Creativity School Motivation What do you think?

Are you creative? How?

What is creativity?

Type 1: Divergent Thinking The ability to consciously generate new ideas that branch out to many possible solutions for a given problem. These solutions or responses are then scored on four components: Originality - statistical infrequency of response Fluency - number of responses Flexibility - the degree of difference of the responses, in other words do they come from a single domain or multiple domains laboration - the amount of detail of the response

Name All the Uses for a brick Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task (1967) Name All the Uses for a brick

Name things with wheels Wallas and Kogan (1965) Name things with wheels

Scoring Originality - each response it compared to the total amount of responses from all of the people you gave the test to.  Reponses that were given by only 5% of your group are unusual (1 point), responses that were given by only 1% of your group are unique - 2 points).  Total all the point.  Higher scores indicate creativity* Fluency - total. Just add up all the responses.  Flexibility - or different categories.  Elaboration - amount of detail (for Example "a doorstop" = 0 whereas "a door stop to prevent a door slamming shut in a strong wind" = 2 (one for explanation of door slamming, two for further detail about the wind).   

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (1962) What might this be?

Figural Thinking Creatively with Pictures Assesses 5 mental characteristics: fluency   resistance to premature closure Elaboration abstractness of titles Originality Creative strengths: emotional expressiveness  internal visualization storytelling articulateness extending or breaking boundaries movement or action Humor expressiveness of titles richness of imagery synthesis of incomplete figures  colorfulness of imagery fantasy unusual visualization

Type 2: Convergent Thinking The ability to correctly hone in the single correct solution to a problem.  In creativity convergent thinking often requires taking a novel approach to the problem, seeing the problem from a different perspective or making a unique association  between parts of the problem. Theses solutions are scored either correct or incorrect .

Insight Problems A problem that requires the examinee to shift his or her perceptive and view the problem in a novel way in order to achieve the solution.  There are several types of insight problems.  The three predominant types are verbal, mathematical, and spatial (Dow & Mayer 2003)

Verbal Marsha and Marjorie were born on the same day of the same month of the same year to the same mother and the same father yet they are not twins. How is that possible?

Answer They are triplets

Mathematical There are ten bags, each containing ten gold coins, all of which look identical.   In nine of the bags each coin is 16-ounces, but in one of the bags the coins are actually 17-ounces each.  How is it possible, in a single weighing on an accurate weighing scale, to determine which bag contains the 17-ounce coins

Solution Take a different amount of coins out from each bag. 1 from the 1st bag, 2 from the 2nd, 3 from the 3rd etc. Then weigh all those coins. If all the bags weigh 16 ounces you will have 55 ounces (10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1). Any amount in excess of the 55 ounces will determine which bag contains the 17 ounces two ounces over = bag 2,if it is 7 ounces over = bag 7 etc).] CLICK ON BAGS ABOVE FOR VISUAL SOLUTION

Spatial Draw four continuous straight lines, connecting all the dots without lifting your pencil from the paper.

Solution Solution: think outside of the box

Remote Association Task (Mednick, 1962) What single word associates these three words together? Cottage  :  Blue:    Mouse

Type 3: Artistic Assessment The evaluations of an artistic product (e.g., painting, story, poem, musical composition, collage, drawing etc.).  Evaluations are typically done by two or more judges that must be in near agreement on the creativity of the product.

Type 4: Self-Assessment Peoples’ responses to the amount of creativity a personal feels they exhibit. persons responses to the amount of creativity a person feels they exhibit.

All different scales How many times have you… publis Have you published a poem?

Questions 1 1. I have many wild ideas. 2. I think about ideas more often than most people. 3. I often get excited by my own new ideas. 4. I come up with a lot of ideas or solutions to problems. 5. I come up with an idea or solution other people have never thought of. 6. I like to play around with ideas for the fun of it. 7. It is important to be able to think of bizarre and wild possibilities. 8. I would rate myself highly in being able to come up with ideas. 9. I have always been an active thinker—I have lots of ideas. 10. I enjoy having leeway in the things I do and room to make up my own mind.

Questions 2 11. My ideas are often considered “impractical” or even "wild." 12. I would take a college course which was based on original ideas. 13. I am able to think about things intensely for many hours. 14. Sometimes I get so interested in a newidea that I forget about other things I should be doing. 15. I often have trouble sleeping at night, because so many ideas keep popping into my head. 16. When writing papers or talking to people, I often have trouble staying with one topic because I think of so many things to write or say. 17. I often find that one ofmyideas has led me to other ideas that have led me to other ideas, and I end up with an idea and do not know where itcamefrom. 18. Some people might think me scatterbrained or absentminded because I think about a variety of things at once. 19. I try to exercise my mind by thinking things through. 20. I am able to think up answers to problems that haven't already been figured out.

SO… Was Sir Ken right? Does school kill creativity for you?

What about Motivation

What motivates you to do school work and does it vary by topic?

Have you ever been “in the flow”?

FLOW Defined Mihály Csíkszentmihályi Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded  immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow.

Write Down 3 times (if possible) when you were in the flow