Creativity of Young Students - Essay Example

CREATIVITY Introduction The attempt on action research project conducted with a group of KS3 design and technology students at secondary school in Newbury showed quite some important insights on the aspects of creativity. The project was aimed to investigate learner perspective of creativity within design. It was also studied in the context of technology and how the view can be expressed in relation to the formulation of a scheme of works. On the study, my rationale for introducing creativity resulted to have a humble beginning and scaffold creativity and creative thinking in small reflective steps, intimately with the learner. However, Csikszentmihalyi suggested that young students "cannot be creative, but all creative adults were once young students' (Csikszentmihalyi, 1966:156). The entire idea of this statement by Csikszentmihalyi is dependent on the fact that young students "can show tremendous talent, but they cannot be creative because creativity involves changing a way of doing things, a way of thinking, and that in turn requires having mastered the old ways of doing/ thinking. No matter how precocious a student is this he cannot do' (1996:155). In other words Csikszentmihalyi stated that it is education that makes an individual creative. In this context it would be relevant to mention that Amabile suggested that "...creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation; the first is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the second" (Amabile et al 1996). As it is Csikszentmihalyi viewed creativity as the highest achievement of human mind as he states that "Creativity is the central source of life for several reasons. Most of the things that are interesting, important and human are the result of creativity." (1997: 1) Csikszentmihalyi's views in this context suggested that there is an attempt of invoking creativity within young students but there can be no conviction that the method proved the usher of creativity within young students of 12-16 years. It should be noted that eminent thinkers and educationists like Paulo Freire and John Dewey believed that students enter the class with no education and it is the duty of the teacher to endow the students with the knowledge that they wish to acquire but they stressed on the particulars of methods and neglected creativity by keeping it aside as they implied that it is a inheriting part of the young student's mechanism. In this regard we can enumerate the ideas put forward by Emerson who suggested that "by our tempering and thwarting and too much governing he may be hindered from his end and kept out on his own" (Emerson 251) In other words Emerson believed that the students should be given enough liberty to formulate their own approach towards education or they are creative enough to formulate one. This again is an alternative view of Csikszentmihalyi's views that suggested that even if there are no direct evidence of creativity there always remains an element of attempt to be creative all along. Literature review View of Csikszentmihalyi states that "creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognize and validate the innovation." (1997: 6) but in the same context Freire suggests that it " emerges through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful enquiry men peruse in the world, with the world, and with each other." (Freire 319) Thus it can be enumerated that this element according to Freire is more of a reflex action rather than a formulated procedure and it can be further mentioned that this process of learning is an instrument of survival that was incorporated within us from the prehistoric era and he expects every young student to be creative. Freire stressed that the education of young students must involve their senses. He presents guidelines for creating an educational environment that provides the opportunity for each sense to be developed and used in problem solving and she assumed this to be hint of creativity. However, Williams suggested that 'Nature is God's creation; art is man's creation' (Williams, 1961:6) Thus it is suggested that education is fundamental for creativity as man develop art from nature and this requires creativity that cannot be achieved without knowledge. Logically enough Williams mentions that 'Since our way of seeing things is literally our way of living, the process of communication is in fact the process of community: the sharing of common meanings, and hence common activities and purposes; the offering, reception and comparison of new meanings, leading to the tensions and achievements of growth and change.' (Williams, 1961:38) This formulation is quite at par with Dewey who mentioned that "if he cannot devise his own solution and find his own way out he will not learn. Not even he can recite some correct answer with one hundred percent accuracy." (Dewey 307) As a result it would be the subjects own perception of liberal though process. This would ultimately solve the problem or at least try to solve the problem with individual skills possible. Freire insists that the errors were the most important part of the educational experience and just by presenting the right course would be nothing else but spoon feeding. As a result Csikszentmihalyi's views become relevant in this context. Freire describes several periods of the young student's growth that become sensitive periods during which the "young student is capable of extraordinary leaps in learning of different skills and bodies of knowledge. It is essential that the young student should be able to maximise his or her potential during these sensitive periods, in order to develop as a full human being" (Botsford, 1993: p.3). Csikszentmihalyi's views never claim that a young student is unable to learn but the point they differ from Freire is the mode of development of creativity. It is stated that 'The paths the young student follows in the active construction of his individuality are indeed identical with those followed by the genius' (2004a:169). Under this parameter it is also suggested that 'let us give him a vision of the whole universe an imposing reality, and an answer to all questions.' (2000b:5) But this is to suggest the ability to learn and not to be creative. Even in the context of imagination it is essential to remember that a young student's imagination is basically an extended version of reality and not an act of creative manifestation. However it is stated that 'Imagination does not become great until man, given the courage and strength, uses it to create'. (2004b:21) In order to do this effectively, Freire, who believed that 'The creative imagination of science is based upon truth,' (2004a:186), began to research student psychology and psychoanalysis again implying that creativity is an essential element of a student that Csikszentmihalyi's views completely disagree. Froebel urged educators to dismiss the idea of educating young students formally and instead allow them to play and develop holistically as the potential of free thinking capacity and imagination, the base of creativity. This is well aligned with the statement that suggested 'a worker with his head or with his hands, instead of being allowed to function with his whole personality' (2000b:9) Thus, the curriculum at a Freire suggested school is quite different from that of traditional schools throughout the years and in context of imagination and creativity his views were that 'truth is also the basis of artistic imagination' (2004a:189) where truth overshadowed creativity and so became the fundamentals of his methods that believed that 'The education of the hand is particularly important since the hand is the organ of the mind, the means which the human intelligence uses to express itself' (2002c:284). But the stress on truth is more theoretical than practical because the concept of truth itself is a product of education as stated by Csikszentmihalyi. However, Freire stressed that the education of very young students must involve their senses. He presents guidelines for creating an educational environment that provides the opportunity for each sense to be developed and used in problem solving (Montessori describes a game she created for young students that illustrates this concept). The game involves placing differently shaped objects into opening into which only one specific object will fit. However, it should be sated that she confused learning process with imagination and as per as Csikszentmihalyi is concerned it is education that is all important for a student and not the imagination or creativity as implied by her. It is clear that Csikszentmihalyi believed that creativity of the end product of education and not the other way around. This is because Csikszentmihalyi believed that creativity is the result of idleness and if a student is not given enough opportunity to be idle it is impossible to become creative or imaginative. The fact that young students are not creative lies in the fact that they are hardly given the opportunity to be idle and Montessori completely overlooked this element. From the dawn of civilization it has been seen on numerous occasions that creativity develops where there are enough opportunity of good yield or economic boom. That is to say imaginative mind and creativity flourish when the beholder is not consumed by other element of livelihood and there are enough opportunities to be idle. From the parameters of Csikszentmihalyi idleness becomes evident when "it is not the play but the idleness of the street" (1997: 155) But imagination and creativity to Csikszentmihalyi is completely subjective thus alignment with this theory becomes completely irrelevant. Clearly the success of the alternate Method has endured throughout time and across oceans. A typical alternate school will break down its units into schools which deal with young students from two months to three years, from three years to six years, from six years to fourteen years. At the youngest unit, the parent and the student attend together as the infant begins to recognize and respond to his social environment. When the student can think independently enough, he begins to construct his own social interactions the fundamentals of actual use of creativity are completely ignored as Csikszentmihalyi points out over and over again. However, a student is introduced to the unit in which he begins to absorb all the aspects of his social sphere and culture on an experimental and individual basis which does not leave him fatigued or frustrated. Some elements in this unit include practical life lessons, such as cleaning, cooking and helping others; language acquisition and development, such as interacting with letter cut outs, listening to stories and poetry, and engaging in conversations; science and art experimentation, such as hands on activities with nature, animals, music and art; and mathematics, which involves the developing of reasoning abilities through the manipulation of shapes and other concrete materials Young students at the 12-16 years level extend these activities to include more work in small groups, field trips to planetariums, cultural centres, and museums, and the development of critical thinking skills through language and mathematics puzzles and activities. However, Csikszentmihalyi is right when it is stated that "while we cannot foresee the eventual results of creativity at least we can try to understand better what this force is and how it works". (1997: 6)He even places extra stress on the subject when he mentions that "for most of the human history, creativity was held to be a prerogative of Supreme Being". (1997: 5) Thus it is obvious that from the parameters of creativity he suggests it to be a result of educated mind and not an element that is incorporated from birth. Though alternate method, proposed by Freire, never commented on the aspects of creativity he however developed a curriculum that fosters creativity by quite an extent. It should be mentioned that there is abundant independence under the parameter of this method but at the same time the implementation of discipline is quite rigid. However, the job of the teacher in this form of curriculum is quite difficult. This is a time of the student's age when the lust for knowledge is unfathomable and thus the teacher must always be ready to provide sufficient information at all point of time. At the same time it is the job of the teacher to constantly challenge the student in the context of intelligence because this would enable the student to device newer method of understanding and develop skill in the process. In other words it can be stated that the student is evaluated and analyzed by the attending teacher who chooses the best possible method of learning for the student. The final situation effects into a situation where a student is able to develop the maximum amount of potential. 'The paths the student follows in the active construction of his individuality are indeed identical with those followed by the genius' (2004a:169). Thus it can be stated that the alternate curriculum makes way for the student to be more involved in the education process. Methodology The best statistical method would be to interview long well formulated day-to-day working procedure at a specific and well-selected location. Throughout the procedure, it should be noticed whether there are specific variables within the testable population or not. These variables would be extremely important while evaluating the basic data in the final stages where the adjustments would be made to the formulated data in accordance to the observations. However, it is important to take into account the aspects of fundamental variables of an individual such as ethnicity, religious belief or positive support from the structure of the academics and individual. It is necessary to design a new experiment that test the statistical method. For the purpose, it is necessary to collect a complete data of the site that would include different religion, ethnicity or gender. An open meeting with potential customers of e commerce would be very relevant in this context but only the upper income limits should be taken into account in the initial stages. This is because only upper sections are the groups that are most likely to be acquainted with the subject. The mixed gender of male and female potential subjects could well be excluded, as that would complicate matters in the context of gender variable juxtaposed with other pre mentioned variables but considering other dependable factors sustaining it would yield to be fruitful in the long run. Data would be collected in relation to the gender, colour, and religion of the potential customers in respect to the composition of the management under the same parameters. Furthermore, the favourable conditions in the context of subject response would also be accounted. All these variables are considered as very relevant and important features of the statistical method and it is to be seen if these aspects are fundamentally acceptable in practical world and it could well be mentioned that researches are a very relevant manifestation of the social dimensions. As a result, if the test is carried out in a proper manner with proper calculations of the population involved then there is no reason that the results would be both logical and true at the end consideration. In accordance to the basic test selected it could be stated that it could be possible that the outcome would be relatively logical in the sense that it would ultimately follow the trends of social facilitation theory along with criminal and judicial alignment. However, there would be few independent variables in the context of the test. These could not be explained by the statistical method statements. Thus, there could be some flaws to the collection of the population but if these aspects were kept in mind then the shortcomings would easily be negotiated during the ultimate computations. As a result, the test would appear to be a full proofed measure that would be able to define and prove the fundamental aspects and statistical method applied. As descriptions of statistical methods that will be used it could be stated that in order to isolate the results for this particular study, only a survey questionnaire done would have been utilized. These questionnaires would be delivered to subjects along with the administrators of different departments. The results were divided into these same categories to ensure validity and reliability. General information in regard to identifiers was utilized in order to ensure that there would be no bias. The study would in fact be balanced in its validity and reliability by results in questionnaires delivered. Data would be gained from a specific area for ease of accessibility and for targeted accuracy lending reliability and validity to the research process. The variables involved would also include age groups, amount of education, and understanding of security needs and responsibility. The research paradigm considered by the researcher in regard to this work included the consideration of groups and how strategically developed planning would target them. The data sampling would be randomly managed utilizing stratified means with thirty-seven questionnaires completed by both male and female potential subjects. The choice to use potential and existing customers alone in this research was made for three reasons. First, it was far simpler to have access to customers in regard to the researcher's availability. Second, the focus itself is on customers' attitudes and understanding of the gadget. Third, the quantification of such information allows the researcher to gain a broader perspective on how subjects observe and realize the validity and reliability of information received. Findings It should be mentioned that alternate's Method has definitely earned its place in schools worldwide. Some Montessori techniques are incorporated into regular public and private schools while some schools are themselves designated as alternate Schools in the context of imagination and creativity was not up to the mark as indicated by Csikszentmihalyi. Either way, the research into student psychology and student psychoanalysis paved the way for Maria Montessori to observe, analyze and develop an educational program that works. This program encourages movement, freedom, inquisition, and self-direction which has been proven to keep the student interested without tiring him out. The results have worked with both mentally-challenged and normal young students alike. The alternate Method should be considered for incorporation into schools worldwide. Thus it is relevant that creativity, as according to Csikszentmihalyi, is education dependent and view projected by alternate Method that 'there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses' (2004a:189) hardly holds an perfect alignment. References Amabile, T. M., R. Conti, H. Coon, et al. (1996). "Assessing the work environment for creativity". Academy of Management Review 39 (5): 1154-1184. Botsford, David. (1993) Compulsion vs. Liberty in Education. Educational Notes 18. London, Libertarian Alliance, pp. 1-4. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. United States of America Csikszentmihalyi , Mihaly. (June 18, 1997). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Harper Perennial; 4 Tra edition Dewey, John. "Thinking in Education." A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for Collage Writers. Seventh Ed. Lee. A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St Martins. 2006: 297-310 Emerson, Ralph. W. "On Education." A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for Collage Writers. Seventh Ed. Lee. A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St Martins. 2006: 247-258 Freire, Paulo. "The Banking Concept of Education." A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for Collage Writers. Seventh Ed. Lee. A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St Martins. 2006: 319 Froebel. (2006) BA/BSc Studenthood Studies. London, Roehampton University Lilliard, Paula Polk (1972). A Modern Approach. New York, Schocken Books. Williams, R. (1961). The Long Revolution, London Paley, Vivian G. (2004.) A Student's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play. Chicago, University of Chicago Press Read More