Creativity in technology education: providing children with glimpses of their inventive potential

This article examines the claims of the school subject technology education (called Design and Technology in some countries) as a vehicle for inculcating creativity in the curriculum, by introducing children to the world of problem solving and invention. Core foundational underpinnings of the subject are explored, including its hands-on nature, its open-endedness, and its encouragement of generative cognitive processes. Issues relating to the teaching of problem solving are discussed. Examples of curricular approaches to the subject are set forth and their merits as bases for encouraging creative thinking are examined. Research on creativity in the subject is reflected upon briefly. The paper concludes by offering problem solving; and analogical, metaphorical, combination, and divergent thinking, as possible bases for pedagogy in technology education, and calls attention to the subject as a possible fruitful area of research based on creativity in the school curriculum.