A day or so later, I thought I might send it to my colleague to put on our shared student blog for language arts and social studies. We have been talking a lot with our students about the 4C's- courage, compassion, creativity, and confidence- so I thought they might like it.
Just before I pressed the send button, I thought, "I'd better read the whole thing first, just in case..." Well, I am happy I did so, because there are two quotes that I'm not sure I agree with and want to explore a bit more.
Is creativity something you are "blessed with" (born with), something "that cannot be taught" according to this infographic? Hmmm, that doesn't seem to make sense. So, you are either born with creativity or you aren't? Oh, so I can look around my class and say that some students in here are creative and some aren't? Too bad if you aren't, I guess.
So, I googled it: "Creativity innate or acquired"- yup, over 2,000,000 hits.
1.the state or quality of being creative.
2.the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns,relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful newideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination:
3.the process by which one utilizes creative ability:
Still no idea what the research says. In the lower grades, creativity is often equated with artistic ability. However, if we look at the second and third definition above, creativity goes beyond the artistic into an ability to solve problems in unique ways, to invent new methods or processes to adapt to the world around us. Is this something that only some of us have? Or, can we nurture these skills in our students to help them acquire more creative thinking skills?
2.the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns,relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful newideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination:
3.the process by which one utilizes creative ability:
Still no idea what the research says. In the lower grades, creativity is often equated with artistic ability. However, if we look at the second and third definition above, creativity goes beyond the artistic into an ability to solve problems in unique ways, to invent new methods or processes to adapt to the world around us. Is this something that only some of us have? Or, can we nurture these skills in our students to help them acquire more creative thinking skills?
In this article, Tina Seelig (author of the book inGenius) states: “Many people question whether creativity can be taught and learned. They believe that creative abilities are fixed, like eye color, and can’t be changed. They think that if they aren’t currently creative, there is no way to increase their ability to come up with innovative ideas. I couldn’t disagree more. There is a concrete set of methods and environmental factors that can be used to enhance your imagination, and by optimizing these variables your creativity naturally increases. Unfortunately, these tools are rarely presented in a formalized way. As a result, creativity appears to most people to be something magical rather than the natural result of a clear set of processes and conditions.”
She also believes that: "Creativity exists when we desire to solve that problem with relevance and novelty. Relevance requires that we actually solve the problem. This is also a common misconception about creativity, that any solution that is ‘different’ or ‘out of the box’ qualifies. This is only true if that solution indeed solves the problem. If I asked you to come up with an idea for a cereal box toy and you responded with a full-size water buffalo, that solution is not creative despite being quite unusual. It’s not creative because the solution isn’t relevant. It didn’t actually solve the problem. Novel, yes. Relevant, no. Which brings us to the second requirement of creativity: novelty. Novelty is a subjective measure of the uniqueness of a solution. The degree by which a solution is considered novel is an inexact measurement, it is different to each person. This is why we think creativity is so magical because there’s no defined plateau an idea must reach to be considered novel. Creativity is not absolute because of this characteristic. Novelty, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The key is to decide who the beholder should be."
She then goes on to answer my question like this:
"So the question of whether creativity is innate or learned comes down to this: Can you learn to solve problems with relevance and novelty? The answer, quite simply, is yes. In the same way you can learn to play an instrument or learn to speak another language, you can learn to solve problems better. How? The same way you would learn to play an instrument or speak another language: practice. If you are presented problems consistently and you choose to solve those problems with relevance and novelty, you can improve creatively."
In summary, in Tina's words:
"Creativity can be learned; it is a process that we can repeat and in that repetition, we find growth. Every one of us possesses the ability to be creative, regardless of the suppression that ability has endured over time. If you practice something with purpose and pattern, you will find that it’s not only getting easier but you’re becoming pretty good at it. We have had the ability to master it like a craft our entire lives. In some small part, perhaps we were born that way."
