Creativity and creative thinking

Creativity and creative thinking are fundamentally important for economic prosperity, personal well-being, and solving looming global problems. This chapter considers different conceptions of creativity and describes models from research that can support educators to cultivate creativity in the classroom. While creativity is difficult to define, we establish novelty and usefulness as commonly agreed features of creative works and highlight pedagogical approaches that have the potential to promote creative thinking. We introduce the 4Cs continuum for recognising and nurturing creativity at different ages and across settings. We chart the progression of creativity research, from studies of innate individual genius to intellectual capacities and dispositions that everyone can cultivate and then to a socio-cultural understanding of creativity as emerging from interactions between people and resources. The chapter concludes by outlining the implications of creativity research for teachers who want to prepare their students to meet the dynamic and complex problems and opportunities of the coming century with novel and effective solutions for a just, sustainable, and prosperous future.