David Henry Feldman

Creativity and development

1. Emergence in Creativity and Development 2. Creativity in the Making: Vygotskys Contemporary Contribution to the Dialectic of Development and Creativity 3. The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process 4. The Creation of Multiple-Intelligences Theory: A Study in High-Level Thinking 5. Creativity in Later Life 6. Key Issues in Creativity and Development

Creativity and education: an American retrospective

Although early childhood education in America has always had the creative child at the core of its approach, the field itself has generated little systematic research on the topic. In contrast, the scholarly field of creativity studies, with its focus on basic research and theoretical questions, has impacted education only slightly. Creativity and education may have been disconnected topics in a scholarly sense in the US primarily because (1) early childhood education has relied primarily on theory imported from abroad as a guide to practice; (2) psychometric research on creativity proved conceptually and methodologically flawed, short circuiting widespread use of creativity tests by American public schools; and (3) contemporary approaches to creativity have tended to be either broadly theoretical or primarily concerned with answering basic research questions. The article discusses contemporary creativity research; cautionary notes, drawn from the American experience, are also included.

Internal and external influences on cognitive developmental change.

SNYDER, SAMUEL S., and FELDMAN, DAVID H. Internal and External Influences on Cognitive Developmental Change. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 937-943. A map-drawing task, scored for modal developmental level and level mixture, was used to test the effects of external and internal disequilibrium on modal level advance. Discrepancy between a model map and a childs pretest drawing defined external disequilibrium; level mixture defined internal disequilibrium. 63 fifth graders, grouped by level mixture, received instruction differing in degree of external disequilibrium. Results confirmed a facilitating effect of instruction provided at levels higher than the pretest mode. The concept of level mixture was clarified by introducing a measure of directionality, the bias index, which was found to be related to advance. 3 systematic patterns of developmental change in response to instruction were identified and discussed.

THE NATURE(S) OF DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE : PIAGET, VYGOTSKY, AND THE TRANSITION PROCESS

Abstract This essay proposes (1) that more than one kind of large-scale developmental change exists; and (2) that more than one kind of developmental change mechanism is needed to explain them. These proposals are supported by work in nonuniversal theory which states that intellectual development should be characterized neither as domain-general nor as domainspecific, but as a spectrum of developmental domains that range from the universal to the unique. The current article extends nonuniversal theory by positing and then describing (1) a sixth region of development—a pancultural region: and (2) five basic change mechanisms (maturation, domain-specific structures, technologies, instruction, and equilibration) that differentially influence developmental change at particular points along the universal-to-unique continuum. The contributions of each of the five change mechanisms is illustrated by an analysis of childrens ability to draw maps. The value of the universal to unique framework is demonstrated by showing how it helps resolve Piagets and Vygotskys seemingly contradictory views on the relationship between learning and development.

Child Prodigies: A Distinctive Form of Giftedness1:

The basic premise of this article is that the child prodigy is a distinct form of giftedness which must be understood on its own terms. In contrast with the child of great general ability, the prodigy tends to have a more focused, specialized, and domain-specific form of giftedness. Studies of prodigies have contributed to changing theories about the nature of giftedness (e.g., from single to multiple) and will likely continue to do so. Along with the related phenomenon of savant syndrome, the prodigy points to a set of complex relationships between psychometric intelligence in the traditional sense and expression of talent within specific domains like music or mathematics. Based in part on findings from studies of prodigies, it is likely that there are important roles for both general and specific abilities in most forms of giftedness and that they represent two distinct evolutionary trends to maximize the likelihood of human survival.

Phases of Transition in Cognitive Development: Evidence from the Domain of Spatial Representation.

Data on changes in childrens map drawing ability are used to examine 3 hypotheses concerning the relationship of level mixture to developmental change as proposed by Damon in a recent study of social reasoning: (1) that high total mixture precedes change, (2) that low total mixture precedes change, and (3) that high positive mixture (i.e., that at stages above the mode) precedes change. Further predictions are derived from our 6-phase model of transition; these are compared and contrasted with conclusions reached by Damon. Using Damons approach, we replicate his finding that high positive mixture precedes model advance. More detailed analyses of 2 separate groups as suggested by the transitions model, however, show that all 3 types of mixture precede developmental change, albeit different types of change within each group.

Learning and Development in Nonuniversal Theory

Nonuniversal theory proposes to reframe the learning/development dichotomy into a spectrum of important changes, ranging from small-scale learning events to large-scale developmental shifts. Using the

Natural talents: An argument for the extremes

The existence of natural talent becomes easier to see at extremes in performance. Practice alone could not account for the differences in performance that exist at the highest levels. Practice and other factors are no doubt important contributors to outstanding performance, but not enough to explain great creative works. Talent is essential.

Transformational Power as a Possible Index of Creativity

Based on a conceptual framework developed by Jackson and Messick (1965), a technique was developed for assessing transformational power in responses to creativity test items. Aesthetic reactions of judges were used to evaluate 87 Torrance test protocols for transformational responses. Of 846 “high creative strength” responses, 93 were judged transformational (80% agreement between judges). The six most powerful transformations (100% agreement) were not necessarily produced by those who scored highest on Torrances test. Limitations of the present study and implications of the results for future research are discussed.

A Developmental, Evolutionary Perspective on Gifts and Talents.

Acknowledging that the terms gifts and talents are at the center of the fields efforts to serve able children, an alternative to Professor Françoys Gagnés psychometric, quantitative perspective is offered that sees gifts as broad, general analytic capabilities, and talents as specific, content-bound capabilities. This alternative perspective is evolutionary, developmental, and historical; and it assumes that both gifts and talents are natural, interact with each other over the life course, and represent two ways for human beings to survive and perhaps fulfill their potential.