Seana Moran

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

The Science of Multiple Intelligences Theory: A Response to Lynn Waterhouse.

For a scholar, a fate worse than being criticized is being ignored. Waterhouse (2006) has done Howard Gardner the courtesy of reading much of the primary and secondary literature on multiple intelligences (MI) theory. Although the authors disagree with several of her interpretations and conclusions, we appreciate her efforts as well as the opportunity to respond. We have 2 main criticisms: (a) Waterhouse misunderstands and oversimplifies MI theory and (b) Waterhouses own line of argument undermines her claim that MI theory is not supported by the literature. This response reorients and clarifies for the reader the usefulness and implications of MI theory with the goal of demonstrating why Waterhouses critique misses the mark in a number of respects.

Purpose: giftedness in intrapersonal intelligence

Purpose is an internal compass that integrates engagement in activities that affect others, self‐awareness of one’s reasons, and the intention to continue these activities. We argue that purpose represents giftedness in intrapersonal intelligence, which processes information related to self, identity, self‐regulation, and one’s place in the world. Purpose is an extraordinary achievement. It is an ideal that young people are expected to accomplish by the end of high school, yet in our mixed methods study, only 26% of our sample overall (N=270 youth age 12–22) expressed a purpose. Still, purpose can be achieved precociously. Some youth achieve purpose much earlier than the norm: 11 6th graders in our sample showed a purpose.

How Supportive of Their Specific Purposes Do Youth Believe Their Family and Friends Are

Prior studies have found that youth reporting a general sense that “I have a purpose” also describe having social supports that enhance thriving. This study links specific social supports to specific purposes described by youth. We examined whether developmental level, social-structural supports of gender and ethnicity, and close relationship supports of family and friends explained (a) how likely youth were to describe three dimensions of a specific purpose content (intention, engagement, and beyond-the-self reasons), and (b) how youth with specified purposes used social supports to pursue those purposes. Youth in higher grade levels were more likely to describe their future plans, activities that pursued those plans, and reasons that considered consequences to others as well as themselves. Non-White ethnicity and higher friend support also increased the likelihood of youth expressing future plans. Youth with purposes sought or created—then integrated into a tailored support network—purpose-specific benefits from their families, opportunities to engage, and institutions.

Changing the world: tolerance and creativity aspirations among American youth

Having a purpose is a form of intrapersonal giftedness. An even rarer giftedness is motivation to positively change society or culture. This exploratory chi‐square and ANOVA study reports the prevalence, age distribution, stability over time, and characteristics of two change oriented aims in American adolescents. In a sample of 270, 12%, who tend to be older and more other‐oriented, have tolerant aspirations to bridge across group differences, focusing on peace, justice, racial unity, or immigrant inclusion to relieve suffering. Sixteen per cent, who tend to be more self‐oriented and spread across ages, have creative aspirations to introduce new ideas, primarily through arts and media. Both aims are difficult to maintain over time without connections to structure engagement with the aim.

What Role Does Commitment Play Among Writers With Different Levels of Creativity

Commitment involves how a person invests resources in a work role over long periods of time. Creativity is a novel, appropriate variation that is embraced by a field of gatekeepers and transforms the symbolic domain. This qualitative analysis (Cohens kappas of .62, .86, .68 across three coders) addresses the different roles that commitment plays in the careers of 36 writers, depending on what level of creative influence the literary field has attributed to the writers work. The sample was segmented into genre conformers who played by established literary rules (M = 0.15, SD = 0.18), experimentalists whose innovations have not yet caught on widely (M = 0.80, SD = 0.17), and domain transformers who changed the canon (M = 1.32, SD = 0.27). For genre conformers, commitment compensates. They invest technique in the craft of writing to improve their social standing among other writers, editors, and critics within the field. For experimentalists, commitment defies. They translate their selves into words by twisting traditions and supports to yield new meanings, which gains them an emotional rush plus increased control over their self-expression. For domain transformers, commitment impassions. They trust some beloved aspect of literature, such as a character or poetic form, to convert new minds to the latent possibilities of the domain.

The ethics of creativity.

For quite some time it has been widely acknowledged that more work needs to be done on the axiological implications of the process metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead. In a completely different quarter it has also been widely acknowledged that there is a tension in environmental ethics between the rights claimed on behalf of sentient individuals (whether human or nonhuman) and the attention that must be paid to what is, to the naked eye, nonsentient nature. The great merit of Henning’s book is that by responding insightfully to the first problem mentioned above, he does so as well to the second. His book is thus essential reading for both process thinkers/ American pragmatists as well as environmental ethicists. The key to the book consists in Henning’s rejection of axiological dualism, wherein the more familiar ontological dualism of early modern thinkers like Descartes dictates the aesthetic and ethical terms found in Kant and other late modern thinkers. Henning is very much in the tradition of Peirce, James, and Dewey in his rejection of the hegemony dualism and materialism have had on contemporary philosophic debates. The rapprochement he forges between the pragmatists and Whitehead (specifically, an “ecstatic” interpretation of Whitehead) enables him to defend a view of reality in general as organic. On this view there is a continuum of value in nature, contra axiological dualism. The practical implications of this continuum of value in nature for contemporary debates in environmental ethics become readily apparent toward the end of the book, where Henning lays out, in Jamesian fashion, his view of a genuinely ethical universe. This view both borrows from virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology and also improves on them. No small accomplishment!

Education for purposeful teaching around the world

This special issue researches two themes that are gaining emphasis in teacher education in many countries: teaching for purpose and teaching with purposefulness. Pupils learn desired qualities via ...

What do teachers think about youth purpose

Abstract Life purpose combines personal meaning, future intention, active engagement and expected beyond-the-self impact into a self-regulating beacon for decisions and actions. Interest has grown in how teachers could foster youth purpose. Although studies show relationships between pedagogy and purpose, how teachers themselves understand the concept and view their role in its development need more research. This descriptive, qualitative, secondary analysis of observations and comments of teachers in the United States of America during their normal school days can help teacher educators to instil a purpose orientation in pedagogical training. Teachers are interested in purpose for pupils and for themselves. But they are ambivalent about their efficacy to support purpose development. Currently, purpose is often equated with career rather than with a broader life aim. Personal meaning and engagement are easier purpose dimensions for teachers to design activities for pupils to practice, whereas intention and beyond-the-self impact are less often taught or only addressed abstractly. Specific purpose-related activities are shared to provide ideas for other teachers’ own purpose pedagogies.

Introduction: The Crossroads of Creativity and Ethics

“More creativity!” seems to be the current mantra for success. Institutions, cities, and nations seek globally for people who will” break the mold,”” cultivate disruption,” or” hack the future” to provide competitive advantage and” stay ahead of the curve.” Several higher education institutions have augmented their traditional strengths of general and professional knowledge by promoting the” twenty-first-century skills” of creativity and collaboration.