Kan kreativitet läras ut? En bildpedagogisk översikt

This paper is divided into four sections. The first of these provides a review of research on creativity. Case studies of artists and of children and young people, experimental studies in psychology as well as anthropological evidence suggest that creative work has a number of dimensions with educational implications. For example, students should be given ample time to pursue ideas; they should be given credit for being adventurous and willing to take risks; they should be encouraged to combine production with perception and reflection; and they should be given opportunities to assess their own performance and to get feedback from peers and teachers. The next section examines some unexpected results from a major Swedish study on the development of creative skills, from age five to nineteen. For example, the study did not confirm the commonly held belief that the quality of children’s art works stagnates in school. With regard to process criteria, however, referring to the capacity to work independently, evaluate one’s work, and so on, students in comprehensive school appeared to stagnate or show only insignificant improvement. The findings indicate that self-assessment, as well as investigative work, inventiveness and the ability to use models, are not learned by life experience or maturation alone. The third section presents a meta-analytic study by Folkert Haanstra on the effects of art education on aesthetic perception. Haanstra demonstrated that a combination of studio art and reflective art education is most effective in bringing about changes in the ways people understand art. The fourth and final section discusses the use of portfolios to foster an interaction between studio art and reflective art education. A portfolio project in the Netherlands suggests that the school can be reformed from within, if teachers are given opportunities to co-operate around issues such as evaluation, assessment and curriculum development.