes to use to illustrate the sun, water, evaporation, and rain they had included in their cycle. I believe this strategy has several advantages: students develop confidence in making presentations in front of their peers; children learn

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Figure 13. A Chinese and an American student in the GILC present their product to other students.

both content and processes from listening to and watching other children; everyone learns more about how to apply criteria in the evaluation of products; and the teacher can see both the content knowledge and product sophistication of all her students. Over time, she can develop a clearer understanding of their interests and preferences as well. If a video camera is set up in the classroom, these presentations can be recorded at the beginning of the year and again at the end to show growth in presentation skills as well as knowledge and skills in the content areas. I believe parents would appreciate being able to see excerpts of their children’s performances in a parent-teacher conference. If videotaping is not possible, photographs are a great substitute. Most children love to have their pictures taken, and these pictures provide a record of the type and sophistication of the product for later comparisons. This discussion would not be complete without talking about teacher questions. What a teacher asks for is often what he or she gets! If you ask for facts, you get facts; if you lay a foundation and move from facts

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to inferences and then to generalizations, you can get the so-called “higher levels of thinking”. However, many teachers are not good questioners. A good question for developing problem solving and creativity is openended, just like the Type III, IV, and V Problem solving situations. It does not have a right or wrong answer, and the teacher truly wants to know “what the student thinks”. Here is one example. At the beginning of a discussion about experiments students have designed to test some hypotheses about a weather phenomenon, the teacher asks the following series of questions: What was your hypothesis? (Elicits an answer and accepts it.) What methods did you use? (Elicits a description of what was done in the experiment.) What were some of your observations? (Elicits one observation from one of the students.) What were some other observations? (Elicits another observation from the same student.) What did someone else observe during the experiment? (Elicits another observation from another student.) What else did you observe? (Continues to ask questions until she gets many different observations or until the students have no more answers.) What do you think may have caused (one of the observations)? (Elicits an idea about a cause from one student) What else do you think may have caused (the observation being discussed)? (Continues this questioning until she gets a variety of causes.) What do you think may have caused (a different observation)? This line of questioning continues with a few more of the observations, and then the teacher asks, “What would you conclude were the most important causes of your observations during this experiment?” After she gets an answer from each student, she asks that student how he or she arrived at that conclusion and accepts the answer. Next, she asks, “Was your hypothesis supported by your experiment?” After each “yes” or “no” answer, she asks why the student reached that particular conclusion. Contrast the kind of thinking that probably occurred in this discussion with what might happen if the teacher only asked, “Was your hypothesis supported by your experiment?” This “closed” yes or no question can be quite appropriate at the end of a discussion in which students are led through a thinking process of making a variety of observations and then making inferences about their observations, but would not be appropriate without laying a foundation of thinking. In general, these closed questions encourage one-word answers and do not develop thinking, especially if

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the teacher does not probe farther into the student’s thinking or continually asks questions with only one right answer. Closed questions also encourage students to search for the answer the teacher wants rather than thinking creatively for themselves! Readers can obtain more information about and many examples of this and other teaching-learning models for developing thinking from my book about teaching gifted students (Maker & Nielson, 1995).

5. Research on Effectiveness of the DISCOVER Curriculum Framework and Teaching Strategies The way of teaching described in this section is highly effective for all students. It develops their creativity as well as their knowledge of the content they are expected to learn. In general, the approach is based on a constructivist philosophy — children as well as adults need to actively construct new knowledge from experience and prior knowledge; develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills; learn basic skills while undertaking higher-level, “real-world” tasks requiring the integration of a number of skills; have information resources available when they actually become useful, and cover fewer topics but explore them in greater depth; and be active “architects” rather than passive recipients of knowledge. A consistent message of school reform efforts in many countries is that students must learn to think and solve problems rather than memorize facts and mindlessly apply algorithms. Research (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Lave, 1988; Miller, & Gildea, 1987; Rogoff, 1990) has demonstrated that constructivist approaches work best to achieve these objectives. One example to illustrate the point is that children learn vocabulary rapidly by listening, talking, and reading; but when students attempt to learn words from abstract definitions and writing sentences that have no value beyond the completion of an assignment, vocabulary building is very slow (Miller & Gildea, 1987). When people use tools including language and symbol systems actively, they acquire a much richer understanding of the use of the tools, the world in which the tools are used, and the context of activities in which a community uses such tools (Brown et al., 1989).

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5.1. Research methods Before showing you the results of some of the research on DISCOVER, I need to explain the way we conducted the research. We used a variation of the experimental-control group method and combined it with techniques normally used in qualitative research, and believe it provides a better match with what we know about practice while producing quantifiable, defensible answers to research questions. In the most recent DISCOVER Project, a site coordinator and other curriculum specialists or teaching artists provided staff development workshops and curriculum development assistance to all teachers, administrators, specialists, and teaching assistants at four low-income schools in both rural and urban areas of the United States. We demonstrated how to teach based on multiple intelligences using the content of the individual classrooms, recommended teaching materials, and supported the educators in whatever ways they requested. Each year, we observed all the teachers in their classrooms at least one time, completing an extensive observation form. We also interviewed them about their beliefs and classroom practices. Students were assessed with the usual end-of-year tests required by the states or local school districts, and we assessed their creativity. At the end of the project, two individuals familiar with the school (one was always the site coordinator for the school) reviewed all the materials available on a particular teacher (observation forms, interview results, student products) and rated him or her on six criteria derived from our pilot studies as important in the implementation of the DISCOVER Curriculum Model: (i) Integrates multiple intelligences through self-selected product formats, available/accessible tools, and choices based on interests and strengths. (ii) Poses a variety of types of problems and, at times, encourages students to design their own problems, to access information and demonstrate understanding. (iii) Collaborates with students to establish a learner-centered environment that includes student choice, flexible schedule and

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grouping, standards for behavior, sharing, openness, and acceptance. (iv) Organizes content around broad-based, interdisciplinary themes. (v) Models a variety of processes and gives students opportunities to use the processes to access and transform information. (vi) The varied products reflect the diverse strengths, interests, and preferences of students. The two ratings on each criterion were combined to form one score for each rater. Then, we examined them for extreme discrepancies. If one rater had, for example, given an overall score of 1.5 while another had given 3.5 or higher, the raters were required to discuss their ratings and reach agreement on individual scores or definitions of the rating criteria. Finally, all scores were averaged, and a “level of implementation” score was assigned to each teacher. A teacher who implemented most of the DISCOVER Curriculum Model principles most of the time was given a rating of “5” and called a “high implementer” while a teacher who seldom implemented any of the principles was given a rating of “1” and labeled a “low implementer”. We then compared the creativity and achievement of students in the classes of high implementers and low implementers. This differs from the usual experimental and control design in that teachers were not arbitrarily assigned to the treatment groups, and we know (rather than assume) that differences existed between the classrooms on the variables of interest.

5.2. Results of research We are still in the process of analyzing the results of the largest study. However, I will describe some studies and preliminary results. The classroom described in Section 4.2.4 was in our first pilot study (Maker, Rogers, Nielson, & Bauerle, 1996). In this study instead of achievement test results, we looked at the results of pre and post assessments using the DISCOVER Assessment. We found statistically significant differences from pre-test to post-test on spatial artistic (N = 37, χ2 =13.53, df = 4, p = .009), storytelling (N = 37, χ2 = 9.50, df = .049) and math (t = 3.59, p = .001) problem solving activities. At another school we compared

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three teachers of age 10 children one year and three more teachers the second year: one low implementer, one middle implementer, and one high implementer each year. We found significant differences (p < .021; p < .022) on science scores for two years, and an improvement (p < .063) in reading scores during year two in the high or middle implementer’s classroom when compared to the low implementer’s classroom (Taetle, & Maker, 2002). In a comparison of teachers in different schools (both men and both teachers of age 11 students), we found significant differences in the creativity of students measured by the cross-cultural (Jellen & Urban, 1986, 1989; Urban & Jellen, 1996) Test of Creative Thinking — Drawing Production (TCT-DP) at the end of the year. The drawing on the left (see Figure 14) is a typical drawing by students in the low implementer’s class, and the drawing on the right is typical of the drawings of the students in the high implementer’s class (see Figure 15).

Figure 14. Typical TCT-DP drawing from a low implementer’s class.

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Figure 15. Typical TCT-DP drawing from a high implementer’s class.

Another aspect of our research was to examine the changes in the overall school achievement in the four schools (Maker, 2001). We expected that schools with a high percentage of high implementers would make greater overall gains than the schools with a low percentage of high implementers — that is, if we could attribute gains to their use of the DISCOVER Curriculum Model. Ethical concerns prevent me from showing the scores of the “unsuccessful” schools, but I can show the scores from those with a high percentage of high implementers. Pueblo Gardens Elementary School in Tucson, AZ showed a significant increase in Stanford 9 scores in the core subjects of language, reading, and math (from approximately the 18th percentile to the 62nd) from 1997 to 2000. The DISCOVER Projects were involved at Pueblo Gardens from 1993 to 2000. Additionally, Pueblo Gardens students received over 1400 hours of arts and integrated arts instruction in 1998–99 from ArtsBuild, a program

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that shares a focus with the DISCOVER curriculum model in that it is derived from Gardner’s MI theory. The principal attributes gains to a strength-based curriculum, problem solving, parent involvement, high academic expectations, and no “drill and practice”. At Byck Elementary, now a DISCOVER Projects Magnet School, on the Kentucky State Tests of achievement, scores increased steadily in reading (from 40th to 60th percentile), math (from 22nd to 45th percentile), science (20th to 42nd percentile), and writing (9th to 42nd percentile). In addition to a high percentage of high implementers, we found certain characteristics to be common to the schools in which overall increases were seen in creativity and achievement: (i) The principal’s philosophy of education was similar to or compatible with the philosophy underlying the DISCOVER Project. (ii) Teachers at the school were involved in making the decision to participate in the project, and their decisions were made after having information about the project and its goals. (iii) Other programs implemented at the school were based on a philosophy consistent with DISCOVER and their goals were similar. In summary, I would like you to keep these final principles in mind. If you wish to implement multiple intelligences theory in your school, and you expect to show positive results, the leader must believe in the program and give it support, a “critical mass” of teachers must believe in it and use it in their teaching on a consistent basis, all must be informed and must develop competence in using it, and you must choose other programs that are compatible. To do so effectively, I also believe many of us must change the way we think about education and teaching — from an emphasis on teaching facts and information to developing intelligences and problem solving in multiple intelligences! As the great thinker Albert Einstein said, “The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

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6. The DISCOVER Model and Creativity in the East A definite change in thinking is needed if educators (and parents) believe that development of creativity and problem solving cannot occur in the exam-oriented societies of the East. It can. Three exciting projects in which the DISCOVER Model is either being used, adapted, or combined with complementary programs are examples of how this can happen. I will tell a little about these projects, and encourage readers to look for reports from these projects as well as others. The three projects are DISCOVER in Mainland China, Multiple Intelligences and Problem Solving for Gifted Handicapped Children in Taiwan, and the merging of Exploring Centers developed in Thailand with DISCOVER to form the Prism of Learning Model.

6.1. DISCOVER in Mainland China When a small group of educators working on the Steering Committee of the China/US Conference on Education in 1997, in response to a request to share ways to develop creativity, proposed to have a “Global Interactive Learning Center (GILC)” in which secondary students from the U.S. and China would work together in Creative Problem Solving Groups, we were told it was impossible! The students would not be interested because they were too concerned about their exams. The parents would not be interested because they did not see the value of it. We persisted. We took 46 American students from 8 states, and they worked with 26 Chinese students from Beijing Middle School #8. This 10-day program (including visits to cultural and historical sites) demonstrating how to develop creative problem solving skills using a multiple intelligences framework (see Figures 16 & 17) became the “talk of the conference.” More importantly, many of the Chinese students felt that it was the most exciting learning experience of their secondary school career. Many of the American students felt the same way — perhaps for different reasons. During that program, two Chinese educators from the Beijing Institute of Education visited the Center almost every day, observing the whole process. They were excited, and convinced that this type of education would be an important way to accomplish school reforms advocated by the Ministry of Education.

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Figure 16. Chinese and American students building a model of their problem in the GILC.

Figure 17. A Visual model of a problem constructed by Chinese and American students in the GILC.

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Three years later, and after I made several trips to Beijing to present my ideas, the DISCOVER in China Project was born. Headed by officials from the major professional associations and the Ministry of Education, and guided by dedicated faculty members of the Beijing Institute of Education, this research and development project was initiated because it fit with the agreed-upon directions of overall school reform, namely the focus on creativity development and student-centered learning. The overall plan includes exchanges of faculty, visiting scholars, student exchanges, conferences, and on-going staff development provided by a central team. Over 500 schools are involved, and educators are finding many exciting ways to implement multiple intelligences and problem solving within this traditional “exam-oriented” society. In fact, in Shandong Province, officials used the problem continuum to revise entrance exams for certain schools! From my perspective, it seems that one of the reasons why the DISCOVER approach to the development of Problem Solving and Multiple Intelligences has been accepted in Mainland China is our insistence on combining significant content knowledge with creativity development. For a review of these ideas, see Sections 4.2.3 and 4.2.4. At the international conference last year, I participated in a special section in which teachers and other educators presented examples of their use of the DISCOVER Problem Continuum. Chinese teachers at all levels and in all content areas are integrating the five problem types into their teaching. Because I heard so many excellent and highly effective examples of how the learning of significant academic content can be combined with the development of problem solving in multiple intelligences, I proposed that we collect, translate, and publish these examples to help American and other English-speaking Educators design more effective and content-rich problem solving experiences. My difficulty with American educators is often the fact that they are so concerned about the process of being creative that they forget that the content is equally important to creativity development. Clearly, just memorizing information will not contribute to creativity development. However, knowing things and using that knowledge in innovative ways is the essence of creativity. This is an example of my belief that if we probe below the surface cultural differences, we will find many similarities

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across cultures and societies. I see many of the differences between American education and the education of students in Mainland China as differences in degree, not in kind. For instance, as a group, American educators are also exam-oriented! They are just less so. Chinese educators, as a group, are not uninterested in learning processes; they are just less interested than American teachers; and American teachers are not uninterested in the teaching of significant content; they are just less interested than Chinese teachers — and perhaps less proficient also. However, if we compare individual teachers, we find that some Chinese teachers are less exam-oriented than certain American teachers, and that some American teachers are more content-focused than certain Chinese teachers, and some Chinese teachers are better at developing processes than certain American teachers! My “bottom line” for educational change is that the East and the West can learn much from each other, we are all humans who are more alike than different, and the tendency to focus on cultural differences often obscures the valuable similarities.

6.2. Developing multiple intelligences and problem solving ability of gifted/talented handicapped and non-handicapped preschool children in Taiwan This research and development project has been recently initiated. It is the largest of the three projects in Taiwan. Two universities and a college have sponsored workshops on the DISCOVER Curriculum Model — National Taiwan Normal University, Yuan-Ze University, and Kang Ning Junior College of Nursing. Taiwanese educators see this model as one that fits easily in preschool education, so it is being implemented in several schools and classrooms. One teacher educator has conducted an “audit” of the lesson plans of practicing teachers and found that 90% of the learning experiences involve Type I and Type II problem solving, but that all the multiple intelligences are integrated into most lessons if considered over an entire teaching “unit” and not each day’s lesson. In programs for gifted students, models similar to DISCOVER (and my recommendations for curriculum in programs for gifted students, which incorporate the same principles as the DISCOVER curriculum model)

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have been used for many years. The greatest challenge seems to be in moving this type of model into general education in public elementary and secondary schools. During the most recent curriculum design workshop, I was again impressed with and excited by the many excellent problem matrices developed by Taiwanese teachers and educators. Problem solving experiences are designed with the goal of developing varied problem solving skills while teaching content from National Standards and curriculum, just as it is in the U.S. and Mainland China. We will compile and translate these examples, and will make them available to other teachers — either through publications or through our web site at www.discover.arizona.edu. At National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), in a project directed by Dr. Ching-Chih Quo, we will collaborate in the design of assessments and curriculum for gifted handicapped and non-handicapped preschool children. The DISCOVER preschool assessment will be modified, adapted, and refined for use with Taiwanese children with disabilities, and its effectiveness will be studied. The DISCOVER curriculum model, combined with the Exploring Centers from Thailand (described in Section 6.3.), and as modified, adapted, and refined, will be implemented in a special enrichment program held on Saturdays in the Special Education Center at NTNU. As with the DISCOVER in Mainland China project, I expect to learn better ways to gain acceptance of my ideas in the United States, and to improve the model through applying it in a different country.

6.3. Exploring Centers, DISCOVER, and the Prism of Learning Model At a conference of the Asia-Pacific Federation of the World Council on Gifted and Talented Students, I had the good fortune to attend a presentation made by Dr. Usanee Anuruthwong of Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok. I was amazed! What she was doing was so much like the DISCOVER curriculum model that I thought she must be my twin sister! We began a dialogue that has grown into a lifetime partnership to put our ideas into practice in both our countries — and in many others.

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As I write this chapter, we are putting the finishing touches on our Prism of Learning Model that is the result of carefully considering the strengths of each model, and developing a combined model that incorporates the strengths of both. Look for our book and for information about the model on the DISCOVER web site as soon as it is available. In the DISCOVER Project schools and school districts, we encouraged each teacher to develop centers with the tools of multiple intelligences, and to provide a wide range of problem solving experiences. This is a good idea, and is an important goal, but unfortunately, it is expensive and services to all children are dependent on all teachers’ willingness to implement this approach. Not all teachers are willing to teach in this way no matter how much their administrators encourage them and regardless of the number and quality of staff development opportunities! In Thailand, schools interested in developing problem solving and creativity devoted one large room to an Exploring Center, selected and provided staff development opportunities for one to three teachers (depending on the size of the school), purchased and created materials that students could use during “free exploration” time. All students in the schools (usually grades 1 to 3) spend two hours each week in the Center. They go with their class. Teachers in the center provide some group activities, observe the students, and encourage them to explore, solve problems, and think. I sincerely believe this kind of model can be successful in any school anywhere in the world! The school leaders just need to believe in it, choose good teachers, provide staff development, work closely with experts to develop the center, and provide support to the teachers in the center as well as those in regular classrooms. At the end of Section 5.2, I listed several factors necessary for the DISCOVER curriculum model to make a significant impact on the achievement and creativity of all students in a school: “the leader must believe in the program and give it support, a “critical mass” of teachers must believe in it and use it in their teaching on a consistent basis, all must be informed and must develop competence in using it, and you must choose other programs that are compatible”. If only one center is implemented as in the Exploring Centers in Thailand, the model can be successful if only the school leader and a few teachers believe in and support the approach, as long as all teachers are expected to send their students to the Center on a regular basis.

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7. Conclusion In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that many educators in the East and the West are “changing the way they think” about education. They are seeing the value of developing students’ thinking and problem solving, and are designing unique, culturally appropriate learning experiences using the DISCOVER Problem Solving Matrix and Multiple Intelligences theory.

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Sarouphim, K. M. (1999a). DISCOVER: A promising alternative assessment for the identification of gifted minorities. Gifted Child Quarterly, 43(4), 244–251. Sarouphim, K. M. (1999b). Discovering multiple intelligences through a performance-based assessment: Consistency with independent ratings. Exceptional Children, 65(2), 151–161. Sarouphim, K. (2000). Internal structure of DISCOVER: A performance-based assessment. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 23, 314–327. Sarouphim, K. M. (2001). DISCOVER: Concurrent validity, gender differences, and identification of minority students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 45(2), 130– 138. Schiever, S., & Maker, C. J. (1991). Enrichment and acceleration: An overview and new directions. In N. Colangelo & G. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education (pp. 99–110). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Schiever, S., & Maker, C. J. (1997). Enrichment and acceleration: An overview and new directions. In N. Colangelo. & G. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education (2nd ed.) (pp. 113–125). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Shonebaum, J. A. (1997). Assessing the multiple intelligences of children who are deaf with the DISCOVER process and the use of American sign language. Unpublished master’s thesis, The University of Arizona, Tucson. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Identifying and developing creative giftedness. Roeper Review, 23, 60–64. Stevens, B. (2000). Relationships between the DISCOVER assessment and Wechsler Intelligence Scales as identifiers of gifted children. Unpublished master’s thesis, The University of Arizona, Tucson. Taetle, L. & Maker, C. J. (2002). The effects of the DISCOVER Problemsolving Arts-infused Curriculum Model on State-mandated Standardized Test Scores. Manuscript submitted to the Journal of the American Educational Research Association. Urban, K. K., & Jellen, H. R. (1996). Test of creative thinking — Drawing production. The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger, Inc. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Zuckerman, H. (1977). Scientific elite. New York: Macmillan.

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Chapter 15 Nurturing Creative Thinking: Western Approaches and Eastern Issues

Gerard J. PUCCIO David W. GONZÁLEZ International Center for Studies in Creativity Buffalo State College, State University of New York, USA

Catherine Stimpson (1996), Director of the MacArthur Fellows Program (commonly known as the “Genius Awards”), defined creativity as a state of doing, not being. Creativity is an applied act. At its core, the study of creativity is about understanding the basic nature of a unique and important human quality so that we can more effectively foster it among all people. Towards that end, this chapter focuses on examining the basic nature of creativity and Western approaches aimed at nurturing creative-thinking skills, such as Creative Problem Solving. Nurturing creative thinking in the East raises new and different challenges when compared to experiences in the West. Child rearing practices, the influence of culture on personality development, and educational practices are examples of some of the challenges that may inhibit the development of creativity within Eastern cultures. Added to this list of cultural factors that undermine creativity in the East is the potentially biased view that creativity is strictly about revolutionary change, the introduction of ideas outside of the proverbial box. As a consequence, Easterners may undervalue the creative contributions associated with those who engage in more evolutionary or continuous change. The chapter concludes with a handful of principles for leading a more creative life.

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1. Introduction What is creativity? Are all people creative? Can creativity be nurtured? Can creative thinking be taught? What behaviors exemplify creative thinking? Should our schools focus greater effort on improving students’ abilities to engage in creative thought? In what ways does culture inspire or inhibit individual creativity? These are some of the common questions creativity professionals and researchers are asked. This paper was written with these questions in mind. Through this chapter we hope to answer most, if not all, of these questions. This chapter is divided into two main sections: the first section focuses on the West and the second on the East. The first section begins with perhaps the stickiest question of them all, “What is creativity?” In responding to this question, we distinguish the broader construct of creativity from the term ‘creative thinking’, at least as these constructs are viewed in the West. After examining some popular approaches to creativity and creative thinking in the West, next we turn our attention to emerging issues in the East. We begin this section with observations derived from our own experiences in conducting creative-thinking workshops in the East and consulting with various Asian organizations. We then summarize a number of issues unique to the East that have emerged through research. At the end of this section we describe a potential bias in the East towards a particular view of creativity: a belief that creativity has much more to do with discontinuous, revolutionary, change than continuous, evolutionary, change. Finally, we conclude this chapter by offering the reader five principles for living a more creative and productive life.

2. Defining Creativity & Creative Thinking Creativity and creative thinking are often treated as if they were synonymous terms, they are not (Treffinger, 1995). Of course these terms are conceptually related, but they are not identical and should not be used as if they were interchangeable. Many writers have suggested that creativity is a dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon (MacKinnon, 1978; Mooney, 1963; Rhodes, 1961; Stein, 1968). Given its conceptual breadth, creativity subsumes the term creative thinking.

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What does multifaceted mean? Many authors have argued that creativity is made up of a number of interactive elements. These elements can be isolated for study, but in reality creativity results from the interplay that occurs among these elements. Although the language may vary slightly, most concur that creativity involves four discrete parts. Using Rhodes’ (1961) terms, these facets relate to the characteristics and skills associated with the creative person; the stages of thinking that comprise the creative process; the qualities of the creative product; and the nature of an environment conducive to creative thought (Rhodes used the term Press to refer to environment). The complexity associated with the multifaceted nature of creativity often leads to confusion and debate in which all parties have only a portion of the truth. Like the blind men who described an elephant based on the particular body part each one happened to touch, the same is often true when individuals discuss creativity (Ornstein, 1972). To fully understand the nature of creativity one must understand how each of the main parts interact to produce the whole. This may sound simple, like putting a puzzle together; however, the interactive nature of these elements makes it much more complex. It may be more like a dance, where the performance depends upon the interaction of the partners involved, the music being played, and the environment that surrounds them. Modify any of these elements and the performance changes. It was mentioned earlier that creative thinking is subsumed by creativity. Within the multifaceted view of creativity, creative thinking would be most closely associated with the process facet. Thus, creative thinking relates to the mental activities and stages of thinking individuals go through as they endeavor to solve a problem in a creative way. Torrance’s (1974) classic process definition provides a clear example of some behaviors that are illustrative of creative thinking: “A process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, and so on; identifying the difficulty; searching for solutions, making guesses, or formulating hypotheses about the deficiencies; testing and retesting these hypotheses and possibly modifying and retesting them; and finally communicating the results.” (Torrance, 1974, p. 8)

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After laying out the conceptual relationships between creativity and creative thinking, as well as enumerating the affective dimensions and cognitive skills associated with creative thinking, Puccio and Murdock (2001) provided the following definition of creative thinking: “Creative thinking is an essential life skill. It is a rational process that enables an individual to successfully produce novel and useful responses to open-ended challenges and opportunities. Creative thinking is made up of specific cognitive, metacognitive and affective skills. Once internalized these skills can be readily applied to all areas of life. Creative thinking is subsumed within the domain of creativity and as such reflects the inherent multifaceted nature of this broader construct. Thus, although creative thinking is at first an individual process, it is affected by such factors as the surrounding environment and the task at hand. Finally, creative thinking is not rare. All normally functioning people have the ability to think creatively and this ability can be enhanced. It can be taught through such methods as Creative Problem Solving.” (p. 70)

There are a number of quite important assumptions that lead to the formulation of this definition of creative thinking. To make these key assumptions more explicit, the following section elaborates on each of the main points in turn.

2.1. Creative thinking is an essential life skill Life is complex. As such we are confronted often with challenges that require creative thinking. Creative thinking is a survival skill. No matter whether we are talking about an individual, organization or an entire society, creative thinking minimally ensures survival and maximally produces transformational experiences. Individuals are called upon to engage in creative thinking on a regular basis and across all areas of their lives. Such activities as work, child rearing, hobbies, household planning, cooking, and general health issues often necessitate creative thought. Any problem or opportunity with no clear set pathway forward creates a need for creative thinking. In short, it is a basic life skill.

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Creative thinking has been identified as one of the main qualities that produces resiliency among at-risk youth (Puccio & Avarello, 1995). In fact, training in creative-thinking methods has been shown to reduce recidivism rates among inmates (Place, McCluskey, McCluskey, & Treffinger, 2000) and improve the likelihood that school dropouts will get onto a successful life path (McCluskey, Baker, O’Hagan, & Treffinger, 1995). The fast pace, ever-changing work world demands creative thought. In their extensive investigation of the workplace Carnevale, Gainer and Meltzer (1990) found that employers believed creative thinking to be among the top seven workplace skills. Productivity and performance depend on employees’ ability to think creatively. VanGundy (1987) underscored the importance of creativity in the workplace when he stated, “organizational growth and survival can be tied directly to an organization’s ability to produce (or adopt) and implement new services, products, and processes” (p. 358). At the broadest level, creative thinking has an impact on an entire society. It permeates all aspects of our lives. As Fritz (1991), a composer, filmmaker and author, suggested: “The creative process has had more impact, power, influence, and success than any other process in history. All of the arts, many of the sciences, architecture, pop culture, and the entire technological age we live in exists because of the creative process.” (p. 5)

Given its importance in our daily lives, both personally and professionally, and to society as a whole, it is critical for schools to promote the creative-thinking skills of all students. Schools refine the human capital that drives the creative engine of organizations. Schools also have the capacity to lift the creative potential of an entire society. Thus, to better serve their stakeholders, it is incumbent upon schools to facilitate this essential life skill. In a world in which information increases at an exponential rate, it is imperative for our educational systems to better balance process skills with the traditional focus on having students master a particular set of knowledge. Students who master their content domain, but who are unable to effectively employ creative-process skills,

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are condemned to live their lives within that content box. However, students who both master their content discipline and effectively engage in the creative process will be more likely to contribute new ideas to their domain. Furthermore, mastery of process skills leads to many other benefits, such as the ability to cope with change that occurs within one’s discipline, the ability to transition from one career to another, and the ability to inspire others to make their best contributions. In short, schools must not only teach students what to think, but how to think as well.

2.2. Creative thinking is a rational process focused on producing novel ideas that are useful There is a popular misconception that to be creative one must be psychologically unbalanced. Certainly we can point to examples of individuals who were highly creative and were not well-balanced. Yet at the same time we can point also to many examples of maladjusted individuals who did not achieve great eminence. Thus, poor psychological health is not a necessary condition for creativity. On the contrary, some research has shown that creative thinking actually helps individuals to lead more psychologically healthy lives (MacKinnon, 1978) and enables them to more skillfully cope with life’s challenges (Torrance, 1962). Leaving individuals’ psychological state aside and focusing solely on the creative process itself, leads to another popular misconception. Some would hold that the creative process is a mysterious mental happening (Davis, 1986), as if creative ideas appear from nowhere. This is simply not the case. The creative process can be described and studied (Boden, 1990; Torrance, 1974; Wallas, 1926). Connecting ideas, making associations, finding problems, developing insights are normal mental activities. Furthermore, the ultimate goal of the creative process is rational. Creative thinking is often aimed at producing original ideas that meet a need. In fact, perhaps the most common definition of creativity is the production of novel ideas that are made useful — quite a sane activity. Figure 1 depicts the view that the highest levels of creativity result from thinking that seeks to marry novelty with usefulness. Put in slightly different words, creative thinking is much more than just coming up with ideas that are off-the-wall or bizarre.

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A Fad Low

(e.g. products

399

Creative Products

disappear when

NOVELTY

novelty wears off)

High

Repeating Past Mistakes

Utilitarian Products

(e.g. unproductive traditions or habits)

High

Figure 1. Highly creative products are both novel and useful.

2.3. Creative thinking is composed of cognitive, metacognitive and affective skills What makes creative thinking work? It is the combination of certain thinking skills (cognitive), along with emotional states (affective) that are managed effectively by executive functions (metacognition). Particular thinking skills make it possible for individuals to engage in a creative thought process. These thinking skills underpin the stages of thinking associated with the creative process. For example, Torrance (1974) and others have suggested that divergent thinking is comprised of the ability to think in fluent, flexible, and original ways. However, thinking abilities are often facilitated or inhibited by emotional states. Feeling states, such as love, hate, fear, curiosity, and excitement can either promote or block someone’s ability to think creatively. Thus, Puccio and Murdock (2001) suggested that at the foundation of creative thinking are particular affective qualities, such as tolerance for ambiguity and risk taking, which predispose an individual towards creative thought. Puccio and Murdock refer to affective qualities as skills, as they can be influenced by training and thus can make the successful application of creative thinking tools either stop or go. Metacognition is a higher-order skill that is comprised of two main characteristics: (1) an ability to monitor one’s own thinking; and (2) an ability to deliberately shift among cognitive strategies based on the demands associated with the task (Presseisen, 2001). Highly developed metacognitive skills enable individuals to effectively drive the creative

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process. Metacognition allows the thinker to be in charge of his/her own creative process. Like the driver of a car, metacognition enables an individual to determine where to go, when to change directions, how much energy to put towards a certain activity, and when to stop. Table 1 provides examples of some of the cognitive, metacognitive and affective skills involved in creative thinking. Table 1. Some sample skills associated with creative thinking. Cognitive

Metacognitive

Affective

Identifying problems & opportunities

Goal setting

Sensing problems & opportunities

Increasing idea production

Decision-making

Using intuition

Seeing relationships among options

Considering multiples; parallel processing

Being curious

Judging relevant from irrelevant data

Developing understanding of one’s own creativeness

Anticipating the unknown

2.4. Creative thinking reflects the multifaceted nature of creativity and is influenced by the surrounding Environment Earlier we described how creative thinking is subsumed by the multifaceted nature of creativity. An important consequence of this assumption is that the driving force behind creative thinking is the individual him/herself, but that in addition the environment has a profound impact on a person’s ability to engage in creative thought. The seed contains the potential to become a tree, but its success depends on many environmental factors, such as soil quality, water, and light. Like the seed, we all have the potential for creative thought, but the degree to which this potential is realized depends on our environment. For example, Ekvall (1996) found that the psychological climate in the workplace either facilitated or inhibited creative productivity. In fact, Ekvall has shown repeatedly that more innovative units and companies have a more positive work climate. The ten dimensions Ekvall found to influence creative thought are

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presented in Table 2. All of these dimensions are positive, with the exception of conflict. Rather than high amounts, Ekvall suggested that environments with relatively lower amounts of personal tension and strife are more conducive to creative productivity.

Table 2. Dimensions of a climate conducive to creative thinking (Ekvall, 1996). • • • • •

Challenge Freedom Idea-Support Trust Dynamism

• • • • •

Playfulness Debate Conflict Risk Taking Idea Time

Although originally discovered in relationship to the workplace, we would suggest that these dimensions are just as important, and perhaps more so, for developing creative thinking in the classroom. Students who learn in an environment characterized by high degrees of idea support, risk-taking, debate etc. are more likely to develop their creative-thinking skills in comparison to a classroom climate devoid of these qualities.

2.5. Creative thinking is not rare and can be taught through creative problem solving Everyone has the capacity, at varying levels, to engage in creative thought. Creative thinking, like other abilities, is normally distributed. Although we may not all gain social recognition for our creativity, we can certainly use our creative-thinking skills on a day-to-day basis to make our own lives richer. Furthermore, like other abilities, we know that creative thinking can be enhanced. Teaching and training can help individuals in mastering the skills necessary to become creative thinkers. The Creative Studies Project (Parnes, 1987), most notably, and other research studies carried out at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, have demonstrated that individuals can be taught to think creatively. In the Creative Studies Project students who took a sequence of four creativity

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courses significantly outperformed control group students on both measures of creative thinking and problem solving. The main approach for developing creative thinking among students and professionals, who attend courses and workshops offered by our Center, is the Creative Problem-Solving process. Creative Problem Solving, CPS for short, was created originally by Alex Osborn, also the developer of brainstorming, more than 50 years ago (Osborn, 1953). Since its creation CPS has undergone continuous development and research (Firestien, 1996; Isaksen, Dorval, & Treffinger, 1994; Isaksen & Treffinger, 1985; Miller, Vehar, & Firestien, 2001; Parnes, 1967; Parnes, Noller, & Biondi, 1977). Both research and practice have led to refinements in the model. CPS remains one of the most widely used and successful models for nurturing creative-thinking skills (Torrance, 1972). Much of our recent research efforts have focused on understanding the impact of CPS training. These studies show a high rate of transfer and impact on course participants’ personal and professional lives (Keller-Mathers, 1990; Lunken, 1990; Neilson, 1990; Parnes, 1987; Scritchfield, 1999; Vehar, 1994). Additionally, Kristin Puccio’s (1994) study with students in the primary grades showed that CPS can be adapted for younger learners and produce similar effects as with adult audiences. Over the last several years Puccio, Murdock and another colleague at Buffalo State, Mance, have developed a new version of CPS. This version of CPS contains seven process steps, six of these steps are organized into three basic areas of operation: Clarification; Transformation; and Implementation. These areas of operation closely parallel Torrance’s creative process description presented earlier in this chapter. Though it is natural to move back and forth among the steps of the CPS process, we will describe them in their natural sequence (i.e., sensitivity to a problem or gap to solution implementation). Within Clarification there are two steps: “Exploring the Vision” and “Finding the Challenges”. The purpose of the “Exploring the Vision” step is to articulate the desired future state that the individual, team or organization wishes to create. This might be a proactive thought process, such as identifying a future opportunity, or a reactive process in which a potential or real threat must be addressed. The “Formulating the Challenges” step focuses on identifying the problems that must be addressed in order to achieve the future vision. The outcome

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of this area of activity is a short list of challenges that require creative thinking. In the next area of activity, Transformation, the individual, team or organization generates ideas (i.e., “Exploring Ideas” step) for the most critical challenges, these ideas are then refined into workable solutions (i.e., “Formulating Solutions” step). The final area of activity, called Implementation, is designed to examine all of the factors that will either facilitate or inhibit successful implementation of the solution(s) (i.e., “Exploring Acceptance” step). These key planning factors are then taken into consideration as the individual, team or organization identifies the specific action steps that must be taken to fully implement the solution(s) (i.e., “Formulating the Plan” step). Thus far we have described six of the seven steps in the CPS process. Since the remaining step, “Assessing the Situation”, has a metacognitive function, we refer to it as the executive step. The purpose of this step is twofold. First, to diagnose the situation to determine if creative thinking is required to address the task at hand and if so, then to determine where to begin in the CPS process. Just like a medical doctor diagnoses the patient before pursuing a course of treatment, “Assessing the Situation” is used to diagnose if the task requires creative thought and, if so, how to progress through the CPS process. This is always the first step of the process, which in turn determines where the individual or team goes next in the CPS process. The hallmark of the CPS process is its balanced focus on divergent (generating many options) and convergent thinking (evaluating options). Divergent thinking is the first phase of thinking in each CPS step. The second phase in each step is convergent thinking, but this occurs only after many diverse possibilities have been generated. Divergent thinking refers to a broad search for many diverse and original options, while convergent thinking refers to a focused search for the most promising options through selection and evaluation. To use an analogy that is attributed to Osborn, this explicit balance prevents individuals from trying to make a car accelerate (generating options) while pumping the brake at the same time (critically judging options). This form of driving results in frustration and poor use of energy. The same effects are produced when individuals jump back and forth too often between generating and judging options. Thus, CPS teaches individuals how to effectively manage these

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two forms of thinking. Through specific guidelines, CPS also enables individuals to develop their divergent and convergent-thinking capacities. For example, the key guideline for divergent thinking is known as “Defer Judgment”, which essentially asks individuals to temporarily suspend evaluation while trying to generate options. Conversely, the key guideline for convergent thinking is called “Affirmative Judgment”. This principle calls on individuals to take a more positive and constructive approach when evaluating options (Isaksen et al., 1994). We view the CPS process as a framework for teaching thinking. In the previous paragraph we described two forms of thinking that are taught through CPS, namely divergent and convergent thinking. In each step of CPS the learner, whether it be a student or a practicing professional, learns to apply a specific thinking skill. Table 3 presents a definition for each of the thinking skills associated with the seven steps in the CPS model (Barbero-Switalski, 2003). Table 3. Thinking skills associated with each step in the CPS Model.

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Diagnostic Thinking (Assessing the Situation)

Identifying and describing the nature of a problem or a situation and determining the appropriate process steps to be taken

Strategic Thinking (Exploring the Vision)

Establishing a future direction and the outcome(s) one desires to obtain

Problem Analytic Thinking (Finding the Challenges)

Framing problems into a springboard for idea generation

Ideational Thinking (Exploring Ideas)

Producing original mental images and thoughts that respond to challenges or opportunities

Evaluative Thinking (Finding Solutions)

Assessing the reasonableness and quality of ideas in order to develop workable solutions

Contextual Thinking (Exploring Acceptance)

Understanding the interrelated conditions and circumstances that will support or hinder success

Tactical Thinking (Finding the Plan)

Devising a plan, in specific and measurable steps, for attaining a desired end and monitoring its effectiveness

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2.6. Internalizing CPS: Becoming a change leader Figure 2 presents a learning model we use to describe the growth our students experience as a result of our educational courses and programs. The Model for Developing Creative Change Leaders depicts four stages of development beginning with unconsciously unskilled and progressing through to unconsciously skilled. The stages in this model are based loosely on the characteristics used to describe followers in the Situational Leadership model (Blanchard & Johnson, 1982; Hersey, 1984). At the unconsciously unskilled stage the learner is unaware of his/her creative potential and is unfamiliar with formal creative-thinking methods. Awareness is the key to enable the learner to move beyond this stage. The learner must be exposed to creativity information which generates awareness that then leads to an interest in learning more. The second stage is referred to as consciously unskilled. At this stage the learner begins to recognize how much information on developing creative-thinking skills is available and thus may begin to recognize how much he or she does not know. Through formal practice, that is, learning how to apply principles, tools and elements of CPS, the learner begins to develop some proficiency with respect to creative thinking. Through practice skill development begins to take hold. This leads to the third stage of development, referred to as consciously skilled. At this point the learner is now aware of what he/she has learned and can apply this knowledge in a straightforward manner. Students should be adept at using the CPS process in a fairly mechanical way. That is, CPS is applied when it is deemed appropriate. For example, we expect that a student who reaches this stage would be able to effectively facilitate a CPS session or provide CPS training to others. The distinguishing feature of the fourth stage is that the learner has internalized the CPS philosophy. CPS becomes a way of life. Deferring judgment and affirmative judgment, for example, are no longer just principles to be used only when facilitating groups through CPS, but they are pillars that guide one’s behavior. At this stage of development, CPS influences how the learner approaches all problems, interactions and areas of his/her life. The philosophy of CPS has become so deeply ingrained that the learner is no longer consciously aware that he/she is using CPS. It’s just a way of being. This stage is referred to as unconsciously skilled.

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Breadth of Impact Unconsciously Skilled: Change Leader

3. Integrating CPS and Becoming a Life-Long Practitioner & Learner

Consciously Skilled: Skilled Facilitator

2. Engaging in Formal Practice of CPS Principles & Tools

Consciously Unskilled: Student of Creativity Unconsciously Unskilled: Spectator

1. Developing Awareness and Value of the Importance of CPS

Developmental Steps

Figure 2. A model for developing creative change leaders. © G. J. Puccio 2003

At each stage the individual’s sphere of impact expands. In the third level an individual will have direct impact on others through the formal use of CPS, as in using his/her facilitation skills to help a group creatively solve a problem. The broadest range of impact occurs at the fourth stage. Here because CPS has been internalized, the individual exhibits creative behavior and as a result impacts others’ lives at work, socially, and in the family. At this stage we refer to the learner as a creative change leader, this is someone that approaches all aspects of life with a creative attitude. A creative change leader is proactive, seeks opportunities, is not put off by challenges, dreams, and actively facilitates the creativity of others. The creative change leader lives the CPS process. The creative change leader’s behavior reflects the principles, thinking skills and framework associated with CPS. Many learners become stuck at the third stage of development. CPS remains a model to be applied to others (i.e., facilitating CPS sessions), but does not necessarily become a way of life. To break through the invisible barrier that separates the third and fourth stages of development, one must become a life-long learner of CPS. One must look beyond the formal CPS process and see it as a framework through which the creative process can be better understood. There must be a deep recognition that CPS is not simply a bag of tricks designed to spark creative thinking, but

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a theoretical model that provides insight into the nature of creativity. This realization comes through keen observation and an openness to ongoing learning. Like Maslow’s (1968) notion of self-actualization, learning within the fourth stage of development is continuous. One cannot say he/she has completed the fourth stage, development here continues at an ever deepening level. Like peeling the layers of an onion, there is always one more layer that takes you even deeper. A change leader has been transformed personally by the CPS process. Through the internalization of CPS a change leader helps to transform others. CPS ceases to be a set of tools, but rather a deeply understood set of principles and beliefs that can enhance one’s life. The final section of this paper explores what we consider to be the basic principles and beliefs that are embodied at the fourth stage of development. However, before going onto these principles we explore issues pertinent to nurturing creative thinking in the East.

3. Nurturing Creative Thinking in the East: Some Observations and Issues The first part of this chapter focused on laying out some of the more popular views of creativity and creative thinking in the West, as well as one specific model, Creative Problem Solving, that has been widely used for developing creative-thinking skills. This section explores issues related to nurturing creative thinking in the East. We embark on this exploration knowing that our Western eyes influence our views. This section begins by discussing and reflecting on some of our personal experiences in teaching CPS in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The overarching theme to this discussion is that can we assume that the practices that have been developed for nurturing creative thinking in the West, and primarily in the United States, be directly applied to audiences in the East. Our experiences tell us that this is not the case and that it is naive to assume models, material and strategies developed in one culture readily transfer to another. The second part of this section summarizes some of the research done on creativity in the East.

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3.1. Our personal experiences Over the last three years we have had the good fortune to work with educational and corporate audiences in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. Our visits to the East have allowed us, and the entire faculty at the International Center for Studies in Creativity (ICSC), the wonderful opportunity to expand our vision and disseminate information about the study, application and power of creativity. Developing creative thinking and human potential in general in the East has become an area of interest at ICSC and our recent experiences in the East have taught us much and have left us with many unanswered questions revolving around the more global question of “In what ways might we best nurture creative thinking in the East?” We have focused primarily on delivering creativity workshops, classes and conducting seminars and presentations in creative thinking and CPS. The level of energy and interest in creativity has been exceptionally high during our visits and in many areas it impressed us to hear that “becoming more creative” has turned into government mandates. As educators and practitioners in the field of creativity we are delighted by the obvious awareness of the importance of creativity and the efforts made to promote creative thinking. It is evident that no one model or approach to creativity may fit all cultures. If we take Rhodes’ 4Ps to creativity, we see that different cultures are more heavily influenced and place more emphasis on one or more aspects of this model (person, process, product, press/environment) than others. We would argue that developing each aspect of Rhodes’ model and the harmonious interaction among them allows individuals, teams, organizations and societies the opportunity to leverage their creative power and become more successful. With each visit to the East we find ourselves modifying our design to better meet the needs and wants of Easterners. We do this by examining Rhodes’ 4Ps as a basis for creative development and by doing so we have observed that possibly the greatest inhibitor to creative development in the East relates to the Press (environment). We have noticed in our training sessions and seminars that Easterners are quite creative and particularly so when provided with an opportunity to work within an environment that encourages risk-taking and dismantles

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the “losing face” issue. As leaders of these workshops, we have the ability to set the environment in a way that maximizes the creative potential of every individual. It is when participants walk out of this environment that they feel their creativity is being suppressed. So we ask ourselves “How might we best communicate the importance of creative environment and its impact on individuals’ health and productivity?” and “What might be the triggering mechanisms to help individuals adopt and integrate Ekvall’s climate dimensions in developing environments that foster creativity and innovation?” Of Ekvall’s dimensions, risk-taking, strikes us as the greatest area of opportunity for developing creativity in the East. Many participants would comment that they were jealous of Westerners in their courageous ability to take risks, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. It was startling to hear several of our students and participants mention that “I fantasize about taking risks”. The consistent answer to our question of “what’s stopping you from taking risks?” was that of fear of making mistakes and losing face. When we are not making mistakes we are not making discoveries. Allowing for mistakes is a simple yet powerful concept in order to encourage creativity and help shift behavior to one of risktaking. We are currently exploring how we might best do this in a culture where an individual’s reputation and image seems to be so heavily influenced by the thoughts and opinions of others. This is an exciting challenge and from what we have experienced, Easterners welcome any opportunity to learn how to take more risks and create without losing face. We have noticed a great desire among Easterners to learn how to become more creative. In particular, we have seen a focus on learning tools and techniques versus processes and internalizing behaviors responsible for creating and sustaining long-term positive change. There seems to be a quick-fix mentality at times to creativity and less of a desire to internalize the principles, philosophy, theory and behavior that accompany an entire process. We have come to realize, based on student and participant feedback that Easterners may not know what to do with a theory, principle or suggested behavior that does not fit within the Eastern paradigm. For example, many Easterners seem to be challenged by the divergent-thinking guideline “Defer Judgment”. Again, going back to the notion of making mistakes, the difficulty lies in being able to

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generate ideas without self-criticism and worry of what others might think of the ideas. If deferring judgment is at the heart of generating novelty, how might we best encourage individuals to live this principle outside of a creativity workshop environment? Another key principle is in that of generating wild ideas. In what ways might we encourage individuals to think wild, knowing that when we do it allows us to move towards newness? This is further compounded by the fact that in CPS we ask individuals to strive for quantity and generate as many ideas as possible in order to extract quality ideas — the notion that quantity breeds quality. We find it difficult for people to generate many options, when they do not allow themselves the opportunity to generate without fear of making mistakes and losing face. Generating without fear = many options … many options = quality options. Adhering to the principle and thinking guideline of deferring judgment has been proven to be the cornerstone of generating new and useful options. If this is not adhered to participants will be reluctant to generate alternatives that challenge the current system and therefore the degree of novelty in thinking suffers and results in fewer options that can be used to address significant challenges and goals. Our experiences tell us that Easterners truly want to break out of their molds, take risks and become more creative and independent thinkers. We wish to continue exploring how to help Easterners take the time to internalize the behaviors called for by powerful processes such as CPS and to learn how to develop environments that truly nurture creative thought and potential. In the next section we turn our attention from our personal experiences and summarize some of the more recent research focused on creativity in the East.

3.2. Nurturing creativity in the East: Some research findings Many recent publications have discussed the specific challenges associated with nurturing creative thinking in the East. Ng (2001) presented a model that explains how Asian cultures undermine the creative behavior of individuals. The essential premise of Ng’s work is that Asians can be as creative as Westerners but that the Eastern culture inhibits the development of creative thought. Ng suggested that every society has an indigenous

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conception of selfhood, which is a perception of how a person should be in that society. As a consequence, individuals brought up in that society will be socialized to conform to this image of selfhood. As Ng stated, “In this way, we can account for those cultural differences in behavior which we see in the world e.g., between a conforming Asian and a creative Westerner” (p. 26).

Culture

Psychological Make-up shapes

Behavior determines

East - Constrained-submissive personality - Interdependent self-construal - Conservative value system - Identification with in-group - Negative view of conflict

East

West

Confucian society of the East

Liberal individualistic society of the West

West - Extravert dominant personality - Independent self-construal - Hedonistic value system - Higher perceived ability - Positive view of conflict

East

West

Uncreative, conforming, ego-involved behavior

Creative, individuated, task-involved behavior

Figure 3. Ng’s model for depicting the relationship between culture and creative behavior.1 © A. K. Ng 2001

Ng’s view of how culture shapes individuals’ ability to express their creativity in the East provides a fine example of Rhodes’ multifaceted model of creativity presented earlier (Person, Process, Product, Press). A potent variable within the environment facet is culture. The culture in which we grow up shapes our beliefs, values, behaviors, and as Ng points out, it can have a profound effect on how we express our creativity (see Figure 3). Culture also influences to whom we ascribe the label creative. Asian cultures have been described as collectivist, organized, and concerned about social order. A consequence is that Asian cultures may take a more utilitarian approach to creativity, that is creative acts are

1

The model is reprinted with permission from A. K. Ng, author of Why Asians are less creative than Westerners (2001).

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those that serve the greater good of the society. In Figure 1 we talked about creativity as the synthesis of novelty and usefulness, it may be that Asians give greater weight to the usefulness aspect of this formula. Yue and Rudowicz (2002), for example, found that young Chinese adults name politicians as the most common example of creative individuals. These researchers concluded that “This finding is attributed to a strong utilitarian view of creativity that lies in Chinese young people’s perception of creativity. They are much more concerned with a creator’s social influence or contribution in society than with his or her innovativeness in thinking” (p. 88). These authors further explained that, “Implicitly, the Chinese perception of creators can be seen as a merit-based evaluation system, such that those who distinguish themselves in meritorious utility of creativity are more likely to be regarded as prototypical figures of creativity than those who distinguish themselves in aesthetic utility of creativity” (p. 100). In an earlier study Rudowicz and Yue (2000) examined young Chinese adults’ perceptions of the characteristics of highly creative individuals. This research led to similar conclusions about Asian cultures and creativity. These researchers noted that: “We found that in the minds of our respondents, none of the characteristics of Chinese personality is perceived as beneficial for creativity, while two characteristics of Western personality emerged as such. Moreover, a number of specifically Chinese personality traits, namely “follows tradition”, “submissive”, “concerned with face”, “obedient”, and “conforming”, were perceived as the least indicative of creativity.” (p. 187)

As with the findings associated with the identification of highly creative individuals (Yue & Rudowicz, 2002), when young Chinese adults evaluate the characteristics of creative individuals they give very little credence to aesthetic appreciation and humor. Again, this may reflect the utilitarian concern for creativity in the East. Thus, research, such as the studies cited above, seem to point to real differences in how creativity is perceived, expressed and potentially nurtured in the East. We dig a bit more deeply into the influence Asian culture has on creativity by discussing a number of specific societal forces.

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3.2.1. Educational practices in the East Educational systems are one of the most visible forces to be thanked or blamed for their influence on creativity. This is as true for the East as it is for the West. Educational systems are responsible for training the minds of its citizens, so it is fair to hold high expectations with regard to whether the educational process has helped or hindered creative thought of its citizenry. There has been much written about how educational practices in the East have undermined creative thought. In regard to students’ ability to engage in creative thinking, some cross-cultural research has shown significant differences when comparing Chinese and American students. Saeki, Fan and Van Dusen (2001), for example, compared American and Japanese college students on Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (figural form), one of the most popular psychological tests of creative thinking, and found the American students outperformed their Japanese counterparts on the overall creativity index. Specific differences were found for elaboration and the degree of abstractness students gave the titles of their drawings. The authors provided the following interpretation of their results: “The higher performance by the American students may be a result of their culture fostering creative ability more than the Japanese culture. In other words, the American students have more opportunities to foster their creativity in their education and family/social circumstances … Japanese culture is based more on conformity, rather than individualism. Therefore, Japanese students might be more inclined to seek a conventional answer. Even though the test instructions asked respondents to make one’s title as clever and unusual as possible, and to use the title to help tell one’s story, the Japanese college students might be less experienced in showing their own unique ideas.” (pp. 32–34)

Let us move beyond the broader cultural characteristics that are blamed for undermining creativity in schools and look at specific educational practices that serve to inhibit creative thought. Tan (2001), for example, noted that the reliance on recitation, instructor-directed work, seatwork, and memorization do little to promote creative thinking. This type of classroom setting does little to bring about the creative climate dimensions

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promoted by Ekvall. For example, the instructional practices cited by Tan do not promote the kind of debate and exchange of ideas that Ekvall suggested enhances creative thinking. The inability to nurture creative thinking is further compounded by a focus on academic achievement and overcrowded classrooms. Although governments in some Asian countries, such as Hong Kong and Singapore (Cheung, Tse, & Tsang, 2001; Tan, 2001) recognize, and in some cases mandate, the need to infuse creative thinking into the national curriculum, the educational systems appear to have been slow to respond. One might wonder why the educational systems have been slow to change. There appear to be a number of reasons. First, experienced teachers have built up habitual approaches to instruction and these habits are often hard to break. Tan (2001) discovered that 60% of experienced teachers believed that all learning activities stimulated children’s creative thinking. In a recent study that examined how teachers in Hong Kong encouraged creative writing, Cheung, Tse and Tsang (2003) found that although most teachers agreed that creativity was an important skill to nurture in regard to writing, a majority of the teachers used quite traditional teaching methods. These authors noted that “The teachers’ overriding concern was that the students provide a final essay within class time. The processes of writing which help students develop creativity are not paid adequate attention” (p. 93). Second, although teachers might be asked to promote creative thinking, in many cases the tests used to assess student performance still focus on academic achievement (Tan, 2001). Therefore, there is little incentive to modify instruction when the assessment procedures do not reinforce instruction that promotes creative thinking. Third, teachers view some creative characteristics as negative (Chan & Chan, 1999). In examining teachers’ implicit theories of creativity, Chan and Chan found that “The teachers in this study nominated socially undesirable traits as characteristics of creative students. Thus, it appeared that Chinese teachers might value creative behaviors less or look on certain creative behaviors less favorably” (p. 194). Finally, teachers may be explicitly or implicitly influenced by their culture. That is to say they may either consciously conform to what their society expects of them in terms of how and what they teach (Tan, 2001), or because their personalities have been shaped by their culture they may be unconsciously engaging in teaching practices that inhibit creative thinking (Soh, 2000).

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To counter the issues related to the educational practices that undermine creative thinking in the East, Cheung et al. (2003) suggested: “Teachers need to tolerate differences of opinion, encourage students to trust their own judgement even if it at odds with the majority, acknowledge all students have the capacity to be creative, and they themselves need to serve as a stimulus for creative thinking through modeling and brainstorming.” (p. 80)

3.2.2. Child rearing in the East Obviously the forces imbued by a society begin with a child’s entrance into the world. According to Ng (2001) there are striking differences in how parents in the West and East raise their children. Ng suggested that the Confucian influence in the East has created a focus on filial piety. Children are raised to respect, honor, and obey their parents. They are taught to do nothing that would make their parents feel ashamed or disappointed. As Ng observed: “Dependence of the child on the parents is encouraged, and breaking the will of the child, so as to obtain complete obedience, is considered desirable. There is less interest in encouraging the child’s expression of opinion, autonomy, and independence.” (p. 29)

Ng contrasted this Eastern approach to the West by noting that the goal in the West is to raise children who will become independent. A parent hopes the child will become a psychologically independent person who has a strong sense of self. As a result, it is anticipated that the relationship between parent and child will eventually be transformed over many years into one of mutual respect and friendship. The focus on filial piety in the East also leads to cognitive conservatism, which Ng says causes a person to “adopt a passive, uncritical and uncreative orientation to learning and to hold fatalistic, superstitious and stereotypical beliefs; as well as to be authoritarian, dogmatic and conformist” (p. 65). Ng further noted that filial piety leads to rigid and closed-minded thinking.

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3.2.3. Dependence versus independence According to Ng (2001), one of the sharp contrasts between Eastern and Western societies relates to how psychological dependence is viewed and conditioned. In the West being psychologically dependent on others has a negative connotation. However, in the East psychological dependence on the group leads to social approval. Ng, for example, noted that: “Self-assertion in Japan is not viewed as being authentic, but instead as being immature and childish. Yielding or giving in is not a sign of weakness of character, as perceived in the West. On the contrary, it reflects tolerance, flexibility, social maturity, and especially, self-control.” (p. 32)

Eastern cultures tend to be more tightly organized and oriented towards collectivism. As a result a member of society is expected to fit in and conform. Harmony is an overriding concern, as Ng noted there is a focus on “we-ness”. Individuals in this type of society become psychologically dependent on others. They may forsake their personal wishes and desires in order to fit in. For example, Japanese use the word ‘Uchi’ to refer to a person’s in-group. A person’s Uchi might form from his or her relationship with people at school, work or in the family. Uchi provides Japanese with a sense of security. The Uchi reinforces conformity; people want to belong and thus are careful not to engage in independent behaviors that might disturb the conformity that exists within Uchi. In contrast, Western cultures tend to be more loosely organized and thus individual expression is fostered. There is more openness to different opinions and debate. Ng observed because Westerners “identity as a person derives from his [her] ability to remain as an independent entity, he [she] is motivated to differentiate himself [herself] from others” (p. 41). This leads a person to become more autonomous and to pursue his/her own interests and goals.

3.2.4. Tendency towards self-criticism According to Ng (2001), Easterners tend to be much more self-critical than Westerners. Asians are more likely to define themselves more by

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their failures than by their successes. The opposite is true of Westerners. These patterns may be established in childhood. Ng suggested that children in the West receive more positive comments that accentuate their positive features. In the East caretakers tend to focus more on the child’s shortcomings. Ng concluded that as a result, “The child may in turn develop habitual attentional bias towards negative self-relevant information” (p. 43).

3.2.5. Closed versus open personality Ng postulated several critical distinctions between the personality traits of Easterners and Westerners. One such distinction is related to openness to experience. This personality trait is characterized by someone who seeks new experiences, is unconstrained by social expectations, lives with ambiguity, thinks divergently, and can connect remote concepts. According to Ng, the open personality is more likely to be fostered in the more liberal society of the West. Individuals are expected to be original thinkers and to innovate. While in the East “Failure to fall into line will lead to social sanctions. As a result, the person will find it difficult to be open, original and innovative” (Ng, 2001, p. 47).

3.2.6. Sources of motivation: Intrinsic versus extrinsic Amabile (1987) has undertaken a program of research focused on unearthing the relationship between motivation and creative productivity. Through her studies she has discovered that, in general, intrinsic motivation tends to bring about more creative outcomes than extrinsic motivation. People who are motivated intrinsically are driven to pursue an activity for its own sake, simply for the joy and satisfaction that is derived from the activity itself. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is viewed as pursuing an activity as a means to an end. Reasons external to the activity itself are what engage the person, such as rewards or social pressures. People who are motivated intrinsically are more likely to play with alternative approaches for accomplishing a task. They bring their full creative energies to bear as they explore options. Those focused on

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extrinsic factors are more likely to bring an activity to closure at the soonest possible point so that rewards can be collected. Western societies are more likely to produce individuals who are taskinvolved, or intrinsically oriented, while Eastern societies develop egoinvolved, or extrinsically oriented, people (Ng, 2001). Again, differences in these orientations begin in childhood and may be particularly reinforced by the educational systems. According to Ng, the Asian education system is highly competitive, performance oriented, and regimented which does not allow for experimentation. The Asian system produces hardworking and highly knowledgeable students who have not been taught to think creatively. Students treat learning in an instrumental manner, that is principally as a necessary step to future employment. Ng also charges the Asian education system for creating passive learners who look for authority figures to dictate to them what and how to learn. A reason for this approach to school can again be tied back to the relationship between child and family. Asian students are often extrinsically focused on pleasing their parents. Ng observed that the “desire to do well in school springs from an internalized wish to fulfill the expectations of significant others, especially his [her] parents, who have made a lot of sacrifices for him [her]” (p. 113). Finally, Easterners are “face-conscious”, that is, overly concerned with social reputation. Ng observed that, “the social pressure to conform to the materialistic majority arouses extrinsic motives in the face-conscious Asian” (p. 86). Managing one’s image is important as self-esteem is based on others’ opinions of you. One must be careful not to engage in activities that will diminish his/her face. This situation sets up a dynamic struggle between creative thought, pursing one’s own ideas, versus conforming to society thereby enhancing socially determined self-esteem.

3.3. Concluding thoughts regarding creativity in the East: A potential bias The above review was designed to provide a brief glimpse into some of the issues facing Eastern societies in respect to nurturing creative thought. Since it would appear that the principal coercive force undermining creativity in the East is related to environmental factors, it would seem

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that Ekvall’s dimensions for establishing a creative psychological climate (see Table 2) would provide one valuable framework for nurturing creative behavior. These dimensions should be adopted in the home, work and school. To accomplish this it is critical for those in leadership positions, parents, teachers, and business leaders, to make concerted efforts to promote these dimensions. Leadership has been identified as one of the most potent forces in developing a climate that is either conducive or detrimental to creative thought (Ekvall, 1996; West & Anderson, 1996). Leadership sets the tone and leverages key resources, both tangible and intangible, that affect the ability of others to produce and act on creative ideas. We wish to end this section with a word of caution. It appears to us that in examining creativity in the East, many authors seem to have adopted the Western bias in regard to what is considered creative. Kirton (1976, 1994) articulated a theory of creativity style that challenges the view that creative behavior comes in only one form. He posited that creative behavior occurs along a continuum from a more adaptive style of creativity, producing original ideas within systems that as a result improve current paradigms, versus a more innovative style of creativity, producing original ideas outside of prevailing thought which as a result threaten existing paradigms. Kirton has consistently argued that these two forms of creativity are equally valuable, that adaptors can be just as creative as innovators, and vice versa. Talbot (1999) has suggested that many explicit creativity theories in the West favor the innovative style of creativity, and in fact often describe the adaptive orientation as being uncreative. Puccio and Chimento (2001) found that implicit theories of American adults also favored the innovative style over the adaptive style. Thus, our concern is that the East will follow the West and undervalue the contributions made with respect to adaptive forms of creativity. We now have data that suggests this might be the case. Puccio and Chimento (2001) found that when laypeople in America used their own personal conception of creativity to judge the creativity level of Kirton’s adaptor and innovator on a 10-point scale (1 = not creative at all; 10 = exceptionally creative), the person with adaptive characteristics received an average score of 5.7, while the person with the innovative characteristics received an average score of 6.5 (t = −2.06,

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p = .04). It should be noted that the 113 laypeople in this study were not aware that they were rating individuals associated with Kirton’s adaptor and innovator styles. The respondent simply saw two lists of qualities associated with two very different kinds of people, one set was labeled “Person A” and the other “Person B”. In some cases person A was an adaptor and B an innovator, and on other surveys these were reversed for the purpose of counter balancing. A current graduate student, Jin Sun Lee, replicated this study with 311 laypeople in South Korea. Ms. Lee found the difference in the rankings of the creativity level of adaptors and innovators to be even larger than the results found for Americans. Specifically, in this sample the person with the adaptive traits received an average rating of 4.55, while the innovative style received a score of 7.52 (t = −15.59, p = .000). When one considers characteristics of Asian culture, it may be possible that adaptive creativity is more endemic to Eastern cultures. Business stories abound about how Asian organizations are effective at finding ways to do things better and with greater efficiency. Working through tried and true approaches to problem solving and focusing on tradition are qualities that are often associated with Asian cultures. However, Ms. Lee’s data seem to indicate that Easterners, at least South Koreans, are enamored with the innovative style of creativity. Again, innovative creativity is associated with taking risks and pursuing more radical change. It may be that the West has projected a view that to be creative one must take on the qualities associated with Kirton’s innovator and that Easterners’ tendency to be self-critical, in this case devaluing their potential inclination to be more adaptively creative, resulted in an exacerbated view that the way to be creative means to be like Kirton’s innovator. We encourage those in the East to honor both forms of creative behavior. The most efficient way to express one’s creativity is to take advantage of one’s innate tendencies and talents, and to not force oneself to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with these natural inclinations. For example, as Niu and Sternberg (2003) observed, “The Westerner’s idea of a universal concept of creativity can underestimate the creative contributions of the Eastern societies, and may create a new stereotype of Easterners and therefore depress Easterners’ creativity” (p. 284).

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To close this chapter, we describe the principles associated with the fourth stage in the CPS learning model (see Figure 2). The purpose in ending this chapter with these principles is our belief that these principles are universal and as such can nurture the development of creative thought across cultures, both of East and West.

4. A Handful of Principles for Nurturing Creative Behavior The principles described below (Table 4) resulted from our review of some of the most popular books on promoting creative thinking. We analyzed this material to identify the main principles in each text, which were then synthesized into what we considered to be the most basic and universal principles. The impetus to this quest was our desire to move beyond a tool approach to creativity. Many authors who have written “how to” books on creativity recommend this tool or that tool. We wanted to get to a deeper level and thus the creation of the following five principles. Also we believe that successful evolution into the fourth stage of the Model for Developing Creative Change Leaders (see Figure 2) entails mastery of these principles. Table 4. Principles for living a more creative and productive life. Principle 1: Reclaim Your Creativity Principle 2: Let the Heart Rule — Live YOUR life Principle 3: Go Big Principle 4: Suspend Disbelief Principle 5: Don’t Just Do. Do It Again and Again © G. J. Puccio & D. W. González 2001

4.1. Principle one: Reclaim your creativity We all have a creative person inside of us. It is natural. Our minds provide us all with the gift of imaginative thought. However, for various reasons we seem to lose our creative spirit over time. We get distracted by outside claims, like material goods, managing our careers, and taking

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care of others. Knowledge can also kill creativity. The acquisition of knowledge often pushes out imagination. We begin to act as if we have all the answers. The first step towards living creativity everyday is to first recognize that you are a creative person. To reclaim your creativity you must rediscover yourself. As we grow life becomes more complex and in a way we get further from our creative selves. We get caught up in doing this and that and forget how to reflect, how to be with ourselves. We do so much that we do not take the time to reflect. For many of us we were in better contact with our creative imagination when we were younger. We could use our imaginations to entertain ourselves with the simplest of toys or we would create elaborate scenarios in our minds. We did not censor our thoughts. We had not yet learned to limit our ideas. We were present and in direct contact with our creative selves. As we get away from our creative selves we live a half life. As we bury our creative selves we bury a part of ourselves. Declare that from this day forward you will reclaim your creativity and as a consequence reclaim part of yourself. When you recapture your creative spirit you discover new aspects to your inner self. How do you reclaim your creativity? Again, you start by recognizing that there is a perfect creative spirit inside all of us. Next, develop what psychologists refer to as an internal locus of control. The essential belief that stems from an internal locus of control is that you are in charge of your life. It is the recognition that success and failure really rests with you. Outside forces and circumstances have power only when we give them permission to have power. Therefore, all change starts and ends with you. If you want your creativity back, it is yours for the taking. Take control, do not give it up.

4.2. Principle two: Let the heart rules — live YOUR life Once you have reclaimed your creativity the next step is to find out how you wish to live your creative life. In what ways do you want to express your creativity? To do this you must live your life in a way that is true to yourself. Find out what intrinsically motivates you and pursue those activities. Pursuing a life that someone else wants you to lead or a life

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in which you chase only extrinsic sources of motivation can become unfulfilling. You will have greater energy for those areas that you find intrinsically satisfying. Living your life also refers to being true to who you are as a person. Be sensitive to your personality and your values; find an outlet that matches your personal make up. Do not allow yourself to merely manage life by coping with situations that demand you to be something that you are not. This will drain your creative batteries. Find circumstances that fit who you are and will nourish you.

4.3. Principle three: Go big In living your life you must reconnect with your dreams and aspirations. Going big means having big dreams and ideas. Sure we will not achieve every dream, but if you have no dreams at all then they certainly cannot come true. Our go big dreams are what propel us forward in life. Without dreams we have no compelling creative force. When thinking big be prepared to live with ambiguity. Big dreams and visions of what we want will bring greater ambiguity into our lives. Be willing to live without having all the answers for how the vision can be made manifest. Do not allow the ambiguity to frustrate you. Keep your eyes clearly on the goal and patiently work through ambiguity.

4.4. Principle four: Suspend disbelief If you are going to think big, you must be willing to suspend your disbelief. Often the very next thought that follows a big idea is a reason why it will not work. You must learn to manage your judgment. Fire the internal editor and let your ideas go … let them live. Give them room to breathe. Do not prematurely judge your ideas — if you do you may be discarding an idea that in the long run may have merit. Also, be kind to yourself. Do not judge yourself too severely. Allow yourself to make mistakes and most importantly learn from them. We only fail when we fail to learn. Recognize that we all make mistakes, and also recognize that if you are not making mistakes you probably are not making anything.

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Do not commit to your opinions. Always be willing to entertain a contradictory point of view. Allow for diversity in perspectives. Engage in earnest debate so that all ideas can be fairly examined, including your own. Be willing to be wrong.

4.5. Principle five: Don’t just do it ... do it again and again Practice does make perfect. Creativity takes time to develop. Honor your creativity by committing to sustained efforts. Rarely do socially recognized creative products, either tangible or intangible, emerge as fully formed ideas. They are honed and tested over time. Honor your creativity through persistence. Actualizing your creativity will take work, but this is the kind of work that should bring great joy. Produce lots of ideas. Recognize that the more ideas you generate the greater chance you have of striking upon something that will be highly creative. Typically, individuals who are recognized socially for their creativity have produced many ideas, we see only the few that have been developed fully and met the approval of others. The best way to ensure that some of your ideas will be accepted, is to produce many ideas. Picasso created a new painting everyday. Hemingway wrote everyday. Nature has evolved into many species. Give yourself plenty of material to work with.

5. Conclusion The intention of this chapter was to explain the nature of creative thinking and how it might be developed. We hope that you have found the ideas shared herein to be thought provoking, but most of all useful. We all have choices. We hope that you will choose to nurture your creative self and as a byproduct the creativity of others.

References Amabile, T. A. (1987). The motivation to be creative. In S. J. Isaksen (Ed.), Frontiers of creativity research: Beyond the basics (pp. 223–254). Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.

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Index

core capabilities 344–345, 355, 357, 364 creative act 96 but undesirable 98, 100 music making 306–311, 316, 321, 325, 333–334, 336 process 395, 397–400, 402, 406 thinking 393–403, 405–408, 410, 413–415, 421, 424, 427 Creative Problem Solving 393, 396, 401–402, 407 Creative Studies Project 401 creativity 23–27, 29–48, 55–74, 76–78, 82–84, 137–140, 142–167, 169–195, 235, 264, 267–272, 274, 277–289, 291–300 Chinese culture and 128 cultivating 283, 292 definition 113, 115–116, 126 East-West differences 114, 117, 121, 123 education 170 implicit theories 115, 126–127 intersection 223 measurement 115–116, 127 musical 335 paradox of promoting 103, 109 personal 10–11, 18–19 social psychology of 202–203, 216, 221, 223

4Ps 408 adaptive 419– 420 affective skills 396, 399, 400 affirmative judgment 404–405 Asia 280 at-risk 397 authoritarian nature of learning 102 brainstorming 402, 415 call-response song 321 change leaders 405–406, 421 child rearing 393, 396, 415 children art 251, 267 drawings 229, 231, 235–238, 241, 251 Chinese 55–79, 137–159 students 169–172, 174–176, 178, 180, 184, 194 classroom climate 401 closed personality 417 closed questions 376, 377 cognitive skills 396 collectivism 416 Confucian tradition of learning 98, 102–103, 109, 110 consensual assessment 116 Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) 207–208 conservative-autocratic teaching attitude 98, 100 constructive 277, 279, 287–288, 291–294, 298–300 429

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429

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430

Creativity: When East Meets West

utilitarian view 120 cross-cultural issues 23, 35 culture 56–58, 61–62, 67–71, 76–78, 393–394, 397, 407, 409–414, 420 desirable but uncreative 98, 100–101, 106 development 23–34, 41– 45, 47 discounting principle 213 DISCOVER 341, 343–344, 346, 351–359, 364, 369, 374, 377–379, 381–383, 385–389 discretion 11 do it again and again 421, 424 dogmatic creator 96 education 137–140, 142–144, 147–160, 413, 418 educational practices 393, 413, 415 environment 395–396, 400–401, 408–411 filial piety 415 flow 361, 363 go big 421, 423 graphic notation 324, 326, 327 score 327–329 independent yet socially responsible 90, 106 individualism-collectivism 98, 100 innovation factors conducive to 122–123 uncertainty avoidance and 123, 125 innovative 400, 417, 419, 420 intelligence(s) bodily kinesthetic 349 interpersonal 356 intrapersonal 355 linguistic 355–356 logical mathematical 355

Index.p65

430

multiple 341, 343, 350–351, 354, 356, 364, 369, 370, 372, 378, 382–383, 385–386, 388–389 musical 365 naturalist 371 spatial 365, 370 intelligence-fair 350, 351 International Center for Studies in Creativity 393, 401, 408 learning centers 370, 372 level of implementation 379 levels of content 366, 370 liberal-democratic teaching attitude 98, 100 life skill 396–397 Live YOUR Life 421–422 losing face 409–410 metacognition 399, 400 metacognitive 396, 399–400, 403 moral character 91 exemplar 95 motif 325, 327, 332 motivation extrinsic 204–205, 212, 417 intrinsic 201, 205, 212, 214–215, 217, 219, 221–223, 417 multifaceted 394–396, 400, 411 music 305–311, 314–317, 319–322, 325–337 composition 306, 326, 328 notation 315, 326 musically conventional frame 310, 316, 317 musically free frame 310–311, 316–317, 334 nature of power 103 open personality 417 open-ended problem 345, 347 overjustification hypothesis 213

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Index

431

Pace Method 334 pictures 235–236, 238–252, 254, 256 planned improvisation 315 problem matrix 371–372 problem solving 341, 343–347, 350–351, 356, 359–360, 363–364, 370, 372–373, 376, 379, 382–383, 385–389 continuum 344 strategies 345, 350, 364 psychoeconomic 14 psychological climate 400, 419 psychological health 398 psychology 229, 241 Question and Answer 322 rational process 396, 398 real-world problems 343 reclaim your creativity 421–422 reward 204–218, 221 rhythm ensemble 317, 319–320 risk-taking 401, 408–409 schools 394, 397–398, 413 self-criticism 410, 416 social responsibility 272 strive for quantity 410 structured problem 343, 345

Index.p65

431

students 397–398, 401– 402, 405, 409, 413–415, 418 suspend disbelief 421, 423 systems perspective 115 talent development 362–363 teacher(s) 278–279, 283, 286, 289, 292, 296, 298, 300, 414, 415, 419 questions 375 Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production 118 theories explicit 419 implicit 10, 16–17, 414, 419 thinking convergent 33, 193, 309, 320, 342, 347, 357–358, 403, 404 divergent 342, 347, 357–358, 399, 403–404 threshold theory 342 timing score 315 Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking 119, 128 utilitarian 411, 412 variations 316, 325–326, 328, 330 work with 104 works against 104

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