Introduction

Hi! I’m Jimmy Wilson. I’m a former high school English and creative writing teacher and I’m a current doctoral student at the University of Connecticut. I’m interested in education, creativity, and neurodiversity. Listening to Dr. Ruth Richards this week was invigorating. I love how much she emphasizes the acts of creativity that are happening all around us day after day. In fact, you could say I’m in awe of it!

I recently had the opportunity to go on a 6-day trek through the Andes on the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu. Looking at the soaring snowcapped peaks while walking on steps intact for 500 years, made me feel incredibly small in the vastness of time and space. Once I caught my breath, I felt new ideas and motivation to write coursing through me. In the evening, I spent much of my time on my notes application coming up with new ideas on research and teaching and capturing the experience of the hummingbirds flitting from orchid to orchid and stunning architecture of the Inka people.

Everyday Creativity

In the podcast Dr. Richards mentions that even though we all have creativity doesn’t mean that we all “realize [we] have it.” Creativity is not just a special work done by “eminent people and distributed to a culture.” Everyday creativity is expansive and can include- to use Dr. Richard’s examples- people innovating to help fight the Nazis in occupied Denmark, a mechanic creating a new tool or simply telling a joke to a friend. An experience-sampling study from Dr. Paul Silvia and colleagues found that around 22% of respondents said they did at least one act of everyday creativity within a 12-hr window (Silvia et al., 2014). But how can we foster everyday creativity both personally and in the classroom?

Awe

A 2021 paper by Zhang and colleagues shows associations between awe (a feeling of wonder and vastness) and everyday creativity, creative personality and everyday creativity (Zhang et al. 2021). The paper includes three studies and over 1800 participants from the U.S., Iran, and Malaysia that shows a connection between awe and everyday creativity.

The third study focusing on everyday creativity showed that on days when people felt more awe than usual, they engaged in more creative activities, like trying new recipes or writing creatively.

Interestingly, the benefits of awe were independent of other emotions, like amusement, and weren’t just due to general personality traits like openness. In fact, the studies found that curiosity sparked by awe played a key role in driving everyday creativity.

This brings up some fascinating research questions for emerging scholars and researchers to explore in a classroom context.

Awe and Everyday Creativity in Education

In regard to educational research, there are a number of compelling research questions this article and podcast inspire:

• • How does the experience of awe influence students’ creative problem-solving abilities in classrooms?
  • What role does daily awe play in promoting creativity in student projects and assignments?
  • What are the effects of awe-inducing educational interventions on students’ engagement and performance in academic subjects?
  • Can daily classroom practices that foster awe, such as storytelling or exposure to nature, lead to sustained increases in students’ everyday creative behaviors?

I have personally enjoyed building my everyday creativity with the app Messier which was featured in this spring episode of fueling creativity in education.

What ways have you been able to develop your everyday creativity?

Listen to the Full Podcast here