Question 6: How might you stimulate “brain-compatible” learning through enhancing curriculum and classroom environment features that encourage creativity?

“Understanding creativity as a common expression of the…self can encourage anybody to engage in it.” (Goswami, 1993). Creativity unfolds in two ways. Outer creativity is society driven, and necessitates talent and knowledge; therefore, competitive. Inner creativity, on the other hand results in personal change and understanding one’s relationship to the world. Both are inexplicably combined in the pursuit of the creative mind. 

Young (2009) defines creativity as the “integration of our logical side with our intuitive side.” A creative mind sees a disconnect between what is supposedly known and in inner guidance to the contra.  The process involves immersion in the problem, an incubation period, according to Gell-Man (1994) followed by a ‘letting go’ from which the answer and understanding suddenly emerge. The question for Gell-Mann is can the process be accelerated. The answer appears to lie in developing critical thinking skills formulated around specific criteria. Brainstorming ideas with others involved in the same problem, letting the mind escape for the issue periodically, and being willing to accept other belief systems are all pieces of the puzzle. Four specific stages of creativity are discussed by Howard, 2000.

·      Preparation: involves research, finding facts and gathering materials. Having a basis of knowledge is necessary for the creative process to unfold.

·      Incubation: synthesizing, analyzing, contemplating and evaluating material. This period could take minutes or a lifetime.

·      Inspiration: the moment when all the pieces come together.

·      Evaluation: now the new paradigm or idea must be tested.

Other’s assessment of the validity or value of a new idea can be fraught with prejudice.  “Methods, when they become the rules for behavior, stifle creativity.” (Young, 2009) Gell-Mann in his intriguing book, The Quark and the Jaguar, gives us a perfect example. A colleague asked for assistant on grading a student’s paper. The student argued that his answer to a physics question was absolutely right. The professor in question stated the student’s answer did not illustrate physics knowledge. Gell-Mann agreed the answer was right but asked the student to come up with other possibilities. The student posed five correct responses. When posing problems to students we must be cognizant of their creative minds to interject thoughts we may have not considered.

Another equally valid component of the creative mind is its direct relationship to one’s mental health. Foremost, when the process of solving problems become more important than its evaluation we foster a love of life long learning.  Secondly, one’s creative product could become their livelihood, thereby enhancing life and relationships (Young, 2009). Two of my students, nine years ago, developed a love of internet marketing after using the technology for one of our projects. By the time they graduated they were making serious money and well on their way to the future.  I take no credit for their success; it was not an intentional design of instruction that changed the course of their education, rather a mishap of opportunity. How can one encourage and develop a student’s creative mind?

Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive domains has been revised in recent years to develop the creative process which inherently expresses higher order thinking skills. The new version builds from remembering, to understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and finally creating. Sousa (2006) divides these concepts into two modules. Convergent thinking is represented by remembering, understanding and applying, which relates to recall and comprehension. Divergent thinking, analyzing, evaluating and creating culminates in new ideas and thoughts. These two categories described as dimensions of thinking, by cognitive psychologists, are directly correlated to Blooms’ revised taxonomy below.

·      Basic Processes: Observing augments remembering and understanding. Finding patterns and generalizing relate to remembering, understanding and analyzing. Analyze and create forms conclusions. And assessing conclusions is found at the evaluative level.

·      Domain-Specific Knowledge: The new taxonomy identifies that knowledge is acquired at all levels.

·      Critical Thinking: Analyze, evaluate and create are directly related to decisive thinking skills.

·      Creative Thinking: Students engaging related skills, discussed in more detail below.

·      Metacognition: Not cited in Bloom’s taxonomy, however, Sousa places great importance on the concept. The reflection process is a necessary vehicle for students to evaluate, monitor and further develop their work.

What do creative thinking skills at the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy look like? They include an ability to imagine or invent and an attitude to accept change, play with new ideas and be flexible, according to Harris (1998).Attitudes play a key role in creative thinking. Creativity is stifled if one believes it can’t be done, it’s too hard, or they worry about what other people think. Prejudice and learned helplessness can also get in the way of success. Cultivating positive attitudes such as curiosity, challenge, a belief that most problems can be solved, letting go of criticisms, realizing that a problem can also be a solution and believing that problems are interesting are key to unfolding the creative process.  Harris lists several methods of application all of which can be helpful when designing lesson plans and especially when working with individual students in process.

·      Evolution: Even though a problem may have been solved one can look for better solutions.

·      Synthesis: Combining ideas that may or may not be related.

·      Revolution: Coming up with a completely different idea.

·      Reapplication: Looking at something in a new way.

·      Change Direction: There may be a different solution to the problem.

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/educational/think/creative.htm is a wonderful resource for articles and ideas related to creative thinking skills. One of my favorite, Techniques for Creative Thinking, has a list of creative thinking skills activities. Some are quite unique. Lotus Blossom Technique uses a 9 square grid to develop one’s thinking process. One man using this technique to find employment landed 45 job offers.

“Our students would make a quantum leap to higher-order thinking if every teacher in every classroom correctly and regularly used a model such as Bloom’s revised taxonomy.” This may very well be true, but teachers need sound instruction on techniques by which they can implement the taxonomy. Sousa (2006) does offer tips on how to effectively use Bloom’s taxonomy. (1) The brain will choose a less complex mode of processing if given the choice, therefore, design lessons for the student to seek higher levels without them realizing this fact. (2) Make sure students are adequately prepared at lower levels before moving towards a higher level of processing, (3) Often students “mimic” the teacher. Make sure they can are actually applying their own knowledge. (4) Not all material can be brought to a creative level of thinking. Specific mathematical computations, for example, are not subject to change. But, make concerted effort to develop all other concepts. (5) Giving students a more difficult task is not necessarily the path to creativity. Complex activities that require students to seek analyzing, evaluating and creating are more suitable.

Additionally, Howard (2000) delivers some interesting thoughts for promoting the creative process. (1) Allow sufficient time for students to prepare and assimilate knowledge. I often have difficulty in this area because of the amount of curriculum needed to be covered. This in itself requires the creative process to unfold. (2) Taking breaks during the process allows for those Eureka moments to arrive. (3) Stay away from overt judgments during the creative process, which may activate the limbic system, thereby reducing brain functioning. (4) Realize those places where you have the greatest Aha moments and keep pencil and paper ready, a simple yet extraordinary insight.

Evolving creativity in the classroom takes foresight, an ability to institute processes and interject thoughts into the minds of one’s students. Stout (2000) reminds us, “children enjoy being creative, but not corrected.” It is important that students are taught skills and basic information before pursuing the creative process. Sometimes it’s easy to assume students can apply particular techniques to projects because they tend to be more technologically savvy, at least in my experience. However, this does not necessarily mean they know how to develop a professional product. Before developing power points my students are given special instruction by the media specialist at school. Now, when I interject a criticism it is more accepted. And student work has definitely improved.

Developing creative mind/creative thinking involves practice and perseverance. The Science of Creativity tells us that we can all become creative thinkers (http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2001/02/022101_leonardo.jhtml, 2009). All we need is a commitment to the process.  Dr. Howard Eisenberg (1998) emphatically states “If you want to survive and thrive in this new era of rapid, unpredictable change, then you must develop the competency to break through the conditioning of the familiar by thinking outside the box.” He offers some valuable tools at Syntrek.com. Even though these method were developed for companies they are still apropos for students in the classroom, especially since they relate to developing 21^st century skills.

·      Read articles/books, take courses, go to web sites, and see movies that are different from your usual.

·      Play games that are challenging.

·      Engage in new hobbies. Develop one if you don’t have one.

·      Develop new friendships, engage conversations with people you normally would not associate with.

·      Go exploring new stores, toys, games. See what’s out there.

·      Rearrange your room; change the layout on a regular basis.

·      Ask more questions.

·      Be open to change and remarkable occurrences.

·      Become free of negative thoughts, I can’t do this, I don’t know how…

Getting students to become more involved with developing their own creative process is directly correlated to the classroom environment. Teachers can foster creative attitudes by using questions that involve higher order thinking skills, having students participate in role plays and simulation activities, asking students to defend their learning, having students solve real life problems where there is more than one solution, requiring students to analyze popular media, or organizing debates to name a few. Another interesting tool, which I have never used but certainly will, is to have students describe concepts or ideas with metaphors and analogies. This, I’m sure, would be great fun along with being a creativity booster.  The web page, Chapter IV: Critical and Creative Thinking, at http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/policy/cels/e14/html#e14e22  has a variety of applicable resources including a wonderful pyramidal graph displaying critical and creative thinking components.

One last list is taken from Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. He is to the point, with what I consider a sense of humor yet just do it attitude.  The following is taken directly from Howard (2000) and can be incorporated into anyone’s daily life not just our student’s. (1) Try to be surprised by something every day. (2) Try to surprise at least one person every day. (3) Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others. (4) When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it. (5) Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to. (6) Commit to doing things well. (7) Take chare of your schedule. (8) Continually increase the level of challenge. (9) Make time for reflection and relaxation. (10) Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate. (11) Develop what you lack or want. (12) Find a way to express what moves you. (13) Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible. This list can supply the components of a wonderful journal activity for students.

    The other side of creative/critical thinking is application. What new inventions of thought, models or product can result? The Inventive Thinking Curriculum Project, developed by the United States patent and trademark office, contributes well developed methodology along with a plethora of historical examples of famous inventors. As mentioned earlier for students to unfold the creative process they must access previous knowledge, skills and experience. Then apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate. Through these processes ideas become reality as students create solutions. Other models of value to consider, besides Bloom’s Taxonomy, to foster the creative mind are discussed below, and are taken from The Inventive Thinking Curriculum Project.

Calvin Taylor’s model, Talents Unlimited envelops five outcomes. Productive thinking involves propagating as many ideas as possible, even considering uncommon ones. Communication encompasses six components: generate several words to describe something and several to describe feelings; compare like with like ideas; express understanding for others feelings; network ideas with assorted and complete thoughts; and illicit thoughts and feelings without using words. Planning challenges students to devise a plan along with materials list, ascertain the steps involved in the process and predict what problems might arise. Decision Making forces the student to choose an idea and validate its use. Forecasting calls for students to predict outcomes and examine cause and affect relationships.

A creative problem solving model is represented by Scott Isaksen and Donald Treffinger, as a six stage process. (1) Mess Finding: identifying exactly what the problem is. (2) Data Finding: finding out what is known and unknown about the problem. (3) Problem Finding: restating the problem to unearth different perspectives. (4) Idea Finding: brainstorm as many solutions as possible without judgment or criticism. (5) Solution Finding: assess each idea as to strengths, weakness and relative criteria to the problem at hand. (6) Acceptance Finding: contrive a plan to execute the solution.

How to practice the creative part of inventive thinking is described by Paul Torrance. Fluency: produce many ideas. Flexibility: negotiate varied thoughts and potentials. Originality: come up with ideas that are new and different. Elaboration: give the details associated with ideas. Once students understand brainstorming techniques they can engage SCAMPER developed by Bob Eberle.

·      Substitute: consider what else, who else, and other places, materials, power, ingredients, etc.

·      Combine: look at what ideas/thoughts can be grouped.

·       Adapt: what are resources can be assimilated.

·      Minify: bring ideas into focus.

·      Magnify: look at the whole of the idea. Put to Other Uses: create new ways to ascertain ideas, places, people, etc.

·      Eliminate: decide upon what is no longer needed.

·      Reverse: exchange elements, patterns or ideas.

·      Rearrange: look at new ways to reorganize contexts.

The Inventive Thinking Curriculum Project also provides important patent information for teachers, parents and school. They offer sample applications and parent letters. This is truly a wonderfully designed information packet to facilitate creative thinking and inventing in the classroom. As well, several pages are devoted to specific patents obtained by various individuals.

            There are obviously many ideas and tools available to foster creativity in the classroom.  I include one example here. A Health lesson on media manipulation was re-designed using several of the above tools along with other brain-based teaching strategies. [To preview lesson, in its entirety, see Appendix…Lessons and Projects: Health 10 Media Analysis Project.] Before the project students were given background information associated with media literacy. An activity titled “Women Are…Men Are” was played out. Students were instructed to pretend they came from another planet and knew nothing about men or women physically, mentally or emotionally. All they knew were body types, male versus female. Then students were put into groups of two and given an advertisement from a magazine. They had two minutes to write down as many descriptions as possible. We reconvened as a class and all ideas and thoughts were put on the board so that students could view, without pictures, belief patterns and stereotypes portrayed by the media.

            Following this activity students were given a media assignment also shown below. They were, again, put into groups of two and instructed to watch an hour of television each. One member focused on tallying certain behaviors the other on commercials. Upon return to class groups had to answer questions, develop graphs and a visual representation contrasting television to the ‘real world’.

This assignment was followed by an infomercial project in which students had to perform without speaking. They could use props, background music and had to create a slogan or jingle, but could not speak during their performance. Additionally, during presentations all students were expected to evaluate each infomercial, sharing their insights. Students were completely engaged in all lessons and processes. They produced, what I consider, extraordinary ‘infomercials’. Many designed their own DVD’s.