Creative thinking and problem solving are essential to learning theory, specific to many domains and thus remain central to instructional leadership. But, what are the possible impactful benefits of creativity not as autotelic means but as a cognitive asset for thinking adaptively and feeling motivated to help others for a positive school community? Building on a recent study by Paek & Katz-Buonincontro showing that students’ creative problem solving significantly explained prosocial motivation after controlling for uncertainty tolerance, perspective taking, and anticipated repaying for prosocial behavior, this talk extends this work by connecting heretofore seemingly disconnected research in the area of creativity and prosocial motivation to the area of positive school communities.

The University of Georgia
The Mary Frances Early College of Education
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