The Defragmentation of Creativity: Future Directions with an Emphasis on Educational Applications

In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion in the creativity literature of topics, perspectives and methodologies; yet investigators in one subfield often seem entirely unaware of advances in another. The field of creativity research has become increasingly fragmented, but how should defragmentation proceed, if at all? Should researchers attempt to construct a unified systems theory of creativity ? The argument is made that a defragmentation of the creativity field should not entail wholesale reduction to models that fail to help us understand reality and generate new hypotheses. Some models may be hazardous because they distort reality either by oversimplification or, in an opposite vein, by complicating our understanding through attempts to include all aspects and instances of the process of creativity across all cultures into one unified model or by losing sight of the applied goals of our research. Specific models of creativity and specific issues related to enhancing creativity in our schools are presented as part of this discussion.