ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the research findings from the three main theoretical approaches to studying creativity in children taken by researchers—the cognitive psychology, social psychology, and sociocultural approaches. The cognitive-psychology approach relies on tests and surveys of individual capacities. While a number of cognitive theories have been developed related to creative processes, four strands of research are particularly relevant to thinking about creativity and school-age children: divergent thinking, problem finding, insight and prior knowledge, and everyday creativity. The nature of sociocultural research focuses on the emergence of local practices and the quality of social interactions among members of the collaborative group. The chapter focuses on collaborative dialogic inquiry and considers the notion of "activity systems". A key element in the dialogic theory of language and communication is voice. The theory of distributed intelligence extends the idea of intertextuality and voice to include material culture.
