Making creative thinking visible: learner and teacher experiences of boundary objects as epistemic tools in adolescent classrooms
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Vohra, Shafina
Childs, Peter
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Creative thinking has become more important in education globally due to industry demand and a fast-paced world. In this study, boundary objects that can be tangible and digital objects are investigated to understand their role in facilitating creative thinking across five subject areas for teenagers aged 13–18 and their teachers, in their natural learning environment. A multiple case study method is used to investigate learners’ and their teachers’ experience in using boundary objects, to enable communication and understanding between individuals or groups in learning. Participants from an inner London secondary school comprised case groups: 8 Teachers and 16 Learners (8 from the lower school, aged 13–15 years, and 8 from the upper school, aged 16–18 years). Participants were invited through email and a short presentation. Consented participants were organised into male and female across teachers and students and were approached in lessons where boundary objects were being used. Data was collected through interviews and comprised photos of tool use, analysed through Reflexive Thematic Analysis for data analysis. The resulting five themes for teacher and student themes showed that boundary objects were perceived to facilitate creative thinking across all case groups within the studied context, with important insights such as iterative design, which develops real-world skills; metacognition, which is critical in learning and enables students to actively question their own thinking; memory, which is very important in enabling students to remember what they learned and how; and individual liberty, suggesting that learning need not be linear nor prescribed but that there must be freedom to learn in ways that are enjoyable and challenging too, amongst others. This study’s interpretive results indicate that when participants experience the use of boundary objects in a natural classroom or learning setting, the learning process is perceived to bring benefits that allow the process of creative thinking to occur.
Date Issued
2025-12-22
Date Acceptance
2025-12-11
Citation
Education Sciences, 2025, 16 (1)
ISSN
2227-7102
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Education Sciences
Volume
16
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
13
Date Publish Online
2025-12-22