ABSTRACT
Some years ago the Plowden report argued that the primary school should
lay special stress ‘on discovery, on first-hand experience, and on
opportunities for creative work’.1 Following that, it was not uncommon to
see advertisements for college of education lecturers inviting applicants
whose teaching ‘would offer those taught opportunities for creative
activity’. Despite the blatant overworking of the term, and consequent
attempts by philosophers to elucidate and pin down a variety of distinct
species of creativity, it is still frequently encountered and it still, more
often than not, has no clear or precise meaning. Giftedness, for example,
itself one of the most confused concepts to have emerged in educational
discourse, is often taken to incorporate creativity. Similarly, research into
effective teaching (see chapter 11), will often refer to students’ creativity
as an index of success. But in both cases, usually, no attempt is made to
analyse the concept. Instead, uncritical reliance is placed on some
standard creativity test. It seems, as was once too truly remarked of IQ
tests, that creativity is what creativity tests test.
