Creative Learning - A Configurative Review of Features and Practices

Abstract

The idea that learning and creativity are interrelated has experienced a renaissance in the last 20 years. Fashionable and suggestive, the concept of "creative learning" has found traction in educational policy and in progressive classrooms across the globe. This configurative review explores how the concept of creative learning has been understood and put into practice across 112 education studies since 2010. Specifically, the review addresses two questions: First, what are the constitutive features and actions that characterize creative learning? Second, what are the overarching themes that can be identified in the literature? The study reports on the findings of an extensive thematic analysis, which indicated four general approaches to creative learning: namely (1) creative agency over learning, (2) affective and embodied pathways, (3) relational ecologies, and (4) learning by doing and making. The review concludes with a discussion of each of these themes, deriving from them a set of practical recommendations and a revised definition of creative learning.