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daVinci’s Diary: Seven Ways to Enhance Creativity, Inventiveness, and Problem Solving with Students
Prent Klag, Ed.D.
Utah Education Association – October 16, 2014
Leonardo daVinci the great scientist, artist, and inventor, lived an extraordinary life. Michael Gelb, in his book, “How to Think Like Leonardo daVinci.” Identified seven principles that, if used by teachers, can enhance creativity, inventiveness, and problem solving with students. Teaching with toys and objects: Teaching with toys and objects utilizes a unique combination of simplicity and power. The acronym SIMPLE describes the power of teaching with toys and objects. Each letter of the acronym describes the benefits and uses of toys and objects during instruction. Senses -‐ Using their senses, students learn through toys by touching, seeing, smelling, hearing, and tasting. Intuition -‐ Students can use toys to become connected to their intuitive feelings and their ability to think creatively. Toys energize the imagination. Manipulation -‐ Students need the opportunity to manipulate variables and objects and to have control over things in their environment. Using and playing with toys connects the mind and body and builds personal empowerment. Process -‐ Students learn by doing. Toys promote skills such as observing, classifying, experimenting, communicating, comparing, etc. Logic -‐ Toys can help students think, analyze, and rationalize. Toys can be very intellectually stimulating. Experience -‐ Knowledge without action should not be considered knowledge. Toys can help students apply real-‐world phenomena to real world situations. Playing and learning with toys is action-‐based and experience rich. Creativity: Using toys and objects promotes the development of four key elements of creativity. Those key elements are the following: Fluency -‐ Ability to generate a large number of ideas. Flexibility -‐ Ability to change the direction of ideas and thinking. Originality -‐ Unique, innovative or one-‐of-‐a-‐kind ideas. Elaboration -‐ Ability to expand, enhance, enrich or enlarge upon ideas. The creative process has often been described as having four stages. In the first stage, preparation, the individual gathers information relative to a project or problem. This stage is essential in the creative process.
The second stage, incubation, is the stage in which the individual relaxes and does not make a conscious effort to work on the problem. During this stage, images and ideas, realign themselves as the individual attends to other duties. The third stage is illumination. During this stage the solution often occurs spontaneously and unexpectedly. In the fourth stage, verification, the individual puts the idea into use, and consciously works with the idea in a more detailed manner. Using this model, the second and third stages are intuitive, while the first and fourth stages are more analytical. Inventiveness: Toys and objects are a great way to introduce students to invention. Invention can come about because of a need or desire, or it can come as a result of a resolution to a problem. While many people are aware of great inventors such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Thomas Edison, the majority of inventors come from average, everyday people who simply connect ideas and put them into action. Why should students be exposed to invention? The reasons are numerous: 1. The invention process connects thoughts and ideas and puts them into action. 2. Invention can also be the refinement of existing ideas, equipment, objects, or processes. To build a better mousetrap is always in the back of the mind of real inventors. 3. Being involved with invention means being involved with real phenomena and the act of manipulating real world materials. Most students have a natural desire to manipulate and gain a certain degree of power over the materials they have access to on a daily basis. 4. Invention is an act of creation. At the deepest level a person who invents obtains a great deal of satisfaction and personal reward. By bringing something new into existence, the inventor taps inner sources of creativity and provides an outlet for these to grow and flourish. 5. Through the invention process, conflicts can be resolved, and problems can be remedied. Not all invention needs to be physical in nature. Many great ideas are inventions of mind. 6. The invention process can be planned and very well organized. There are those who believe that invention comes about only after a sequential set of steps are followed and actualized. In reality, most inventions comes about through serendipitous happenings. Flashes of insight, or moments of inspiration, often come about while being engaged in something else.
7. The invention process encourages the individual to seek answers to problems and solutions to dilemmas. Qualities that enhance the invention process are similar to qualities of a budding scientist. They include playfulness, risk-‐taking, curiosity, adventurism, wonder, motivation, work, diligence, creativity, resilience, patience, intuition. wisdom, vision, joy, knowledge, sagacity, and sacrifice. Problem Solving: Problem solving is an important skill for students. The abilities to think, reason, create, and find solutions to problems are evidence that a student is on the path of effective learning. Problem solving is the process of reaching a goal when a direct path to that goal is temporarily blocked. Students must recognize that the process is multifaceted and involves questions about the ways we think as well as the ways we learn. Students who are successful problem solvers also use facts, rules, skills, and strategies that are called heuristics. “Heuristic” means steps, or sequences of steps, that are used to organize thinking and solve problems. For example: • Studying the solution process • Making a figure or drawing • Checking the solution • Identifying information • Restating the problem • Looking for patterns • Working backwards • Constructing tables or models
The Seven daVinician Principles Curiosita’: An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning. Using BOINKS to promote curiosity and wonder.
Sensazione: The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience. Using “Rainbow glasses: and taking students on a “Visual Walkabout” to activate and refine the senses.
Dimostrazione: A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Using “Newton’s Yo Yo’s or “Paint Stick Bull Roarers” to allow students to experience and learn from trial and error,
Sfumato: Literally, “going up in smoke”. A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty. Using photos or illustrations of ‘mind-‐bending’ illusions helps students to understand how to interpret and make sense of discrepant events.
Arte/Scienza: The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. It is a holistic approach to thinking. Using “Doodle Tops” are a great way to integrate leaning through art and science.
Corporalita: The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. Using “Gyro-‐rings” or learning how to juggle are great techniques to introduce students to this principle and connect learning with body and mind.
Connessione: A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena -‐ unified thinking. Using yo yo’s and tops and spinners can allow students to see and connect a variety of learning principles and processes.
If you would like more information on this topic, contact: Prent Klag at Southern Utah University at: [email protected] or go to the website: www.ProfessorToyWise.com