Creating on Higher Ground

In "Fostering Academic Creativity in Gifted Students," authors Paul Torrance and Kathy Goff define academic creativity as "a way of thinking about, learning, and producing information in school subjects such as science, mathematics and history" (hmmm...not a very creative definition).  While there is no precise definition, we all get a similar feeling when we hear the word: when we are creative, we get excited!

Torrance and Goff see creative thinking and learning as involving: 

1. Evaluation (the ability to sense problems, inconsistencies, and missing elements)
2. Divergent production (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration)
3. Redefinition 

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague one day that caused for sad reflection.  It went something like this:

"Kids that age (referring to a 2 year old girl) are so curious about the world.  They explore, explore and explore.  And then we send them off to school and we kill that."

From what I have often seen, and experienced myself as a child, this is true.  Curiosity and interest are not always encouraged; rather, it is about recognizing and memorizing information.  Thus, motivation is not always maintained, as memorizing details all day doesn't always stimulate the senses (hard to believe, I know).

What does this conversation and creative thinking and learning have to do with the gifted student?  I don't think it takes a lot of creativity to piece this together.  If so...

Joseph S. Renzulli, Director of The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented at the University of Connecticut presents the three-ring conception of giftedness.

                                                                                                        http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart04.html

As you can see, the gifted child is above average creativity.  However, if students are not given the opportunity to be creative, then this gift is wasted.  What's more, in our digital age, an era that allows us to create anything we wish, to not be creative almost seems unreal.  Sadly, creation does not always happen, and often, this is simply because teachers are not asking the right questions.

Torrance and Goff present three questions that illustrate the difference between learning information provided to them and creative learning:

1. In what year did Columbus discover America? (The answer, 1492, requires recognizing and memorizing information.)
2. How are Columbus and an astronaut similar and different? (The answer requires more than memorization and understanding; it requires students to think about what they know.)
3. Suppose Columbus had landed in California. How would our lives and history have been different? (The answer requires many creative thinking skills including imagining, experimenting, discovering, elaborating, testing solutions, and communicating discoveries.)

How many times have you heard the first type of question being asked? Or, how many times have you asked it (don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you did)?  Now, how many times have you asked a question like the third one? It's the last question is what we want to ask in order to keep students thinking and motivated.  That is not to say that recognizing and memorizing is not important, but it doesn't lend itself well to creative and critical thinking.

                                                       http://www.photographyblogger.net/12-interesting-question-mark-pictures/

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) approaches creativity and innovation in this way:

	Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
	a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.*

This approach ties in wonderfully with gifted education, as the goal is to transform learning, not just regurgitate information.  As an example of this, the students in my grade six gifted ed class were all assigned an activist (that reflects their interests), and then they had to research what he or she did.  Then, the students blogged about these activists.  After that, students commented on other blogs, and had to respond to questions and comments after that.  The final project was a video where students talked about what they can do to help end the problem that they were most interested in.  All students in the class were a part of this video, and the editing and music was also created by the group.


This process saw the students learning about concepts, and then creating an original work that was an expression of the students as a collective- yet still maintaining their individuality.


Warm fuzzies have told me to end here.

Stay tuned...

Sources

http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart04.html

*http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx

Paul E. Torrance and Kathy Goff, ERIC EC Digest #E4841990