A School of Education Seminar hosted by the Learning Sciences Research Institute

Presented by Professor Mark d’Inverno, Professor of Computer Science and Pro-Warden (International) at Goldsmiths, University of London (with Arthur Still, Durham University and Matthew Yee-King, Goldsmiths)

There is a constant buzz around the word creativity. Reference to it has spread prolifically since the 1950s within and beyond academia, associated with novelty, value, imagination and innovation. What could be wrong with that? Plenty, we argue.

Indeed it has become so ubiquitous across education, sport, marketing, politics and everyday use that it has become to mean very little more than which we approve of. We challenge the extensive and expansive use of this term – both in and out of academic - and propose an alternative terminology that regains a meaning and currency for the kind of activity we want to teach in schools and universities. We use the term “creative activity” in opposition to “creativity” and through the lens of recent research and teaching innovation at Goldsmiths, look to answer the following key questions:

1. What is human creative activity?
2. What pedagogy should we use for teaching creative activity?
3. How can we frame AI research to inspire human creative activity rather than replace it?

We look to respond to these by drawing on backgrounds in music, education and AI research.

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