I am not creative. I’ve said it a countless number of times over my life. There are so many people who have commiserated with me in this as well. After attending the Learning and the Brain conference earlier this year, the theme of which was The Science of Innovation: Teaching Students to Think, Create, Imagine and Inspire, I’ve given that position a great deal of thought… and I’m thinking of changing my mind. I’m also wondering, can this be taught?
Creativity is a difficult term to define. It means different things to different people. Often I think of creativity in the context of art. But creativity is more than that. It can be many things. To create according to Merriam-Webster (2018) is “to make or bring into existence something new”. According to Dictionary.com (2018), to “cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes”. When I look at creativity in these terms, I am creative. As a professor, I create things on a fairly regular basis. I write courses, make assignments for those courses and synthesize information into presentations and/or publications to contribute to my field. That is creative. So – how do I think about creativity and get better at it?
Attending the Learning and the Brain conference allowed me to explore ideas others presented about being creative and innovative. One of the themes that I noticed was that creativity is an innate ability. Dr. Alison Gopnik (2018) presented research that provided a foundation that being creative and imaginative is integral to how we learn and that it can be measured as early as 2 years old, giving credence to the innateness of creativity. Sadly, as asserted by Sir Ken Robinson (2006) in his much-watched TED Talk, our schools seem to discourage creativity rather than nurture it. I’d like to provide some insights regarding how our innate creativity can be nurtured in educational settings.
In a series of presentations by David Eagleman, author of The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World (2017), Todd Kashdan, Ph.D., Professor and author of Curious? (2009) and Larry Robertson author of The Language of Man: Learning to Speak Creativity (2016) I gleaned ways that would facilitate practicing and enhancing of one’s innate creativity. Robertson’s (2017) ideas from business can be repurposed for a school setting. Robertson (2017) tells the story of Richard Tait, an innovator and founder of multiple businesses, many of which are Web-based.
One of the ways Tait found to be creative was to take a deliberate pause in his day. He would go to lunch. To get there he would take a different route to different places as often as possible. This could be repurposed in a school setting by taking a different route to classes or to the cafeteria. Hold class in a different place or even outside in a different setting. When en route to or in a new or different space, create opportunities for curiosity (Kashdan, 2018). Provide a gap, allow for autonomy (Kashdan, 2018). Allowing for this mental wandering and wondering is an impetus for creativity and thinking differently. According to Kashdan (2018), neither intelligence nor grit are factors of curiosity, but if curious, one will spend 20% more time doing what he or she is doing. That’s pretty significant. So if we promote or allow opportunities for our students to be curious about the material they need to know or be able to do, they may spend more time doing it…
Eagleman (2018) asserts that creativity equates to cognitive flexibility. The brain is constantly seeking novelty, but not so much as it is overwhelming and unable to process the onslaught of new information. It doesn’t like too much repetition, because it is boring. It seems there is a constant push and pull between novelty and familiarity which allows us to flex our thinking and get to new places. He explained this flexibility in three actions – bending, breaking and blending (Eagleman, 2018).
Dr. Eagleman used an example of the Center Pompidou in Paris.
This is a bending of reality. What is typically on the inside of a building’s walls – plumbing, electrical conduit, HVAC ventilation, etc. – are in this case all on the outside of the building. Why would someone do this? Well, it’s just a different way of thinking about how space is used inside…
Another example, this time of breaking (Eagleman, 2018) is taking something old or pre-existing, and using it to create something new. For example, Tchaikovsky used the pre-existing French National Anthem as part of the 1812 Overture.
Blending in Eagleman’s (2018) view is using two disparate parts to create something completely new. The example he used is fascinating. Google Sparkle the spider goat. Scientists have spliced goat genes and spider genes to enable the goats to produce milk containing silk akin to spider silk. Pound for pound it’s some of the strongest fiber on Earth pacificdreamscapes.com. Nexia Biotechnologies called it BioSteel. The idea of taking part of one animal and part of another to create something new that will, in turn, produce something like BioSteel is a practical application of the kind of blending Eagleman talks about.
All of these things allow us to be creative in our own ways. And, we are all creative in one way or another. The way we learn is creative in nature. We create meaning for ourselves beginning at an incredibly early age (Gopnik, 2018). So when thinking about helping students and others to be more creative; help them to make deliberate pauses to think, take different routes to different places (Robertson, 2018). Create opportunities for them to be curious (Kashdan, 2018). Allow them to generate options away from the path of least resistance by bending, breaking and blending realities (Eagleman, 2018). “The kid that may not make the best grades may be the most creative and will only be found by the most observant educator” – Daniel La Gattuta
Dictionary.com. (2018). Retrieved May 25, 2018, from http://www.dictionary.com/
Eagleman, D., Ph.D. (2018, February 16). Keynote on how human creativity remakes the world and education. Lecture presented at Learning and the Brain, San Fransisco.
Kashdan, T., Ph.D. (2018, February 16). Keynote on igniting curiosity and creativity. Lecture presented at Learning and the Brain, San Fransisco.
Merriam-Webster. (2018). Retrieved May 25, 2018, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
Robertson, L. (2017, November 10). Want To Enhance Your Creative Powers? Learn the Power of a Simple Pause. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.inc.com/larry-robertson/so-youre-terrible-at-innovating-walk-this-way.html
Walker, C. M., & Gopnik, A. (2013). 22 Causality and Imagination. The Oxford handbook of the development of imagination, 342.
http://www.parisianist.com/public/assets/img/articles/pompidou-centre/en/centre-pompidou-pipes.jpg
Dictionary.com. (2018). Retrieved May 25, 2018, from http://www.dictionary.com/
Eagleman, D., Ph.D. (2018, February 16). Keynote on how human creativity remakes the world and education. Lecture presented at Learning and the Brain, San Fransisco.
Kashdan, T., Ph.D. (2018, February 16). Keynote on igniting curiosity and creativity. Lecture presented at Learning and the Brain, San Fransisco.
Merriam-Webster. (2018). Retrieved May 25, 2018, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
Robertson, L. (2017, November 10). Want To Enhance Your Creative Powers? Learn the Power of a Simple Pause. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.inc.com/larry-robertson/so-youre-terrible-at-innovating-walk-this-way.html
Walker, C. M., & Gopnik, A. (2013). 22 Causality and Imagination. The Oxford handbook of the development of imagination, 342.
http://www.parisianist.com/public/assets/img/articles/pompidou-centre/en/centre-pompidou-pipes.jpg