Developing Instructional Programs for Nurturing Creativity - Literature review Example

Developing Instructional Programs for Nurturing Creativity Affiliation: Contents Developing Instructional Programs for Nurturing Creativity 1 Name: 1 University Affiliation: 1 Date: 1 Contents 2 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 Review of Journal Articles and Websites on how to Nurture High Level Thinking Skills 3 1.3 Literature Review on the Relationship between Convergent and Divergent Thinking and Creativity 6 1.4 The activities which can be used to nurture high-level thinking skills 8 1.5 Annotated Bibliography 11 References 14 1.1 Introduction Nurturing high level thinking skills require the use of programs and activities that enhance independent thinking/freedom of thought. This includes developing the ability to exercise convergent and divergent thinking in interpreting new and old concepts. Convergent thinking limits the thought pattern to specific experiences. It uses prior knowledge to get meaning of phrases and interpretation of situation. Divergent thinking is not limited to prior knowledge. The person is free to explore new ways in finding solutions and interpretation situations. The discussion below reviews educational journals and websites on how to develop high level thinking styles including divergent and convergent thinking styles. It also reviews literature on the relationship between convergent and divergent thinking and creativity (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The paper also discusses activities that can nurture high level thinking skills, using the Bloom-Anderson’s Taxonomy. The research seeks to assert that creativity is a process that can be nurtured to develop high level thinking styles and that divergent and convergent thinking are attributes that enhance creativity. 1.2 Review of Journal Articles and Websites on how to Nurture High Level Thinking Skills The article: ‘Convergent and Divergent thinking styles’ elaborates the distinction of the two thinking styles. Hudson (1967) conducted a study on school boys and concluded that conventional measures of intelligence were insufficient to measure their abilities. The test only gave credit to problem solving that produced the right answer. Form the study, Hudson concluded that there are two forms of thinking/ability called convergent and divergent thinking. He defined convergent thinking as the ability of a person to gather material from different areas so as to focus on a problem in such a way as to produce the correct answer. Convergent thinking is appropriate for scientific fields such as mathematics and technology due to the need for consistency and reliability. Divergent thinking was defined to include broad thinking/creativity in elaborating ideas promptly by a stimulus. This style is appropriate for artistic pursuits and study of humanities that require broader thinking, insight and elaboration of ideas and concepts. The article used images to make the two concepts easy to conceptualize. Use of examples of disciplines to illustrate where the two concepts are applicable enabled the reader to have an easy understanding and gauge whether they are divergent or convergent thinkers, based on what subjects they perform well in and their hobbies and interests (Atherton, 2013). Use of a credible research study to expound on the concepts give credit to the article, in addition to making the study practical in real life situations. The article: ‘Supporting divergent thinking in the work place’ uses clear images and graphics to explain the concepts of divergent and convergent thinking. According to the article, divergent thinking refers to the ability to generate various different original ideas in response to a given problem. The article uses a video to explain why divergent thinking is difficult to achieve in classrooms. These limitations include: activities that support divergent thinking are time consuming and difficulty in grading divergent thinking among others. The article is well written in an easy language and use of correct grammar. This makes it easy to understand the main theme and identify with the writer’s point of view. The examples used to illustrate how divergent can be transferred to workplaces are simple and precisely explained to facilitate the reader’s understanding. For example, the write advances that it is difficult to automatically adopt divergent thinking because of work procedures that define how work should be done. He argues that divergent thinking is achieved by deliberate action to think out of the box to new find creative solutions. The article: ‘Developing creativity by nurturing divergent thinking is very helpful in explaining the relationship between creativity and divergent. It uses simple grammar to explain that divergent thinking is a key ingredient in creativity and high thinking abilities. The article uses examples of children to explain hoe divergent thinking encourages creativity. The author implies that children are divergent thinkers, an attribute that if nurtured to maturity, makes them high level thinkers with great innovative ideas. The writer uses hilarious and absurd ideas to explain practical example of divergent thinking. For instance, when Einstein was introduced to his new born sister, he asked where the wheels were. Another example is that Einstein was expelled from school for being a disruptive influence. These examples demonstrate how divergent thinking is different from conventional thinking. Use of simple language, practical examples and humor make this article helpful in understanding and remembering how creativity is influenced by divergent thinking (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2001). The website http://www.edutopia.org/blog/fueling-creativity-through-divergent-thinking-classroom-stacey-goodman, explains how to divergent thinking can fuel creativity in classrooms. The website is well developed. It uses graphical images to explain how students think differently for example; some are divergent thinkers while others are convergent thinkers. Illustrations help the reader identify the relationship between divergent and creative thinking and creativity. The website uses different colors to highlight different concepts and guide the reader in the reading process. This makes the reader make linkages of concepts and notice their differences. In addition, the content is arranged in logical order, moving from simple to complex concepts for ease of understanding. In addition the website uses classroom examples to illustrate how high level thinking skills can be developed in all students (Atherton, 2013). The website is easy to read and understand, the topic is well researched and use of film to explain concepts enhances remembrance and conceptualization of the content. The website http://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/creativeprojects explains how to nurture a creative mind set. The website is well researched and explains the concepts with great academic command. It is well written using current research methods and resources to improve academic credibility and currency of concepts. It explains in simple language and use of precise examples that any person can shift to a more creative mind set. This is achieved by making small deliberate changes in thinking and attitude. Creativity cards provide several easy activities that increase awareness around creative skill. Increased awareness help people make choices that are more mindful, novel, tolerant to ambiguity, playful and visionary enough to be incubated and later developed as creative and innovative ideas (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The website http://www.iaoed.org explains how to nurture creative thinking. The authors used practical examples to explain how children can be oriented to think creatively using normal life situations. The website is an international academic research facility with high credibility, making its content credible for academic research. Long history of conducting academic research makes the content authoritative, reliable and dependable. For example, dense research on factors that enhance creativity such as promoting creativity in all subjects, influencing creativity by use of well-designed learning spaces and use of open-ended questions to develop understanding and evaluation. Other areas include engagement of students in meaningful and authentic activities, collaboration to enhance creativity, efficient use of technology and learning how to assess and reward creativity. Use of simple illustrations and language that is devoid of jargon makes the website appropriate for all readers (Basadur & Vega, 2000) 1.3 Literature Review on the Relationship between Convergent and Divergent Thinking and Creativity Vinack (2006) explains that creative thinking is a whole process that combines convergent and divergent thinking. The process of creative thinking involves generation of multiple ideas and then selecting the most useful, appropriate and effective in solving a process. According to Vinack, creativity blends the objective and subjective thought processes in finding solutions. Badi and Tajdeen (2005) support this idea and consider critical and creative thinking to be inseparable concepts. Gruber and Richard(1990) explain that creative work not only require great ideas but also skills and determination necessary to exploit and assimilate the ideas into valid structures. Joubert (2001) argues that creativity results from patterns of convergent and divergent thinking. According to him, use of divergent thinking to explore new concepts and convergent thinking to infer from prior experiences produces creative solutions to complex problems. Saaty (2001) states that creative thinking is a combination of divergent and convergent thinking processes. Similarly, Duffy (1998) holds the opinion that in order to respond creatively to challenges and problems, a person must completely eliminate the conflict between logic and intuition. In considering the convergent and divergent approaches of creative thinking, Perkins (1998) regards it as a he process of search and selection. This implies that the person must gather all information necessary to find solutions. The person has to then choose the most appropriate solution from the available alternatives, to address the problem/challenge. DeBono (2001) accepts the generative and selective processes involved in creative thinking to involve five aspects that define the nature of creative thinking. The aspects include: use of imagination and fashioning process, pursuit of purposes, originality and value judgment. These aspects define convergent and divergent thinking, thereby creativity is influenced and results from the processes if divergent and convergent thinking. Halpen (1996) explains how divergent and convergent thinking processes result into creativity. He states that creative thinking consists of multiple stages of problem identification, deciding on important parts of the problem and devising a novel solution to the problem. Halpen explains that creativity involve synergy, serendipity and sensitivity. Sensitivity involves use of the five senses to identify the problem. Synergy is used to synthesize problem parts into workable whole while serendipity produces sudden insightful solutions. Synthesizing and sensitivity involve convergent thinking to identify the problems and break it into integral parts to form a workable whole. Serendipity uses divergent thinking to develop novel sudden solutions to challenges. Nerd (2007) developed a four-quadrant brain dominance model that relates convergent and divergent thinking to the creativity. The left hemisphere has two quadrants capable of logical, analytical and technical thinking to assist in idea organization and structuring. The right hemisphere has 2 quadrants that facilitate imaginative, intuition and visual faculties that relate to emotions, senses and feelings. The two hemispheres represent brain orientation for convergent and divergent thinking that results in creativity. Puccio et al (2001) highlights the key skills that support divergent and convergent thinking and hence improve the creativity. The key skills include: flexibility that facilitate obtaining different ideas and responses. Fluency enables the person to gather different categories of thought and processes. Elaboration is a concept of convergent thinking that develops the existing ideas and concepts. Originality is a concept of divergent thinking that facilitates development of new, different and novel ideas and solutions. Idea development helps in strengthening ad improving thought patterns to develop viable solutions (Torrance 2003). Prioritization determines how the alternative solutions will be ranked while sorting involves grouping ideas into implicit/explicit schema to facilitate choosing of the appropriate solution. These key processes are key ingredients of convergent and divergent thinking processes. Therefore, they facilitate creative thinking which leads to development of novel solutions to problems, using prior and new ideas. Therefore, the literature review asserts that creativity results from convergent and divergent thinking processes. 1.4 The activities which can be used to nurture high-level thinking skills The activities will be developed using Bloom-Anderson’s Taxonomy and will focus on third grade gifted children. The activities will be developed on the book: Goldilocks and the three bears, a children’s storybook about a girl who went out looking for adventure in the forest. The first step in Bloom’s Taxonomy is testing a child’s ability to remember simple concepts. The activity will involve asking the children to describe where Goldilocks lived. The activity aims at facilitating the children to retrieve, recognize and recall relevant information from their long-term memories. The description activity will involve the child to activate the relevant schemata where information about the story was stored (Basadur & Vega, 2000). Through description activity, the child’s understanding of the story improves, as he narrates and remembers images and words that describe who Goldilocks was and where she stayed. The next activity is asking the children to summarize what the Goldilocks story was about. The activity aims at establishing the children’s understanding of the story. In summarizing the story, the children gain a better understanding of the story. The activity will facilitate construction of meaning from the oral, graphic and written messages in the story. The children will achieve a better understanding by their interpretation, exemplification, classification, comparison and explanation of concepts illustrated in the story. As they make a brief summary especially in oral form, they internalize the story to facilitate an analysis of how it is elated to life situations. Understanding is improved by asking children to organize previous information to make meaning. Summarizing the story enables the children to retell the story in their own words, which helps them develop creativity (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The activity of asking the children to construct a theory/explanation as to why Goldilocks went into the house tests and develops their ability to apply the knowledge learnt in class to other situations. The activity involves the child in using their imaginative to develop a theory of what the man character needed in the house. The child’s mental ability is stretched in exploring all the reasons that may contribute in theory formation or explanation as to why Goldilocks entered the house (Bocconi &Kampylis, 2012). In Bloom’s taxonomy, applying involve asking children how they would solve real life challenges and why they think something is significant. Asking the child to continue the Goldilocks story or predict what happened would have happened to her if she returned to the forest and met the three bears helps the child develop imagination and intuition. Asking the children to differentiate between how Goldilocks reacted and how they would have reacted to the events in the story help them develop analytical thinking. This would involve the child in disintegrating the story into component parts that from a workable whole (Atherton, 2013). The child would then relate how the different parts of the story connect to form the whole story. Through the processes of differentiating, organizing and attributing how different parts relate and connect, these can be achieved. In addition, the narrator can ask the children to explain the motive or causes from real-life stories. In addition, encouraging them to conduct surveys or make flow charts that display real life situations help develop high levels of thinking. The child improves his convergent and divergent thinking ability as he tries to link parts and differentiate different concepts in analyzing the story. The next activity involves asking the children if they think the events of the story really happened to Goldilocks. This assesses the children’s ability and skills to evaluate situations and make judgment by checking and critical thinking. The children are asked to defend their opinion concerning the story/subject of study. Evaluation entails making good judgment using a given criteria and standards, by checking and critiquing. Critiques, recommendation letters and reports are effective tools for demonstrating the processes of evaluation (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The next activity involves creating a song. Skit or a poem conveys the story in a new form. Creating puts elements together to produce a coherent/functional whole. This would involve the children in reorganizing the elements of the story to form a new pattern or structure, in form of a poem, skit or song. The reorganization process involves generating, planning or producing new concepts from the given elements. Creating will require the children to put together in a new way or synthesize parts into new and different forms such as song s or poem to retell the story. 1.5 Conclusion Creativity is the process of finding solutions to problem and is influenced by convergent and divergent thinking. The review of scholarly articles and websites revealed that creativity is related and influenced greatly by divergent and convergent thinking. A review of literature related to the above concepts asserts the role played by convergent and divergent thinking in influencing creativity. Activities involved in developing high level of thinking involve the use of Bloom’s taxonomy. This taxonomy contains hierarchy of thinking ranging from lowest basic level of understanding to the highest level of creating (Riederer & Graef, 2005). The story of Goldilocks and the three bears is mainly used to develop activities that enhance higher thinking levels. Additional activities were discussed especially those that relate on how children relate knowledge to real life situation in developing creativity thinking. 1.5 Annotated Bibliography 1. Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). a taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Blooms Taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition, New York: Longman. The author discusses the hierarchy of elements involved in developing higher levels of thinking according to Bloom-Anderson’s taxonomy. This taxonomy contains hierarchy of thinking ranging from lowest basic level of understanding to the highest level of creating. The story of Goldilocks and the three bears is manly used to develop activities that enhance higher thinking levels. 2. Atherton J S (2013) Learning and Teaching; Convergent and Divergent Learning [On-line: UK] retrieved 31 March 2015 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/converge.htm The article defines Divergent thinking to include broad thinking/creativity in elaborating ideas promptly by a stimulus. This style is appropriate for artistic pursuits and study of humanities that require broader thinking, insight and elaboration of ideas and concepts. The author differentiate convergent and divergent thinking and relate them to creativity thinking. 3. Basadur, M., Runco, M. A., & Vega, L. A. (2000). Understanding how creative Thinking skills, attitudes and behaviours work together: A causal process model. Journal of Creative Behaviour, 34(2), 77-100. The authors explain the behavior and attitudes that influence creativity. They argue that Nurturing high level thinking skills require the use of programs and activities that enhance independent thinking/freedom of thought. This includes developing the ability to exercise convergent and divergent thinking. 4. Bocconi, S.; Kampylis, P.; Punie, Y. (2012). Innovating teaching and learning practices: Key elements for developing creative classrooms in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. (JRC 72278.) The article explains the process of creative thinking and related literature review. It states that creative thinking consists of multiple stages of problem identification, deciding on important parts of the problem and devising a novel solution to the problem. Creativity involve synergy, serendipity and sensitivity. 5. Riederer, J.P., Baier, M., & Graef, G. (2005). Innovation management—An overview and some best practices, C-Lab Report, Cooperative Computing and Communication Laboratory, 4(3), 1-58 This article discusses ways of supporting divergent thinking at work places and classrooms. It explains why divergent thinking is difficult to achieve in classrooms. These limitations include: activities that support divergent thinking are time consuming and difficulty in grading divergent thinking among others. 6. Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2001). Guilfords structure of intellect model And model of creativity: Contributions and limitations. Creativity Research Journal, 13(3-4), 309-316. doi: 10.1207/S15326934CRJ1334_08 The article explains the four-quadrant brain dominance model that relates convergent and divergent thinking to the creativity. The brain is divided into two hemisphere each with two quadrants that represent brain orientation for convergent and divergent thinking that results in creativity. References Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). a taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Blooms Taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition, New York: Longman. Atherton J S (2013) Learning and Teaching; Convergent and Divergent Learning [On-line: UK] retrieved 31 March 2015 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/converge.htm Basadur, M., Runco, M. A., & Vega, L. A. (2000). Understanding how creative Thinking skills, attitudes and behaviours work together: A causal process model. Journal of Creative Behaviour, 34(2), 77-100. Bocconi, S.; Kampylis, P.; Punie, Y. (2012). Innovating teaching and learning practices: Key elements for developing creative classrooms in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. (JRC 72278.) Riederer, J.P., Baier, M., & Graef, G. (2005). Innovation management—An overview and some best practices, C-Lab Report, Cooperative Computing and Communication Laboratory, 4(3), 1-58 Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2001). Guilfords structure of intellect model And model of creativity: Contributions and limitations. Creativity Research Journal, 13(3-4), 309-316. doi: 10.1207/S15326934CRJ1334_08 Read More