This study investigates the promotion of learner creativity in the United Kingdom's post-compulsory art and design education sector. The impetus for the research came in part from Teresa Amabile's suggestion that a bridge was needed between conceptual and operational definitions of creativity (Amabile, 1996). Traditionally, art and design educators gain their understanding of teaching creativity from reflective experience rather than empirical research. Conversely, the majority of research studies into learner creativity are laboratory-based, producing results which are reliable and valid in their own terms but which are seldom tested within the complex richness of a real-world learning environment. The intention, therefore, was to cross-reference psychological and sociological theories of learner creativity against the evidence from pedagogic practice, and vice versa. The findings suggest that there is substantial agreement between theoreticians and practitioners regarding the factors that promote, or inhibit, learner creativity. These findings are further supported by evidence from learners and from material outcomes.

Stephanie Linus’s ‘Dry’: A case of humanities in medical education or a foray into medical humanities?