Editing Polymath (section)

=== Kaufman, Beghetto and colleagues ===
[[James C. Kaufman]], from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, and Ronald A. Beghetto, from the same university, investigated the possibility that everyone could have the potential for polymathy as well as the issue of the domain-generality or domain-specificity of creativity.<ref name=":5">Kaufman, J. C., Beghetto, R. A., Baer, J., & Ivcevic, Z. (2010). Creativity polymathy: What Benjamin Franklin can teach your kindergartener. ''Learning and Individual Differences'', ''20''(4), 380–387.</ref><ref>Kaufman, J. C., Beghetto, R. A., & Baer, J. (2010). Finding young Paul Robeson: Exploring the question of creative polymathy. ''Innovations in educational psychology'', 141–162.</ref>

Based on their earlier four-c model of creativity, Beghetto and Kaufman<ref>Kaufman, J. C., & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Beyond big and little: The four c model of creativity. ''Review of general psychology'', ''13''(1), 1.</ref><ref name=":6">Beghetto, R. A., & Kaufman, J. C. (2009). Do we all have multicreative potential?. ''ZDM'', ''41''(1–2), 39–44.</ref> proposed a typology of polymathy, ranging from the ubiquitous mini-c polymathy to the eminent but rare Big-C polymathy, as well as a model with some requirements for a person (polymath or not) to be able to reach the highest levels of creative accomplishment. They account for three general requirements—intelligence, motivation to be creative, and an environment that allows creative expression—that are needed for any attempt at creativity to succeed. Then, depending on the domain of choice, more specific abilities will be required. The more that one's abilities and interests match the requirements of a domain, the better. While some will develop their specific skills and motivations for specific domains, polymathic people will display intrinsic motivation (and the ability) to pursue a variety of subject matters across different domains.<ref name=":6" />

Regarding the interplay of polymathy and education, they suggest that rather than asking whether every student has multicreative potential, educators might more actively nurture the multicreative potential of their students. As an example, the authors cite that teachers should encourage students to make connections across disciplines, use different forms of media to express their reasoning/understanding (e.g., drawings, movies, and other forms of visual media).<ref name=":5" />