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Teaching for creativity: towards sustainable and replicable pedagogical practice

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Abstract

This article explores the pedagogical significance of recent shifts in scholarly attention away from first generation and towards second generation understandings of creativity. First generation or big ‘C’ creativity locates the creative enterprise as a complex set of behaviours and ideas exhibited by an individual, while second generation or small ‘c’ creativity locates the creative enterprise in the processes and products of collaborative and purposeful activity. Second generation creativity is gaining importance for a number of reasons: its acknowledged significance as a driver in the new or digital economy; recent clarification of the notion of ‘creative capital’; the stated commitment of a growing number of universities to ‘more creativity’ as part of their declared vision for their staff and students; and, the recognition that the creative arts does not have a monopoly on creative capability. We argue that this shift allows more space for engaging with creativity as an outcome of pedagogical work in higher education. The article builds on the project of connecting ‘creative capital’ and university pedagogy that is already underway, assembling a number of principles from a wide range of scholarship, from computer modelling to social and cultural theorising. In doing so, it provides a framework for systematically orchestrating a ‘creativity-enhancing’ learning environment in higher education.

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Notes

  1. The analysis of 39 Australian university graduate attribute documentation was conducted on 18 December 2006. List of Australian universities generated from the Australian Education Network, http://www.australian-universities.com/list/

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  1. Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, 4059, Australia

    Erica McWilliam & Shane Dawson

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  1. Erica McWilliam
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  2. Shane Dawson
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Correspondence to Erica McWilliam.

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McWilliam, E., Dawson, S. Teaching for creativity: towards sustainable and replicable pedagogical practice. High Educ 56, 633–643 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9115-7

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