Title: Creativity: What does it mean?
1Creativity What does it mean?
2Concept of Creativity
- Has always intrigued humans
- Fascinated historians, scientists educators
- Elusive
Ford Harris, 1992
Young (1985) described creativity as a
honorific term because of the difficulty
associated with finding a universally accepted
definition.
3Creativity Key terms
Imaginative
Interesting Ideas
Flexible
Variation
transform
Unpredictable
Improvization
altering rules
Evolutionary
Human Imagination
4Some theories of Creativity
5The principal goal of education is to create
people who are capable of doing new things, not
simply repeating what other generations have done
people who are creative, inventive discoverers.
- Piaget
For Piaget, an ability to evaluate a situation
from a multitude of perspectives was a necessary
factor in the creative process.
6Piaget (1962)
- Creative imagination is gradually reintegrated in
intelligence as children age. - During the developmental process, the creative
imagination increases. - Creativity Intelligence synergistically
encourage each other to generate more productive
activity. - Nature of the creative process is malleable it
changes as the child progresses through the
developmental stages.
7Unless more people leave formal education with an
enhanced capacity to engage in, and make an
active contribution to, innovation, then much of
what we label creativity and inventiveness and
entrepreneurship and enterprise will remain
unexploited to the detriment of both individuals
and society. David Hargreaves, 2001
8Torrance, 1971
- Human beings are born with abilities that tend
to be specific to a domain. - Creativity is a combination of
- ability
- skills
- motivation
- Creativity is teachable.
- Life experiences of culturally diverse groups
prepare them to be creative.
9http//www.ltscotland.org.uk/creativity
Creativity Some Myths
- Myth 1 Creativity is only important in some
areas of human activity - Myth 2The creative process just happens it is
always inspirational, effortless and comes like a
bolt from the blue - Myth 3 Creative people are somehow special, a
bit different from the rest of us and actually a
bit strange in some way.
10Myth 1 Creativity is only important in some
areas of human activity
- This view is all rooted to the all common
misconception that creativity involves artistic
sensibility. - But scientists and mathematicians are no less
creative in their fields than artists and
creative writers
11Myth 2 The creative process just happens it is
always inspirational, effortless and comes like
a bolt from the blue
- This derives, in part, from the thought that
creative thinking is somehow separate from other
forms of thinking and that it is not possible to
plan for creative ideas. - The notions that creative individuals will come
up with ideas because they are good at that sort
of thing and that disciplined thinking is at
odds with creative thinking needs to be
challenged.
12Myth 3 Creative people are somehow special, a
bit different from the rest of us and actually a
bit strange in some way.
- Historically this view of things is associated
with formal educations preoccupation with
conformity. - In a system where what was learned and how it was
learned were best determined by the teacher or
the system, any deviation from the orthodox
approach was thought unconventional and even
dangerous in that it challenged the status quo
and destabilized the system with catastrophic
consequences!
13Initial Problem in Defining Creativity
- Society respects creativity less than
intelligence academic ability (a bias evident
particularly in schools) - Standardized tests tend to ignore creativity
(Ford, Harris Winborne, 1990) - Traditionally, society has provided a hazy yet
rigidly defined impression of creativity - Creativity suffers in cultures or societies that
do not appreciate creative people (Marl,1976
Torrance, 1984)
14Creative
The ability to make something that no one else
has made, to produce something novel, something
original
(Becker, M.G. 1994)
15Describing Creativity
- Bringing into being something that was not there
before. (Edward de Bono, 1992) - Wallas (1926) described creativity as a 7-step
process - Encounter was the stage of identifying a problem
or something out of the ordinary to be addressed. - Preparation consisted of gathering information,
researching the problem. - Concentration was the time-consuming stage that
occurs when a child puts forth effort to solve
the problem.
16- 4. Incubation occurred when a child could not
decide on a course of action. At this stage, a
child may physically remove himself from the
situation, hoping that a solution comes to mind. - 5. During illumination, the idea or solution
becomes apparent (Eureka!) - 6. During verification, a child attempts to prove
that the solution is appropriate. - 7. Persuasion occurs when a child attempts to
convince someone else that his product / idea
solves the problem.
17What does it mean to be creative?
- The creative person conceives something new,
makes something real that was unreal (i.e.,
fictitious, imaginary), actualizes what was
formerly only potential. - These are the commonly held conceptions of
creativity, but researchers have not agreed, and
still do not agree, on what is meant by
creativity (Glover, Ronning, Reynolds, 1989
Krebs Shelley, 1975 Runco Albert, 1990)
18Becker, 1994
- His contention Current use of the label
creativity - obscures the importance of discovery (Getzels
Csikszentmihalyi, 1976) of specialized, technical
competence (Root-Bernstein, 1988) - underplays the importance of asking the right
question (Brown, 1989 Csikszentmihalyi, 1990
Ghiselin, 1952 Henle, 1974)
19Defining Creativity
20Moustakas, 1961
- Experience of expressing or actualizing which
emerges from ones own search into oneself
Self-actualization as a creative act rather than
a cleansing or polishing of something that has
been obscured
21Gruber Root-Bernstein (1988)
- The word CREATIVE emphasizes the power of the
creator to produce something new - rather than
- the skill knowledge required to set the stage
for, recognize, bring forth, show a discovery.
22Psychological Definition(Boden, 1992)
Creativity
The ability to come up with an idea which,
relative to the pre-existing domain-space in
ones mind, one could not have done before
23What if others have done it?
- Whether any other person (or system) has already
come up with it on an earlier occasion is
irrelevant - That is a historical question, not a
psychological one - Boden, 1992
24Ford Harris, 1992
Creativity
- Modifiable, deliberate process that exists to
some degree in each of us. - Proceeds though an identifiable process is
verified through the uniqueness utility of the
product created. - It can be learned.
Creative people are made, not born.
25Identifying Creativity
26Problems inherent in identifying creativity are
as perplexing as those inherent in measuring
intelligence, achievement, and motivation.
Ford Harris, 1992
27Additional Difficulty
- Identifying creativity among culturally diverse
students is difficult because what is creative in
one culture may not be creative in another (Ford
Harris, 1992). - Society determines the values criteria by which
creative products are evaluated and opportunities
for creative expression are unequally distributed
within a society (Marl, 1976). - Distinct social cultural influences stimulate
creativity (Gowan Olson, 1979). - Unfavorable economic, social political factors
inhibit creativity (Gray, 1966).
28Torrance, 1984
- Buddhists used creativity tests (Koans) to select
gifted and talented candidates for training. - Chinese Japanese identified geniuses by asking
them to create poems.
29Gays (1978) 6-step plan for assessing
creativity(for culturally diverse students)
- 1. Use vocabulary creativity tests
- 2. Assess the entire student body
- 3. Rate students in leadership
- 4. Have parents complete a checklist of creative
behavior - 5. Make a commitment to including increased
numbers of culturally diverse students in gifted
talented programs - 6. Assign weight factors to various abilities
30Understanding Creativity
31Boden, 1990-1992
- Creativity can be scientifically understood with
the help of computational concepts - Computers and Creativity make interesting
partners with respect to 3 rather different types
of projects
3. PRAGMATIC / EDUCATIONAL Using computers to aid
ones own creativity
- PSYCHOLOGICAL
- Understanding human creativity
2. TECHNOLOGICAL Producing computer creativity
32Intriguing relationships between creativity
machines
- Computers can help us to do creative things
- Computational approaches can clarify many
questions about our own creative powers - Computers can give psychologists a way of seeing
more clearly into the rich subtleties of the
human mind
Boden (1992)
33Computational Methods
Concepts
Describe conceptual spaces
Draw from artificial intelligence
Generative system
Complex set of rules
Define relevant dimensions
Specify ways in which a range of structures
(ideas) can be generated
34Boden, 1992
- Human creativity is something of a mystery.
- Artists and scientists rarely know how their
original leads come about. - Artists and scientists allude to intuition but
cannot say how it works or how creativity can be
recognized.
How is creativity possible?
35Non-Combinational Creativity
- Involves exploration / transformation of
conceptual spaces (styles of thought) in
peoples minds, for example - - writing prose or poetry, genres of sculpture,
painting or music, theories in the math
sciences (any reasonably disciplined way of
thinking)
Boden, 1992
36Why Mozart is different from the rest of us!
- His mind contained
- more richly-detailed maps of musical structures
- more ways of negotiating them fruitfully
- than other people
Creative processes occur when there is an
integration of the characteristics of both
critical and creative thinking.
37Creative Thinkers
- Creative thinkers are highly skilled in using
the kind of thinking that is generally associated
with the right hemisphere, such as - making remote or uncommon associations
- constructing unusual categories
- finding new starting points
- going beyond the information given
- building broad networks
- producing novel configurations
- trusting personal intuition
38Some facets of creativity
- include various ways of thinking, doing and
communicating - involve combinations of imaginative, intuitive,
and logical thinking - is always about originality, the forming and
making of something new, whether it is an
artifact or a system or a procedure
Gruber, Pinker, Myers, Howe, Cropley
39Characteristics of Creative People
- Prescience
- Curiosity
- Non-conformity
- Persistence
- Sensitivity to beauty
- Self-awareness
- Independence
- Intuition
- Altruism
- Temperament
- A proclivity to make mistakes
- Sense of Humor
- Risk taking
Creative individuals see what everybody else has
seen but think what nobody has thought.
Ford Harris, 1992
40Creativity Basic Assumptions
- 1. Creativity involves a discontinuous shift in
perception only when habitual methods are not
successful in solving a problem or overcoming a
challenge. - 2. This perceptual shift is initiated by a highly
motivating provocative mental image that
behaves as a metaphoric precursor to an ultimate
workable solution or new insight. The answers to
the problem are somehow imbedded within the
metaphor.
41Creativity Basic Assumptions (continued)
- 3. The probability and rate of occurrences of
this metaphoric image increases significantly
when we can relinquish all connections to our
present mental state in the early stages of the
creative problem solving process.
42Seven Operating Principles to Improve Creative
Output
- 1. The future initiates and pulls creative
thought. - 2. Initial fact finding is best postponed.
- 3. Problem redefinition is often a retrospective
event. - 4. Metaphors and analogies fuel the creative
process. - 5. Forcing relationships is a key process factor.
- 6. Convergence is a highly creative process whose
potential is often neglected. - 7. One should work only on participants real
problems.
43- When the creative potential abilities of
children are nurtured, they become empowered as
free and independent individuals. - Instilling creativity in children creates
possibilities for solving future problems that
educators may not have even begun to envision.
Ford Harris, 1992
44Take a moment to enjoy the following performance
- http//mail.lynms.edu.hk/cwk/sand.wmv