Creative Flourish; The Effects of the Artifacts of Creativity Developmental Activity on Personal Wellbeing for Adult Learners
Date
2023-10-03
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Abstract
During the challenging isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals turned to a multitude of creative activities. Educators noted that engaging in creativity positively affected post-secondary learners’ wellbeing and resiliency during lockdowns and our triaged turn to online learning. Drawing on my experience as an artist and art educator while learning from and thinking through Indigenous principles, this arts-based research sought to understand how creativity developmental activity might affect wellbeing and contribute to the aims of reconciliation. This art-making research program examined the immediate and diachronic influences of artifacts of creative activity on wellbeing of adult learners at any level of creative capacity. These knowledge-based insights drew from the experiences of the participants and myself in the creative process and revealed creativity as a meaningful innate human characteristic with profound growth potential. In sum, educators could use creativity and the artifacts of the activity as an educational intervention to bolster wellbeing and sustain all learners through difficult times and the challenging topics of transformative learning in adult education.
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creativity, wellbeing, flourish, transformative, adult education, arts-based, reconciliation, post-secondary
Citation
Dickerson, T. (2023). Creative flourish; the effects of the artifacts of creativity developmental activity on personal wellbeing for adult learners (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.