curiosita teaching: Integrating Creative Thinking into all Teaching and Learning A paper presented at Creative Engagement 8 Conference Oxford, England June 29-July 1, 2012 Dr. Richard A. Shade Patti Garrett Shade Abstract: Many schools in countries around the world ‘are now focusing aggressively on turning their schools and industries into hotbeds of creativity, imagination, and innovation - the areas in which economies will win or lose.’1 However, creative learning opportunities have been limited, for the most part, to the visual and performing arts. Students now enter a world where creativity is a skill employers increasingly value and demand. In this paper, based on the da Vincian principal of Curiosita – ‘an insatiable curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning’ - we introduce the concepts of creativity and innovation as they relate to all teaching and learning. There are over 110 definitions of creativity. This paper introduces the four Elements of Creativity as the instructional skills of creativity and as the basis for understanding the definition of creativity. curiosita teaching is model that gives teachers the instructional tools and curricular framework to integrate creativity (creative thinking) into all parts of teaching and learning. All learning involves processing, persistence, and productivity. Creative learning also requires understanding the roles of perception, passion, person, and press. These seven components are represented in the Creativity Fan model, designed as a teaching aide to assist educators in understanding the overarching goals of teaching with creativity.

The first of the seven da Vincian principles is Curiosita, an insatiable curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning. The desire to know, to learn, and to grow is the powerhouse of knowledge, wisdom, and discovery. All children enter public education with a natural dose of curiosity, a prerequisite for creative thinking. A worrisome speculation is that by the age of seven, children are using only 10% of their creative ability. Sadly, by the age of 40, most adults are about 3% as creative as they were at age seven2 (Biech, 1991). Sir Ken Robinson attributes this to our current school systems stating, ‘Our students do not grow into creativity, they grow out of it - or rather they are educated out of it.’ This realization provides even more impetus for placing creativity at the forefront of educational initiatives as we mould our practice for 21st century student outcomes. There is increasing discussion today related to the changing end product of America’s public schools. Essentially, it revolves around the fact that those who complete a public education need different academic content

and skills to live and work in the 21st century than their predecessors. ‘We do not fashion our learning environments or our curricula to stimulate our children’s curiosities. And very often, when they do raise fascinating questions, we have no strategies for incorporating them into our busy schedules made more demanding with the press to prepare for standardized tests that increasingly sap our instructional strength’3. As you can see, a number of stakeholders are now realizing the need for creativity in America’s public schools. With this as a foundation, we created the Curiosita Teaching Program to help educators integrate creative thinking into all teaching and learning. To begin, we first had to highlight and then dispel the myths that surround creativity. The following ongoing myths and misconceptions (The 5 M’s) about the nature of creativity may also colour individual perceptions:

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Mysterious - Creativity is a rare form of genius only a few people possess. It comes from some outside source, and you cannot control it. Little is known about it. Mystical - Creativity is an elusive, ethereal phenomenon that evaporates or vanishes if you try to look at it too closely or study it in depth. Madness - Creative behaviour is bizarre, bordering on mental illness. Creative individuals are strange, odd, and weird. Creativity is a form of anti-social or unhealthy behaviour. Magical - Creativity involves trickery, not substance. It’s like being in the audience and trying to figure out the “trick’ while watching a magician perform. Everyone thinks if they could figure out the trick, they could possibly work magic, too. Mirthful - Creativity involves spontaneous, undisciplined behaviour with the purpose of amusing, entertaining, and surprising us; forethought and planning are not involved. Educators who believe some or all of these myths will probably have some initial difficulty in believing

creativity can be developed and nurtured in others. Also, if they believe some or all of these myths, they can then justify not needing to do anything about it! However, observing students in your classroom and life in general will help dispel these myths. To reduce concerns related to the myths and to clarify the process, creativity can be described as two harmonious thinking processes. One is the production of ideas (creative thinking), accomplished by generating many possibilities and widening your focus. The other is the evaluation of ideas (critical thinking), accomplished by narrowing your focus and sorting the generated ideas to identify the interesting and unique ones. Can you teach creativity or is it something you are born with? Are there levels of creativity? Can creativity skills be improved? The Curiosita Teaching Program offers tools, techniques, methods, and strategies that, if practiced and used regularly, can greatly enhance creativity. ‘No amount of training will create a da Vinci or Edison. But it is also true that everyone’s capacity for creative living and creative thinking can be increased.’4

Now let’s examine some of the long-established concepts of a common traditional school. Traditional schooling generally emphasizes the following behaviours and outcomes (The 4 C’s):

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Conformity (Compliance) - School is where we teach you to conform. Raise your hand. Sit up straight.

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Control - teachers want control, control, and more control!

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Curriculum – teachers and students staying on target, within the state or national curriculum, and not questioning or veering from the prescribed.

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Correctness - looking for the single right answer. As you can easily note, these behaviours and outcomes are directly oppositional to both the climate and the

behaviours necessary to encourage and foster creative thinking and creative production. The Elements of Creativity Although there are at least 110 definitions of creativity, most, if not all, can be related to at least one of these four Elements of Creativity: Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, and Elaboration. The Curiosita Teaching Program targets the Elements as the skills of creativity you will see demonstrated through the work of your students. Teachers can also use one or more of the Elements to provide instructional focus when executing lessons involving creativity. The Elements of Creativity are defined below:

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Fluency - generating a great number of ideas. Flexibility - creating ideas in a wide range of categories. Originality - producing unique, novel, or one-of-a-kind ideas. Elaboration - adding details to enrich, refine, or embellish ideas.

The Creativity Fan: The Creativity Fan model represents components that can be developed in each individual to support the creative learning process. Each component of the Creativity Fan has associated attitudes and abilities that influence the creative output of individuals. Teacher goals are provided to direct the honing and/or further development of these attitudes and abilities to improve student creativity. To better understand how infusing creativity changes the

teaching process, let’s take a look at the components that are involved in all learning compared to the components that are more unique to the creative learning process. ~ All learning involves the components of processing, persistence, and productivity.

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Processing - thinking patterns, procedures, and pathways

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Persistence - effort, diligence, or task commitment

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Productivity - verbal or visual demonstrations of learning

~ Creative learning requires the additional components of perception, passion, person, and press.

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Perception - viewpoints or perspectives

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Passion - intense desire or love for a concept or idea

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Person - individual traits or behaviours

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Press - physical, psychological, or emotional influences

As you examine each component of the Creativity Fan, you will begin to realize that each blade is equally important. Considering each blade in detail will allow you to understand how their application changes the classroom in unique ways. When you apply what you have learned to your instructional design, it will help your students at times to more easily begin to see what no one else is seeing and begin to think the way no one else is thinking . . . interesting and unusual creative thoughts! By actively pursuing experiences that involve the components (represented by the “fan blades”) and the Elements of Creativity (the lights of the fan), you can also become a more creative teacher and teach or encourage others to be more creative. Now let’s take a closer look at each of the seven individual blades. Creativity Fan Blade #1 - Person The literature is replete with checklists describing a variety of attributes or characteristics of a creative individual. There have also been numerous attempts to document through research the personality of creative individuals. These checklists and research still portray creativity and what makes a person creative as an intangible entity.

One intense trait of creative individuals is that they sometimes just don’t realize the world exists around them! It may be because they are so passionately involved (Flow), and when this is brought to their attention, it can irritate and/or interrupt what they consider to be a quite enjoyable creative thinking process. In other words, they are involved to such a degree as to be oblivious to the outside world. When fetched from their own world, they may react with anger, frustration, or a quick retort. These types of negative responses can alienate them from their peers, which impedes quality group interactions that support the development and understanding of creativity. Creative individuals can also produce quick, creative, spontaneous thoughts that are quickly judged by their peers. This may result in acceptance or isolation of the creative individual. When this is internalized by the creative individual it can encourage the development of some of the positive traits such as, risk taking, independent thinking, and playfulness. If rejected, it may result in the deepening of some of the negative traits such as defiance, frustration, and sensitivity to criticism. The problem is compounded when fear and anxiety activate the limbic system in the brain of our students. This shuts down the cerebral cortex where problem solving abilities and creativity reside. Students may be in an emotional state of mind where creativity is least accessible due to the presence of one or more of the fears that block student creativity: 1. Fear of change 2. Fear of looking foolish 3. Fear of losing control 4. Fear of having to do something about it 5. Fear of getting more work to do 6. Fear of having to do it over 7. Fear of not being good enough 8. Fear of not being the best 9. Fear of not being perfect 10. Fear of being made fun of 11. Fear of consequences 12. Fear of being misunderstood Students exhibiting creative behaviours are also not necessarily the “best” students as measured by traditional standards. Research on highly creative individuals firmly establishes that these students often rest under the margin or cut-off of what is considered to be a gifted intelligence quotient. As educators we are trained to seek out and assess students who do not perform well in all academic areas. This may mask your ability to recognize creative students, as your focus may be diverted to improving their achievement levels. Another difficulty is creative students are not necessarily interested in subject areas that they view as not being open to creative solutions. Student Person Goals Attitude: Students will enjoy everything about creating for its own sake.

Ability: Students will learn and understand how oppositional characteristics contribute to creativity. Teacher Person Goal: The teacher will coach students to increase their awareness and appreciation of creative behaviours and traits. Creativity Fan Blade #2 - Perception Creativity often involves changes in perception; in other words, a newfound way of looking at or viewing something. Perception allows us to look at something and see something different than that seen by others. This is a pre-requisite to being able to produce any level of creativity. To be more efficient and effective thinkers, we all have mental filters that help us disregard or ignore minor stimuli in our environment. If this did not happen, we would have to pay attention to every minor detail, we would perhaps be prone to sensory overload, and we would never get anything done. However, this very system that facilitates successful thinking often interferes with creative thinking. In his classic book Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, Adams5 refers to these natural filters as perceptual blocks. They can be cognitive, emotional, or environmental in nature, and include:

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Fear of taking a risk (we are usually rewarded by parents, teachers, and bosses only for the “right” answer). Fear of making a mistake (viewed in the eyes of many as failing). No appetite for chaos or ambiguity (fear of the unknown or a need for security). Judging (stereotypes and pre-conceived ideas) rather than generating options. Fear of criticism, ridicule, rejection, or just being different. Acquiescing to “The way it’s supposed to be” and “The way it has always been.” Clinging to “reason” and “logic” versus imagination and innovation. Adams proceeds to describe over 30 additional blocks to creative thinking. Groups studying creativity love

to generate lists of these phrases that discourage or inhibit creativity. A personal favourite is, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, as it represents a passive attack on establishing a climate of creativity. Edward de Bono6 states, ‘Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies in perception rather than mistakes of logic.’ This makes sense, as the emphasis is traditionally placed in the secure truth of logic rather than the ambiguity and capriciousness of perception. In other words, we often see the world as we initially perceive it, not the way it can be. So here is the dilemma. We all have a good set of mental filters and these are very useful, practical, and valuable. However, they get in the way and become perceptual blocks when we need to think creatively. If we want

students to learn to think more creatively, one major challenge is to teach ways to temporarily suspend or ignore these perceptual blocks. “Working harder” or “thinking harder” within the same perception will ultimately lead to frustration and failure. Eric Allenbaugh7 stated ‘Continuing to cling to the patterns you know inhibits your ability to discover what you don’t know.’ It is very natural to take the information at hand, and, within a current perception, rush to solve problem quickly. We do not like problems, so why would we want to spend a lot of time on them? It is this uneasiness and natural aversion that leads us to try to solve them quickly, limiting the expansion of our perceptions. When faced with a problem, it is natural to begin to think of possible solutions within the initial perception created by the information. This is logical, rational, reasonable, and efficient – but it can become a deterrent or roadblock for creative thinking. Taking the first solution we come up with and running with it keeps our thinking inside the box. There are usually five common failures of perception involved in this type of thinking:

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We often fail to see something because we fail to look for it. We often omit things. We sometimes see only a part of the overall picture. We do not take the necessary time to generate alternative solutions. We do not take into account the viewpoints of others. To change your perception, you must practice changing it. Changing it involves taking a risk, making a

guess, taking a chance, looking at something from a different point of view, reversing an angle, or trying something completely different. With each continued success, it becomes easier to attempt. Perception comes through our senses, but it is what we do with it in our mind that counts! It is sometimes stated that more creative people are simply more open and flexible in their approach to new ideas. This implies that they are merely passively reacting and accepting of the ideas of others. Being flexible and open to diverse perceptions is not enough. We might describe this as an attitude of passive perception acceptance. To become effective creative thinkers, we must teach students to actively, almost aggressively, seek to change their perceptions. This is an ability that can be rapidly improved through exposure to a broad range of problems whose solutions involve changes in perception. Starting each day with perception activities is a good beginning. Another good way to begin to challenge (change, broaden, and expand) a perception is to ask questions: What if? How might? How could? What would happen if? I wonder? Asking these simple questions causes students

to begin to veer off from the conventional, the routine, the logical, the assumed, and the patterns. You begin to open up a new world of possibilities for them as they continue to work toward solutions. Remember, two people may look at the same thing but see (perceive) it differently. One tool from Edward de Bono is called Other People’s Views (OPV). This simplistic tool allows students to understand and appreciate the “how and why” of the opinions of others. The ability to form or perceive diverse perceptions is one of the essential steps of becoming a more creative thinker. Becoming aware of the role perception plays in our creative thinking, and the fact that we have the ability to actively or intentionally change our perception when needed, is vital to the creative process. This type of change in perception must be proactive and purposeful. It involves a much more deliberate process . . . and quite possibly one viewed by some as an act of rebellion (thinking differently than others)! Patterns and routines, as well as logic and reasoning, are comfortable and serve us well, but often unintentionally inhibit the process of creative thinking. We can teach students through frequent practice how to “throw off their mental chains” and open their minds to improved creative thinking. Realistically, all new ideas represent change. Change, especially creative change, often does not reside comfortably in the minds of others. Student Perception Goals Attitude: Students will internalize “breaking their mental chains” as a way of acquiring new viewpoints and/or perspectives. Ability: Students will be able to look at ideas, thoughts, and objects and generate multiple perspectives. Teacher Perception Goal: Teachers will schedule daily activities that challenge students to change their Perceptions. Creativity Fan Blade #3 - Process Creative individuals have their own way of processing and assimilating information and ideas. The processes involved in the production of creative thoughts and ideas are somewhat individualistic, but there are some basic commonalities. You will find some students are what we might call ‘naturals’ at creative thinking, while others struggle to think ‘outside the box’. In any event, both types of students can improve their creative thinking. You can introduce them to techniques and activities that will assist them in developing their personal version of creative processing. One step towards improving the processing skills involved in creative thinking is planning for more frequent and purposeful creative activities for students to engage in during daily instruction. Biech 8 stated, ‘The one thing the experts do agree on is that creative skills can be developed, techniques can be taught, and an individual’s

creativity can be enhanced with practice’. Practice, play, and pondering do make for ‘perfect’ creative thinking. Another step is introducing the process of metacognition - thinking about thinking! Students often do not take the time to actually reflect on their own ideas or ideas of others. However, consider this:

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Athletes study their video tapes Artists study their paintings, drawings, and sketches Musicians listen over and over again to their music Scientist continually hypothesize and experiment Actors rehearse over and over And all are practicing

The practices of reflecting, reviewing, reworking, editing, modifying, pondering, and tinkering can all lead to improved creative outcomes. Structuring frequent student/teacher conferences for the purpose of discussing student work in light of the Elements and the components of the Creativity Fan reinforces the concept and the importance of metacognition in creative learning.

Student Processing Goals Attitude: Students will view thinking as a skill that can be improved. Ability: Students will demonstrate mastery of new thinking tools and procedures. Teacher Processing Goal: Teachers will introduce students to a variety of thinking tools, procedures, and processes. Creativity Fan Blade #4 - Press Individuals will find that using some forms of the press component can either inhibit or promote creative behaviours in the school, workplace, or society in general. The learning conditions necessary for individual brains to flourish is a very personal and unique experience. It is documented that numerous famous people have claimed various requirements to enhance their creative juices. The following examples might be considered idiosyncratic versions of the press that were effective for these famous individuals:

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Dr. Samuel Johnson (18th century English author) wanted tea, orange peels, and a purring cat in his creative environment. Immanuel Kant (German philosopher) worked in bed at times. Johann Schiller (18th century German poet) had to fill his desk drawer with rotten apples. Archimedes (Greek mathematician) solved his most difficult problems while taking a hot bath. Mozart had to exercise before he wrote music.

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Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys had truckloads of sand delivered to his bedroom (which he never left for 3 years) to simulate a beach. As you can see, these individuals needed various sights, sounds, scents, and feelings to encourage their

creative endeavours. You can provide a variety of sensory stimulations in your classroom to help students explore factors they may adopt as forms of their personal press that fire up their creativity. You can make changes to the lighting, sounds, smells, etc. that might stimulate the thinking of some of your students. One favourite technique is to use a variety of music pieces with different tempos to change the pace, focus, or intensity of instruction. You can train your students to call upon and explore their senses as another way to discover new pathways to creativity. Your role is to provide a variety of techniques that incite the creative abilities of your students. They will accept and/or reject these experiences and eventually develop their own personal versions of the press component that they will employ to assist them during their productive work. Introducing the fan blade of the press to students offers educators a unique opportunity to develop a personal level of instructional expertise as a creative teacher. Each teacher will adopt and/or modify their instructional methods while demonstrating applications of the press in the classroom. This will result in the development of what might be viewed as an ‘instructional creative teaching style’. Every teacher will make choices to accept or reject some applications of the press, choosing ones that they are more comfortable using in the classroom. So more importantly, selectively using techniques that affect the press within the classroom, offers teachers choices or differentiation in their skill acquisition. On the one hand, it is essential to have classroom routines and procedures. Without them we would have chaos. However, these can soon become patterns that can lead to a degree of monotony and boredom. As we noted earlier, the brain needs novelty to break patterns and allow attention to shift and subsequent new learning to occur. Teachers can learn to use various techniques to improve students’ personal development of the press within wellstructured lessons to accomplish this desired effect. Brain research has shown that experiences related to creativity training can rewire neural pathways in the brain. However, the student must engage in the learning and the environment for the dendrite stimulation and growth to occur. ‘The ability of the brain to adapt to its environment by laying down essential neural connections is referred to as neural plasticity’ stated Sylwester8. To better engage the students emotionally and psychologically, we suggest the following lesson and curricular adaptations:

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novel activities to promote different ways of thinking opportunities for students to make choices variable time allowances (seconds to weeks) for task completion changing sensory inputs prior to or during the learning process demonstrating your personal passion and enthusiasm during instruction Teachers can also become more creative teachers when they offer students engaged learning activities and

provide these opportunities with accompanying emotions such as, joy, surprise, anticipation, excitement, and curiosity. Expressing your emotional responses to the lesson or topic of discussion easily transfers these emotions to your students. These anticipatory sets of emotions make students eager to become engaged in the activity or project introduced. A quotation from Anatole France seems appropriate here. ‘The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.’ Students’ emotional response to opportunities to work in creative environments might be the beginning of the development of passions. Student Press Goals Attitude: Students will be open to conventional or unconventional means of stimulating creative thinking. Ability: Students will identify and select forms of the Press that increase their personal creative output. Teacher Press Goal: The teacher will introduce students to a variety of forms of the Press. Creativity Fan Blade #5 - Passion Creative people are often intensely absorbed in their projects. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor at the University of Chicago, has referred to this as the FLOW experience. When a person’s passionate involvement results in FLOW, they lose track of time, they work for many hours on-end, and describe it as a very joyful, exhaustive experience of “creative productivity”. We can view passion as a fan blade that permeates all the other creativity fan blades.

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Passion is demonstrated in the process as willingness and joyfulness expressed in learning new skills and techniques. Passion emotionally changes an individual’s response to the required persistence necessary for task completion. Passionate people are energized to pursue original, new, and useful products and ideas. Passion causes one to embrace change and expand viewpoints and perception. Passion plays a role in the person by leading or driving the individual toward the satisfaction of accomplishment and to take risks in thinking and actions. Passion allows one to find techniques that serve as “assisters” to encourage creative behaviour and neutralize or reject “resistors” that inhibit in the press.

Individual life experiences greatly influence our student’s known interests and passions. Some may become the foundation of their dreams, visions, inspirations, and goals. The strong feelings and convictions associated with these experiences determine students’ level of dedication and enthusiasm. Genuine passion, a burning desire to achieve something, fuels creativity and provides the motivation to create. When asked to write an essay about passion, an American middle-school student offered the following: ‘Passion learning is loving learning. It is different from hobbies and interests because hobbies are just things you like doing in your spare time and interests are things you just like or enjoy, or something that catches your eye. A subject like science in school is a good example of passion learning. It is a good example because you can really love the subject and look forward to going to school on those days. One can pursue passion learning. All one has to do is to find a subject or type of learning that really interests them - it will enhance your intelligence level.’ Schools must offer a purposeful curricular design with diverse creative learning opportunities for students beyond the visual and performing arts so students may discover and explore their passions. If this is not delineated as a curricular goal, in most cases, students will have very limited or repetitive enrichment experiences which may or may not ignite their passions.

Student Passion Goals Attitude: Students will believe that learning can be an intense, joyful, and energizing. Ability: Students will immerse themselves deeply in creative endeavours, losing an awareness of time and other things around them (Flow). Teacher Passion Goal: Teachers will plan a wide variety of activities that address student strengths and interests so students can explore and discover passion areas of learning. Creativity Fan Blade #6 - Persistence Creativity involves the hard work necessary to bring an idea from possibilities (dreams) to completion (reality), or in other words, making the impossible . . . possible. Without persistence, simple mistakes, minor failures, peer influence, or self-doubt can quickly take over and cause students to abandon their work - to give up. Charles F. Kettering10, in his often quoted 1940 university commencement speech, provided another simple yet profound insight into the concept of failure and its relationship to persistence in his definition of an inventor. ‘An inventor is simply a person who doesn’t take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates from college he has to take three or four examinations a year.

If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. If he succeeds once then he’s in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.’ Thomas Edison11 further discussed the secret to becoming a successful inventor in an 1898 interview. ‘If you want a recipe for how to succeed as an inventor I can give it to you in very few words, and it will do for any other business in which you might wish to engage. First, find out if there is a real need for the thing that you want to invent. Then start thinking about it. Get up at six o’clock the first morning and work until two o’clock the next morning. Keep on doing this until something in your line develops itself. If you don’t do so pretty soon, you had better shorten your sleeping hours and work a little harder while you are awake. If you follow that rule, you can succeed as an inventor, or as anything else, for that matter.’ You can see the immense importance failure and persistence plays in the creative process. Isn’t it somewhat ironic we often use a light bulb to denote thinking, or more commonly, a flash of inspiration or new idea? The invention and subsequent improvement of the light bulb was an arduous and lengthy process, involving thousands of trial and error experiments over many months, not something that came in a flash. It was also characterized by guesswork, waste, inefficiency, and failure, failure, and failure . . . but most importantly persistence. Here is an amazing fact: Edison was granted 1,093 patents. Here is some interesting speculation: Let’s say he had 100 times this many experiments. Here is an interesting question: Did he have a 99% failure rate or a 1% success rate? You choose. What is your perception of this scenario? His positive and ever optimistic attitude was evident when he stated, ‘I never did a day’s work in my life, it was all fun.’ Perhaps in his case a definition of creativity was creativity is an attitude. Persistence in experimentation is the sweat Edison refers to when he remarks, ‘Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’. As Gelb & Caldicott12 state, ‘Edison frequently made this and other statements about the importance of hard work, commitment, and perseverance because he wanted to correct popular misconceptions about the process of innovation as ‘magic’ or ‘wizardry’.

As Edison also stated, ‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.’ This draws to our attention the special emphasis we must place on encouraging and developing an attitude of persistence in our students. As Edison went on to say, ‘Nearly every man who develops an idea works up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.’ Student Persistence Goals Attitude: Students will view failure as an opportunity to learn. Ability: Students will demonstrate the ability to continue to work hard at a task until they achieve success. Teacher Persistence Goal: Teachers will mentor students through the cyclic process of success and failure involved in creativity. Creativity Fan Blade #7 - Product Today’s 2001 revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking by Anderson & Krathwohl13 has provided educators with the impetus for elevating creativity as one of the most powerful instructional goals. When discussing this fan blade, we address productivity as the successful result of immersing oneself in the creative process to produce verbal or visual demonstrations of creativity. These products serve as the necessary vehicles to demonstrate the creative thinking processes of our students. Most of us fail to consider that creative individuals may produce 10-20 average or even bad ideas or works for every successful one. Regarding this more global concept of creative productivity, consider this brief list adapted from Michalko14 :

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Bach wrote a cantata every week. Mozart produced over 600 pieces of music. Einstein published 249 papers. Darwin had 119 publications. Freud published 330 papers. Rembrandt produced 650 paintings. Picasso created over 20,000 works. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. Edison was granted 1093 patents. As we can see from this list, creative productivity exists in the arts, sciences, and humanities through the

creation of visual and/or verbal products. It is important for us to give our students opportunities to demonstrate their

creativity through a variety of products so they can develop skills in both visual and verbal methods of producing their creativity in all content areas. If we can’t see or hear our student’s thoughts in a visual and/or verbal product format, we cannot appreciate, understand, or guide the development of their creativity. These products can be as simple as brainstorming session or a deep involvement in a complex, multi-layered project. In the classroom we will also observe students with a different of levels of productivity and we will need to provide differentiated support for their creative efforts as we do with their other academic achievements. As educators, it is our charge to support and challenge our students to fruitfully demonstrate their creativity productively. Student Productivity Goals Attitude: Students will view products as the necessary vehicle to demonstrate their creativity. Ability: Students will demonstrate creativity through a variety of visual and verbal products. Teacher Productivity Goal: Teachers will provide students with opportunities to create simple and complex visual and verbal products. Summary Our perspective is that creativity is best understood by investigating the interrelationship between the four Elements of Creativity and the components of the Creativity Fan. We suggest you imagine creative thinking represented by a whirling fan with seven blades (Creativity Components) over four lights (Elements of Creativity). Shades’11 Creativity Elements & Fan Model provides a framework for exploring creativity individually or within a group setting in a more purposeful direction. Understanding the model of the Elements and the Fan is essential to internalizing the meaning of creativity and developing creativity an instructional tool. To further explain this model, perhaps it would be useful to think how each component influences the individual outcomes. Students will most likely demonstrate asynchronous development of each of the seven fan blade components during their school years, and possibly throughout their lifetime. For example, adolescent students may move through several passion areas as they are exposed to concepts during the school year. They may be very passionate and/or productive for short periods of time about a variety of topics, such as aeronautics/models or fairy tales/writings, etc. We might apply the analogy of an apprenticeship as we begin teaching with creativity. Initially, you may find student work to be comparable to novice level work. When the students receive instruction, focusing on one or more of the Elements and/or components of Fan, their products become more fully developed. This new level of work may be compared to the apprentice level. Two of the most tangible results, during the

apprentice phase, are seen when you require students to focus on Elaboration and to become more Persistent in their work. An example of improved Elaboration may be seen in the details (Elaboration) and depth they add to written pieces, or in the visual details used to create designs such as a 3-D animated character for a Claymation™ project. When you design curriculum around product-based learning, students see their Persistence pay off as you coach or mentor them towards improved or ‘personal best’ level of creative products. As a result of this type of supportive learning relationship, they will intrinsically acquire more confidence in their Person and Processing abilities and attitudes. One of the Elements more readily assimilated into students’ conversations is the Element of Originality. They quickly begin recognizing unique or novel work. More often you will hear them express this in their terms, such as, cool, awesome, and wow! As you begin teaching with the Elements and the Fan components, you will see that some can be taught within short periods of time and others require longer periods of time to be assimilated into students understanding to become useful and productive tools. There is a great deal of crossover in these given time frames, but the daily lessons allow you to focus on the Elements and Fan Components that are more skillbased for novice level students. As students move into the apprenticeship skill levels, they are challenged to continue their creative development through a mastery of the Elements and Fan components that are more thoroughly developed when immersed in medium/long-term project-based units of instruction. Using creative processes and activities adds a powerful new dimension to the teaching and learning environment. Teachers will see students practicing and perfecting their work, driven towards meaningful, productive, and creative outcomes. Teachers speak of infusing creativity into their classes as having the effect of casting a spell over the entire classroom. Over time, it results in personalizing the learning for each student, etching new neural connections, and increasing intrinsic motivation . . . a love for learning . . . and in teachers, renewed inspiration for their craft. We must elevate and value creativity and creative thinking from its current “add-on” status that is cool, to a necessary and required curricula area of expertise. The Curiosita Teaching Program represents a unique conceptualization of creativity as a framework for instruction and curricular design. It offers step-by-step procedures, practices, and organizational support for all stakeholders to make creativity a foundational instructional practice and core curriculum in schools. “It is now a known fact that nearly all of us can become more creative, if we will.

And this very fact may well be the hope of the world. By becoming more creative we can lead brighter lives, and can live better with each other. By becoming more creative we can provide better goods and services to each other, to the result of a higher and higher standard of living. By becoming more creative we may even find a way to bring permanent peace to all the world.” - Alex F. Osborn (creator of brainstorming) Culturing creative thinking in practice and application will enhance the creative abilities of all students. What more worthwhile exposure could we offer students in our efforts to prepare them for 21st century challenges? The world is constantly changing, and with those ever-present changes comes new problems and situations that require new ways of thinking and accompanying new ways of teaching and learning. Creativity is the impetus required to spark ideas and the risk-taking necessary for us to continue living in a productive and progressive world. Our modern society is increasingly dependent on creativity and innovation to grow and prosper. Edward de Bono states, “As competition intensifies, so does the need for creative thinking. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better. It is no longer enough to be efficient and to solve problems. Far more is needed.” Creativity, once infused, will forever change teaching styles with lessons based upon collaborative experiences; powerful learning derived from what students say, what they do, and most importantly, what they produce. Learning to think is not passive, it is active and engaging. Watch your students become a community of creative thinkers! As you examine and explore the creative thinking processes you will discover their relationship to all students’ learning. New insights into their impact on the teaching and learning environment begin to emerge. Perhaps, these can be best captured by a student in this statement. ‘As I look at my life today, the things that I value about myself, my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity, came from the way that I was parented and taught. And none of these qualities that I just mentioned, none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, none of these qualities that have brought me so much joy, that have made me so successful professionally, none of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested.’ Matt Damon, 2011

Notes

1. 2. 3.

Results That Matter (2006)

Biech (1991)

Barell (2003)

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Davis (1992)

Adams (2001)

De Bono (1992)

Eric Allenbaugh

Biech (1996)

Sylwester (1995)

Charles Kettering

Thomas Edison

Gelb & Caldicott (2007)

13. 14. 15.

Anderson & Krathwohl (2001)

Michalko (2001)

Shade & Shade (2011)

Bibliography