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Creative Learning in Education

Ronald A. Beghetto

Although schools and classrooms have sometimes been characterized as

contexts that suppress or even kill student creativity (Robinson, 2006), educa-
tional settings hold much promise for supporting students’ creative learning.
Prior research has, for instance, indicated that there is on an average positive
relationship (r = .22) between measures of creativity and academic achieve-
ment (Gajda, Karwowski, & Beghetto, 2016). This association tends to grow
when measures are more fine-tuned to assess creativity and academic learning
in specific subject areas (Karwowski et al., 2020). These findings suggest that
under the right conditions, creativity and learning can be complementary.
Indeed, creativity researchers have long asserted that creativity and learning
are tightly coupled phenomena (Guilford, 1950, 1967; Sawyer, 2012). More-
over, recent theoretical and empirical work has helped to clarify the construct
and process of creative learning (Beghetto, 2020; Beghetto & Schuh, 2020;
Gajda, Beghetto, & Karwowski, 2017). Creative learning in schools repre-
sents a specific form of learning that involves creative expression in the
context of academic learning. More specifically, creative learning involves
a “combination of intrapsychological and interpsychological processes that
result in new and personally meaningful understandings for oneself and
others” (Beghetto, p. 9).
Within the context of schools and classrooms, the process of creative
learning can range from smaller scale contributions to one’s own and others’

R. A. Beghetto (B)
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s) 2021 473

M. L. Kern and M. L. Wehmeyer (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64537-3_19
474 R. A. Beghetto

learning (e.g., a student sharing a unique way of thinking about a math

problem) to larger scale and lasting contributions that benefit the learning
and lives of people in and beyond the walls of the classroom (e.g., a group
of students develop and implement a creative solution for addressing social
isolation in the lunchroom). In this way, efforts aimed at supporting creative
learning represents a generative form of positive education because it serves as
a vehicle for students to contribute to their own and others learning, life, and
wellbeing (White & Kern, 2018). The question then is not whether creative
learning can occur in schools, but rather what are the key factors that seem
to support creative learning in schools and classrooms? The purpose of this
chapter is to address this question.

What’s Creative About Creative Learning?

Prior to exploring how creative learning can be supported in schools and class-
rooms, it is important to first address the question of what is creative about
creative learning? Creative learning pertains to the development of new and
meaningful contributions to one’s own and others’ learning and lives. This
conception of creative learning adheres to standard definitions of creativity
(Plucker, Beghetto, & Dow, 2004; Runco & Jaeger, 2012), which includes
two basic criteria: it must be original (new, different, or unique) as defined
within a particular context or situation, and it must be useful (meaningful,
effectively meets task constraints, or adequately solves the problem at hand).
In this way, creativity represents a form of constrained originality. This is
particularly good news for educators, as supporting creative learning is not
about removing all constraints, but rather it is about supporting students in
coming up with new and different ways of meeting academic criteria and
learning goals (Beghetto, 2019a, 2019b).
For example, consider a student taking a biology exam. One question on
the exam asks students to draw a plant cell and label its most important
parts. If the student responds by drawing a picture of a flower behind the
bars of a jail cell and labels the iron bars, lack of windows, and incarcerated
plant,1 then it could be said that the student has offered an original or even
humorous response, but not a creative one. In order for a response to be
considered creative, it needs to be both original and meaningfully meet the
task constraints. If the goal was to provide a funny response to the prompt,
then perhaps it could be considered a creative response. But in this case, the

1This example is based on a popular internet meme of a humorous drawing in response to this
question.
 19 Creative Learning in Education 475

task requires students to meet the task constraints by providing a scientifi-

cally accurate depiction of a plant cell. Learning tasks such as this offer little
room for creative expression, because the goal is often to determine whether
students can accurately reproduce what has been taught.
Conversely, consider a biology teacher who invites students to identify
their own scientific question or problem, which is unique and interesting to
them. The teacher then asks them to design an inquiry-based project aimed
at addressing the question or problem. Next, the teacher invites students
to share their questions and project designs with each other. Although
some of the questions students identify may have existing answers in the
scientific literature, this type of task provides the openings necessary for
creative learning to occur in the classroom. This is because students have
an opportunity to identify their own questions to address, develop their own
understanding of new and different ways of addressing those questions, and
share and receive feedback on their unique ideas and insights. Providing
students with semi-structured learning experiences that requires them to meet
learning goals in new and different ways helps to ensure that students are
developing personally and academically meaningful understandings and also
provides them with an opportunity to potentially contribute to the under-
standing of their peers and teachers (see Ball, 1993; Beghetto, 2018b; Gajda
et al., 2017; Niu & Zhou, 2017 for additional examples).
Creative learning can also extend beyond the walls of the classroom. When
students have the opportunity and support to identify their own problems
to solve and their own ways of solving them, they can make positive and
lasting contributions in their schools, communities, and beyond. Legacy
projects represent an example of such efforts. Legacy projects refer to creative
learning endeavours that provide students with opportunities to engage with
uncetainty and attempt to develop sustainable solutions to complex and ill-
defined problems (Beghetto, 2017c, 2018b). Such projects involve a blend
between learning and creative expression with the aim of making a creative
contribution. A group of fourth graders who learned about an endangered
freshwater shrimp and then worked to restore the habitat by launching a
project that spanned across multiple years and multiple networks of teachers,
students, and external partners is an example of a legacy project (see Stone &
Barlow, 2010).
As these examples illustrate, supporting creative learning is not simply
about encouraging original student expression, but rather involves providing
openings for students to meet academic learning constraints in new and
different ways, which can benefit their own, their peers’, and even their
teachers’ learning. Creative learning can also extend beyond the classroom
476 R. A. Beghetto

and enable students to make a lasting and positive contribution to schools,

communities, and beyond. In this way, the process of creative learning
includes both intra-psychological (individual) and inter-psychological (social)
aspects (Beghetto, 2016).
At the individual level, creative learning occurs when students encounter
and engage with novel learning stimuli (e.g., a new concept, a new skill, a new
idea, an ill-defined problem) and attempt to make sense of it in light of their
own prior understanding (Beghetto & Schuh, 2020). Creative learning at the
individual level involves a creative combinatorial process (Rothenberg, 2015),
whereby new and personally meaningful understanding results from blending
what is previously known with newly encountered learning stimuli. Creativity
researchers have described this form of creativity as personal (Runco, 1996),
subjective (Stein, 1953), or mini-c creativity2 (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007).
This view of knowledge development also aligns with how some constructivist
and cognitive learning theorists have conceptualized the process of learning
(e.g., Alexander, Schallert, & Reynolds, 2009; Piaget, 1973; Schuh, 2017;
Von Glasersfeld, 2013).
If students are able to develop a new and personally meaningful under-
standing, then it can be said that they have engaged in creative learning
at the individual level. Of course, not all encounters with learning stimuli
will result in creative learning. If learning stimuli are too discrepant or diffi-
cult, then students likely will not be able to make sense of the stimuli. Also,
if students are able to accurately reproduce concepts or solve challenging
tasks or problems using memorized algorithms (Beghetto & Plucker, 2006)
without developing personally meaningful understanding of those concepts
or algorithms, then they can be said to have successfully memorized concepts
and techniques, but not to have engaged in creative learning. Similarly, if a
student has already developed an understanding of some concept or idea and
encounters it again, then they will be reinforcing their understanding, rather
than developing a new or understanding (Von Glasersfeld, 2013). Conse-
quently, in order for creative learning to occur at the individual level, students
need to encounter optimally novel learning experiences and stimuli, such that
they can make sense of those stimuli in light of their own prior learning
trajectories (Beghetto & Schuh, in press; Schuh, 2017).

2 Creativity researchers recognize that there are different levels of creative magnitude (Kaufman &
Beghetto, 2009), which ranges from subjectively experienced creativity (mini-c ) to externally recog-
nized creativity at the everyday or classroom level (little-c ), the professional or expert level (Pro-c ),
and even legendary contributions that stand the test of time (Big-C).
 19 Creative Learning in Education 477

Creative learning can also extend beyond individual knowledge develop-

ment. At the inter-psychological (or social) level, students have an opportu-
nity to share and refine their conceptions with teachers and peers, making a
creative contribution to the learning and lives of others (Beghetto, 2016). For
instance, as apparent in the legacy projects, it is possible for students to make
creative contributions beyond the walls of the classroom, which occasionally
can be recognized by experts as a significant contribution. Student inven-
tors, authors, content creators, and members of community-based problem
solving teams are further examples of the inter-psychological level of creative
contribution.
In sum, creative learning is a form of creative expression, which is
constrained by an academic focus. It is also a special case of academic
learning, because it focuses on going beyond reproductive and reinforce-
ment learning and includes the key creative characteristics (Beghetto, 2020;
Rothenberg, 2015; Sawyer, 2012) of being both combinatorial (combining
existing knowledge with new learning stimuli) and emergent (contributing
new and sometimes surprising ideas, insights, perspectives, and understand-
ings to oneself and others).

Locating Creative Learning in Schools

and Classrooms
Having now explored the question of what makes creative learning creative,
we can now turn our attention to locating the factors and conditions
that can help support creative learning in schools and classrooms. As illus-
trated in Fig. 19.1, there are at least four interrelated components posited
as being necessary for creative learning to occur in schools, classrooms,
and beyond: students, teachers, academic subject matter, and uncertainty.
Creative learning in schools and classrooms occurs at the intersection of
these four factors. Further, the classroom, school, and broader sociocultural
contexts play an important role in determining whether and how creative
learning will be supported and expressed. Each of these factors will be
discussed in the sections that follow.

The Role of Students in Creative Learning

Students, of course, play a central role in creative learning. At the individual

level, students’ idiosyncratic learning histories will influence the kinds of
creative insights, ideas, and interpretations they have when engaging with
478 R. A. Beghetto

Fig. 19.1 Factors involved in creative learning in schools, classrooms, and beyond

new learning stimuli (Beghetto & Schuh, 2020; Schuh, 2017). Although a
case can be made that subjective and personally meaningful creative insights
and experiences are sufficient ends in themselves (Beghetto & Kaufman,
2007; Runco, 1996; Stein, 1953), creative learning tends to be situated
in well-developed subject areas. Moreover, the goals of most formal educa-
tional activities, such as those that occur in schools and classrooms, include
making sure that students have developed an accurate or at least a compat-
ible understanding of existing concepts, ideas, and skills (Von Glasersfeld,
2003). Consequently, creative learning in schools—even at the individual
level—involves providing students with opportunities to test out and receive
feedback on their personal understandings and insights to ensure that what
they have learned fits within the broader academic subject area. When
this occurs, creative learning at the individual level represents a blend of
idiosyncratic and generally agreed upon academic knowledge.
Notably, the idiosyncratic portion of this blend is not merely surplus ideas
or insights, but rather has the potential to creatively contribute to the learning
and understanding of others. Indeed, the full expression of creative learning
extends beyond the individual and also has the opportunity to contribute to
the learning and lives of others. At both the individual and social level of
 19 Creative Learning in Education 479

creative learning, students’ need to be willing to share, test, and receive feed-
back on their conceptions, otherwise the full expression of creative learning
will be short-circuited. Thus, an important question, at the student level, is
what factors might influence students’ willingness to share their ideas with
others?
Creativity researchers have identified at least three interrelated student
factors that seem to play a role in determining students’ willingness to share
their conceptions with others: creative confidence, valuing creativity, and intel-
lectual risk-taking. Creative confidence beliefs refer to a somewhat broad cate-
gory of creative self-beliefs that pertain to one’s confidence in the ability to
think and act creatively (Beghetto & Karwowski, 2017). Creative confidence
beliefs can range from more situationally and domain-specific beliefs (e.g., I
am confident I can creatively solve this particular problem in this particular
situation) to more general and global confidence beliefs (e.g., I am confi-
dent in my creative ability). Much like other confidence beliefs (Bandura,
2012), creative confidence beliefs are likely influenced by a variety of personal
(e.g., physiological state), social (e.g., who is present, whether people are
being supportive), and situational (e.g., specific nature of the task, including
constraints like time and materials) factors. Recent research has indicated that
creative confidence beliefs mediate the link between creative potential and
creative behaviour (Beghetto, Karwowski, Reiter-Palmon, 2020; Karwowski
& Beghetto, 2019).
In the context of creative learning, this line of work suggests that students
need to be confident in their own ideas prior to being willing to share
those ideas with others and test out their mini-c ideas. However, valuing
creativity and the willingness to take creative risks also appear to play key
roles. Valuing creativity refers to whether students view creativity as an impor-
tant part of their identity and whether they view creative thought and activity
as worthwhile endeavours (Karwowski, Lebuda, & Beghetto, 2019). Research
has indicated that valuing creativity moderates the mediational relationship
between creative confidence and creative behaviour (Karwowski & Beghetto,
2019).
The same can be said for intellectual risk-taking, which refers to adaptive
behaviours that puts a person at risk of making mistakes or failing (Beghetto,
2009). Findings from a recent study (Beghetto, Karwowski, Reiter-Palmon,
2020) indicate that intellectual risk-taking plays a moderating role between
creative confidence and creative behaviour. In this way, even if a student has
confidence in their ideas, unless they identify with and view such ideas as
worthwhile and are willing to take the risks of sharing those ideas with others,
480 R. A. Beghetto

then they are not likely to make a creative contribution to their own and
others learning.
Finally, even if students have confidence, value creativity, and are willing to
take creative risks, unless they have the opportunities and social supports to
do so then they will not be able to realize their creative learning potential. As
such, teachers, peers, and others in the social classroom, school, and broader
environments are important for bringing such potential to fruition.

The Role of Teachers in Creative Learning

Teachers play a central role in designing and managing the kinds of learning
experiences that determine whether creativity will be supported or suppressed
in the classroom. Indeed, unless teachers believe that they can support student
creativity, have some idea of how to do so, and are willing to try then it is
unlikely that students will have systematic opportunities to engage in creative
learning (Beghetto, 2017b; Davies et al., 2013; Gralewski & Karawoski,
2018; Paek & Sumners, 2019). Each of these teacher roles will be discussed
in turn.
First, teachers need to believe that they can support student creativity in
their classroom. This has less to do with whether or not they value student
creativity, as previous research indicates most generally do value creativity,
and more about whether teachers have the autonomy, curricular time, and
knowledge of how to support student creativity (Mullet, Willerson, Lamb, &
Kettler, 2016). In many schools and classrooms, the primary aim of education
is to support students’ academic learning. If teachers view creativity as being
in competition or incompatible with that goal, then they will understand-
ably feel that they should focus their curricular time on meeting academic
learning goals, even if they otherwise value and would like to support
students’ creative potential (Beghetto, 2013). Thus, an important first step in
supporting the development of students’ creative potential is for teachers to
recognize that supporting creative and academic learning can be compatible
goals. When teachers recognize that they can simultaneously support creative
and academic learning then they are in a better position to more productively
plan for and respond to opportunities for students’ creative expression in their
everyday lessons.
Equipped with this recognition, the next step in supporting student
creativity is for teachers to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for
infusing creativity into their curriculum (Renzulli, 2017) so that they can
teach for creativity. Teaching for creativity in the K-12 classroom differs from
other forms of creativity teaching (e.g., teaching about creativity, teaching
 19 Creative Learning in Education 481

with creativity) because it focuses on nurturing student creativity in the

context of specific academic subject areas (Beghetto, 2017b; Jeffrey & Craft,
2004). This form of creative teaching thereby requires that teachers have
an understanding of pedagogical creativity enhancement knowledge (PCeK),
which refers to knowing how to design creative learning experiences that
support and cultivate students’ adapted creative attitudes, beliefs, thoughts,
and actions in the planning and teaching of subject matter (Beghetto, 2017a).
Teaching for creativity thereby involves designing lessons that provide creative
openings and expectations for students to creatively meet learning goals and
academic learning criteria. As discussed, this includes requiring students to
come up with their own problems to solve, their own ways of solving them,
and their own way of demonstrating their understanding of key concepts and
skills. Teaching for creativity also includes providing students with honest
and supportive feedback to ensure that students are connecting their devel-
oping and unique understanding to existing conventions, norms, and ways
of knowing in and across various academic domains.
Finally, teachers need to be willing to take the instructional risks neces-
sary to establish and pursue openings in their planned lessons. This is often
easier said than done. Indeed, even teachers who otherwise value creativity
may worry that establishing openings in their curriculum that require them
to pursue unexpected student ideas will result in the lesson drifting too far
off-track and into curricular chaos (Kennedy, 2005). Indeed, prior research
has demonstrated that it is sometimes difficult for teachers to make on-the-
fly shifts in their lessons, even when the lesson is not going well (Clark &
Yinger, 1977). One way that teachers can start opening up their curriculum
is to do so in small ways, starting with the way they plan lessons. Lesson
unplanning—the process of creating openings in the lesson by replacing
predetermined features with to-be-determined aspects (Beghetto, 2017d)—
is an example of a small-step approach. A math teacher who asks students to
solve a problem in as many ways as they can represent a simple, yet potentially
generative form of lesson unplanning. By starting small, teachers can gradu-
ally develop their confidence and willingness to establish openings for creative
learning in their curriculum while still providing a supportive and structured
learning environment. Such small, incremental steps can lead to larger trans-
formations in practice (Amabile & Kramer, 2011) and reinforce teachers’
confidence in their ability to support creative learning in their classroom.
482 R. A. Beghetto

The Role of Academic Subject Matter in Creative

Learning

Recall that creativity requires a blend of originality and meaningfully meeting

criteria or task constraints. If students’ own unique perspectives and inter-
pretations represent the originality component of creativity, then existing
academic criteria and domains of knowledge represent the criteria and tasks
constraints. Creativity always operates within constraints (Beghetto, 2019a;
Stokes, 2010). In the context of creative learning, those constraints typically
represent academic learning goals and criteria. Given that most educators
already know how to specify learning goals and criteria, they are already
half-way to supporting creative learning. The other half requires considering
how academic subject matter might be blended with activities that provide
students with opportunities to meet those goals and criteria in their own
unique and different ways. In most cases, academic learning activities can
be thought of as having four components (Beghetto, 2018b):

1. The what: What students do in the activity (e.g., the problem to solve,
the issue to be addressed, the challenge to be resolved, or the task to be
completed).
2. The how: How students complete the activity (e.g., the procedure used to
solve a problem, the approach used to address an issue, the steps followed
to resolve a challenge, or the process used to complete a task).
3. The criteria for success: The criteria used to determine whether students
successfully completed the activity (e.g., the goals, guidelines, non-
negotiables, or agreed-upon indicators of success).
4. The outcome: The outcome resulting from engagement with the activity
(e.g., the solution to a problem, the products generated from completing
a task, the result of resolving an issue or challenge, or any other demon-
strated or experienced consequence of engaging in a learning activity).

Educators can use one or more of the above components (i.e., the what,
how, criteria, and outcome) to design creative learning activities that blend
academic subject matter with opportunities for creative expression. The
degrees of freedom for doing so will vary based on the subject area, topics
within subject areas, and teachers’ willingness to establish openings in their
lessons.
In mathematics, for instance, there typically is one correct answer to solve
a problem, whereas other subject areas, such as English Language Arts, offer
much more flexibility in the kinds of “answers” or interpretations possible.
 19 Creative Learning in Education 483

Yet even with less flexibility in the kinds of originality that can be expressed
in a particular subject area, there still remains a multitude of possibilities for
creative expression in the kinds of tasks that teachers can offer students. As
mentioned earlier, students in math can still demonstrate creative learning
in the kinds of problems they design to solve, the various ways they solve
them, and even how they demonstrate the outcomes and solutions to those
problems.
Finally, teachers can use academic subject matter in at least two different
ways to support opportunities for creative learning in their classroom
(Beghetto Kaufman, & Baer, 2015). The first and most common way is
to position subject matter learning as a means to its own end (e.g., we are
learning about this technique so that you understand it ). Creativity learning
can still operate in this formulation by providing students with opportunities
to learn about a topic by meeting goals in unique and different ways, which
are still in the service of ultimately understanding the academic subject area.
However, the added value in doing so also allows opportunities for students to
develop their creative confidence and competence in that particularly subject
area.
The second less common, but arguably more powerful, way of positioning
academic subject matter in creative learning is as a means to a creative end
(e.g., we are learning about this technique so that you can use it to address the
complex problem or challenge you and your team identified ). Students who, for
instance, developed a project to creatively address the issue of contaminated
drinking water in their community would need to learn about water contam-
ination (e.g., how to test for it, how to eradicate contaminates) as part of
the process of coming up with a creative solution. In this formulation, both
academic subject matter and creative learning opportunities are in the service
of attempting to make a creative contribution to the learning and lives of
others (Beghetto, 2017c, 2018b).

The Role of Uncertainty in Creative Learning

Without uncertainty, there is no creative learning. This is because uncertainty

establishes the conditions necessary for new thought and action (Beghetto,
2019a). If students (and teachers) already know what to do and how to do
it, then they are rehearsing or reinforcing knowledge and skills. This asser-
tion becomes clearer when we consider it in light of the structure of learning
activities. Recall from the previous section, learning activities can be thought
of as being comprised of four elements: the what, the how, the criteria for
success, and the outcome.
484 R. A. Beghetto

Typically, teachers attempt to remove uncertainty from learning activities

by predefining all four aspects of a learning activity. This is understand-
able as teachers may feel that introducing or allowing for uncertainty to
be included in the activity may result curricular chaos, resulting in their
own (and their students) frustration and confusion (Kennedy, 2015). Conse-
quently, most teachers learn to plan (or select pre-planned) lessons that
provide students with a predetermined problem or task to solve, which
has a predetermined process or procedure for solving it, an already estab-
lished criteria for determining successful performance, and a clearly defined
outcome.
Although it is true that students can still learn and develop new and
personally meaningful insights when they engage with highly planned lessons,
such lessons are “over-planned” with respect to providing curricular space
necessary for students to make creative contributions to peers and teachers.
Indeed, successful performance on learning tasks in which all the elements are
predetermined requires students to do what is expected and how it is expected
(Beghetto, 2018a). Conversely, the full expression of creative learning requires
incorporating uncertainty in the form of to-be-determined elements in a
lesson. As discussed, this involves providing structured opportunities for
students (and teachers) to engage with uncertainty in an otherwise structured
and supportive learning environment (Beghetto, 2019a).
Indeed, teachers still have the professional responsibility to outline the
criteria or non-negotiables, monitor student progress, and ensure that they
are providing necessary and timely instructional supports. This can be accom-
plished by allowing students to determine how they meet those criteria. In
this way, the role that uncertainty plays in creative learning can be thought of
as ranging on a continuum from small openings allowing students to define
some element of a learning activity (e.g., the how, what, outcomes) to larger
openings where students have much more autonomy in defining elements
and even the criteria for success, such as a legacy project whereby they try
to make positive and lasting contributions to their schools, communities and
beyond.

The Role of Context in Creative Learning

Finally, context also plays a crucial role when it comes to creative learning.
Creative learning is always and already situated in sociocultural and historical
contexts, which influence and are influenced by students’ unique conceptions
of what they are learning and their willingness to share their conceptions
with others. As illustrated in Fig. 19.1, there are at least three permeable
 19 Creative Learning in Education 485

contextual settings in which creative learning occurs. The first is the class-
room context. Although classrooms and the patterns of interaction that occur
within them may appear to be somewhat stable environments, when it comes
to supporting creative expression, they can be quite dynamic, variable, and
thereby rather unpredictable within and across different settings (Beghetto,
2019b; Doyle, 2006; Gajda et al., 2017; Jackson, 1990). Indeed, even in
classrooms that are characterized as having features and patterns of interac-
tion supportive of creative learning, such patterns may be difficult to sustain
over time and even the moment-to-moment supports can be quite variable
(Gajda et al., 2017).
It is therefore difficult to claim with any level of certainty that a given
classroom is “supportive of creativity”; it really depends on what is going
on in any given moment. A particular classroom may tend to be more or
less supportive across time, however it is the sociodynamic and even material
features of a classroom setting that play a key role in determining the kinds
and frequency of creative learning openings offered to students (Beghetto,
2017a).
The same can be said for the school context. The kinds of explicit and
tacit supports for creative learning in schools likely play an important role in
whether and how teachers and students feel supported in their creative expres-
sion (Amabile, 1996; Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014; Renzulli, 2017; Schacter,
Thum, & Zifkin, 2006). Theoretically speaking, if teachers feel supported
by their colleagues and administrators and are actively encouraged to take
creative risks, then it seems likely that they would have the confidence and
willingness to try. Indeed, this type of social support and modelling can
have a cascading influence in and across classrooms and schools (Bandura,
1997). Although creativity researchers have theorized and explored the role of
context on creative expression (Amabile, 1996; Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014),
research specifically exploring the collective, cascading, and reciprocal effects
of school and classroom contexts on creative learning is a promising and
needed area of research.
In addition to classroom and school settings, sociocultural theorists in the
field of creativity studies (Glăveanu et al., 2020) assert that the broader socio-
cultural influences are not static, unidirectional, or even separate from the
people in those contexts, but rather dynamic and co-constitutive processes
that influence and are influenced by people in those settings. Along these
lines, the kinds of creative learning opportunities and experiences that
teachers and students participate in can be thought of as simultaneously
being shaped by and helping to shape their particular communities, cultural
settings, and broader societies. Consequently, there are times and spaces
486 R. A. Beghetto

where creative learning may be more or less valued and supported by the
broader sociocultural context. Although some researchers have explored the
role of broader societal contexts on creativity (Florida, 2019), additional work
looking at the more dynamic and reciprocal relationship of creative learning
in broader sociocultural and historical contexts is also needed.

Future Directions
Given the dynamic and multifaceted nature of creative learning, researchers
interested in examining the various factors involved in creative learning likely
would benefit from the development and use of analytic approaches and
designs that go beyond single measures or static snapshots to include dynamic
(Beghetto & Corazza, 2019) and multiple methods (Gajda et al., 2017).
Such approaches can help researchers better understand the factors at play in
supporting the emergence, expression, and sustainability of creative learning
in and across various types of school and classroom experiences.
Another seemingly fruitful and important direction for future research on
creative learning is to consider it in light of the broader context of positive
education. Such efforts can complement existing efforts of researchers in posi-
tive education (Kern, Waters, Adler, & White, 2015), who have endeavoured
to simultaneously examine multiple dimensions involved in the wellbeing
of students. Indeed, as discussed, creative learning occurs at the nexus of
multiple individual, social, and cultural factors and thereby requires the use of
methods and approaches that can examine the interplay among these factors.
In addition, there are a variety of questions that can guide future research
on creative learning, including:

• How might efforts that focus on understanding and supporting creative

learning fit within the broader aims of positive education? How might
researchers and educators work together to support such efforts?
• What are the most promising intersections among efforts aimed at
promoting creative learning and student wellbeing? What are the key
complementary areas of overlap and where might there be potential points
of tension?
• How might researchers across different research traditions in positive
education and creativity studies collaborate to develop and explore broader
models of wellbeing? What are the best methodological approaches for
testing and refining these models? How might such work promote student
and teacher wellbeing in and beyond the classroom?
 19 Creative Learning in Education 487

Creative learning represents a potentially important aspect of positive

education that can benefit from and contribute to existing research in the
field. One way to help realize this potential is for researchers and educators
representing a wide array of traditions to work together in an effort to develop
an applied understanding of the role creative learning plays in contributing
to learn and lives of students in and beyond schools and classrooms.

Conclusion
Creative learning represents a generative and positive educational experience,
which not only contributes to the knowledge development of individual
students but can also result in creative social contributions to students’
peers, teachers, and beyond. Creative learning thereby represents an impor-
tant form of positive education that compliments related efforts aimed at
building on the strengths that already and always inhere in the interaction
among students, teachers, and educational environments. Creative learning
also represents an expansion of prototypical learning efforts because it not
only focuses on academic learning but also uses it as a vehicle for creative
expression and the potential creative contribution to the learning and lives
of others. In conclusion, creative learning offers researchers in the fields of
creativity studies and positive education an important and complimentary
line of inquiry.

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