CRoC is a research institution dedicated to understanding creative behavior and motivation -- and programmatic experiences that can boost creativity. The Centers were founded in 2011 by Professors James S. Catterall of University of California and
Anne Bamford of the University of the Arts in London, UK. A featured CRoC project has been the creation and testing of what we call the Next Generation Creativity Survey, an assessment tool that uses traditional self-report scales along with ratings of original student work to assess creative skills and motivations. The survey is being
piloted in eight art, science, and social problem
solving programs across the USA.
The Centers also engage in contract program research and evaluation on a limited basis, especially where creative development and motivation
are among program goals. Sample evaluation research projects
are described briefly below.
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Co-Principal Investigators
James S. Catterall, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UCLA
Graduate School of Education & Information Studies;
UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development
Email: james@croc-lab.org jamesc@gseis.ucla.edu
UCLA Faculty webpage: https://gseis.ucla.edu/about/people/catterall/
Member, American Psychological Association
Cognitive Neuroscience Society
American Educational Research Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Corporate Board: Society for Mind/Brain Science
James Catterall CV here:
| catterall.cv.april_2013.doc |
Anne Bamford, PhD MA CA, B Ed, Dip Teach
Professor, University of the Arts, London U.K.
Founder of The Engine Room, Wimbledon College of Art
Author of The Wow Factor, Global Research Compendium
on the Impact of the Arts in Education. New York: Waxmann. (2006)
Recipient of the National Teaching Award (UK)
Email: anne@annebamford.com
Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts
Senior Affiliate Scholar:
Mark A. Runco, Ph.D. Torrance Professor of Creativity Studies and Gifted Education
University of Georgia
Editor (since 1989), The Creativity Research Journal.
Professor, University of the Arts, London U.K.
Founder of The Engine Room, Wimbledon College of Art
Author of The Wow Factor, Global Research Compendium
on the Impact of the Arts in Education. New York: Waxmann. (2006)
Recipient of the National Teaching Award (UK)
Email: anne@annebamford.com
Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts
Senior Affiliate Scholar:
Mark A. Runco, Ph.D. Torrance Professor of Creativity Studies and Gifted Education
University of Georgia
Editor (since 1989), The Creativity Research Journal.
CRoC Bulletin Board
Updated April 14, 2013
We welcome the Center for Arts Education in New York and
Ms. Nellie Chaban of CAE who will will help us learn about the
Musicals in the Schools Program at P373R in Staten Island,
where autistic 3rd through 5th graders are creating a performance
scheduled for late May, 2013
What's up at CRoC?
Completed report under sponsor review:
Interim creativity assessment report on four elementary
and secondary after school programs (theatre, graphic design,
toy design, and electrical circuit design).
Programs in mid-data collection:
Musicals in the Schools, New York and Nashville;
ArtScience Prize program, Boston
Musical theatre in a Staten Island elementary school serving autistic children,
An elementary youth playground leadership program,
P.S. ARTS teaching artist programs in Los Angeles and the
Central Valley west of Fresno,
A creative 9th grade science program in northern California,
Two GetLit Words Ignite classical poetry programs in Los Angeles, and
Six Los Angeles area elementary schools participating in our Arts Education
Model Program Development and Dissemination project with Inner City Arts and funded by the United States Education Department.
Many of these programs are helping to Pilot CRoC's
Next Generation Creativity Survey (NGCS), pre- and post- forms.
In some of these programs, we are using both the NGCS and additional data from systematic observations and other sources to produce comprehensive
program assessments.
Selected CRoC Research and Evaluation Contracts
P.S. ARTS Los Angeles and Central Valley CA
Two-year longitudinal study of artist residencies in
music, visual arts, and theatre. Herb Alpert Foundation;
The Keck Foundation.
The Wooden Floor (nee St. Joseph's Ballet) Santa Ana CA
Design and execution of 10-year longitudinal study.
After-school dance program and social
and academic supports.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
Annual Evaluations of Generation Earth
Service Learning Environmental Programs.
Get Lit - Words Ignite
Evaluation of teen classical and original poetry programs.
Official judge, Los Angeles Teen Classic Poetry Slam.
LA's Best After School Arts Programs
Music, Dance, Visual Art, and Theatre Programs.
Inner-City Arts -- Arts Education Model Development
and Dissemination Programs. United States
Education Department.
Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education
Six Year Longitudinal Study.
Inner-City Arts Creativity Laboratory
Exploration and follow-up studies.
Little Rock AR Public Schools/United States District Court:
An Evaluation of Extended-Year Schooling in the Little Rock Public Schools (pursuant to school desegregation order under Joshua v. LRSD, 2004). Little Rock, AR: Little Rock School District, 2005).
An evaluation of the A+ Arts Program in the Little Rock Public Schools (pursuant to school desegregation order under Joshua v. LRSD, 2004). Little Rock, AR: Little Rock School District, 2006).
Our supporters include:
The United States Education Department,
P.S. Arts/Herb Alpert Foundation, the Keck Foundation, The Wooden Floor,
Santa Ana CA, the Panta Rhea Foundation, Sausalito CA,the VSA
Organization, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
and the Walt Disney Company.
Is a state creativity index in your future?
(10 states are considering this.)
A new CRoC publication related to
potential Creativity Index systems
will be available on this site soon:
Tomorrow's Quality Assurance in Education: Assessing
Creative Thinking Capacity and Creative Motivation in the Schools.
Erlangen, Germany: INRAEE International
Yearbook on Arts Education, May 2013.
Anne Bamford and James S. Catterall
The Status of System Creativity:
Going Beyond the Course Count
Our Next Generation Creativity Survey, an instrument for gauging creative performance and motivation, can contribute to a Creativity Index and may be piloted for this in 2013. We refer here to the Status Form of the survey which is included in the NGCS Handbook.
By assessing individual creative thinking and motivation, the NGCS measure goes beyond current models that rely only on counting curricular and afterschool offerings. Current creativity index designs provide a limited indication of creativity in the curriculum and are not useful for assessing creativity learning among students.
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Selected Video Presentations
Arts and the Mind
This PBS-2 hour documentary has premiered and was shown nationwide. Features Inner-City Arts Creativity Lab; The Get Lit teen poetry program, and other programs.
http://www.pbs.org/programs/arts-mind/
This show can be streamed at the above website. The program features host,
Lisa Kudrow, James Catterall, Antonio Damasio, Charles Limb, Jay Geidd,
Kristen Paglia at P.S. Arts, Los Angeles, Ellen Winner at Harvard Project Zero,
Diane Luby Lane at Get Lit - Words Ignite, Los Angeles,
Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles, and others.
Video: March 30 Presentation by James Catterall to the National Arts Council
"The Arts and Achievement in At-risk Students: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies" by James S. Catterall with Prof. Susan Dumais (LSU) and Prof. Gillian Hampden-Thompson (University of York, UK).
Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
See an archive of the NEA webcast here; Presentation begins at count: 1:03:30
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/national-council-on-the-arts-3-30-2012
Video interview with CRoC's Director:
Kentucky Educational TV: "One to One" with James Catterall, April 2011
Paste the following link into your browser: about 26 minutes
http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=KONON+000616&altdir=&template=
Program report available for reading here:
Exploration of the Inner-City Arts Creativity Lab.
Phase 1 Report
Funding by the Walt Disney Company.
Scroll to read entire report below:
What we are reading:
The Encylopedia of Creativity, Second Edition
2-Volume Set (M. A. Runco and S. R. Pritzker, Editors), 2012
The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity (J.C. Kaufman and
R.J. Sternberg, Editors) (2010)
ArtsEdSearch (www.aep.org)
Includes forty "Creativity" related research articles archived
in artsedsearch -- the Arts Education Partnership's new
searchable research database. This AEP project was
headed by Dr. James Catterall and Dr. Michael Sikes
About our team
Key colleagues on CRoC projects are: James S. Catterall, Professor Emeritus UCLA and CRoC Director, Mark A. Runco, Torrance Professor of Creative Studies, University of Georgia, Prof. Anne Bamford, University of the Arts, London, Ms. Kim Zanti, CRoC Assistant Director, Rebecca Epps Catterall, M.A.T, Research Associate, Nellie Chaban, MA, Research Associate, and Research Assistants Ms. Jessica Lowry, Daniel Bamford, Ms. Hannah Beth Catterall, Ms. Sarah Jean Johnson, Ms. Robyn Feeley, Ms. McKenna Kerrigan, and Ms. Maya Didrikson.
Our informal advisors.
Many colleagues have been very helpful as we conceived and nurtured this project. Among these are: Steven Lavine, President, California Institute for the Arts; Prof. Mark Runco, University of Georgia, Malissa Ferruzi Shriver, President, California Arts Council, Eric Booth, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, Columbia College of Chicago, Robin Lithgow, Senior Administrator, Arts Education Branch, Los Angeles Unified School District, Linda Johannesen, Los Angeles, and Ms. Lisa Mitchell, Disney Productions NY.
Recommended publications, manuscripts:
New paper seeking comments. The manuscript downloadable below is available prior to publication for reader comments. A neuroscience of art and human empathy: Aligning behavioral and brain-imaging evidence. J.S. Catterall, August 2011. Please send comments through our contact portal below or by e-mail to the author (jamesc@gseis.ucla.edu). Files containing the paper and its Figure 5 are here: |
See the 2009 book by James S. Catterall:
Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art: A 12-Year National Study of Education in Visual and Performing Arts. Effects on the Achievements and Values of Young Adults. Los Angeles, CA: I-Group Books. Book Cover rendered in pastels by Ms. Robyn Feeley, BungalowArt.Com Available at Amazon.com -- 40% discount. 5000 copies in print. NEW STUDY: Available at NEA's website: (www.Arts.Gov) "The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Databases" Authors: Prof. James S. Catterall, CRoC, Susan A. Dumais, Associate Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University, and Prof. Gillian Hampden-Thompsen, Director of Research, Department of Education, University of York, U.K. |
| neuroscience-art-empathy.1.2.pdf |
| art-empathy-figure.5.9.2.pdf |
Another downloadable article / research study of links between creativity and self-efficacy. Study hosted in visual arts programs for 4th graders in Los Angeles (Inner-City Arts) and St. Louis, MO (Center of Creative Arts).
Cambridge J. of Education. Learning in the Visual Arts and the Worldviews of Young Children. (James Catterall with Prof. Kylie A. Peppler, Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University).
Cambridge J. of Education. Learning in the Visual Arts and the Worldviews of Young Children. (James Catterall with Prof. Kylie A. Peppler, Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University).
| cje_published.pdf |
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