[11 October 2004 - 2004 Education-Creativity Conference - The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts - Hartford, Connecticut]
Steve Dahlberg, Creative Education Foundation
"The Nature of Creativity"
featuring presentations by:
Dr. Elliot Eisner, Stanford University: "Creativity and the Culture of Education"
Dr. Robert Sternberg, Yale University: "Creativity is a Decision"
discussions facilitated by
Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli, University of Connecticut
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Renzulli: It's a "very important time in our nation's history as it comes to promoting creativity and the arts."
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Elliot Eisner:
* author of "The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs"
* development of creative thinking skills has not been high on our agenda
* conditions for development of creativity
- schools --> 53 million students in the U.S.
- creativity has been side-lined in our pursuit of higher test scores
* creative thinking comes in different forms
- boundary pushing; expanding the limits
- inventing
- boundary-breaking; problemitizing -- the given is made problematic
- aesthetic organizing -- putting things together that work -- somatic knowledge
* "inquiry trumps achievement ... in our schools, typically, achievement trumps inquiry"
* skills provide power; but need to also lose control
- losing control opens up yourself to possibility
- allows yourself to be in dialogue with what you are working on
- "flexible purposing" - John Dewey
* surprise is interesting and important
- "there is no educational policy that I'm aware of that is interested in promoting surprise"
* too many classrooms that look more like an assembly line than a studio
* creativity as exploring other ways of seeing
- "the world is what we make of it"
- move away from "one right answer"
- the whole enterprise is geared toward isomorphic relationship ...
* state standards are about production of uniform outcomes (often out of any context)
* creativity is a process without moral valence
- people can be creative in doing evil
- the direction in which creativity moves is not a trivial issue
* working creativity requires courage
- risk-taking
- moving toward "A" precludes inquiry, risk-taking
* the importance of pursuing surprise
- create the conditions under which surprise is possible
- open-ended outcomes
* the well-posed question is important for intellectual development -- "telling questions"
* "what we need to be doing is not 'covering the material,' but 'uncovering the material'"
- the importance of questions
* creating a culture of education that creates conditions for imagination
- culture: in biology, culture as medium for growing things; in education, culture for growing minds; in anthropology, culture as means for creating connections between people and creating meaning
* creativity in a deep sense is part of an artistic activity -- making something -- has aesthetic properties
- therefore, long-term function of education is the production of artists = people who make anything (not just painters, etc)
- the artistry is in the application of imagination
* creativity is part of the artistry of human existence
- this ideal as a regulative ideal in schools and education is not a bad ideal to embrace
* will Americans accept a culture where improv, creativity and imagination are embraced?
* you can't fatten cattle by putting them on a scale ... you fatten them by feeding them.
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Robert Sternberg:
* "creativity is a decision" versus an ability that you are born with
* what are the component decisions that you make?
- why doesn't everyone make the decision to be creative?
* investment theory of creativity
* creative people defy the crowd
- external pressure to do what everyone else is doing
- internal pressure
- both work toward conformity and against being creative
* assessing creativity
- when you add creativity measures to conventional measures --> more predictive
- gives ALL students opportunity to demonstrate what they know
- creativity matters for success for school: achievement goes up if you teach in ways that enable them to display their creativity
* "creativity can be developed"
- therefore, teach kids to make certain decisions
- creativity is an attitude toward life
* Csikszentmihalyi: really good artists are better problem finders
* an attitude that there may be another way to define a problem
* analyze the problem: explore best possible outcomes? worst possible outcomes? most likely outcomes?
* sell creative solutions: creative ideas rarely sell themselves
- this is a decision, too
* realizing limitations of knowledge
- need knowledge to be creative
- knowledge also has its limitations to seeing newness
- we all get stuck
- if we want to be good role models, we should learn from the people we teach
* if you defy the crowd, you have to surmount obstacles
- there is a cost
* see Pushcart's Complete Rotten Reviews & Rejections book
* need to be willing to take sensible risks
- safe stuff doesn't tend to be creative; it tends to get you A's
* find something you really love to do
- it's really hard to find what you -- or your kids -- love to do
- don't quit trying to find what they -- and you -- love to do
- this is where they can make a contribution
* have more than one major creative idea
- an attitude to constantly come up with creative ideas
- people pigeon-hole you then you pigeon-hole yourself
* creativity as a way of life
* having the courage to be creative; creativity is an act of courage
- it's really hard work; it's a decision; it's an attitude
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Sternberg:
* technology is good when it's in the service of ideas
- can be amplifier or suppressor of ideas
* wisdom - intelligence - creativity - synthesized
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Eisner:
* function of education is to create minds
* effective education increases differences
* effective education creates a culture that is intellectually evocative
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Sternberg:
* teaching for creativity improves both creative thinking and traditional measures of academic achievement
- leads to better test scores and being happier about what they are doing and learning
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Renzulli:
* "enrichment clusters" as model
- role of just-in-time knowledge
- standards may come at the end of the learning endeavor
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