The place of creativity in Pakistani Primary Education System: An investigation into the factors enhancing and inhibiting primary school children's creativity

This book is about how the subject of creativity has been dealt with in education. The book starts with a review of existing literature into the relationship between creativity and education, importance of creativity at the society and individual level followed by what is actually meant by the word. This is followed by methods used currently to develop and assess creativity. With a background set the book then moves onto the methods used and findings of a large scale study conducted in Pakistan. In this the research takes a systemic look at the concept and how it is viewed in educational policy, translated into curriculum, textbooks and teaching practice. Finally to identify the impact of the system on children's creativity the results obtained from administering the creativity test, Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking are discussed. This is followed by implications and recommendations for improving the Pakistani education system which would support in developing children's creativity. The study presented in this book provides a baseline analysis of the extent to which the primary education system in Pakistan is capable of enhancing or inhibiting children's creativity. It involved 1008 primary schools who participated in a survey, 154 children who took the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and classroom observation in 16 schools as well as documentary an analysis of the education policy documents, curriculum and the official science textbook. The research presents the findings related to the definition of "creativity," and the means used to identify, assess and enhance it as well as the importance and the obstacles faced in doing so. The study finds that while policy documents mention the introduction of creativity in education, and the curriculum lays emphasis on the concept in a comprehensive manner, the designated textbooks and teaching practices do little more than encourage rote memorization and regurgitation of information. The measurement of children's creativity in this study has shown that children have the ability to produce ideas which are at times also original. But they appear to be weaker in other areas such as being able to produce abstract titles, and remaining open to going beyond the "ordinary" in their thinking. This is due to the fact that much of the teaching is only geared towards knowledge acquisition. This research has reinforced the need for a systems view of creativity, in order to provide a more holistic and less distorted view of the phenomenon. Appended are: (1) Questionnaire (Urdu and English versions); (2) Training material for the survey; (3) Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (English and Urdu versions); and (4) Classroom Creativity Observation Schedule. (Contains 5 figures and 84 tables.