Transcript Connecting Creativity to 21st Century Skills - gttosa

Connecting
st
Creativity to 21
Century Skills
Colleen Anthony
Department of Student Success—Gifted and Talented
JEFFCO Public Schools [email protected]
http://gttosa.wikispaces.com/Creativity+2011
Wendy Leader
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
[email protected]
Welcome
To Begin our Connections…
Working individually
or with a small
group, complete the
following map to
define your current
understanding of
creativity.
Plucker, J. A., & Dow, G. (2010.) Attitude Change as the Precursor to Creativity
Enhancement. In Beghetto & Kaufman (Eds.), Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom.
Working Definition of Creativity
What did you discover?
Creativity is defined as a novel and
appropriate response to an open-ended
task.
(Ruscio and Amabile, 1999)
What is Creativity?
An Ability to imagine or invent something new.
An Attitude to accept change and newness, a
willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a
flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the
good, while looking for ways to improve it.
A Process to continually improve ideas and
solutions, by making gradual alterations and
refinements to their works.
Introduction to Creative Thinking, Robert Harris. Version Date: July 1, 1998
Creativity Skills
• Fluency. The ability to produce a larger
number of ideas
• Flexibility. The ability to make
connections between unrelated concepts
• Originality. The ability to make unique
ideas
• Elaboration. The ability to manipulate an
idea and work on it until it is well-formed
Guilford, 1950; Rhodes, 1961; Torrance, 1965.
Creativity Strategies
Encourage alternate solutions or products
when existing solutions are inappropriate or
yield less than satisfactory results.
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SCAMPER
Attribute listing
Random listing
Brainstorming
Creative Problem Solving
Synectics – Analogies
• Six Thinking Hats
• Morphological
synthesis
• Creative dramatics
• Biographical study
• Imagery
• Encounter lessons
Fairweather, E., & Cramond, B. and Piirto, J. (2010). In Beghetto &
Kaufman (Eds.), Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom.
Elements of Creativity
• Components
o Person
o Process
o Product
o Press (situation and environment)
o Passion*
(Rhodes, 1961; Lemons, 2011*)
Creative Methods
• Evolution: Incremental improvement; Every
problem that has been solved can be solved again in a
better way.
• Synthesis. Two or more existing ideas are
combined into a third, new idea.
• Revolution. Completely different, new idea
• Reapplication. Look at something old in a new
way.
• Changing Direction: Attention is shifted from
one angle of a problem to another
Introduction to Creative Thinking , Robert Harris. Version Date: July 1, 1998
Levels of Creativity
• Intuitive expressive: independent, spontaneous
• Productive: product expressed through academic or technical
mastery over some portion of environment (art, science)
• Inventive: ingenuity in seeing new uses/ideas beyond the
traditional
• Innovative: original, out-of-the-ordinary
• Emergenative/Genius: entirely new principle, paradigm or
assumption
(L. Wilson, 2004 from A. Taylor, 1959)
Levels of Creativity
• Two levels:
o Local (“Little c”) – expressive, inventive, productive,
everyday
o Global (“Big C”) – innovative, emergenative, earthshattering, legendary
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996)
• Four C Model of Creativity:
o Interpretive (“Mini-c”) – new, personally meaningful
interpretations – important to recognize in the
classroom
o Professional (“Pro-c”) – professional-level expertise
– can provide long-range goals for students
(Beghetto & Kaufman, 2009)
Characteristics of
Creativity
Work with a partner
to determine both
positive and
negative
characteristics of
creativity.
Characteristics of Creative
Individuals
Positive
Perceptions
Negative
Perceptions
Imagination ---------------Tolerance for ambiguityNonconformity -----------Humor ----------------------Preference for solitude -Resistance to closure ----Attracted to complexity--
--ADD, Head in the clouds
--Wishy-washy
--Doesn’t fit in, Stubborn
--ADD, Class clown
--Loner, unsociable
--ADD, Never finishes
--Won’t do the “basics”
Characteristics apply across domains.
(Characteristics from Barron, 1969, 1988; MacKinnon, 1978)
Characteristics of
Creative Individuals
Four core attitudes:
• Naïveté – observing the obvious with fresh perspective
• Self-discipline – specifically directed to creator’s choice
of area, not to the agenda of others
• Risk-taking – courage to stumble, fail, and rebound form
rejection
• Group trust – required belief in group process, necessary
for collaborative creativity
Core attitudes apply across domains.
(Piirto, 2005)
Selected Strategies for Building
Creativity in Content Areas
• Brainstorming (example: math)
• SCAMPER (example: writing a story)
• Six Thinking Hats (example: literary
analysis)
• Variations on Synectics (direct analogy,
personal analogy, fantasy analogy, symbolic
analogy) (example: direct analogy in social
studies)
• Observation journals (example: science)
Classroom Environment
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Teachers’ expression of their own creative qualities
Open valuing of creativity
Teacher flexibility
Teacher optimism
Teacher spontaneity
Teacher not taking self too seriously
Perceived teacher warmth
Teacher likeability
Teacher enthusiasm
Teacher courteousness
From Fairweather & Cramond, 2010
Classroom Environment
• Climate of psychological safety:
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students safe from ridicule
students accepted for who they are
students willing to take risks
students free from excessive pressure
• Ways to achieve psychological safety:
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accept & value all children’s contributions
stress cooperation
limit time constraints, competition, & punitive evaluation
create atmosphere of respect by not tolerating taunting,
name-calling, bullying or put-downs
From Fairweather & Cramond, 2010
Classroom Environment
• Student autonomy
• Appropriate structure & guidance:
o consistent, high expectations expressed in a nonthreatening way
• Specific feedback to convey standards & promote
learning
• Rich variety of resources
• Room for movement & varying workspaces
• Room for active as well as quiet learning
• Time for reflection & processing
From Fairweather & Cramond, 2010
Ideas from the following chapters in Beghetto, R., & Kaufman, J. (Eds.). (2010). Nurturing Creativity
in the Classroom. NY: Cambridge University Press:
Fairweather, E., & Cramond, B. Infusing Creative and Critical Thinking into the Curriculum
Together, pp. 113-141.
Plucker, J., & Dow, G. Attitude Change as the Precursor to Creativity Enhancement, pp. 362-369.
Develop a Goal/Action Plan to
Intentionally Incorporate
Creativity
Create a Plan
Cultivate a Cycle for
Self-reflection
Deep
Understanding
of Definition
Focus on
Future Growth
Reflection on
Events to
Implement
Change
Awareness of
Characteristics
Implementation
of Strategies