Session Information
20 SES 09 A, Creativity and Pupil Participation
Paper Session
Contribution
Based on the work of Zhang and Sternberg (2009), this paper focuses on a cross-cultural study of thinking styles and conceptions of creativity. In studying the nature of creativity, many scholars have elaborated on the characteristics of creative individuals (e.g. Jalil & Boujettif 2005; Selby, Shaw & Houtz 2005). Zhang and Sternberg (2009) have elaborated on the conceptual link between thinking styles and creativity. Empirical studies supporting this theoretical position would be very valuable for research in this domain. More importantly, how people in different cultural and educational contexts conceptualize creativity? Are there a consistent relationship between thinking styles and creativity across cultural contexts? This research aims to understand university students’ understanding of thinking styles and their views of creativity. The research is conducted in a European and a Chinese context. Thinking styles refer to people’s preferred ways of using the abilities that they have. Sternberg’s (1988) identified 13 thinking styles based on the theory of mental self-government. Zhang and Sternberg (2005, 2006) reconceptualized the 13 styles into three types. Type I thinking styles tend to be more creativity-generating. They denote higher levels of cognitive complexity, including the legislative (being creative), judicial (evaluative of other people or products), hierarchical (prioritizing one’s tasks), global (focusing on the holistic picture) and liberal (taking a new approach to tasks) styles. Type II thinking styles suggest a norm-favoring tendency. They denote lower levels of cognitive complexity, including the executive (implementing tasks with given orders), local (focusing on details), monarchic (working on one task at a time) and conservative (using traditional approaches to tasks) styles. Type III styles, including the anarchic (working on whatever tasks that come along), oligarchic (working on multiple tasks with no priority), internal (working on one’s own) and external (working with others), may manifest the characteristics of the styles from both Type I and Type II groups, depending on the stylistic demands of a specific task. Creativity is the ability to produce work that is (a) relatively novel, (b) high in quality, and (c) appropriate to the task at hand (Amabile 1996; Sternberg and Lubart 1995). To Sternberg and Lubart (1995), creativity is a confluence of six factors: intellectual abilities, knowledge, thinking styles, personality, motivation and environmental context. People who are more creative are more likely to think divergently, exhibit higher levels of cognitive complexity and flexibility (cognitive), and are better at coping with unstructured and ambiguous situations (Kaufman 2002; Sternberg 2006). Zhang and Sternberg (2009) stressed the conceptual link between thinking styles and creativity. However, they pointed out that empirical research on the relationship between intellectual styles and creativity is far from sufficient.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Amabile T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview-Harper Collins. Jalil, P. A. and Boujettif, M. (2005). Some characteristics of Nobel laureates. Creativity Research Journal, 17 (2 and 3), 265–272. Kaufman, J. C. (2002). Dissecting the golden goose: Components of studying creative writers. Creativity Research Journal, 14 (1), 27–40. Selby, E. C., Shaw, E. J. and Houtz, J. C. (2005). The creative personality. Gifted Child Quarterly, 49 (4), 300–357. Sternberg, R. J. (1988). Mental self-government: A theory of intellectual styles and their development. Human Development, 31 197–224. Sternberg, R. J. (2006). The nature of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 18 (1), 87–98. Sternberg, R. J. and Lubart, T. I. (1995). Defying the crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity. New York: Free Press. Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K. & Zhang, L. F. (2007). Thinking Styles Inventory–Revised II. Unpublished test, Tufts University. Zhang, L. F. and Sternberg, R. J. (2005). A threefold model of intellectual styles. Educational PsychologyReview, 17 (1), 1–53. Zhang, L. F., and Sternberg, R. J. (2006). The nature of intellectual styles. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Zhang, L.-F., & Sternberg, R. J. (2009). Intellectual styles and creativity. In T. Rickards, M.A. Runco, & S. Moger (Eds.), The Routledge companion to creativity (pp. 256-266). New York: Routledge.
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