Classroom Application Activity #3 Classroom Strategies to Encourage and Develop Creativity

Brainstorming The idea originated with advertising executive Alex Osborn in response to his frustration with his employees inability to come up with creative ideas individually. He held group-thinking sessions and as a result the quality of ideas generated increased greatly. (History and use of brainstorming, 2011) A group of individuals generates ideas as a group with the following principles in place - criticism is not allowed, far-fetched ideas are welcome, the more ideas the better, and combining ideas is good. (Starko, 2014, pp. 149–151) Brainstorming can be used in the math classroom to help students generate ideas for different methods to solve problems.

SCAMPER Bob Eberle used some of Osborn’s ideas to come up with the SCAMPER acronym to help promote creative thinking through asking focused questions. The different parts of the acronym are Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put, Eliminate, and Rearrange or Reverse. There are questions associated with different parts of the acronym to help promote creative thinking. (Starko, 2014, pp. 153–157) This strategy can help students explore different concepts more in depth, such as equations, statistics, and proportions.

Visualization Visual imagery has been seen as an important component of the creative problem-solving process by Eberle, Bagley, Finke, and others. Visualization is used to create mental images of things that we cannot see or that do not exist. Using prior knowledge and guidance in thinking is key to help students grow in their mastery of content. (Starko, 2014, pp. 181–183) Visual imagery is something that can be put to good use in mathematics, both through visual models and actually visualizing the situation. When students make connections between the visual and the abstract the learning occurs at a much deeper level.

Six Thinking Hats This discussion model was developed by Edward de Bono and helps people to approach a problem through many different perspectives. The six different hats are (Starko, 2014, pp. 164–165) White – facts and info Green – creative effort Red – emotions and feelings Black – critical judgment Yellow – possibilities Blue – monitors thinking This can be a great model to have students go through when they are solving complex problems in mathematics. Students don’t always know where to start and this could help them move through some good steps to solve a problem.

The Creative Pause This is an intentional pause in the middle of a line of thinking. This is done for the purpose of considering whether what they are doing could be approached in a different way. If no new line of thought comes up the original line is continued upon. (Starko, 2014, p. 162) This is a strategy that could be very useful in mathematics. So often students get so engrossed in solving a problem or even get lost in their own thinking that they are not able to consider other approaches that might be better. If students pause and back away from their approach for a few minutes it could prove to be very beneficial.

Exploring Data This is a part of the Creative Problem Solving model. The model as a whole finds roots in the work of Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes. It is a model that is complex and can be used as a whole or can be used in small parts. (The CPS Process - Creative Education Foundation, 2016) In the exploring data part of the model students learn as much as they can about a situation as possible. This can also be a time to sort through relevant and irrelevant information. (Starko, 2014, pp. 166-167) This is an important part of solving complex mathematics problems and can often be overlooked or not given enough time. It is helpful for students to think about what they might need as it will also help them understand the problem more.

References History and use of brainstorming. (2011). Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/historyofbrainstorming.html Starko, A. J. (2014). Creativity in the classroom: Schools of curious delight (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. The CPS Process - Creative Education Foundation. (2016). Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org/creative- problem-solving/the-cps-process/