Danah Henriksen

Explaining Creativity is an accessible introduction to the latest scientific research on creativity. The book summarizes and integrates a broad range of research in psychology and related scientific fields. In the last 50 years, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have devoted increased attention to creativity; we now know more about creativity than at any point in history. Explaining Creativity examines research on thinking processes, personality, culture, mental health, groupwork, technology, self-beliefs, and more. It also reviews creativity across fields such as the arts, science, theater, music, and writing. This new edition maintains the broad and practical, yet still detailed approach of the previous editions, but it features updated coverage on the full landscape of creative cognition, creative practice, and social and cultural contexts for creativity. With three new chapters on Creativity and Technology, Creativity and Wellbeing, and Creativity and Self, this third edition provides a comprehensive understanding of creativity for anyone interested in the topic.

In this collection of beautifully written essays, Mishra, Henriksen, and the Deep-play Research Group challenge myths about technology and creativity, debate time-honored instructional practices, and play with new ideas for schools to care for and nurture, rather than constrain, creativity. These essays are provocative … refreshing, [and] insightful —Dr. Yong Zhao, Foundation Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas and Fellow, Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, Victoria University, Australia. What is creativity? Why is it important? What does it look like across different disciplines and contexts? What role does technology play, if any, in the creative process? And finally, what do creativity and technology have to do with education? These are the questions that underlie the collection of articles in this book. These essays provide a broad analytic frame for thinking about creativity, technology and education and describe classroom examples as well as strategies for evaluating creative artifacts and creative environments. All of these are grounded in specific examples from across a wide range of disciplines and contexts—art, mathematics, engineering, computer science, graphic design, architecture, science to name just a few. The final essays take a broader perspective on creativity and technology focusing both on our highly inter-connected YouTube world but also possibilities for the future. Creativity, Technology & Education: Exploring their Convergence is a vital resource for educators and practitioners as they seek to incorporate creative work and thoughtful pedagogy in their personal and professional lives.

? This book focuses on rethinking creativity for 21st century education. The specific emphasis examines the way that creativity spans disciplines, through a set of common thinking skills that the most accomplished thinkers in any field use. These seven transdisciplinary thinking skills are rooted in historical exemplars of creativity across disciplines. We examine these skills in more detail, chapter by chapter, to offer examples of what each skill looks like in disciplines ranging from art to science, or music to math, and beyond. This set of thinking skills reflects the way that creativity may look different across fields, yet there are common paths of creative thinking that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Beyond this each chapter also considers applications for such skills in 21st century educational contexts, with an eye toward creative teaching and technology. In all of this, the book weaves together broad cultural examples of creativity and the seven transdisciplinary skills, alongside specific application-based examples from technology and teacher education.