Developing Creative (Dialectical) Thinking in Children and Adults

The ChildLab team has been researching creative thinking and the potential for its development from preschool age for several decades.

The key concept to understand the creativity is dialectical thinking (Nikolai Veraksa).

Dialectical thinking is the ability to see the world in its development: to understand that things, phenomena, and people do not exist once and for all, but are constantly changing, transitioning from one state to another, and combining opposites. Unlike formal logical thinking, which seeks to organize and separate (“either this way or that way”), dialectical thinking seeks the interconnectedness of opposites (“how is both possible at the same time?”), recognizing that one can transform into the other.

Dialectical thinking helps us not fear contradictions but rather use them as a source of movement: to see that difficulties and opportunities are two sides of the same process, that growth can be born in conflict, and an idea in limitation. It is precisely this ability that enables us to create something new in situations where familiar patterns cease to work. Not only in science or art, but also in any professional activity, everyday life, family, and interactions with friends and colleagues.

It’s never too late to develop dialectical thinking, and you can begin as early as early childhood.

We have developed a curriculum for developing dialectical thinking in early childhood: “Transformations”.

The ChildLab team provides training for professionals on supporting the development of dialectical thinking in different ages. We are always happy to facilitate research and implement practices dedicated to the development of dialectical thinking in children and adults.

1. The Routledge International Handbook of Dialectical Thinking. Edited By Nick Shannon, Michael F. Mascolo, Anastasia Belolutskaya (2024). Routledge. – 514 р.
2. Olga Shiyan, Igor Shiyan (2025) The Possibilities for Developing Creative (Dialectical) Thinking in a Preschool Child: Educational Project “Transformations”. In:  Early Childhood Pedagogical Practices Across the World. Edited By Wendy Boyd, Susanne Garvis. Springer. – pp. 217-232.