Creativity In Ken Bain's What The Best College Students Do

Creativity drives today’s world, with new technology arriving daily and science conducting itself further. We need creative and imaginative people in today’s atmosphere to bring the world to the next step forward. “Standardized college admissions tests assess only analytical skills, as well as the knowledge base on which they act, and completely ignore creative and practical skills (Sternberg 7)”. Without creative people in this world, where do you think we would be? Not very far. We need practical skills to go throughout everyday life. The standardized tests don’t test for that knowledge base, they test how much short term memory a

The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.

Paulus & Nijstad (2003) defined creativity as “the development of original ideas that are useful or influential”(p.3). That is to say,

The book Creativity. Inc. , by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace, is the chronological journey of Ed Catmul and Pixar from the early days until today. The best part of reading Creativity, Inc is that you know that Ed Catmull isn’t just talking the talk, he’s walking the walk. This book is separated into 4 categories: Getting Started, Protecting The New, Building and Sustaining and Testing What We Know.

In the essay “Creativity in the Classroom” written by Ernest L Boyer, the essay talks about creativity in the classroom and what can affect or empower creativity to occur. At the beginning, the writer stated that if the students and the faculty did not work together to create a prosperous ambiance, and did not see that they are having an important thing to do, the effective education atmosphere will be minimized. Another point that the writer stated carefully was when the professor spoiled the book and the students did not react disappointed because they did not need to read the book they had the information’s that they need from the professor. Therefore, in my opinion, the writer point was that students need to get serious about their

In Creative Schools, the second potential solution is the recognition of student’s unique abilities. A quote about this potential solution is, “All students are unique people with their own hopes, talents, anxieties, fears, passions, and aspirations. Engaging them as people is the heart of raising achievement” (Robinson and Aronica 56). This quote represents the main idea from this solution, recognizing and supporting the talents of students instead of shutting down their unique skills. The source of this factual evidence is the fact that all students are unique in one way or another. This reform an revolutionize the system and how students are perceived.

Dixie: “How to Build Your Creativity” is what I read in the sights and sound folder today. Everyone is capable of creativity. Everyone says Scott Lamps. Everyone says Scott Lamps. He says there are 4 simple steps to building your creativity. 1.) The Process-Understanding What Is Creativity. 2.) Who Are You? Embracing Your Individuality. 3.) Find-Time-Making Time to Develop your Ideas. 4.) Write it Down-Documenting Your Ideas as They Come. I truly think that this is really good advice and will put this to use when using creative writing. Creative is a skill that can be learned over time with a little effort and a little patience. This is another piece of advice that Scott Lamps had to offer. There is a lot more advice on this reading that I

In the Liberal Arts, abstract thinking and intellectual concepts are encouraged, as they continue to build and shape young minds, creating brilliant and capable thinkers, capable of changing the world. The only way to expose students to their affective capacities is "to cultivate and encourage those students with the will and the capacity for abstract intellectual work, support their willingness to step outside the desperate profit-race for time and explore the unimpeded and undirected path of their best thinking," demonstrating

“Do Schools Kill Creativity?” by ken Robinson is a very powerful speech, as well as a good insight on the other side of the spectrum. Mr. Robinson begins his speech he mentions the amount of creativity we as humans have and how we have no such idea where we are headed in the future. Ken makes a point that we are educating and have been educating people to be prepared for the future. He asks why. We do not know what the next few years bring, how do we educate people properly for it. As Mr. Robinson continues he makes a point that creativity should be as important as literacy within education. Throughout the speech he gives countless examples where simple creativity and being different has brought people success and lead them down a path that math or literature never could.

Asking the right questions opens the doorway to creativity and understanding. By utilizing this principal, found in Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain and Keith Sawyer’s book, Zig Zag, The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity, I have been able to analyze my path as a creative professional. Sawyer’s eight directives and Bloom’s taxonomy will be invaluable to me in my future career in marketing. These texts provide lessons on how to incorporate analytical and creative thinking into your everyday life. In a world that thrives off of creative intelligence, Sawyer’s seven directives are essential to my future as a marketing professional.

Author Kristen Hicks stated that, “Learning a specific skill set doesn’t have the value in today’s world that it once did. Learning how to be more creative (and thus adaptable) – now that’s what prepares students for life beyond the classroom"(Kristen Hicks, 2nd paragraph, Edudemic.com).

A smart man said “Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same standing.” (Ken Robinson-“Do schools kill creativity?”). There are multiple studies on how creativity helps improve a student’s mind. Project based learning is a huge creative booster for students. A math teacher from California uses projects to do math instead of using the text book. From doing this, she’s had more students pass her class then from when she was teaching straight from the text books. Instead of having standardized tests, using more creative techniques for students to enjoy the learning they’ve done and for them to show the higher officials what the students are learning. Creativity is the process of turning real world problems into an understanding by extending the minds cognitive processes. In Alabama, kindergartners are studying different ways to be creative.

One consequence of America’s highly structured and rigid educational system is an evident limitation on creative processes. This is highlighted by Sir Ken Robinson in his speech, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” wherein he states that public education is build around the the process of university entrance. The result is that the interests and abilities of intelligent, creative students are overlooked, for the disciplines in which they excel are not sufficiently valued (Robinson). These circumstances perpetuate the growing stigmas around creativity, which Robinson defines as “the process of having original ideas that have value” (Robinson). By establishing a hierarchy of subjects, which places the arts, theatre and music at the bottom, American schools are hindering active learning and innovation. Thus, in regards to creativity, schools in the United States face severe shortcomings.

Since creativity is simply falling in love with the world around us, therefore we have to potential to be creative in everything we do. Your whole life can be art, if you are taking pictures, interacting with a client, volunteering, raising your family etc. You have the potential to change every ordinary act into an extraordinary

Within the fields of both cognitive and educational studies an abundance of research has been undertaken in an attempt to better conceptualise and define the term creativity. Within many contemporary Educational fields of research the need to provide a clear definition of the term has provided researchers with the challenge of conceptualising creativity so that a student’s display of creativity could be assessed. Sternberg (1986) suggests that ‘being creative highlights a subject’s ability to push traditional modes of displaying knowledge’ (pp. 16, 24). Similarly, Franken (2005) reconfigured this definition, stating that ‘creativity is a higher form of knowledge’ (pp. 124). Within both definitions the concept of creativity is centred within the idea that creativity is a part of ordinary human cognition. Further, Coughlin (2006) suggests that ‘Creativity is generating new ideas and concepts… where connections are made between ideas where there was no clear connection existing’ (pp. 35). Similar to the definitions of Sternberg (1986) and Franken (2005), Coughlin situates creativity within the processes of human thought—however Coughlin furthers this idea by stating that ‘creativity cannot be displayed … it is a process not a product’ (pp. 37). Camp (2011) however, argues that the definition proposed by Franken places too much emphasis on Creativity being an explicit form of knowledge (17), Camp further suggests that to define creativity ‘a subject must first look at the