The effects of meta-creative pedagogy on elementary school students’ creative thinking

Fostering creative thinking and promoting metacognitive processes are two major goals of 21st -century education. Recent research has pinpointed the essential role of meta-creativity in the process of creative thinking. Nevertheless, the concept of meta-creativity has not been widely adopted. The purpose of the present study is, therefore, threefold: (a) to design an innovative meta-creative pedagogy for fostering students’ creative thinking; (b) to examine the immediate and transfer effects of this pedagogy on three components of creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, and originality; and (c) to explore students’ perceptions of the extent to which they implement meta-creative processes during creative problem-solving procedures. Four sixth-grade classes (N = 100) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Two entire classes (N = 49) that were exposed to the meta-creative pedagogy served as the experimental group, while the other two classes were the control group (N = 51). Results indicated that on the immediate assessment of creative thinking, the experimental group scored significantly higher than their counterparts in the control group on fluency and originality, but not on flexibility. Regarding the transfer task, the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group on all three creativity components: fluency, flexibility, and originality. Furthermore, students in the experimental group perceived their implementation of meta-creative processes to a greater extent than their counterparts in the control group. These findings highlight the benefits of using a meta-creative pedagogy to foster students’ creative thinking. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.