Background: Creativity requires both divergent and convergent thinking. Previous research established that "divergent" thinking relates to mathematics performance, but generally ignored the role of "convergent" thinking and, hence, leaves it unclear how both might interact when children work on mathematical tasks. This study…

In this paper, we explore the divergent and convergent nature of design feedback and the various responses to this feedback from a group of 24 young novice designers (primary school children age 9-11) taking part in a co-design project. Earlier research emphasizes that feedback can encourage a designer to take divergent as well as convergent paths…

Educators stress the importance of play for children's cognitive, social, physical, and emotional development. In order to effectively advocate for the inclusion of play in education settings, it is important to fully understand it. Two researchers, one from England and one from the Netherlands, sought common ground for understanding what children…

Creativity has been conceptualized as involving 2 distinct components; divergent thinking, the search for multiple solutions to a single problem, and convergent thinking, the quest for a single solution either through an analytical process or the experience of insight. Studies have demonstrated that these abilities can be improved by cognitive…

In this study, we examine a professional learning community of primary school teachers developing a joint school-based curriculum for science and technology (S&T) education. Team meetings were observed over the course of one school year and the participating teachers and school head were interviewed. An essential factor in the team's…

Novelty is inherent to creative processes. A positive effect of novelty on creative task performance was therefore predicted. However, creativity can benefit from divergent, as well as convergent thinking. Subsequently, novelty may benefit creative performance when divergent thinking is required, but it could inhibit creative performance when…

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) developed by Mednick and Mednick (1967) is known as a valid measure of creative convergent thinking. We developed a 30-item version of the RAT in Dutch with high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85) and applied both Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory (IRT) to provide measures of item…

The theory of triarchic intelligence posits that, in addition to the widely acknowledged analytical reasoning abilities, creative and practical abilities should be included in the assessments of intellectual capacities and identification of gifted students. To find support for such an approach, the present study examined the psychometric…