The creative potential of metaphorical writing in the literacy classroom

Creativity is difficult to define and a universal definition remains elusive. However, common words associated with creativity affirm that it concerns novelty and originality, hallmarks of many great and enduring texts. Students can also be encouraged to surface original ideas through constructing their own creative texts. This article outlines such a project that focuses on metaphorical writing with students in the primary school setting. When teachers foster creativity in the literacy classroom, they provide openended lessons, encourage variety and innovation, and allow time to play with ideas. Engaging students in writing their own metaphorical texts is one way in which students can generate novel responses and multiple interpretations as outlined in this paper. The students’ texts reveal unique voices that range from the playful to the dramatic in their creative exploration of what it means to be human. The potential of such writing for engaging students is discussed alongside the value of metaphorical writing for encouraging emotional exploration, imagination and sheer enjoyment

De-westernizing creative labour studies: The informality of creative work from an ex-centric perspective

Creative labour studies focus almost exclusively on Euro-American metropolitan ‘creative hubs’ and hence the creative worker they theorize is typically white, middle-class, urban and overwhelmingly male. This article outlines the contours of a de-Westernizing project in creative labour studies while introducing a special journal issue that examines the lived dynamics of creative work outside the West. The article advocates an ‘ex-centric perspective’ on creative work. An ex-centric perspective does not merely aim at multiplying non-West empirical case studies. Rather, it aims at destabilizing, decentring and provincializing the taken-for-grantedness of some entrenched notions in creative labour studies such as informality and precarity. An ex-centric perspective, we contend, offers a potential challenge to many of the claims about creative work that have taken on the status of general truths and universal principles in spite of them being generated from limited empirical evidence gleaned from research sites situated almost exclusively in the creative hubs of Euro-America

CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT - A COMPOSITE INDEX OF POTENTIAL SIENTIFIC CREATIVITY

Both Lisbon Council in March 2000 and the one in Barcelona in 2002 represent major turning points in science and research activities at European level. At that time there was a formal recognition that science, technology and innovation, coupled with a quality education is the key to development and long-term competitiveness of European space. Moreover, the decade 2000-2010 was declared as a dedicated to the investment in these sectors, and 2009 was named Year of Creativity and Innovation at European level. In a study in the EU States and candidate countries, whose results were published in 2010, it was noted however that, despite the special attention given lately to these issues, index fund allocations for research and development budgets national level of 2007 is 0.67% on average in the EU (27 countries), compared with Japan (0.68%), South Korea (0.80%) and especially the United States (1.03 %). The purpose of this paper is to identify those factors that influence a nation\'s potential of scientific creativity and to find a way to compare different countries in terms of such potential. If until now many attempts were made to create an index of national or regional creativity, our goal is to narrow the field of creativity to scientific research and to compare the performance / potential of Romania compared to other European Union countries. Among the basic elements which have a direct impact on the potential for innovative scientific development, one can identify investment, human resources and current performance. Based on the above factors, a composite index of scientific creativity potential was developed, which takes into account the three main elements described above: human capital (human resources in science and technology and researchers), financial capital (investment in research and development) and scientific performance (Hirsch Index). Data for the first two were extracted from the Eurostat database for comparisons to be made between countries, while the third one has been estimated by specialized research teams based on data available on Essential Science Indicators (ESI) of Web of Knowledge. The main limit is the level of accuracy in data provided by each nation, and the extent to which such data were estimated, not final. The main benefit is that of identifying the position one country compared to others, but also to find the main factors that placed that country at one level or another in the overall classifications, thus allowing for the development of action plans particularly focused on those elements.research and development,human reources, creative potential, investment in research and development

Dance-making on the internet: can on-line choreographic projects foster creativity in the user-participant?

Interactive Internet artworks invite viewers to become involved as user-participants as the creative process unfolds. Through analysis of selected Internet projects, the authors discuss the potential for facilitating an interactive, creative experience for participants in the process of making dance. This study was carried out in 1998 and 1999, but the findings remain relevant, as there have been few subsequent developments in the field

Creative Challenge research report

The exploratory research tries to understand a tripartite relationship between the academic, the creative industry employer and the student and their expectations within it. The role of the student being an important one here in this mix as a embodying academic education and rigour, but also a potential future employee with appropriate enterprise skills. It further tries to understand how an entrepreneurship programme, such as the Creative Challenge, can add value in this relationship and explore its role. From feedback of those students who have participated in the Creative Challenge, we know that it had a whole range of perceived benefits, including the development of new skills, better learning strategies, increased confidence, a clearer understanding of how their creative skills can potentially be applied in the world outside university. Finally the research touches on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and creative arts education

Managing depression through needlecraft creative activities: A qualitative study

This qualitative study explored the personal meanings of needlecrafts and their role in the self-management of depression. Written and spoken narratives from 39 women were studied. Respondents described themselves as experiencing chronic or episodic depression (e.g. associated with stressful work situations, bereavement or caring for an ill relative). Some had received treatment for depression but most had not. When analysing the therapeutic effects of creative activity, most women described the experience of intense concentration in the task as providing distraction from worry and relief from depressive thoughts. Creative activity was often described as enhancing self-esteem. The adaptability of the occupation to suit time available, mood and other factors facilitated a sense of empowerment or control. Creative arts activities could also challenge depression from enabling social contacts. Most respondents had taken up their favoured creative activity in adulthood, commonly in response to stressful life events and with some self-awareness of its therapeutic potential. The diversity of subjective benefits support further research into the self-management of depression through creative activities, in both patient and non-patient groups. Managin

Creative assemblages : organisation and outputs of practice-led research.

In this note we explore the organisation of creative, practice-led projects and the variety of research outcomes they produce, in order to question as-sumptions about their potential benefits

The formation of objects in the group matrix: Reflections on creative therapy with clay

In this article describes an experimental group experience where five people worked in silence for 20 minutes around a 2 ft square slate using clay as a medium for communication as part of a creative therapy session on an inpatient psychiatric ward. The interaction culminated in a group sculpt. It is suggested that the process of the sculpting may throw some light on the formation of objects in the unconscious group matrix. The article is intended as a contribution towards the debate about the potential symbiosis between group analysis and the creative therapies (Waller) as well as the basis for further investigation into Rey's question about the formation of group matrix