EGI 6305: Theory and Development of Creativity

Please look to the right for the sub-pages with the assignments. Thank you.

Creative Outcome Table of Contents:

1. Title: Ying-Yang Research

Description: This Creative Outcome project mainly analyzes two articles: Goodwin and Miller’s “Research Says Creativity Requires a Mix of Skills” in Educational Leadership: Creativity Now and Besançon’s “Creativity, Giftedness, and Education” in Gifted and Talented International.  A visual presentation created with combining clipart and images illustrates a ying-yang interacting with divergent and convergent thinking along with novelty and analysis.  Novelty and divergent thinking are one side of the yin-yang while the analysis and convergent thinking are other side. Just like a ying-yang, they are constantly interacting with each other despite how they can be opposites.  Moreover, they are actually complementary and interconnected.  The factors like personality, intelligence, culture, and motivation are circling around the ying-yang of creative thinking research.  However, even these factors are embedded in each other too.

2. Title: Creativity Identification Assessment Brochure

Description: Organized in an easy-to-read brochure, this Creative Outcome project provides an overview of identifying creativity through assessments.  The first part of the brochure discusses how creativity can be identified and the importance of assessing for creativity.  One of the perks of assessing creativity is to improve testing, which also evaluates creative trainings and programs for creative children.  Since creativity assessments are still a work in progress because creativity is so complex, there is still more to learn.  The brochure defines validity and reliability.  Consequently, each assessment discussed in the brochure has some validity and/or reliability calculated.  Researchers in the field suggest assessments can work together to create the fullest possible picture of the individual.  One assessment cannot measure an individual’s creative ability.  This brochure is just an overview of some assessments used to identify creativity in today’s world.   

3. Title: “Creativity in Your Classroom” Prezi

Link: http://prezi.com/vyjdqqyfo-i7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Description: This visually-pleasing Prezi presentation provides an introduction for teachers about the creative personality and the creative classroom.  Most of the presentation focuses on defining the creative personality and sharing common creative traits backed up by research.  While most of these traits are “positive,” this presentation also shares some creative traits can be considered “negative” like absent-minded and hyperactive.  Consequently, the presentation also opens up teachers to consider some “negative” traits possibly being labeled as other things like attention deficit.  The second part of the presentation focuses on transforming the teacher to be creative in order to make a creative classroom.  The first step of creating an environment that fosters creativity is to be a creative role model.  The presentation also aims to inspire teachers to follow Gelb’s da Vincian Principles in How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci and/or create “Cloud” classrooms that support self-organized learning.   Overall, this presentation is uplifting and aims to empower teachers to understand the creative personality in order to make a better creative classroom.

4. Title: Creative Development Webpage on Weebly

Link: http://mshuhta.weebly.com/creative-development.html

Description: Not only does this Creative Outcome project connect all of the other Creative Outcomes, it aims to inspire teachers to develop methods appropriate to investigate and solve creative problems.  Initially inspired by Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED TALK discussion “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”, two worlds collided: literacy and creativity.  The webpage briefly outlines two of Gelb’s most important da Vincian principles of “Curiosita” and “Dimostrazione,” which involve curiosity and the willingness to make mistakes.  Moreover, problem defining exercises help with the mess-finding stage in the popular Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model.  The webpage also shares a personal vision involving students safely sharing student-created stories from cardboard-covered books tied with string to digital stories on iPads and computers.  Finally, the webpage shares ways to connect and collaborate for creativity through other websites like Twitter and Pinterest.  The Pinterest link contains three boards: Creativity in Subject Areas, Inspiring Creativity with STEM and the Arts, and Remarkable Child Creators.  After all, sharing is caring!