What Does Creativity Look Like? A lesson on creativity

What Does Creativity Look Like?

A lesson on creativity

What is creativity?

In 1905 an unknown clerk in the Swiss patent office published a paper in which he advocated abandoning the idea of absolute time. This fundamental postulate of the theory of relativity suggested that the laws of science should be the same for all observers, regardless of speed. His name? Albert Einstein.

What is creativity?

Vincent van Gogh began painting in 1880. His adaptations of the impressionist style were considered strange and eccentric, and his personal life was complicated by illness and poverty. He sold only one painting before his death in 1890.

What is creativity?

In a quiet space under an ancient tree, the Storyteller recounts a familiar tale. The audience listens carefully to each nuance, appreciating both the well-known story line and the new turns of language and elaboration that make the characters come to life.

What is creativity?

In first grade, Michelle was given an outline of a giant shark’s mouth on a worksheet that asked, “What will our fishy friend eat next?” She dutifully colored several fish and boats, and then wrote the following explanation: “Once there was a shark named Peppy. One day he ate three fish, one jellyfish, and two boats. Before he ate the jellyfish, he made a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich.”

What is creativity?

At 19, Juan was homeless and a senior in high school. One cold evening he thought that a warm space inside the school would be a more appealing place than any he could see. Getting into the building was no problem, but once he was inside, a motion detector would make him immediately detectable to the guard on the floor below.

Juan entered a storage room and carefully dislodged a pile of baseball hats. In the ensuing commotion he located a comfortable sleeping place. The guard attributed the motion detector’s outburst to the falling hats, and Juan slept until morning.

Who is creative?

What does creativity look like? Where does it originate? What role do our classrooms play in the

development or discouragement of creativity? How do we know creativity when we see it? What does it have to do with education?

Defining creativity

Most definitions have 2 major criteria:– Novelty– Appropriateness

Perkins (1988) defined creativity broadly:– A creative result is both original and appropriate– A creative person is a person who fairly routinely

produces creative results Key dilemma: Creative idea must be new, but

to whom?

Whose behavior do you consider

creative?

Creative or not creative?

In the middle of a discussion on plants, 6-year-old Toshio raises his hand. “Do you think the plants would grow taller and stronger if, instead of watering them, we milked them?”

Creative or not creative?

Jane dressed for the first day of eighth grade in long underwear with a black half slip over the top, a purple satin blouse, and grapes hanging as earrings.

Creative or not creative?

Maria wrote the best essay on federalism her teacher had ever seen. It was clear, well-documented, and thorough, including implications of federalism seldom considered by high school students.

Creative or not creative?

Sam is wearing a baseball cap on “Hat Day.” Unbeknownst to his teacher, he has installed a mirror under the brim. When the hat is cocked at a certain angle, he can see the paper on the desk next to his. This will be handy during the vocabulary quiz.

Creative or not creative?

Karin has recently become captivated by Leave It To Beaver reruns. She frequently uses her journal to write new adventures of Wally, Eddie, and the Beaver.

Creative or not creative?

Susan is asked to illustrate a scene from the biography of Frederick Douglass her second grade teacher is reading. Having heard that he traveled through England and Wales, she draws Frederick Douglass walking across a row of smiling whales.

Creative or not creative?

Max’s music class has been given the assignment of composing a short piece in the style of one of the classical composers they have studied. Max creates a rap about Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Creative or not creative?

Tzeena is known for her caricatures. During English class, she has at times passed around sketches in which she has drawn her teacher's head attached to the body of an ostrich.

Barriers to teaching creativity

Increased emphasis on teaching to specific standards

Increases in high-stakes testing Increases in required content Requirements of NCLB

Creative Teaching

In a speech in Stockton, California, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, Susan Newman, said that the federal No Child Left Behind Act, if implemented correctly, will “put an end to creative and experimental teaching methods in the nation’s classrooms” (Balta, 2002).

What’s the difference?

Is there a difference between teaching for creativity and creative teaching?

Teaching for creativity

Not simply an add-on of cute activities But . . . A set of strategies for designing

curriculum so that both content learning and creative thinking are enhanced.

Teaching to enhance creativity can help students identify and solve problems, see from multiple points of view, analyze data, and express themselves in multiple genres.

Let’s try an activity

Examine some current newspapers or magazines. What evidence of creative thought do you see in the stories or advertisements? Look for original ideas appropriate to the situation. Are all creative ideas socially appropriate?

Gardner’s interactive perspective

Gardner described 5 types of activities in which creative individuals may be involved:– Solving a particular problem– Putting forth a general conceptual scheme– Creating a product– Giving a stylized performance– Performing for high stakes

Characteristics Associated with

Creativity

Metaphorical thinking

• Finding parallels between unlike ideas• “Fog comes in on little cat feet”• Walking through a field of cockleburs =

VELCRO

Flexibility in decision making

Look at a situation from many points of view Generate many categories of responses Negative: Can lead to overanalysis of

standardized test questions Negative: Students can make comments that

take class discussion in direction not anticipated by teacher (“So why didn’t the bears have Goldilocks arrested?”)

Independence in judgment

Able to assess situations and products by their own standards

Do not feel compelled to seek approval from others or follow latest trends

May be stubborn, argumentative, or resistant to authority

May doubt teacher’s ability to assess their creative work

Coping well with novelty

Enjoy and work well with new ideas Thrive on the question, “What if?” Enjoy contemplating changes (i.e.

impact of global warming)

Logical thinking skills

Paradoxical? Maybe not Students who display logical thinking

skills can use the evidence to draw conclusions, give reasons for their responses, and make use of logical sequences such as if-then or cause-effect

Visualization

Visualize things they cannot see Enjoy playing with mental images Activities can include reading aloud or

listening to radio dramas

Escaping entrenchment

Get out of the rut and consider things in new ways

Combines flexible thinking and dealing well with novelty

Willingness to take risks

Most often associated with willingness to accept intellectual risks

Courage to think thoughts others are unwilling to think

Often opens individuals to criticism, ridicule, or feelings of foolishness

Requires a balancing act on part of teacher: we want them to take intellectual risks, but we have to teach them to accept consequences of those risks

Perseverance, drive, commitment

Willingness to continue in face of obstacles

Willingness to maintain motivation without immediate reward

Staying focused on task for long periods Common misconception: Creative

people do not work hard at their efforts

Curiosity

Want to know how things work, how people think

Ask “Why?” at every turn Struggle to understand the world

around them New ideas MUST be explored

Tolerance for ambiguity

Able to tolerate loose ends, unanswered questions, gray areas

Able to live with half-formed ideas Willing to keep trying and experimenting Enjoy questions in school for which

there is no one best answer

Openness to experience

Provide themselves with constant sources or questions, ideas, and problems

Willingness to try something new and different (sushi, octopus at an Italian restaurant, Elizabethan concert, tap dancing)

Value originality

Would rather generate a new, better idea than repeat an old one

Van Gogh described drawing the same subject repeatedly until there was one drawing “different from the rest, which does not look like an ordinary study.”

Suggested classroom activity

Divide a large piece of paper into squares and list one characteristic associated with creativity in each square. Leave the paper on your desk for 2 weeks. Each time a student does something to demonstrate a characteristic, put his or her name in that square (after the first time, just use tally marks). Be sure to mark the characteristic even if it is displayed in a negative way.

Look at the results

At the end of the 2 weeks, see which students are listed most often.

Are they the students you expected?

Excellent resource

Starko, A.J. (2005) Creativity in the classroom. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.