Are intelligence and creativity truly unrelated?
Recent neuroscience research challenges the long-held belief that intelligence and creativity are separate abilities. Discover the deep connections between these cognitive strengths, and learn how acknowledging their convergence can enhance teaching and learning.
Analysing several hundred pieces of neuroscience literature recently, I discovered “Intelligence and Creativity Are Pretty Similar After All (Silvia, 2015), which explores the historical perspective on the connection between intelligence and creativity … It has been cited 229 times.
Traditionally, intelligence and creativity have been considered as unrelated abilities, separate strengths that students possess. This belief was supported by substantial evidence from landmark studies and meta-analyses – politicians and parents still believe it to be true!
As someone who has been very frustrated by the division between academic and vocational subjects in the English education curriculum, this is music to my ears.
I first blogged to explain why creativity was knowledge-rich and not a linear or abstract process in 2014. I then also had an online conversation with educationalist and historian Tim Leunig, where we debated the reducing number of entries in the Arts.
