Do you have a passion for research in primary education? Are you interested in promoting children’s creativity? And do you want to investigate how primary school teachers can be supported in improving children’s creativity? Then join the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) as a PhD candidate!
As a PhD candidate, you will develop and conduct several studies. You will write scientific papers, resulting in the completion of a PhD thesis at the end of your employment contract. You will participate in supervision meetings as well as staff meetings of the Learning, Education and Development department and other relevant research meetings. As a participant of the BSI Graduate School PhD programme, you will be expected to complete several courses related to basic professional skills such as presentation skills, scientific integrity, and data management. As part of your PhD position, you will have a teaching load of 10% and the opportunity to make a start with or work on your teaching portfolio for a university teaching qualification. We will also encourage you to attend and present your work at relevant workshops and conferences.
Creativity revolves around generating ideas or products that are both original and useful. Teachers can nurture this capability by providing challenging problem-solving tasks within specific domains. During these assignments, children should assess whether their solutions are indeed creative. This self-assessment is important because it drives the decision to continue or abandon the search for alternative solutions.
Research on self-assessment shows that most children either overestimate or underestimate how creative their solutions to a problem actually are. Teachers have an important role here as they can help children improve their self-assessment accuracy. The goal of this project, therefore, is to investigate how teachers can effectively and adaptively support children in accurately assessing their creativity.
A more elaborate description of this project can be requested by email from Mare van Hooijdonk (
mare.vanhooijdonk@ru.nl) or Noortje Janssen (
noortje.janssen@ru.nl).