Conceptual Blockbusting A Guide to BETTER Ideas (John L. Adams) Chapters 1&2

Enhancing Creativity Nickerson (1999: 407) lists the most common ways of enhancing creativity on the level of personality.  establish purpose and intention  acquire of domain-specific knowledge  stimulate and reward curiosity and exploration  build internal motivation  encourage confidence and a willingness to take risks  focus on mastery and self-competition  promote supportable belief about creativity  provide opportunities for choice and discovery  develop self-management (metacognitive) skillsself-management  learn techniques and strategies for creative performance Raymond Nickerson, “Enhancing Creativity” in Sternberg, Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge, 1999.

Conceptual blocks...mental walls which block the problem-solver from correctly perceiving a problem or conceiving its solution.

Thinking processes Spontaneous Unconscious Little energy expended monitoring or seeking to improve process. The Monk on the Mountain

Goal of this course segment....to Make you more aware of how you think CONCEPTUALIZATION... Focus on CONCEPTUALIZATION... The process by which one has ideas.

Learning Connections Inventory Consider the Learning Connections Inventory Sequential Step by step Use models Work from beginning to endPrecise Need detailed info Write down everythng Need to be accurate Technical Figure things out Don’t write things down Need Purpose Confluent Don’t like repetition See things differently Enjoy risks

Conceptual blocks (John L. Adams) Perceptual blocks Emotional blocks Cultural blocks Environmental blocks Intellectual blocks Expressive blocks

PERCEPTUAL blocks: Detecting what you expect (stereotyping) Difficulty in isolating the problem Tendency to delimit the problem area poorly Inability to see the problem from various viewpoints Saturation Failure to utilize all sensory inputs

What do you see ??? WOWOLFOL PAWALKRK 

1. Detecting what you expect (stereotyping) Perceptual Stereotyping helps complete incomplete data. BUT.. It’s a handicap to perceiving new combinations Creativity involves combining disparate parts into a new whole. Stereotype is a function of providing “CONTEXT” so we can remember and categorize information.

2. Difficulty in ISOLATING the problem Problems obscured by inadequate cues or misleading information. Problems are multidimensional. One may pick wrong facet to solve. (Mechanical Tomato Picker)

3. Tend to DELIMIT problem area too much “Framing” a problem too narrowly. Imposing too many constraints on problem solution Cat scratching furniture Reduced limits leads to multidisciplinary considerations

4. Inability to see the problem from various viewpoints Most problems affect people other than the problem solver.

5. Saturation

Want to try some more ??? Ground Pennsylvania B&O Shore Line Reading

Parting shots ??? ECONOMYECONOMY XQQQME