[Book review] Thinking skills and creativity in second language education : case studies from international perspectives

Abstract

As part of my research into creativity education I have interviewed teachers, writers and teacher educators in different countries, as well as observed some of these individuals working with students of varying ages in creativity workshops and English lessons. One of the things that struck me most was that despite being vaunted as an essential competency by the rhetoric of policymakers, creativity was still not adequately catered for by the educational systems that some of these professionals and students operated in. Many of my interviewees complained about curricula that did not foreground the significance of creativity, critical thinking, and related competencies. Some of them mentioned how pre-service teachers were trained to foster students’ creativity but then this training got sidelined once the pressures of an assessment-driven culture bore down on them as soon as they joined the profession. Some students expressed their frustration that their creative endeavours were not encouraged by the educational setup they formed part of, while others seemed to have inherited the belief from some of their teachers that creativity is something that is intrinsic to special individuals and almost absent from the rest of the population. This misconception forms part of the myth that creativity cannot really be cultivated in people.