Benefits of Mind Wandering for Learning in School Through Its Positive Effects on Creativity
- There is broad agreement among researchers to view mind wandering as an obstacle to learning because it draws attention away from learning tasks. Accordingly, empirical findings revealed negative correlations between the frequency of mind wandering during learning and various kinds of learning outcomes (e.g., text retention). However, a few studies have indicated positive effects of mind wandering on creativity in real-world learning environments. The present article reviews these studies and highlights potential benefits of mind wandering for learning mediated through creative processes. Furthermore, we propose various ways to promote useful mind wandering and, at the same time, minimize its negative impact on learning.
| Author details: | Christian GerickeORCiD, Alexander SoemerORCiDGND, Ulrich SchiefeleORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.774731 |
| ISSN: | 2504-284X |
| Title of parent work (English): | Frontiers in Education |
| Publisher: | Frontiers Media SA |
| Place of publishing: | Lausanne, Schweiz |
| Further contributing person(s): | David Daniel Preiss, Leire Aperribai, Kamila Urban |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2022/04/15 |
| Publication year: | 2022 |
| Release date: | 2023/04/18 |
| Tag: | creative problem solving; creativity; divergent thinking; incubation effect; mind wandering; school learning |
| Volume: | 7 |
| Article number: | 774731 |
| Number of pages: | 11 |
| Funding institution: | Universität Potsdam |
| Funding institution: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) |
| Funding number: | PA 2022_002 |
| Funding number: | Projektnummer 491466077 |
| Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
| DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
| Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
| External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 835 |
