Creativity : Behind the Buzz

Both business and education are focusing on creativity.  Why?  Because new ideas are needed.  What the world needs now (besides love, sweet love) is new ideas to handle to host of problems we face as a culture, a nation, and a species.  We have not been nurturing creative thinking or problem solving in our educational system, but the researchers are out there as are the trainers and the supporters of the arts tooting the horn of creativity.

What does this mean to you?  Creative thinking increases interest & enjoyment, which can only increase time spent studying, depth of understanding and outcomes.  Following are 2 examples of the focus on creativity in business and education.

 

1) Corporate Creativity Could Apply to the Classroom and the Department

2) Scientific literature supports creative teaching

1) As I was looking for support for the idea that creativity enhances learning and performance, I came across an interesting website.  It is for a company that sells seminars and programs to increase creativity and creative teamwork in the workplace.  The site includes some articles about creativity and education.  I have included some quotes below with links to the larger articles.  If you read these and are in agreement, perhaps your department would benefit from discussing the ideas – or even venturing into some creative team building experiences.

There will be links to the articles following the quotes but the overall website, Innovative
Leadership and Team Development, is:
http://www.tirian.com/

“So do we lose our creativity as we become adults? It appears to be more the case that we lose our creative confidence, and as a result need to work harder to regain it. It appears that it’s not that adults are not creative, but rather the right environments and opportunities need to be built for creativity to flourish. And we must be committed to doing this in order to ensure we can all cope with the demands of the future.”
From : Hands Up: Who Killed Creativity?
Is there a crisis in creative confidence in the workplace?
By Andrew & Gaia Grant
http://www.tirian.com/articles/leadership-task-performance/hands-up-who-killed-creativity/

Following is one of the suggestions for increasing creativity found in the article:
Keys to Creativity
by Gaia Grant
“DIVERGENT THINKING is a major key to creativity. It is the ability to let your mind wander, and then to make mental connections between unrelated matters. By allowing your mind to wander, you are utilising your most powerful creative tool-your IMAGINATION. 98% of children aged 3-5 yrs old score at the top of the scale of divergent thinking, while only 2% of adults have this ability. We tend to lose this ability with formal education and acculturation.. and yet this ability is what can help us to solve problems creatively.”
http://www.tirian.com/articles/keys-to-creativity.php

 

2) Scientific literature supports creative teaching!

Enhancing Creativity with M.U.S.I.C

In an article in The Alberta Journal of Educational Research (Vol. 55, no. 2, Summer 2009, pp199 – 211), Jim Henry reviews the emphasis on and importance of creativity in education.  After exploring varied ideas about creativity and definitions of creativity, he has come up with the following acronym to help enhance student creativity in learning, production and life.  This is already posted on my other website, to read, click: http://www.lisajonesbromfield.com/ctn4a.htm