Creative research in schools: a methodology for teacher-researcher

Creativity, expressed in terms of a complete process, allows supporting many different types of behaviour and predispositions, instead of focusing on only one process or only one skill; with it, it is possible to observe signs of creativity in many activities, in many lessons and in many contents (Runco, 2015), rather than making the children adapt to a single attitude. Runco, in collaboration with Lego Education, has written an article on the assessment of creativity in schools (2015) – mainly common in American research and practice – containing the Creativity Rubric, a check-list drawn up specifically for teachers for the purpose of tracking educational behaviour in activities proposed ad hoc. The paper presents and discusses the Italian adaptation of the Rubric, conceived for use in daily teaching practice and experimented in a curricular or extra-curricular project aimed at supporting creativity, in particular divergent thought: the activation of creative processes in the field of education trains children, especially in the cognitive area, proposing paths aimed at stimulating divergent thought (where an individual thinks of several possible options) rather than convergent thought (where there exists only one correct/conventional answer) (Runco, 2004). In both projects, the context privileged the use of open and flexible teaching methodologies, based on exploratory research, in order to foster positively observing the behavioural indices listed in the check-list. In the contribution, how this instrument can be of interest to be able to identify the creative attitudes of the subjects involved is highlighted, also providing a return to the teacher on the positive use of the educational strategies chosen.