Saturnino Torre
Saturnino de la Torre is a Spanish educator and university professor whose work has addressed creativity in education, teacher training and curriculum innovation. Since 1974, he was a member of the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Education, where he taught subjects related to educational innovation and creativity. He has published academic work about educational methods which include Analogical Creative Dialogue and the use of films as teaching tools in higher education and the creation and theoretical foundation of the concept Sentipensar, developed in collaboration with Brazilian researcher María Cándida Moraes.
Early life and education
De la Torre completed a licentiate in Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the University of Barcelona, where he later pursued graduate study in the same field. In 1980 he earned a doctorate at the University of Barcelona with the dissertation Creatividad: medida del pensamiento divergente. The thesis delved into divergent thinking measurements, which will remain a recurring topic in his subsequent writing on creativity, innovation, and educational practice.Academic career
A professor in didactics and school organization at the University of Barcelona, De la Torre taught courses connected to educational innovation and creativity. In that context he coordinated the Grupo de Investigación y Asesoramiento Didáctico, a research and advisory group in the Faculty of Education that served as a platform for projects on creative pedagogy, teacher development and classroom resources. The group focuses its attention on creativity as a resource for improving education. He later developed both theoretical and applied models of creativity, including the systematization of creative stimulation strategies under the concept of creática. He also formulated the interactive psychosocial theory of creativity in the work Comprender y evaluar la creatividad.Research and ideas
Analogical Creative Dialogue (DAC)
In 2006 De la Torre presented the DAC model as a structured classroom dialogue that invites students to generate analogies and build shared meanings as part of learning and assessment. It has been discussed as one component within his broader interest in strategies for innovative teaching.Film as a formative resource
De la Torre promoted the Seminario de Cine Formativo through his work at GIAD which supported the Faculty of Education initiative that began in the mid-1990s. The seminar ran from 1995 until 2020, when it closed due to the pandemic. as a continuous educational program which used commercial films to teach values and help students learn to think critically in higher education.Sentipensar
De la Torre and María Cándida Moraes developed sentipensar, which combines emotional and mental learning through their educational system. The term and its theoretical framing were presented in 2002 and later expanded in the book Sentipensar. Fundamentos y estrategias para reencantar la educación . Subsequent literature in Spanish and Portuguese has applied sentipensar as a conceptual lens in teacher education and eco-formation.Interactive psychosocial view of creativity
De la Torre has argued for an "interactive and psychosocial" approach to creativity in education, combining personal, processual and contextual dimensions. This perspective was developed in the edited volumes Comprender y evaluar la creatividad .ORA model
An earlier line of work presented the ORA model as a simulation-based procedure to turn everyday stimuli—including media and film—into structured learning tasks.International Network of Creative Schools (RIEC) and VADECRIE
In 2012, at the IV International Forum on Innovation and Creativity held in Barcelona, De la Torre proposed creating the Red Internacional de Escuelas Creativas, later formalized as an association in Spain in 2018. He developed his creative school assessment framework through his work on the Creative educational institutions. Instrument to assess the creative development of educational institutions which he created to measure institutional development in creative schools. The framework has been applied to various research studies since its creation.Human (psycho-pedagogical) pollination
In later work, De la Torre created the metaphor of "psycho-pedagogical pollination" to describe processes that connect individuals and institutions to catalyse constructive change in eco-formative settings. He describes it as the process through which we share, connect, bring to life, and cultivate constructive change. The idea was fully elaborated on in the 2019 monograph and further expounded upon in subsequent literature.Honours and recognition
- A Professor Emeritus in Designation at the University of Barcelona.
- The III International Meeting on Creativity and Education which took place from October 28 to October 30 in 2004 at Simón Bolívar University Caracas was dedicated to him as a tribute.