Creativity, Intelligence, and Collaboration in 21st Century Education: An Interdisciplinary Challenge

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change, health crises, changing degrees of disruptive social, political and cultural transformations, etc., are major challenges of the 21st century characterised by their multifactorial and interdependent dimensions, which are natural, biological, social and psychological. These urgent issues can be understood as critical problems whose complexity cannot be grasped by a single discipline, professional or social actor. The analysis, understanding and resolution of these complex problems requires a multiplicity of perspectives that must dialogue, articulate and integrate in an interdisciplinary, intelligent and creative dynamic. Education, at all levels (from kindergarten to university), plays a crucial role in our societies’ ability to meet this challenge of complexity. 

Schools and universities are still generally organised into relatively compartmentalised disciplines, which certainly contribute to providing learners with basic knowledge (reading, writing and counting) and specialised knowledge (in Science, Languages, History, Geography, etc.); however, they cannot solely train the researchers and citizens of today and tomorrow who are increasingly confronted with complex scientific and social issues. The development of inter- and transdisciplinary, creative, transversal, collaborative and psychosocial skills are increasingly on the agenda of study programs, although not without difficulty and resistance. Purely academic intelligence is augmented by new skills (so-called 21st century skills): especially particular learning-related skills (learning and soft skills) such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, living together with tolerance empathy, sociability (life skills), digital technologies and information (literacy skills). These skills are cognitive (awareness and self-control, creative problem solving, decision-making), emotional (regulating emotions, managing stress, etc.) and social (communication, group relations, etc.). 

This new aspect in the educational field, a rebalancing between academic and psychosocial skills, raises a number of questions: How can the education system consider and integrate these transdisciplinary skills into its institutional functioning and training programs?; Do education systems nip the desire to develop new creative and interdisciplinary skills in the bud, or are they, in contrast, capable of integrating them and encouraging their development?; Why and how should the classic definition of intelligence and its measurement (the famous IQ test) be rethought, redefined and expanded in order to capture new skills?; How can these be promoted and assessed in a more open, inclusive and sustainable education system?; In which academic, non-academic, public or private contexts, in which types of more or less traditional or alternative schools (Montessori, Steiner, Democratic School, Homeschooling, etc.) would disciplinary skills be likely to combine harmoniously with the development of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, tolerance, empathy, etc.?

This Special Issue aims to address all these issues and questions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributions anchored in this open list of different disciplines and multidisciplinary fields are welcome, including Psychology, Sociology, Educational Sciences, Creativity Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Science of Team Science, Neurosciences, Children’s Rights, etc. 

We are interested in papers that deepen or combine the following objectives: 

1. Based on literature reviews, epistemological reflections and research findings, scientifically inform debates about the complexity of pressing and critical issues and the need for developing new skills in education; 
2. Rethink and redefine the notion of intelligence in a more integrative perspective and which is open to developing creativity, collaboration and psychosocial skills; 
3. To question the education systems at all levels of education in their ability to develop academic skills and so-called 21st century skills harmoniously. Consider the potentialities but also the limits/obstacles to the integration, evaluation and enhancement of these skills; 
4. Rely on various fields of research and experiences in the school and/or university context, public or private, academic or non-academic, more or less traditional or alternative.

Please note that the “Planned Papers” Section on the webpage does not imply that these papers will eventually be accepted; all manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s normal and rigorous peer review process.

Prof. Dr. Frédéric Darbellay
Prof. Dr. Zoe Moody
Prof. Dr. Todd Lubart
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Intelligence is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• creativity
• intelligence
• education
• inter- and transdisciplinarity
• 21st century skills
• collaboration