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How Do Students Develop Creativity and Curiosity? The Role of Out-of-School Activities
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the degree to which students’ participation in out-of-school activities promotes their curiosity and creativity. In doing so, this study addresses the question of whether various out-of-school activities function differently in the development of students’ curiosity and creativity.
Design/Approach/Methods
This study sampled 3,647 students for the younger cohort and 3,621 students for the older cohort from the city of Suzhou, China.
Findings
Both younger and older students who participated in artistic activities and sports consistently rated their creativity and curiosity higher than those who did not. After controlling for family socio-economic status and gender, students’ participation in outdoor socially-oriented activities (e.g., meeting with friends outside school) and indoor activities (e.g., reading books) contributed to the development of creativity and curiosity. In contrast, participation in Internet-based activities negatively predicts adolescents’ creativity and curiosity.
Originality/Value
Creativity and curiosity are related to students’ academic performance and future success. Therefore, cultivating students’ creativity and curiosity should be of interest to educators and policymakers. This study examines the roles of different out-of-school activities on students’ creativity and curiosity, revealing a potential path for educators.
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This study describes the development, validity, and reliability processes of a scientific creativity test for pre-university students, specifically in chemistry. A Chemistry Scientific Creativity Test (CSCT) was constructed based on an analysis of the Scientific Creativity Structure Model (SCSM), Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and aspects of scientific creativity found in the literature. An instrument with seven items for measuring scientific creativity was developed and validated using item response data from three experts, 10 lecturers, and 60 pre-university students in Penang, Malaysia. Item analyses were performed to ensure content and face validity, followed by a reliability procedure in the measurement of stability through test–retest reliability. The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.83 after two CSCT measures were taken over a two-month period, based on a comparison of the first- and second-time scores. This indicates an excellent relationship between the items in this test, and the items were found to be reliable and valid in assessing the scientific creativity of pre-university students. The CSCT instrument reported in this study will be utilised in the real study to test pre-university students’ scientific creativity in chemistry.
Using Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as inspiration, this paper presents a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia storytelling experience, which encompasses simple hands‐on activities and an online narrative experience that allows students to model scientific work and engage in various science activities. The study aimed to test whether students can develop higher science and creative self‐efficacy beliefs, and a stronger science curiosity, by engaging in the transmedia experience that combined hands‐on and online narrative activities compared with participating in only hands‐on or online narrative experiences. Our paper presents findings from two classroom studies using survey findings. Results show that all three conditions (hands‐on, online game experience and transmedia) had a significant positive impact on learners' self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity, but there was no additional benefit for the transmedia condition. Nevertheless, our work has various implications for learning sciences about the potential benefits and drawbacks of transmedia storytelling experiences. Our findings can help educators and researchers design and run transmedia storytelling projects.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic Transmedia storytelling is a popular and adaptable learning application.
Transmedia storytelling can be beneficial due to transfer of learning.
Transmedia storytelling may foster learners' engagement and knowledge acquisition.
What this paper adds The paper presents a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia experience that combines digital and hands‐on activities and borrows several themes from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.
Findings from this study show that transmedia storytelling can boost learners' science and creative self‐efficacy beliefs and science curiosity.
However, transmedia storytelling combining digital and hands‐on experiences is not more effective in bolstering self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity than digital or hands‐on experiences alone.
Implications for practice and/or policy Transmedia storytelling might have unintended consequences for learning because it may exhaust learners' cognitive resources.
Learners' transliteracy skills and competencies may influence what benefits they gain from partaking in transmedia storytelling experiences.
Educators need to take learners' transliteracy skills into consideration when they wish to design and/or use transmedia storytelling experiences for learning purposes.
The role of soft skills at school is still debated, but they have emerged as important factors for students’ academic achievement and life satisfaction. This study focuses on the combined influence of soft skills (in terms of adaptability, curiosity, leadership, initiative, perseverance, and social awareness), extracurricular activities, achievement emotions, self-regulated learning, motivation, and cognitive abilities on academic achievement and life satisfaction. A sample of 603 students (5th to 12th graders) participated in the study. The results of a Bayesian path analysis based on meta-analytical priors show that soft skills were (i) directly positively associated with students’ achievement emotions, self-regulated learning, motivation, and life satisfaction and (ii) indirectly related with academic achievement through the mediation of self-regulated learning and motivation. On the other hand, only soft skills and achievement emotions were directly related to life satisfaction. Extracurricular activities showed a positive association with both soft skills and cognitive abilities. These results are the first to demonstrate the importance of soft skills and extracurricular activities when integrating all the above-mentioned factors in a model of students’ academic achievement and life satisfaction.
To examine the prospective association between epistemic curiosity and academic achievement, this study focused on 820 (64.2% females) second-year high school students (age 17–18), and their performances in the matriculation exams one year later. In addition, two types of epistemic curiosity, the interest and deprivation types, were examined as independent predictors. Furthermore, the role of curiosity in matriculation exam performance was examined at the general and subject level (i.e., mother tongue and math) by accounting for gender, social economic status, and subject motivation (i.e., subject expectancy and task values). Moreover, we examined the possible mediating role of subject motivation between curiosity and achievement. The path models’ results showed that interest-type curiosity had a direct relation with overall matriculation performance, whereas deprivation-type curiosity had an indirect relation only. For mother tongue performance, interest-type curiosity was the main prospective predictor, although its direct relation disappeared. For math matriculation performance, only deprivation-type curiosity had an indirect relation. The results imply that epistemic curiosity can promote academic achievement, but that the association is achieved through different pathways that depend on curiosity types, motivation mediators, and the domain level of achievements.
The Service Learning is an articulated, consistent and coordinated teaching-learning methodology. It resorts to unique assumptions, integrates the learning of technical and scientific knowledge with the personal, social and community development. This methodology permits the student to realise interdisciplinary work and produce plasticity on his/her creativity whilst producing cognitive, personal, social, emotional and transcendental knowledge. This process allows for the development of interpersonal, intrapersonal relations, communication, it fosters joint work and networking, leadership, cooperation and negotiation, personal effectiveness, self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-motivation. It also sensitises students to address humanitarian issues and for the everyday life of the community and social responsibility. This study reflects on the importance of teaching-learning methodology based on Service Learning and it discusses the relevance of its inclusion in the academic curriculum. It uses qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, favouring group interviews with content analysis.
The aim of this article was to review the definitions of creativity on which many previous studies have been based. Prior literature has merged creativity and creation into its understanding of the construct. By describing creativity with reference to its end result, that is, a creative outcome, theorists have not been able to pay attention to the dynamic process of creativity that may or may not lead to creation. This article reviews critical literature in creativity and departs from accepted definitions of creativity. Considering the various elements that are involved in creative acts, a dynamic definition is proposed; it emphasizes providing insights into the creative act itself, a factor that has been neglected in earlier definitions of creativity.
This research examined the transactions between adolescents’ after school activities and their divergent thinking. Three times over the course of 18 months, American and Chinese adolescents (N = 566) filled out open-ended surveys about how they spend their time after school and completed a set of divergent thinking tasks. Adolescents’ reports of their after school activities were coded into 4 mutually exclusive categories: Personal academic (e.g., studying alone), personal nonacademic (e.g., watching TV alone), social nonacademic (e.g., playing sports with friends), and social academic (e.g., working on group projects). Compared with their American counterparts, Chinese adolescents engaged in more personal nonacademic activities; American (vs. Chinese) adolescents participated in a greater number of social academic activities and social nonacademic activities. Transactional processes were similarly evident in the United States and China: The more adolescents engaged in academic-oriented after school activities, the more they had heightened divergent thinking; in turn, divergent thinking was predictive of adolescents’ engagement in such activities over time.
This paper examines relationships among curiosity, engagement, and student development across five domains—(1) cognitive complexity, (2) knowledge acquisition, construction, integration, and application, (3) humanitarianism and civic engagement, (4) intrapersonal and interpersonal development, and (5) practical competence. Although extant research examines antecedents and outcomes of engagement extensively, no study explicitly assesses curiosity, engagement, and student development. Results suggest that engagement mediates epistemic and perceptual types of curiosity and student development. Educators and administrators can use these findings to create engaging education during which curiosity swiftly transforms into holistic student development.
This article introduces the Inventory of Creative Activities and Achievements (ICAA), a broad-based assessment of individual differences in real-life creativity. The ICAA provides independent scales for the frequency of engagement in everyday creative activity and the level of creative achievement across 8 creative domains. A formal test analysis based on 7 Little-C samples and 2 Pro-C samples (overall N = 1,566) provides evidence for the reliability and validity of the ICAA test scores. The analyses shed light on the prevalence of specific creative activity and achievement and examine the relevance of personality, creative potential, and intelligence across domains of creativity. The findings further suggest that the assessment of creative activity is particularly suited for Little-C creativity, whereas the assessment of creative achievement appears more appropriate for Pro-C creativity. The ICAA offers researchers a broad and versatile assessment tool for studying creativity across domains and levels.
This article reviews developmental studies of creativity in children and adolescents with a focus on "peaks" and "slumps" that have often been described in the literature. The irregularity of the development of creativity is interpreted in light of conceptual and measurement issues and with regard to the interaction between individual-level resources, task-specific demands, and environmental influences, resulting in apparent individual differences in the development of creativity. The need for longitudinal designs, multidimensional and multi-domain assessment of creative potential limiting the contribution of task-specific factors is outlined and discussed as an important direction for developmental research on creativity.
This Viewpoint discusses aspects of the one-child policy in China and speculates on the future of the population with the newly announced two-child policy.
The Chinese government has just announced that China’s one-child policy has been lifted, to be replaced by a universal two-child policy. The implications of the one-child policy for modern China cannot be overstated. This policy has profoundly affected the lives of one-fifth of the world’s population for 35 years, at the most personal level of reproductive choice. In this Viewpoint, we describe why the policy was introduced (and why it may not even have been necessary); summarize the demographic, health, and social ramifications of the policy, both positive and negative; and consider whether this change is too late to address the demographic and social imbalances attributed to the policy.
Researchers are challenging college admissions to shift practices to become more inclusive and to consider a range of abilities, including creativity. Admissions counselors must examine limited information and then maximize what they learn. How can admissions counselors use existing data to identify creative students? Research suggests that creative individuals tend to be more involved in extracurricular activities and that those involved in creative activities tend to be more involved in extracurricular activities overall. We expected that extracurricular involvement would predict creativity better than traditional admissions factors alone. Participants were 232 applicants to an undergraduate program recruited by the admissions office who completed online supplements. Data on SAT scores, high school rank, and extracurricular involvement were obtained from admissions files. Creativity was measured through a divergent thinking task, a self-assessment, a rated photo caption, and a rated essay about a student's dream project. Involvement in art clubs significantly predicted caption creativity, explaining twice as much variance as traditional factors alone. Arts club membership, but not traditional admissions factors, explained a significant amount of variance in self-reported performance creativity (i.e., writing, acting, music, etc.). Curiously, intensity of participation in academic clubs was negatively related to divergent thinking creativity. These findings demonstrate that extracurricular activities reveal valuable information about applicants' creativity that traditional admission factors do not. (PsycINFO Database Record
In the past decade, the psychological study of creativity has accelerated greatly. To facilitate the teaching of creativity, I provide an overview of the recent literature. The overview begins by discussing recent empirical results and research trends. This discussion specifically treats creativity's cognitive, differential, developmental, and social aspects. Then I outline central controversies in the study of creativity. These debates concern the nature of creative thought (domain-specific vs. generic processes), creative development (nature vs. nurture), and creative persons (psychopathology vs. mental health). The article closes by asking not just how to teach creativity but also how to teach creativity creatively.
The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among preservice teachers' personality traits, their own engagement in creative activities, and their beliefs about the teaching practices that have been shown to support children's creativity. A total of 302 early childhood and elementary preservice teachers participated in this study. The Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), the Creative Behavior Inventory (CBI), and the Creativity-Fostering Teacher Behavior Index (CFTI) were used to measure the preservice teachers' personality traits (Five-Factor Model), creativity-related experiences, and their creativity-fostering teaching practices. A conceptual model was hypothesized, tested, and supported by the results using multiple regression analyses and Sobel mediator tests. Findings indicate that preservice teachers who had higher scores on the openness to experience personality trait had more engagement in creativity-related experiences; those who had higher scores on the openness trait and who had more creativity-related experiences were more likely to espouse creativity-fostering teaching styles; and preservice teachers' own creativity-related experiences fully/partially mediated the relationship between the openness trait and their beliefs about specific creativity-fostering teaching practices. Implications for teacher education are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research on the relationships between teacher attributes and the use of teaching behaviors, which support children's creative development.
Asian and Euro-American parents of preschool-aged children were interviewed concerning their beliefs about the nature and purpose of play; they also completed two questionnaires and a diary of their children’s daily activities. The children’s teachers were interviewed and provided information about the behaviour of the children in preschool. The Euro-American parents were found to believe that play is an important vehicle for early development, while the Asian parents saw little developmental value in it. On the other hand, the Asian parents believed more strongly than the Euro-Americans in the importance of an early start in academic training for their children. These contrasting beliefs were instantiated in parental practices at home regarding the use of time and the provision of toys. At preschool, the Asian children were similar to the Euro-Americans on a standardised behavioural measure but they were described by their teachers as initially more academically advanced than the Euro-American children, and as showing different patterns of play and social interaction. The implications of these results for home–school relations and the design of early education programmes are discussed.
China has one of the oldest educational testing systems in the world, yet its modern form was influenced by various western educational modes borrowed during the twentieth century. This essay reviews the history of the Chinese traditional educational testing system: its origin, features, and its past impact on Chinese people's lives as well as on modern education. It then examines the western influence on the Chinese educational testing system in the twentieth century, focusing on two historical periods, from 1905 to 1949 and post‐1980, when western influences were most vigorous. It concludes with a discussion of the characteristics of Chinese assimilation to western educational models and the impact of such assimilation on Chinese people's lives.
Assessing Singletons
The one-child policy introduced by the government of China in 1979 increased the proportion of urban families with an only child; later referred to as "little emperors" in media reports. In 2010, Cameron et al. (p. 953 , published online 10 January) recruited approximately 400 residents of Beijing who had been born either before the implementation of the policy (1975 and 1978) or after (1980 and 1983). Using economic games to measure trust, risk, and willingness to compete, they found that the post-1979 cohorts were less trusting and less willing to compete and also more risk averse.
A six‐month longitudinal study (N = 33) proved the influence of a diversified sport enrichment program on the development of creative thinking in team ball sports among gifted children. A contrast between a gifted control group and a non‐gifted treatment group showed that the creative performance of the gifted children significantly improved (partial η2 = .26). To explain this surprising short‐term effect, a second experiment chose the Inattentional Blindness paradigm to study the individual differences in the visual attention of gifted (n = 54) and non‐gifted children (n = 58). The results of the monitor‐task by Most et al. (200031.
Most , S. B. ,
Simons , D. J. ,
Scholl , B. J. and
Chabris , C. F. 2000. Sustained inattentional blindness: the role of location in the detection of unexpected dynamic events,. PSYCHE, 6(14): 14–24. View all references) revealed significant differences between both samples in the ‘Near’ condition (delta = .37) but not in the ‘Very far’ condition. The results of both experiments are discussed in connection with further research.
The role of teacher is increasingly related to designing and arranging collaborative learning situations in which fruitful and creative group work may occur. This thematic review presents recent studies on creativity and collaborative learning from the perspective of the teacher as conductor of learning processes. The precondition for the design and orchestration of these kinds of learning situations is analysing and understanding of creative and collaborative processes and their contextual adaption. Thus, the first section of this review focuses on the theoretical vantage points of creativity and collaborative learning mainly from socio-cultural perspective. Based on this theoretical grounding, the second section describes principles for orchestrating productive collaborative learning and supporting creativity from the teacher's perspective. We discuss three dimensions related to how teachers can bring about collaborative learning and creativity: (1) general pedagogical bases, (2) teachers' pre- and real-time activities and (3) opportunities and challenges for teacher activities. The review is concluded with theoretical and practical implications regarding collaborative learning and creativity.
J. P. Guilford (1950) asked in his inaugural address to the American Psychological Association why schools were not producing more creative persons. He also asked, "Why is there so little apparent correlation between education and creative productiveness" (p. 444)? This article presents a review of past and current research on the relation of education to creativity in students of preschool age through age 16 in U.S. public schools. Several models of creative thinking are presented (e.g., Guilford, 1985; Renzulli, 1992; Runco & Chand, 1995), as well as techniques for developing creativity (e.g., Davis, 1982; Sternberg & Williams, 1996). Some research presented indicates a relation between creativity and learning (e.g., Karnes et al., 1961; Torrance, 1981). Implications for research and practice also are discussed.
There are three fundamental problems in Sijtsma (Psychometrika, 2008): (1) contrary to the name, the glb is not the greatest lower bound of reliability but rather is systematically less than
ω
t
(McDonald, Test theory: A unified treatment, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, 1999), (2) we agree with Sijtsma that when considering how well a test measures one concept, α is not appropriate, but recommend ω
t
rather than the glb, and (3) the end user needs procedures that are readily available in open source software.
Keywordsreliability-internal consistency-homogeneity-test theory-coefficient alpha-coefficient omega-coefficient beta
In this study, we examined the associations between organized activity participation during early adolescence and adjustment
in a large and economically diverse sample of African American and European American youth. The sample included 1,047 youth
(51% female and 49% male and 67% African American and 33% European American). We used analysis of covariance techniques to
examine links between participation in 8th grade school clubs, school sports teams, and out of school recreational activities
and adjustment at 8th and 11th grade, controlling for a set of self-selection factors measured at 7th grade prior to activity
involvement. Organized activity participation was associated with higher than expected grades, school value (i.e. perception
of importance of school for the future), self-esteem, resiliency, and prosocial peers, and lower than expected risky behavior,
though the pattern of findings differed by activity context, outcome, and time point. In a few of the models, the relation
between activity participation and adjustment varied by gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
Background
In today’s era of asymmetric and unconventional warfare, psychological fitness is equally important as physical fitness. Personality assessment of soldiers, and more so officers who are leaders of men is essential in deciding what makes a good “War asset” The present study was conducted to explore the correlation between personality traits of cadets undergoing training in an Armed Forces Training Academy and their performance in terms of their military and academic pursuits.
Methods
Personality traits of 607 cadets determined using Revised Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) were compared and correlated with their performance in terms of Officer Like Qualities (OLQ), Outdoor activities (ODT), Academics, and Extracurricular Activities (ECA).
Results
Cadets with high personality traits scores in Neuroticism and low scores in Conscientiousness (Work ethics) had performed poorly in all the domains/criteria for evaluation of performance viz Officer like qualities, Outdoor activities, Academics, and Extracurricular Activities. Further, a significant negative correlation was observed between facets of Neuroticism and Academics, ODT, and OLQ. In contrast, personality facets of Conscientiousness (Work ethic) were found to be positively correlated with performance in Academics, ODT, and OLQ. Extracurricular activities were found to be positively correlated with Modesty and Intellectual Curiosity.
Conclusion
The present study represents the first-ever attempt in Indian Armed Forces to correlate and identify personality traits most suited for military training. The findings of the study indicate that cadets with low scores of neuroticism and high scores of conscientiousness perform well in the military academy. However, more such studies are required to reaffirm the findings of the present study and to conclusively recommend personality traits most conducive for military training.
This study investigated the effect of achievement goals on creativity and the possible mediating effect of creative self-efficacy between achievement goals and creativity. In Study 1, three groups of senior high-school students (Age: 16–19 years; Male: 51.2%, Female: 46.3%) were each induced in either mastery, performance-approach, or performance-avoidance goal orientations before completing two creative tasks. Analysis of covariance revealed that both the mastery and performance-approach groups scored higher on the creative tasks than did the performance-avoidance group. In Study 2, senior high-school students (Age: 16–19 years; Male: 41.3%, Female: 58.7%) completed Goal Orientation Scales, the Creative Self-efficacy Scale, and the Williams Creativity Assessment Packet. Structural equation modelling revealed that both mastery goals and performance-approach goals positively predicted creativity through creative self-efficacy, and performance-avoidance goals directly positively predicted creativity. The results suggested that, in general, achievement goal was closely related to creativity, and creative self-efficacy mediated the relationships between achievement goals and creativity.
The curiosity of Israeli educators from two separate educational systems (Jewish and Arab) was compared regarding five curiosity dimensions, types of curious people, and values that drive actions. Two assessment modes were employed (Likert-type and open-ended). The quantitative and qualitative analyses showed significant differences between the two groups on most measures, which were illustrated by authentic quotes from the participants. Inferences were drawn based on substantive culture-related explanations, some of which were qualified by response-style accounts. The paper concludes with implications for culturally-tailored professional development to enhance educator curiosity and their assessment for learning practice to nurture the curiosity and self-regulated learning of their students.
Previous research has shown that greater curiosity, the desire to know, is associated with more creativity, which entails generating new or useful ideas or products. The intense concentration and absorption that characterises the phenomenon of flow may connect curiosity with creativity. The present study investigated the connections between three dimensions of curiosity, namely joyous exploration-related curiosity, knowledge-deprivation sensitivity, and stress tolerance. Fifty-seven participants, with a mean age of 35, engaged in the novel task of designing a water conservation program. Participants judged their experience of designing the program on scales that assessed their curiosity and flow during the activity. Two raters independently coded each participant's program description on creativity, and the mean of the two ratings produced the creativity score for that participant. Higher joyous exploration curiosity, knowledge-deprivation sensitivity, and tolerance of stress were all associated with more flow. More experience of flow, as judged by participants after engaging in the activity, was significantly associated with greater creativity. Even though the direct relationships between curiosity and creativity did not reach statistical significance, flow linked each of the dimensions of curiosity with creativity. These findings may provide a basis for programs intended to increase flow or creativity.
This study aimed to explore different scientific creativity tests’ prediction of students’ science performance and domain-general creativity abilities. Two scientific creativity tests were chosen: the “Scientific Creativity Test” and the “Creative Scientific Ability Test (C-SAT)”. The Science Performance Test (SPT) and Domain-General Creativity Test (DGCT) were also adapted to allow a check of the correlation between students’ scientific creativity, science performance, and general creativity. Sixty junior high school students participated in this study by taking these four tests. Each test needed to be completed within 30 minutes, and the interval between each test was 2 weeks. The results showed that both the students’ science performance and domain-general creativity could reflect their performance of scientific creativity better in the scores of the “Scientific Creativity Test” than in those of the C-SAT. Limitations are discussed.
Curiosity, the desire to know, may be associated with creativity, which involves generating ideas that are novel and valuable. This meta‐analytic investigation consolidated the results of studies of the association between curiosity and creativity. Across 10 studies, which included 2,692 individuals, there was a significant association between more curiosity and greater creativity (weighted effect size r = .41, 95% CI [.27, .54], p = .0001). For studies examining the association of the exploration dimension of curiosity with creativity, the weighted effect size was r = .48, 95% CI [.09, .74], while for studies examining the deprivation sensitivity dimension of curiosity with creativity the weighted effect size was r = .20, 95% CI [.10, .29]. The association of self‐report measures of curiosity with self‐reports of creativity was r = .52, 95% CI [.40, .62], while the association of self‐report measures of curiosity with rated creativity was r = .16, 95% CI [.10, .22]. These meta‐analytic results are congruent with some theoretical assumptions regarding curiosity and creativity and can be a foundation for efforts to facilitate creativity.
The present research examines the causal relationship between specific curiosity and creativity. To explicate this relationship, we introduce the concept of idea linking, a cognitive process that entails using aspects of early ideas as input for subsequent ideas in a sequential manner, such that one idea is a stepping stone to the next. Study 1 demonstrated the causal effect of specific curiosity on creativity. Study 2, a field study of artisans selling handmade goods online, found that experiencing specific curiosity predicts greater next-day creativity. Study 3 demonstrated idea linking as a mechanism for the effect of specific curiosity on creativity. Study 4 further established the impact of idea linking on creativity, finding that it boosted creativity beyond the well-established intervention of brainstorming. We discuss specific curiosity as a state that fuels creativity through idea linking and idea linking as a novel technique for creative idea generation.
In recent years, creativity has been a topic of increased interest in the educational environment. Developing creativity is increasingly viewed as an educational imperative because it drives individual student performance and influences their future success as participants in an economy based on knowledge. The objective of this study was to measure and assess 5th grade student creativity, from 24 educational institutions, and compare whether results show significant differences in certain variables. It was concluded that there were significant differences for certain variables such as type of school, gender, socioeconomic status and participation in extracurricular activities. It was also found that as socioeconomic level increased, so did creative ability, with standardized test results following similar trends as applied creativity tests.
In 1979, China introduced its unprecedented one-child policy, under which households exceeding the birth quota were penalized. However, estimating the effect of this policy on family outcomes turns out to be complicated. China had already enacted an aggressive family planning policy in the early 1970s, and its fertility rates had already dropped sharply before the enactment of the one-child policy. The one-child policy was also enacted at almost the same time as China's market-oriented economic reforms, which triggered several decades of rapid growth, which would also tend to reduce fertility rates. During the same period, a number of other developing countries in East Asia and around the world have also experienced sharp declines in fertility. Overall, finding defensible ways to identify the effect of China's one-child policy on family outcomes is a tremendous challenge. I expound the main empirical approaches to the identification of the effects of the one-child policy, with an emphasis on their underlying assumptions and limitations. I then turn to empirical results in the literature. I discuss the evidence concerning the effects of the one-child policy on fertility and how it might affect human capital investment in children. Finally I offer some new exploratory and preliminary estimates of the effects of the one-child policy on divorce, labor supply, and rural-to-urban migration.
Leveraging insights gained through a burgeoning research literature over the past 28 years, this paper presents a significant revision of the model of creativity and innovation in organizations published in Research in Organizational Behavior in 1988. This update focuses primarily on the individual-level psychological processes implicated in creativity that have been illuminated by recent research, and highlights organizational work environment influences on those processes. We revisit basic assumptions underlying the 1988 model, modify certain components and causal connections, and introduce four new constructs into the model: (1) a sense of progress in creative idea development; (2) the meaningfulness of the work to those carrying it out; (3) affect; and (4) synergistic extrinsic motivation. Throughout, we propose ways in which the components underlying individual and team creativity can both influence and be influenced by organizational factors crucial to innovation.
This article reviews several of the most important theoretical concepts in the economics of education. Three of the most commonly used ideas - human capital, markets, and education production - are outlined in a nontechnical manner for a general reader. These concepts are useful in understanding why individuals choose to acquire schooling, how societies organize educational systems, and how schools use resources. Empirical studies dealing with each of these issues are reviewed elsewhere in the encyclopedia.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of grade level and gender on student curiosity in urban elementary schools. Three basic questions were addressed: (a) Does student curiosity decrease as grade level increases? (b) Are gender differences present in curiosity? (c) Are these effects evident across educational settings with different student populations? A scale designed to measure school-related curiosity (SRC scale) was created and administered to elementary school students in Grades 3, 5, and 7 in one Catholic school (n = 148) and two public schools (n = 150). Two-way ANOVAs (Grade Level x Gender) were conducted separately in the Catholic school and public school samples in order to examine the generalizability of the grade level and gender effects across educational settings. There was a decrease in student curiosity as a function of grade level in both Catholic school and public school students. No significant gender differences were found in either group. Suggestions for further research and the educational implications of the findings are discussed.
From an ecological perspective, daily activities are both causes and consequences of youth development. As causes, daily activities represent distinct sets of socialization experiences that afford opportunities to acquire new competencies and behavioral patterns. As consequences, daily activities reflect youth's force and resource characteristics, including developmental status, temperament and motivation, and pre-existing levels of adjustment. An ecological perspective also highlights the role of the larger sociocultural context in shaping and conditioning the links between daily activities and youth development. In this article, we draw on research with children and adolescents to consider how an ecological perspective can provide a flexible framework for studying time use as a developmental phenomenon. We also discuss methodological issues and suggest research that should be conducted in this broad area.
The major objectives of this study were to determine the characteristics of creativity development of Chinese children, the creative organizational climate of Chinese schools, and the relations among them. The results provided evidence that the creativity scores of children in elementary school were significantly higher than those of children in middle school. The teachers' evaluation of the creative organizational climate of the elementary school was significantly higher than that of the middle school. When the two variables were analyzed together, both the creative organizational climate of schools and the creative thinking development of children decreased during the children's development. Moreover, the creativity and climate scores were highly correlated, and the results from a path analysis suggested that a school's creative organizational climate has a significant impact on all seven dimensions of creativity measured in this study.
Creativity is a very complex interaction among a person, a field, and a culture (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). People vary in their native capacity for creativity; however, an individual's interaction with the macrocosm can foster creative expression. East Asian cultures, which include Korean culture, are based upon the principals of Confucianism. The impact of Confucianism on creativity is reviewed and the relationship between Confucianism and creativity was explored in the present study. The study involved comparing 184 Korean educators' scores on a measure of Confucianism (Eastern-Western Perspective Scale) with their scores on a measure of creativity (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural). The results indicate that Confucianism is negatively related to creativity. Specifically, some elements of Confucianism, Unconditional Obedience, Gender Inequality, Gender Role Expectations, and Suppression of Expression, may present cultural blocks to creativity. Further, Confucianism was found to be negatively related to Adaptive creative type and Creative Streangths, but not Innovative creative type, which indicates that Adaptive creative type may be more sensitive to, and thus more influenced by, culture.
This meta-analysis assessed the effect of community service on adolescent development and the moderation of this effect by reflection, community service, and adolescent characteristics to explicate the mechanisms underlying community service effects. Random effects analyses, based on 49 studies (24,477 participants, 12–20 years old), revealed that community service had positive effects on academic, personal, social, and civic outcomes. Moderation analyses indicated that reflection was essential; the effect for studies that include reflection was substantial (mean ES = .41) while community service in the absence of reflection yielded negligible benefits (mean ES = .05). Effects increased when studies include more frequent reflection and community service, reflection on academic content, and older adolescents. These findings have implications for understanding and improving community service.
This survey of sociological and psychological literature deals with the problem of time, covering major areas of sociology and related disciplines (economics, cultural anthropology, psychology and history). As a preface, contributions by the classical writers on the sociology of time are discussed briefly - Durkheim, Schütz, Sorokin and Merton, G.H. Mead. Six themes in the contemporary sociology of time (up to 1982) are examined: (1) time perspective and time orientation; (2) temporal ordering and social structure: time reckoning and the social construction of time schedules; (3) the time structure of specific social systems and professions: the economy, the legal system, the family, and formal organizations; (4) the evolution of social consciousness of time; (5) social change and time; and (6) the concern with time in social theory and methodology. It is shown that sociology has much to learn from its neighbouring disciplines, that no thorough sociological treatment of time has yet been done and, above all, that there is a lack of empirical studies that are adequately grounded in theory.
This study examined correlates of creative self-efficacy (i.e., self-judgments of creative ability) in middle and secondary students (N = 1,322). Results indicate that students' mastery- and performance-approach beliefs and teacher feedback on creative ability were positively related to students' creative self-efficacy. Creative self-efficacy was also linked to student reports of their teachers not listening to them and sometimes feeling that their teachers had given up on them. Students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to hold more positive beliefs about their academic abilities in all subject areas and were significantly more likely to indicate that they planned to attend college than students with lower levels of creative self-efficacy. Finally, students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to report higher levels of participation in after-school academics and after-school group activities. Implications for creativity research and practice are discussed.
In a cross-cultural comparison of parental beliefs, this study asked a sample of 48 immigrant Chinese and 50 European American mothers of preschool-aged children their perspectives regarding the role of parenting in their children's school success. In their responses, the Chinese mothers conveyed (a) the great degree of value they place on education, (b) the high investment and sacrifice they feel they need to offer, (c) the more direct intervention approach to their children's schooling and learning, and (d) a belief that they can play a significant role in the school success of their children. On the other hand, European American mothers primarily expressed (a) a negation of the importance of academics or academic skills (instead emphasizing the importance of social skills), (b) a less "directive" approach to learning explained under the "facilitative" model, and (c) a concern for building their children's self-esteem.
Colleges and universities, as well as employers, attend to the “extras”—the extracurricular that take place outside and beyond grades and jobs. Final admission judgments and job interview questions often center on the sports, artistic, or service dimensions that individuals include in their applications or resumes. Parents, politicians, and educators know and unquestioningly accept the nonstandard and unquantifiable nature of the social benefits of these extras. Yet almost nothing is known about the learning—cognitive and situative—that actually goes on beyond classroom hours on sports teams, in community organizations, or through voluntary community service. Schools and families, as the critical duo of learning source and assessor of the knowledge and skills of the young, receive the vast majority of public attention and funding initiatives. The third arena of learning, that which takes place beyond classroom and home, is generally left unattended, minimally supported, and almost completely unexamined. Identified here through illustration from arts-based extraschool activities are (1) key features of this third environment and its positive learning opportunities, (2) the creative and critical power of youth work in the arts, particularly the visual arts and dance, and (3) the manifest reasoning and organizing properties of the “extra education” situated in this arena’s coordination of actions and roles.
This constructivist study explored service-learning as a contextual influence on identity development and self-authorship. Analysis of data from interviews with 8 participants, each of whom completed an undergraduate service-learning course 2 to 4 years prior to the study, suggested that an enduring influence of service-learning was construction of a more integrated identity evidenced by complexity in thinking about self and relationships with others, an openness to new ideas and experiences, and shifts in future commitments.
Increasingly, perches for laying hens are being made from metals and plastics. There is nothing in the literature regarding how easily birds jump between perches of different materials, or how their ability to do so changes with faecal contamination of the perches. Forty-four medium hybrid brown hens negotiated perches of wood (5 cm × 5 cm, rounded edges), metal (half-round section, diameter 4 cm) or poly-vinyl-chloride (PVC: circular section, diameter 4 cm), which were either clean or dirty (poultry manure 0.5-1.0 cm deep). The time to jump to the destination perch (0.75 m from the start perch), number of squats (pre-jumping behaviour), slips, failures to jump (in 300 s) and crashes were recorded. Compared to wood and metal perches, birds took significantly longer to jump from PVC perches when they were clean, but there was no difference when the perches were dirty. Birds slipped significantly more on clean metal or PVC perches compared to clean wood perches. The birds took significantly longer to jump from metal or wooden perches when they were dirty compared to when they were clean. These data may suggest that PVC is not a suitable material for perches. Slipperiness is important. The birds apparently found the metal and PVC perch more slippery than the wooden perch, although the metal perch did not cause the birds to delay jumping. A slippery perch may deter the birds from attempting to jump. Manure on the perches reduced the slipperiness of the metal and PVC perches. Once perches become dirty, any welfare issues concerning the risk of injury from slippery perches cease to be as important as the potential slipperiness of the manure itself.
This study investigated patterns of teachers’ interaction behaviors in early childhood classrooms. Sixty-three child care teachers were rated on their use of eight interaction behaviors taken from the Teaching Styles Rating Scale (McWilliam, Scarborough, Bagby, & Sweeney, 1998). Using cluster analysis techniques, we identified four homogenous interaction clusters. One cluster presented an average profile: The teachers in this group had average scores on all interaction behaviors compared to the other teachers in the study. The teachers in a second cluster were characterized by high ratings on elaborating and low ratings on redirecting behaviors. A third cluster consisted of teachers who where rated high on redirecting and low on all other behaviors, and the teachers in the fourth cluster received high ratings on nonelaborative behaviors. Cluster differences were found for teachers’ education; teachers’ sensitivity, as measured by the Caregiver Interaction Scale (Arnett, 1989); classroom quality, as measured by the Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scale (Harms, Cryer, & Clifford, 1990) or the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998); group child engagement, as measured by the Engagement Check II (McWilliam, 1999); and center licensing level.
In this essay, Susan Engel argues that curiosity is both intrinsic to children's development and unfolds through social interactions. Thus, it should be cultivated in schools, even though it is often almost completely absent from classrooms. Calling on well-established research and more recent studies, Engel argues that interactions between teachers and students can foster or inhibit children's curiosity. She offers an explanation for why curiosity is not a priority in our educational system and calls for greater attention to children's interests and explorations, which, she argues, are the mechanisms that underlie authentic learning.