ABSTRACT
What is worth teaching? This is a timeworn and contested question. Dickens’ schoolmaster Gradgrind asserted that facts, and facts alone, are what should be taught. Educational reform initiatives that emphasize a “back to basics” approach to teaching seem to be a modern day enactment of Gradgrind’s curricular vision. Of course, just how far back to the basics schools should go is often hotly debated (Berlak & Berlak, 2012). In fact, educational policy makers, business leaders, and government officials from around the globe have increasingly questioned the value of focusing solely on the teaching of facts and have also called for teaching of creative thinking. Why creative thinking? One reason is that creativity has been linked with economic and cultural prosperity (Florida, 2004). As such, teaching children how to think creatively is viewed as an investment in one’s students’ and country’s future. Beyond globalized market-based motives, which have raised concerns about potentially destructive ecological and cultural consequences (Craft, 2010; Craft, Gardner, & Claxton, 2008), there are other reasons why teaching creative thinking has received attention in recent years.
