Bulgarian Fulbright Conference
Bansko, Bulgaria
August 2010
EDUCATION AND CREATIVITY
ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM
Ellen Greenberg, M.B.A., Ph.D.
Professor, Sofia University “Kliment Ohridski”
Director, Diagnostic and Consultative Medical Center “Dr. I. S. Greenberg”
B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.B.A. Ph.D., Columbia University
Creativity in Education
Creative process and examples: Penicillin-Alexander Fleming
Apple, Mozart
Fortune favors the prepared mind - Pastor
How do we encourage or discourage creativity in organizations?
Types of orgs.
Definitions of Creativity
Ability to bring something new into existence
Process leading to a result which is novel (new), useful (satisfies an exisiting need) and understandable, with a heuristic rather than algorhythmic (fixed rules) task
Picasso: Some painters transforms the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun
Degas: a painter paints a picture with the same feeling as that which a criminal commits a crime
Creative Process (Wallis, 1926)
· Preparation
· Incubation
· Illumination (Eureka!)
· Verification
And Exploitation
Pasteur – Chance favors the prepared mind
e.g. Archimedes in bathtub
Alexander Fleming, Penicillin, 1939
Mozart vs. Beethoven; Mozart approached by teenager
Cognitive Styles
Integrative Style – integrate, reorganize, or restructure existing modes
Setbreaking Style - Facility in understanding complexities and ability to break mental state
Problem-sensing Style – see a problem others don’t notice or where none seemed to exist
Imaging
Aethetics
Characterisitics of Creative Individuals
Openness to experience
Observing – seeing things in unusual ways
Curiosity
Accepting and reconciling apparent opposites
Tolerance of Ambiguity
Independence in judgment, thought and action
Needing and assuming autonomy
Self-reliance
Not being subject to group to group standards and control
Willingness to take calculated risks
Persistence
Sensitivity to problems
Fluency – ability to generate a large number of ideas
Flexibility
Originality
Responsiveness to feeling
Openness to unconscious phenomena
Motivation
Freedom from fear of failure
Ability to concentrate
Thinking in images
Selectivity
Six Ways to Kill Creativity
Evaluation
Surveillance
Rewards
Competition
Restricted Choices
Extrinsic Orientation
Encourage Creativity
Encourage intrinsic motivation
Probability of success/failure is 50-50 – effort is greatest when
Organic structure (as cf. mechanistic structure)
Open communication, allow for possibility of failure (example: Apple)
Autonomy and feedback
Flexibility
Reduce pressure of rules and regulations
Choices
Training and Education (i.e. preparation, formulating a problem)