Measuring Creativity in the Classroom: Linking Group Patterns with Individual Outcomes
- Leanne Ma, OISE/University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
AbstractAlthough creativity has traditionally been measured as an individual trait (Runco & Jaeger, 2012), contemporary research on workplace innovation (Kelley & Littman, 2001; Nonaka, 2008) suggests that creativity is a collaborative process of working with ideas (Amabile & Pratt, 2016). Furthermore, organizational creativity can be measured using social network analysis (Gloor, 2006) – the more emergent leaders, the more creative the outcome (Gloor et al., 2016). Gloor's creativity measure was adapted in a grade 1 class (n=22) to explore whether leaders would emerge when students engaged in creative problem-solving through online discussions in Knowledge Forum (Scardamalia, 2017). Social network analysis reveals that 13 students emerged as leaders, and content analysis of the discussion indicates that leaders proposed new ideas that helped deepen the progression of ideas. Additional analyses are underway to explore correlations between leadership and creativity scores. Educational implications for developing the creative potential of young students are discussed.