Thinking in Project Work

C EATIVE

Facilitating Creativity for PW teachers

Contents Introduction 1

Objectives 2

A) Principles of Creativity 4

a. 4Ps of Creativity 5

b. Creative Person 6

c. Creative Press 7

d. Creative Product 8

e. Creative Process 9

B) Process Map of Creative Thinking

Tools for PW 10

C) References 12

Introduction his Creativity Resource Package is prepared specially for Pre-University Project Work (PW) teachers and students. It aims to expand teachers’ and students’ thinking skills by helping them understand the fundamentals of Creativity, as well as empowering them with a diverse set of problem solving, decision making and creativity tools. Besides helping students to produce original ideas that can be transformed through affirmative evaluation into creative solutions, the tools have also been proven to improve group performance by fostering a learning climate that is able to stimulate and draw maximum potential from every student (and teacher!).

The 3 stage creative process (pg.10) has been adapted from the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model as a conceptual framework to help organise the thinking process in PW. The range of tools has been specially selected to help students in three specific areas: diagnosing the challenge, diverging to generate more creative ideas and converging to ensure the ideas retain both novelty and effectiveness. The selected tools in the Tools Resource Kit should not be limiting as there are many more useful tools available to enrich our students’ thinking.

As your interactions with students and your experience with PW stretch YOUR own creativity, may we invite you to modify / adapt/ tear apart / colour our suggested activities in this package! ☺

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bjectives

1. Understand basic principles of Creativity; 2. Use a creative process for solving challenges and finding

opportunities in PW; 3. Learn basic facilitation tools to catalyse creative processes in

the creative process; 4. Use a variety of diagnostic thinking tools; 5. Use a variety of divergent thinking tools; and 6. Use a variety of convergent thinking tools.

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hinking is an art, with its own purposes, standards, principles, rules, strategies, and precautions. And it is an art well worth learning,

for every important thing we do is affected by our habits of mind. –Vincent Ryan Ruggiero

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Facilitating Creativity, Creatively Facilitating

Principles of Creativity

Before you ask, “SO, what’s it got to do with PW?” please answer the question below.

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Have you said these to your

students before?

Are you a DEMOLISHER of creativity?

I’ve never heard of it before Don’t rock the boat This is not in your GPP No way, this sounds ridiculous We have to be practical Too modern / old-fashioned an idea It has limited possibilities You have enough resources? This is too childish Stay on the safe side What’s the use? You’re sure you thought it through thoroughly This should be low in priority

What will your parents think?

We’re too small for that It’s a waste of time

Others have tried that before Too academic Does this really matter? No one will accept your ideas It won’t work You need more research It’s not practical at all

Come on, get real

Some of the above are popular (or did we mean unpopular?)

ways teachers tend to squelch students’ creative thinking (Amabile, 1988). Indeed, it is important to help our students understand external barriers to creativity and help them plan ahead to anticipate the resistance that may greet their innovative ideas and plans. Yet, it is also important to understand our internal barriers to help us (and our students) adopt an open mind and positive attitude towards creativity.

4Ps of Creativity

Creative thinking cannot take place in a vacuum.

The tasks present a challenge for students to THINK out of the . The 4 facets of Creativity described by Rhodes (1961) are Creative Person- traits or attributes of the creative individual, Creative Press (Environment)- context in which the psychological and physical classroom influence the expression of creative behaviour, Creative Process- iterative operations or stages of thinking, and Creative Product- tangible and intangible outcomes and qualities. As STs, we can encourage creativity by allowing the interaction of these 4 facets of creativity to bring about a transformative effect on our students’ thinking. We can also catalyse a creative change by positively influencing the learning outcomes in our PW classroom through a deliberate creative approach that is applied to the open-ended, novel and ambiguous problems presented by the PW task.

The Creative Change Model

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Creative Product

(e.g., theories, solutions to

problems, ideas, services,

inventions)

Interaction leads to

Creative Process

Creative Press

(Environment)

Creative People

Adoption leads to

Creative Change (e.g., social change, personal

change, innovation)

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Creative Person The Creative Person Just remember - Everyone is creative in some way!

Creativity skills can be taught & you can become more creative. Creativity is NOT only about innovation; it can also be about

adaptation/ modification. Michael Kirton (1976, 1994) described 2 types of a Creative Person - the adaptively-creative person who prefers to improve upon what exists and the innovatively-creative person who prefers to create anew.

How can we inspire a Creative Person? According to Teresa Amabile’s Componential Model of Creativity (1996, 1998), three things determine whether someone is creative. Component 1: Domain Knowledge

- In general, we can be creative only in domains in which we have sufficient knowledge and experience.

Encourage students to read widely and more specifically, to conduct literature review on the subject matter they are interested in.

Component 2: Intrinsic Motivation

- Intrinsic motivation comes from within; Pleasure or satisfaction is derived from working on the task itself.

Encourage students to work on projects that are of interest to them. Component 3: Creativity-related skills

- Ability to identify problems and see opportunities; Encourage students to apply critical and evaluative judgement.

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Creative Press The Creativity Press (Environment)

A creative learning environment is one in which students feel challenged, yet secure with a sense of freedom to facilitate creative performance.

Carl Rogers (1962) emphasises psychological safety in the classroom to encourage creative thinking and innovation.

How can we promote a Creative Environment?

Ask the Right Questions

• A good question is one that drives the thinking forward. • When we ask our students questions in class, does it invite

imagination and some free-wheeling? • Let’s try some of the following “What if?” and see how they change

your perceptions: o What if animals become more intelligent than people? o What if Singapore becomes submerged completely

tomorrow? o What if you are selected to become the youngest

ambassador to represent Singapore in the United Nations?

Facilitate Effectively

• When working with a group, the teacher facilitator is the process expert who serves the students’ content needs through the application of the creative process.

• Ideally, the teacher facilitator should be completely neutral, and work solely on the process, leaving content issues to the students (the problem owner).

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Creative Product

The Creative Product

Products are not limited to physical products, but also include services, programmes, models etc.

Creative products need not be novel ideas so long as there is insightful adaptation/ modification of ideas. This counts as creativity too.

How can we create a Creative Product? Encourage students to bear in mind both Novelty and

Usefulness when they create a proposal. Look at the table below. The most creative product is something that is both novel and useful!

HIGH

Fads

(product becomes less desirable when novelty wears off)

Creative Products (original products

that meet a need)

LOW

Repeating Past

Mistakes (unproductive

traditions or habits)

Utilitarian Products

(products that withstand the test of time)

LOW HIGH

Novelty

Usefulness Source: Puccio, Murdock, and Mance (2005)

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Creative Process The Creative Process

In PW, there are three main stages where thinking tools can be used by students to come up with a more creative proposal.

The three stages where the Thinking Tools can be used are as follows:

Stages Why the Stages are Important in PW Examining the Situation

- Ensures the scope of the project is neither too wide / too narrow

- Helps students to better identify and focus on the root of problem

- Allows students to think through the rationale thoroughly

- Enables students to identify and work on their areas of interests

Brainstorming for Ideas

- Helps students to generate a large quantity of ideas

- Allows students to generate ideas that are more novel

- Enables students to generate ideas that are more substantial

Appraising the Ideas

- Helps students to consider the feasibility and manageability of their project more carefully

- Allows students to select and work with the best options

How can we facilitate the PW Process creatively?

Encourage the students to use a variety of creative thinking tools (Diagnostic, Divergent and Convergent tools) at each stage.

The next page shows you some of these tools that will be explained in

detail in the Tools Resource Kit. Although they have been categorised according to the 3 stages for the ease of your use, they can actually be used across the stages. Once you have become more comfortable with them, try using them across the 3 stages!

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Examining

the Situation

Brain-storming for Ideas

Appraising the Ideas

Purpose

• Generate large quantity of ideas

• Generate novel ideas

• Make new connections between ideas

• Analyse strengths & weaknesses of ideas

• Weigh & evaluate different options

• Arrive at group consensus

Recommended Tool/s

Gap Analysis

Affinity Diagram

Ladder of Abstraction

Visual Connections

Idea Box

Excursions

Hits & Clusters

Evaluation Matrix

Searching for Success Zones

Praise First with PPCo

PW Project Task

Diagnostic Tools

• Define the problem• Narrow / widen the

scope • Clarify the rationale

Divergent Tools

Convergent Tools

Stages

Brainstorming with Post-its

SWOT Analysis

Process Map of Creative Thinking Tools for PW

Notes

Convergent Thinking

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References

Amabile, T. M. (1987). The motivation to be creative. In S. G. Isaksen (Ed.), Frontiers of creativity research: Beyond the basics (pp. 223-254). Buffalo, NY: Bearly limited.

Amabile, T. M. (1990). Within you, without you: Towards a social

psychology of creativity. and beyond. In M. A. Runco & R. S. Alberts (Eds.), Theories of creativity. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Downton, J. V. (1973). Rebel leadership: Commitment and charisma in a

revolutionary process. New York: Free Press. Kirton, M. J. (1976). Adaptors and innovators: A description and measure.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 61, 622-629. Kirton, M. J. (1994). Adaptors and innovators: Styles of creativity and

problem solving (Rev. ed.). London: Routledge. Miller, B. J., Vehar, J. R.; Firestien, R. L. (2001). CPS facilitation: A door to

creative leadership (3rd Ed.) . Williamsville, NY: Innovation Systems Group.

Northouse, P. G. (2004). Leadership: Theory and practice (3rd ed.).

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Puccio, G., Murdock, M. C., & Mance, M. (2005). Current developments

in creative problem solving for organisations: A focus on thinking skills and styles. The Korean Journal of Creative Behaviour, 34, 227-247.

Puccio, G. J., Murdock, M. C., & Mance, M. (2007). Creative leadership:

Skills that drive change. Three Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Puccio, G., & Switalski, B. L. (2008). Advanced cognitive tools for creative

problem solving. Buffalo, New York: International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State.

Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. Phi Delta Kapan, 42, 305-310. Rhodes, M. (1987). An analysis of creativity. In S.G. Isaksen (Ed.), Frontiers

of creativity research: Beyond the basics. Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.

Rogers, C. R. (1962). Toward a theory of creativity. In S. J. Parnes & H. F.

Hardings (Eds.), A source book for creative thinking. New York: Scribners.

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Facilitating Creative Thinking

in Project Work

Resource Package for PW teachers

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