Blocks to Creativity

Perceptual, Emotional, Intellectual, Environmental, and Culturual

Researchers say creativity should be taken out of the art room and put in the homeroom.

Do Schools Kill Creativity? -Sir Ken Robinson

Do Schools Kill Creativity? -Sir Ken Robinson

Culture of Convergent Thinking

• High stakes testing• Focus on one right answer vs. process• Need for control• Disregard for play or messing about• Need for practical applications

“It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry--for this delicate little plant aside from stimulation stands mostly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreck and ruin without fail.” (Einstein)

MacKinnon’s research on biographical influences• Parents have respect for child and confidence

in her ability to do what is appropriate.• Role models• Clear standards of conduct leading to personal

code of ethics• Frequent moves• Freedom to roam and explore.

• Family has cultural, artistic, and intellectual interests.

• Family modeled introspection• Early interests in drawing recognized but

not pushed; rather it was nurtured.• Lack of strong pressure by parents to

choose a career.

• When people are inspired by their own interests and enjoyment there is a better chance that they will explore unlikely paths, take risks, and in the end produce something unique and useful (Amabile, 1986).

• It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by coercion and a sense of duty (Einstein).

Factors affecting creative productivity

• Expected evaluation• Surveillance• Reward• Competition• Restricted choice– “how to approach the

work”• Extrinsic motivation

Joshua in a box….

Joshua in a box….

CREATIVITY: A MULTI FACETED CONSTRUCT

• Person/ PERSONALITY TYPES• Process• Product • Press/environment

Blocks to Creativity

• Perceptual• Intellectual• Cultural • Environmental• Emotional

Emotional BlocksFear of making a mistake or of making a fool of oneself. This is particularly the case if the individual is new to the group.

2. Fear of taking a risk. In this instance the

individual is seeking preservation of the status quo. (It may manifest itself as a pathological desire for security.)

3. Rigidity of thinking, or functional fixedness. Everyone possesses opinions, prejudices, and preferences for certain methods, processes, and materials.

4. Over motivated to succeed quickly. When the individual does not immediately see a solution to a problem, he may become frustrated and either give up or continue to pound his head against a stone wall.

5. Fear of authority. This may often manifest itself in the form of a fear of supervisors and a distrust for colleagues and subordinates. Often the causes of such are the result of a lack of individual self—confidence or a fear of authority.

6. Lack of drive. This may take two different forms. The individual may lack drive in carrying a problem through to completion and testing it or in putting the solution to work.

7. Reality and fantasy. The individual needs to be able to control imagination and have complete access to it. Creativity requires the manipulation and recombination of experience; otherwise it is limiting.

Let’s be children.

Creative drama

Let’s try a little improv!!!

Overcoming blocksBarron and Eisner

• Challenge assumptions• See patterns• Take advantage of chance• Seeing things in new ways• Risk taking

Re arrange these shapes to form a single shape easily described.

Tennis Tournament

1 There are 111 entrants in a tennis tournament.

2 It is a single knock out tournament. (You have to loose a match to be eliminated.)

3 You have to arrange the matches.4 What is the minimum number of

matches you would have to arrange.

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines.

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines.

Could you do it in 4 lines?

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines.

Could you do it in 3 lines?

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines.

Could you do it with 1 line?

Connect the dots using the fewest possible straight lines

How many ways can you divide this square into 4 equal shapes?

How many ways can you divide this square into 4 equal shapes? Like this

for instance.

Here is another way. Can you think of others?

Did you consider this one?

How many ways can you divide this square into 4 equal shapes?An infinite number of ways?

Which line is longer? A-B or B-C

Read the sign.

When you read the chart say the color not the word.

Is this possible?

???

Which line is longer?L or R?

Intellectual Blocks

• Limited language to conceptualize the problem

• Focus on verbal explanations for problem solutions.

Rescue the prisoner.

P

Rescue the prisoner, but you need to avoid the lasers.

P

Now design a prison. Place the prisoner & 4 lasers.

Now design a communications system using no

words to rescue a prisoner.

Let the Games Begin!

Cultural and Environmental Blocks

• Taboos• Habits• Overcome by negative support