Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Bereczki, E. O., & Takacs, Z. K., Richey, J. E., Nguyen, H. A., Mogessie, M., & McLaren, B. M. (2024). Mindfulness in a Digital Math Learning Game: Insights from Two Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12971 (Q1, IF 2023: 5)

Mindfulness practices enhance executive function skills and academic achievement, spurring interest in integrating mindfulness interventions into education. Embedding mindfulness practice into a digital math game may provide a low-cost, scalable way to induce mindfulness and boost game-based learning, yet this approach remains unexplored. Objectives: We investigated the learning benefits of integrating mindfulness exercises in a digital math learning game and examined how students' trait mindfulness might moderate the outcomes. Methods: Two classroom studies were conducted with 404 5th and 6th grade students from six public schools in the U.S. (nStudy 1= 227, nStudy 2 = 177). The two randomized controlled experiments assigned students to one of three conditions: passive control (playing the digital learning game Decimal Point), story-enriched active control, or mindfulness-enriched condition. Trait mindfulness, learning gains, and in-game problem-solving (including problem-solving duration, error count, and correctness after reminder) were assessed. Study 2 included a manipulation check to better understand the effects of the mindfulness intervention. Results: Findings showed no significant differences in learning gains, problem-solving duration or error count among the conditions. Students’ trait mindfulness did not moderate these outcomes. Mindfulness reminders in the mindfulness-enriched game led to more correct answers after errors than jokes in the story-enriched game. Study 2 revealed that we failed to induce higher state mindfulness through the mindfulness inductions. Conclusions: Mindfulness prompts could be especially beneficial for students experiencing frustration during gameplay, warranting more exploration for digital game-based instruction. We highlight barriers and future directions for fostering mindfulness through computer-based instruction in classrooms.

Bereczki, E. O., & Nagy, P. (2023). Who Benefits from Creative Mindsets?: The Effects of Domain‐Specific Knowledge on the Relationships Between Creative Mindsets and Creative Performance in the Context of ESL/EAL Writing. The Journal of Creative Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100791 (Q1, IF 2022: 3.9)

In the past decade, creativity researchers have attempted to explore how creative fixed and growth mindsets shape creative outcomes and effort. Previous studies found a strong association between creative mindsets and self-perceptions. However, research on the relationship between creative mindsets and performance led to mixed results. In an attempt to explain these confusing findings, many advocated the idea that creative mindsets may influence how learners utilize their domain knowledge and skills in creative performance. To empirically test this assumption, we investigated the influence of domain knowledge and skills on the relationship between creative mindsets and performance among college students (n = 125) in the context of ESL/EAL writing. Our results show that a fixed creative mindset, but not growth, together with ESL/EAL writing proficiency contribute to ESL/EAL creative writing performance. We also found that domain-specific knowledge and skills play a role in how creative mindsets translate to creative performance: while endorsing a fixed mindset was detrimental for students at all ESL/EAL writing proficiency levels, a growth mindset was beneficial at high proficiency levels only. These findings contradict the assumption that cultivating a growth creative mindset will lead to positive creative outcomes for all. Practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Bereczki, E. O., & Kárpáti, A. (2021). Technology-enhanced creativity: A multiple case study of digital technology-integration expert teachers’ beliefs and practices. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 39, 100791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100791 (Q1, IF 2020: 2.068)

This multiple case study explored educational technology-integration expert teachers’ beliefs about and experiences with nurturing creativity in technology-enhanced learning environments. Data was collected through qualitative methods (interviews, classroom observations, document analysis) from 12 purposefully sampled technology-integration expert secondary school teachers of six curricular areas, and their students. Analysis revealed that expert teachers’ epistemic beliefs about creativity influenced their technology-based creativity fostering practices, with beliefs about assessment constituting a considerable barrier. Participants valued and implemented six overarching technology-based creativity-fostering approaches across the curriculum: igniting students’ creativity; supporting idea development; creating digital products; scaffolding students’ creative processes; augmenting creative collaboration among students; and facilitating the evaluation of creative student outcomes. Within these approaches the study identified several both subject-specific and -general technology-based creativity-fostering strategies of practical relevance providing pointers for future research conducted in secondary school settings. The investigation of practice highlighted that even expert teachers have difficulties with implementing technology-based creativity-fostering instruction within regular curricular timeframes and accomplishing high levels of technology integration. Implication for research, policy, teacher education, and practice are discussed.

Bereczki, E. O. (2019). A scoping review of technology-enhanced creativity in education [A kreativitás fejlesztése digitális eszközökkel támogatott tanulási környezetben], Iskolakultúra, 29 (4-5), 50–70. https://doi.org/10.14232/ISKKULT.2019.4-5.50

A range of theoretical work has explored the potential of digital technologies to encourage creativity in education. Teachers themselves believe that such tools can be useful in promoting students’ creative capacities across the curriculum. At the same time, research has demonstrated that technology alone will not improve learning. Fostering creativity through technology can only be effective if there is an understanding of what creativity is, how it can be nurtured and how digital tools may support this process. The present paper offers a state of the art overview of the relationships among creativity, learning, and technology to aid the implementation of technology-enhanced creativity in the classroom

Bereczki, E. O., & Kárpáti, A. (2018). Teachers’ beliefs about creativity and its nurture: a systematic review of recent research literature, Educational Research Review, 28, 25-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.10.003 (D1/Q1, IF 2018: 5.204)

The successful implementation of creativity in education is largely dependent on teachers' own beliefs about creativity, which have been investigated extensively in the past 25 years. With the growing emphasis of creativity in education, teachers today might not hold the same beliefs highlighted by earlier research. The current systematic literature review sought to identify, describe, appraise and synthesize the most rigorously available recent empirical evidence base on in-service K-12 teachers' beliefs about creativity. 53 studies published between 2010 and 2015 were included in the review. Findings suggest that teachers hold several beliefs that enable and numerous that hinder creativity development in schools. The review also highlighted recurrent incongruence between teachers' positive or adequate beliefs and their enacted classroom practices. Finally, several contextual, student- and teacher-related factors were identified as influencing teachers' beliefs about creativity. Overall, teachers’ beliefs were found to be heavily context-dependent. Implications for policy, practice and research are discussed.

Bereczki, E. O. (2016). Creativity in Hungarian Public Education: A critical analysis of the conceptualization of creativity in the Hungarian Core Curriculum [Kreativitás és köznevelés: A Nemzeti alaptanterv kreativitásfelfogásának kritikai vizsgálata], Neveléstudomány, 4(3), 5-20. https://doi.org/0.21549/NTNY.15.2016.3.1

The curriculum can have a major effect on nurturing creativity in schools. The research reported in this paper aimed at exploring and critically analysing the conceptualizations of creativity in the Hungarian National Core Curriculum (HNCC) using content analysis. The content analysis focused on the frequency, lo cation and sematic context of the word creativity and its synonyms in the HNCC. Findings revealed that creativ ity is a recurring element of the HNCC, however, its incidence varies greatly across the tasks and values, subject groups and education levels of the curriculum. Creativity is recognized as an area to be developed across all subject groups and education levels, the predominant place of creativity in the HNCC, however, is still in the art-related subjects. Moreover, four subject groups do not mention creativity at all: Man and society, Man and Nature, Our earth-The Environment, Foreign languages. Creativity is not defined in the curriculum and only a few subjects offer conceptualizations. In Arts and Mathematics creativity enhancement is supported by detailed development tasks. It is concluded then, that a more coherent and consistent conceptualization is needed across the curriculum.

Bereczki, E. O. (2015). Mapping creativity in the Hungarian National Core Curriculum: a content analysis of the overall statements of intent, curricular areas and education levels. The Curriculum Journal, 27(3), 330-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.1100546. (Q2, IF 2016: 1.100)

In the past 20 years, creativity has increasingly been recognised as an important aspect of young people's education around the world. The global interest in creativity is fuelled by various economic and social considerations. One concern of the approach to creativity in education is the curriculum. The research reported in this paper aimed at identifying the curriculum-level enablers and barriers to nurturing creativity in Hungarian public education by investigating the place of creativity, as well as that of creative pedagogy, in the Hungarian National Core Curriculum (HNCC) using content analysis. Findings revealed that creativity and the components of creative pedagogy were recurring elements of the HNCC. In Arts and Mathematics, the high importance of creativity was also supported by the strong presence of the elements of creative pedagogy. The barriers identified include the lack of clear and consistent definitions of creativity, the varied incidences of creativity and components of creative pedagogy, with extremely low attention to nurturing creativity in Foreign languages, Man and nature (science), and The Earth – our environment (geography). It has been concluded, therefore, that a more coherent and consistent approach to creativity across the HNCC is required.

OPEN DATA & CODE

Bereczki, E. O., Takacs, Z. K., Richey, E. J., Huy, A.N., Mogassie, M., & McLaren, B. M. (2023). Mindfulness in a Digital Math Learning Game: Insights from Two Randomized Controlled Trials [Data set. Charlottesville: Open Science Foundation. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RZEC9.

Bereczki, E.O. (2022). Who benefits from creative mindsets? [Data set]. Charlottesville: Open Science Foundation. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/G9VBN

Conference Proceedings, Presentations & Posters

Nguyen, H. A., Takacs, Z. K., Bereczki, E. O., Richey, J. E., Mogessie, M., & McLaren, B. M. (2022, July). Investigating the effects of mindfulness meditation on a digital learning game for mathematics. In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (pp. 762-767). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Bereczki, E. O., & Nagy, P. (2022, November). Do creative mindsets influence creative performance: An investigation in the domain of writing.  Paper presented at the 22nd National Education Science Conference [XXII. Országos Neveléstudományi Konferencia]. Pecs, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2021, August). Technology-enhanced creativity: A multiple case study of teachers' beliefs and practices. Paper presented at the 17th International ECHA Virtual Conference: Gifts & Talents: Values for the Future).

Bereczki, E. O. (2020, November). Remote teaching and learning in teacher education: challenges and opportunities[Távolléti oktatás a tanárképzésben: kihívások és tanulságok]. Paper presented at the Digital Space 2020 Conference – Collaborations during and after the pandemic [Digitális Tér Konferencia 2020 – Együttműködés a járványon innen és túl]. Budapest, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2019, November). Technology-enhanced creativity: A multiple case-study of highly accomplished Hungarian technology integrator teachers [Technológiával támogatott kreativitásfejlesztés: Többesetes esettanulmány magyarországi digitális pedagógiában élenjáró tanárok nézeteiről és tapasztalatairól]. Paper presented at the 19th National Education Science Conference [XIX. Országos Neveléstudományi Konferencia]. Pécs, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2019, November). Off the beaten track: Hungarian teachers’ beliefs and practices of nurturing creativity with technology. [„Akik mernek új utakon járni” - Digitális pedagógiában élenjáró tanárok kreativitásfejlesztésről vallott nézetei és tapasztalatai]. Keynote presentation at the Digital Conference 2019 – Digital Space [Digitális Konferencia 2019 - Digitális Tér]. Budapest, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2019, November). From consumers to creators: how to use blogs and podcasts to promote creativity in the classroom. [Fogyasztókból alkotók: hogyan tanuljunk, tanítsunk és értékeljünk blogokkal és podcastokkal?]. Paper presented at the Digitális Konferencia 2019 - Digitális Tér. Budapest, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O., Misley, H., & Rausch, A. (2019, November). Evidence-based practice in educational technology implementation for teacher education [Oktatástechnológia a kutatási eredményekre alapozott tanárképzésben]. Paper presented at the at the Digital Conference 2019 – Digital Space [Digitális Konferencia 2019 - Digitális Tér]. Budapest, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2019, October). Teaching for creativity in technology-integrated learning environments: An exploratory study. Paper presented at the 1st Thematic ECHA Conference - Creativity Research and Innovation in Gifted Education: Social, Individual, and Educational Perspective. Osijek, Croatia.

Bereczki, E. O. (2018, November). Creativity in offline, blended, and online environments [Kreativitás offline, blended és online környezetben]. Conference of the Pedagogy Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Teaching and learning in the digital culture. Veszprém, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2018, November). Creativity, technology, and learning. [Kreativitás digitális környezetben]. Paper presented at the Digital Conference 2018 – Digital Space [Digitális konferencia 2018 – Digitális tér]. Budapest, ELTE PPK.

Bereczki, E. O., & Kárpáti, A. (2018, November). Nurturing students’ creativity in technology-enhanced learning environmnets [A tanulói kreativitás fejelsztése IKT-ezközökkel támogatott tanulási környezetben]. Paper presented at the 18th National Education Science Conference [XVIII. Országos Neveléstudományi Konferencia], Budapest, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O., and Kárpáti, A. (2018, May). The relationship between teachers’ beliefs about creativity and classroom practice: What we assume and what we know? UK Creativity Researchers’ Conference, Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK.

Bereczki, E. O. & Kárpát, A. (2016, November). A systematic literature review of teachers’ beliefs about creativity: How to synthetize and present results in an educational systematic review? [Tanárok kreativitásról vallott nézeteinek szisztematikus szakirodalmi áttekintése: Egy neveléstudományi áttekintés eredményeinek összegzése, bemutatása]. Paper presented at the 15th National Education Science Conference [XV. Országos Neveléstudományi Konferencia], Szeged, Hungary.

Bereczki, E. O. (2014, November). Creativity and the Hungarian system of content regulation [A kreativitás megjelenése a hazai tartalmi szabályozás rendszerében]. Paper presented at the 14th National Education Science Conference [XIV. Országos Neveléstudományi Konferencia]. Debrecen, Hungary.

Research Reports

Bereczki E. O., Kálmán, O., Rapos, N., & Tókos (2020). Comparing the desired graduate profile of the Teacher Education program at ELTE University with the CALOHEE Reference Frameworks. In M. Yarosh, & J. González (Eds.), Comparing desired graduate profiles of Teacher Education programms with the help of the CALOHEE Reference Frameworks. Tuning CALOHE Erasmus+.

Hayden, S. M., Holinger, M., Peters, P.M., Carpenter, A. Y., Roberts, A., Yambor, K., Bereczki, E. O., & Gubbins, E. J. (2017). Hartford Stage: formative evaluation of InterACT. Storrs: University of Connecticut.

Books

Bereczki, E. O., Horváth, L., Kálmán, O., Káplár-Kodácsy, K. ; Misley, H., Rausch, A., & Rónay, Z. (2020). Faculty Distance Education Handbook: ELTE Faculty of Education and Psychology [Távolléti oktatást támogató módszertani segédanyag: az ELTE PPK oktatói számára]. Budapest, Magyarország: ELTE PPK.

Bereczki, E. O., Horváth, L., Kálmán, O., Káplár-Kodácsy, K. ; Misley, H., Rausch, A., Rónay, Z., & Solymosi, K. (2020). Faculty Guide to Assessment and Evaluation in Distance Education [Kiegészítő segédanyag a hallgatói munka értékeléséhez a távolléti oktatásban megvalósuló kollokviumok és vizsgák esetében]. Budapest, Magyarország : ELTE PPK.

Bereczki, E. O., & Merényi, Á. (Eds.). (2012). Technology for Better Schools: A Regional Guide to School Leaders, Teachers and IT Support in Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest: Microsoft Hungary.