This book does for the idea of creativity what it's needed for a generation - namely it brings clarity to the concept, and presents easy to read, concise discussions of the myriad issues and questions surrounding creativity in today's world. What is it? Why don't we all agree? Can we measure creativity? How? What does it mean to teach for creativity? Or to teach creatively? - all in 29 brief chapters and 162 pages - ringing like frequently asked questions about creativity. Bonus chapters present a detailed summary of a study using the author's Next Generation Creativity Survey to evaluate an ArtScience social problem solving program; the author's essay on the inclusion of design education in secondary school STEM and STEAM programs; an essay written with renowned architect Frank Gehry on the design issues of turnaround schools programs; and a chapter on the neuroscience of art and empathy where behavioral and neuro-imaging evidence are compared. If you liked the author's 2009 book Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art (5000 copies and still selling), you will like this book. You may like it even better because it is not as loaded with detailed quantitative tables. And because it contains an illustration for each chapter by artist Robyn Feeley who designed the cover for Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art. And it contains good stories from Catterall's 35-year career as an amateur cellist.
About the Author: James Catterall is Professor Emeritus at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and Affiliated Faculty at the UCLA Psychological Foundation Center for Culture, Brain, and Development. His research focuses on the nature of creative development and motivation and the conditions that can enhance creative skills. In 2011, Dr. Catterall and Prof. Anne Bamford at the University of the Arts U.K. founded the Centers for Research on Creativity (CRoC) based in Los Angeles and London. With support from the Walt Disney Company, the Centers created a state-of-the-art creativity assessment instrument titled the Next Generation Creativity Survey. This test has been piloted and implemented over a three-year span with a total of 4,000 students in 55 schools and 12 after-school programs in 8 states. We don't formally call the NGCS a test because we're all tired of tests. But it's now an established assessment instrument. CRoC conducts creativity-related assessments for Disney, The United States Department of Education, the New York Hall of Science, the Big Idea Laboratories in five states, P.S. ARTS in Los Angeles, The Wooden Floor of Santa Ana, Inner-city Arts, the Get Lit poetry program, VSA/UNESCO, Mind Pop in Austin TX, A+ Louisiana Schools, and Jump Start Theatre in Cincinnati. Professor Catterall is the author of the popular book, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art - a twelve-year longitudinal study of the achievements and values of young adults (2009, I-Group Books). He received a Ph.D. in education from Stanford University, an M.A. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Minnesota, and an A.B. with honors in economics from Princeton University. CRoC's work can be seen at www.croc-lab.org.