Enhancing People's Creativity PDF

# Enhancing People's Creativity ## Chapter outline: By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Learn major programs for teaching creative thinking. 2. Describe some techniques for teaching creative thinking that are consistent with a variety of theories of creativity. 3. Describe asses...

# Enhancing People's Creativity ## Chapter outline: By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Learn major programs for teaching creative thinking. 2. Describe some techniques for teaching creative thinking that are consistent with a variety of theories of creativity. 3. Describe assessments for the success of teaching of creativity. 4. Describe prompts for teaching and assessing creativity. 5. Describe some impediments to teaching for creativity. 6. Draw some beneficial conclusions. ## Programs for Teaching Creativity ### 1) Brainstorming - One of the earliest systematic attempts to develop creative thinking was a method called brainstorming proposed by Osborn (1953, 1963). - The idea behind brainstorming is simple: Give free rein to the imagination and don't criticize. - Brainstorming is typically used in groups where members can bounce ideas off each other. - Group members are encouraged to let their imaginations run natural and not to criticize each other. - The idea is that people in a group will build off each other and come up with solutions that none would have come up with individually or if people criticized each other. - In the Creative Problem-Solving program, there are three stages of brainstorming: - understanding the problem - generating ideas - planning for action - Understanding the problem itself involves three sub-stages: - mess finding - data finding - problem finding. ### Pros and Cons of Brainstorming - There is some evidence that brainstorming can work, at least in some circumstances. - But brainstorming is a limited device. - First, although it can be used by individuals, it primarily is targeted at groups. - Second, if an idea is bad, it is not clear that it is always a great idea to say nothing right away, especially when the stakes of the decision to be made are high. Waiting until later may be too late, or "later" may never happen at all. - Third, brainstorming is primarily a search device, not an evaluative device. So, if more alternatives are generated, there is all the more need for an evaluative phase to decide which idea is best. - Fourth, the technique is rather nonspecific. It basically amounts to little more than telling people to "be creative" and let the ideas flow forth. It would be better, at the very least, to have one or more techniques that are more specific. ### 2) CoRT: CoRT stands for Cognitive Research Trust - CoRT stands for Cognitive Research Trust, an organization that was founded and is run by EdwardDeBono, a Maltese physician, scholar, and educator. - The CoRT program is designed to teach people to think better, not only creatively but also critically. - The goal of CoRT is to produce students who can think for themselves. CoRT comprises six units, each in turn comprising multiple lessons. - There are a total of sixty lessons. - **CoRT 1, Breadth**, is designed to help students broaden their perception — to see things they may not have seen before. - **CoRT 2, Organization**, shows students ways of organizing and systematizing their thinking. - **CoRT 3, Interaction**, is about evidence — how to argue for a point and what kinds of evidence to present. Although all the units are relevant in one way or another to creativity, - **CoRT 4** is the unit devoted specifically to **creativity**. It is designed to help students break out of familiar concepts and to see things in new ways. - **CoRT 5, Information & Feeling**, deals with our assessing what information we have, what information we need, how we can get that information, and the values and feelings we can apply to that information. - **CoRT 6, Action**, covers how visual symbols can be used to direct thinking and how thinking can be translated into action. ### Examples of lateral thinking tools-: - The first is **random entry idea generation**. The idea here is to think of an object or concept at random, say from a dictionary, and then try to find an association with the problem with which one is dealing. - A second tool is **provocation**. The idea of a provocation is to think of a false, impossible, or ridiculous statement about a problem one is dealing with then to ask whether somehow that provocation, despite its being false, might be useful in solving one's problem. - The third tool is **movement** or focusing on how to move from one place in creative problem-solving to another. The idea here might be to focus on positive or negative aspects of a potential solution, or to focus on differences, or to try to generate a general principle that might apply to the problem. - The fourth tool is **challenge**. Here, one challenges obvious things, such as that one drives with a steering wheel or that one eats with utensils. In fact, not all moving vehicles use steering wheels and not everyone eats with utensils. The idea is to challenge conventional ways of thinking. - A fifth tool is the **concept fan**, which involves thinking more broadly about a problem than one initially does. For example, one might sketch out a problem, draw a circle around it, and then draw lines radiating out with as many diverse and offbeat (innovative) solutions as one can think of. - The sixth tool is **disproving**, which involves considering anything that people consider obvious and showing it is wrong. Many creative thinkers use this idea, challenging the crowd by asking how everyone else believes may be wrong. - DeBono (1999) further suggested that one can arrive at more creative and better solutions to problems by donning six different thinking hats. - **White hat** – thinking that is objective, neutral, and as unbiased as possible; it is concerned with facts, not with speculations or imaginings. - **Red hat** - thinking that is emotional and heavily value-laden; it is concerned with how a problem or a possible solution affects oneself and others affectively. - **Black hat** - thinking that is cautious and careful and that considers the possible problems with a potential solution; it involves playing the devil's advocate to any possible solution to a problem. - **Yellow hat** - thinking that is positive, upbeat, and optimistic; it is sunny and bright and looking at the best possibilities that can emerge from a potential solution. - **Green hat** - thinking that is associated with creativity and expanding one's range of ideas; it is green in the sense of the greenness of growing plants. - **Blue hat** – thinking that is cool and unemotional; the blue hat often can serve as an organizing basis for the other hats. ### Synectics - Synectics is an approach to solving problems based on the creative thinking of a group of people from different areas of experience and knowledge. - Synectics was proposed by George Prince and William Gordon, who were management consultants. - According to Gordon, synectics involves three basic principles: - First, creative thinking can be taught. - Second, creativity in the arts and in the sciences depends on the same fundamental processes of thinking. - Third, individual and group processes in creativity are largely analogous (similar). ### Productive Thinking Program - The Productive Thinking Program (Covington et al., 1974) is a general program for developing thinking skills with a special emphasis on creativity. - The program comprises fifteen booklets aimed at children in the fifth and sixth grades of school. - Results for the program have been mixed. - The program is not widely used today.