Influence of school environment on adolescents' creative potential, motivation and well-being

Maud Besançon (1) , Fabien Fenouillet (2) , Rebecca Shankland (3)

1 CHArt - Université Paris Nanterre - Cognitions Humaine et ARTificielle (Nanterre)
2 CHART - Cognitions Humaine et ARTificielle
3 LIP-PC2S - Laboratoire Inter-universitaire de Psychologie : Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social

It is increasingly acknowledged that creativity has become essential in daily life. Each individual has the potential to be creative and the level of creativity actualization results from different factors that can be cognitive, conative and environmental. In particular, educational methods may impact creativity directly or indirectly through motivation and well-being. We hypothesized that the type of pedagogy influences levels of creativity, motivation and well-being. Furthermore, we hypothesized that creativity was linked to motivation and well-being. This study was conducted on 131 French adolescents attending a Waldorf school (alternative educational method) or a traditional school. Our results highlight differences in well-being and type of motivation when comparing both educational methods. Moreover, our results showed significant correlations between the different types of motivation and creativity scores.

Mots clés: Adolescents; Well-being; Creativity; Motivation; Educational methods

Domaines: Psychologie; Education

Maud Besançon, Fabien Fenouillet, Rebecca Shankland. Influence of school environment on adolescents' creative potential, motivation and well-being. Learning and Individual Differences, 2015, 43, pp.178 - 184. ⟨10.1016/j.lindif.2015.08.029⟩. ⟨hal-01392503⟩