James S Catterall

The Creativity Playbook James S Catterall

This book does for the idea of creativity what it's needed for a generation - namely it brings clarity to the concept, and presents easy to read, concise discussions of the myriad issues and questions surrounding creativity in today's world. What is it? Why don't we all agree? Can we measure creativity? How? What does it mean to teach for creativity? Or to teach creatively? - all in 29 brief chapters and 162 pages - ringing like frequently asked questions about creativity. Bonus chapters present a detailed summary of a study using the author's Next Generation Creativity Survey to evaluate an ArtScience social problem solving program; the author's essay on the inclusion of design education in secondary school STEM and STEAM programs; an essay written with renowned architect Frank Gehry on the design issues of turnaround schools programs; and a chapter on the neuroscience of art and empathy where behavioral and neuro-imaging evidence are compared. If you liked the author's 2009 book Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art (5000 copies and still selling), you will like this book. You may like it even better because it is not as loaded with detailed quantitative tables. And because it contains an illustration for each chapter by artist Robyn Feeley who designed the cover for Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art. And it contains good stories from Catterall's 35-year career as an amateur cellist.