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"What’s the definition of a ‘good question’?
We often say to one another, ‘That’s a good question,’ by which we usually mean, ‘I don’t know the answer’ or ‘I had not yet thought to ask that but it seems worth asking.’"
Via John Evans, Jim Lerman
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Jim Lerman's insight: This site at Ohio State University is home to Project Narrative, a mode of analysis described in the bold type passages I have highlighted just below. Narrative theory is particularly notable as it defines itself in contrast with scientific modes of explanation. As such, a distinctive Narrative Theory approach to Creativity represents a fertile and growing alternative to prevailing approaches that emphasize divergent thinking. This site serves as one of a number of home bases for those interested in learning more about this mode of thought. "Narrative theory is currently enjoying a major burgeoning of interest in North America and throughout the world, with especially strong activity in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium, Israel, and China. Narrative theory starts from the assumption that narrative is a basic human strategy for coming to terms with fundamental elements of our experience, such as time, process, and change, and it proceeds from this assumption to study the distinctive nature of narrative and its various structures, elements, uses, and effects.
"More specifically, narrative theorists study what is distinctive about narrative (how it is different from other kinds of discourse, such as lyric poems, arguments, lists, descriptions, statistical analyses, and so on), and how accounts of what happened to particular people in particular circumstances with particular consequences can be at once so common and so powerful. Thus a key concern is whether narrative as a way of thinking about or explaining human experience contrasts with scientific modes of explanation that characterize phenomena as instances of general covering laws. Narrative theorists, in short, study how stories help people make sense of the world, while also studying how people make sense of stories.
"To this end, narrative theorists draw not only on literary studies but also on ideas from such fields as rhetoric, (socio)linguistics, philosophical ethics, cognitive science (including cognitive and social psychology), folklore, and gender theory to explore how narratives work both as kinds of texts and as strategies for navigating experience. Narratives of all kinds are relevant to the field: literary fictions and nonfictions, film narratives, comics and graphic novels, hypertexts and other computer-mediated narratives, oral narratives occurring during the give and take of everyday conversation, as well as narratives told in courtrooms, doctors' offices, business conference rooms—indeed, anywhere. Because of the pervasiveness of narrative in our culture and the diversity of the texts, media, and communicative situations narrative theory examines, narrative theory constitutes an exciting new frontier of English Studies, one that promises to bring English Department faculty and students into closer contact with their counterparts in a variety of social-scientific, humanistic, and other disciplines."
The Language of Beauty in African Art, a new exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum, gives “insight into African cultures and their ideas of beauty,” according to the museum’s director, Eric Lee.
Via Susan Myburgh, THE OFFICIAL ANDREASCY, Jim Lerman
David Schonthal is an award-winning professor of strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking healthcare, innovation, and creativity. Along with his colleague, Lauren Norgren, David is one of the originators of friction theory, a groundbreaking methodology that explains why even the most promising innovations and change initiatives often struggle to gain traction with their intended audiences and importantly, what to do about it. This work is popularized in David’s best-selling new book, the human element, overcoming the resistance that awaits new ideas. Welcome to the super creativity podcast, David. Jim Lerman's insight: An interesting model, easy to understand. Could be useful to many people.
Via Jim Lerman
Check out this collection featuring some of the best YouTube art channels for teachers and students.
Via Tom D'Amico (@TDOttawa)
Walls can be used as a dynamic learning asset to promote movement, active learning and student agency -- are your walls designed to do that? Randy Fielding explores in his latest post. Jim Lerman's insight: Some very clever ideas here.
Via Nik Peachey, Jim Lerman
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In putting together this list, I am combining tips for parents and teachers, because I think the core issues for cultivating creativity are the same, whether you’re in the home or in the classroom. The key challenge is not how to “teach” creativity to children, but rather how to create a fertile environment in which their creativity will take root, grow, and flourish.
The list is organized around the five components of what I call the Creative Learning Spiral, a process that encourages children to imagine what they want to do, create projects through playing with tools and materials, share ideas and creations with others, and reflect on their experiences.
For each of these five components, I’ve suggested two tips. However, these tips are just a very small subset of all of the things you might ask and do to cultivate children’s creativity. View them as a representative sample, and come up with more of your own.
To engage my 11th-grade English students during the 2020–21 school year, I created a digital storytelling unit. Whether they attended school in person or remotely, it was a success. Students were able to explore various frames of reference, identify a personal story to share using digital media, and experience empathy throughout the process. Digital storytelling has a permanent place in my classroom.
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There are more features and tricks hiding in your Mac or PC than most people will ever know. You can do even more if you know the right software to download.
If you’re relying on your computer’s built-in spell check to catch all your grammar mistakes, for example, it’s time to upgrade. Here are five stellar options to make you sound smarter. I have used one for 223 weeks straight.
With everything else we shell out cash for online, you don’t always want to pay for programs. If you need to save a little cash, I’ve got your back. First, check this list of simple ways to save money on streaming, cable and internet bills each month.
Round out the savings with this list of full-featured programs that work just like popular software everyone else uses:
"Subscribe now to join our community to build confidence, connection and communication skills for tweens and teens through near-peer mentorship. "Virtual After School Clubs Connect with like-minded peers about topics you are passionate about, facilitated by older teens - Virtual sessions meet weekly
- Engage with other students around video games, animals and pets, and exploring new places
- Meet new people and share your passions"
"Let’s say you are a senior at a public high school in Washington. You have a 3.0 GPA, no Advanced Placement (AP) or honors classes, and no participation in school clubs. Due to the pandemic, you didn’t have to take the SAT or ACT because many colleges have made those tests optional. What schools would you apply to? Would you even go for highly selective universities if you’re not a legacy applicant? In all honesty, your best bet would probably be a community college. "Well, such a student applied to 15 colleges in 2020. He was rejected from 14 of them, including several University of California schools, USC, NYU, Duke, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford. Only one school accepted him: Harvard. "What exactly did Harvard see in Avi Schiffmann that others did not?"
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"This mock panel-room conversation provides an inside look at the selection process for artist grants and provides tips for bolster your next application.
"Get an inside look at what panelists look for and consider when reviewing grant applications. Taking the form of a mock panel-room conversation, the group will review project descriptions and work samples from real applications to provide honest feedback and advice, with time for questions from the audience. This panel will be led by Creative Capital Awardee James Scruggs, and will feature awardee and filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes, and Joan Mitchell Center Director, Toccarra Thomas, all of whom will offer their perspectives and panel experience."
"Creative Thinking helps students problem-solve in new and relevant ways. By using creative thinking activities in the classroom, students participate in a process designed to support 21st-century skill development and application.
Creative thinking activities can help our students deepen their understanding of interconnected topics, explore problems, and collaborate on solutions. The activities in this guide are examples of ways you can begin to bring more creativity into your classroom – no matter what you teach."
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"Creativity is a major source of innovation, growth, adaptability, and psychological resilience, making it a top priority of governments, global corporations, educational institutions, and other organizations that collectively invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually into training. The current foundation of creativity training is the technique known as divergent thinking; yet for decades, concerns have been raised about the adequacy of divergent thinking: it is incongruent with the creative processes of children and most adult creatives, and it has failed to yield expected downstream results in creative production. In this article, we present an alternative approach to creativity training, based in neural processes different from those involved in divergent thinking and drawing upon a previously unused resource for creativity research: narrative theory. We outline a narrative theory of creativity training; illustrate with examples of training and assessment from our ongoing work with the U.S. Department of Defense, Fortune 50 companies, and graduate and professional schools; and explain how the theory can help fill prominent lacunae and gaps in existing creativity research, including the creativity of children, the psychological mechanisms of scientific and technological innovation, and the failure of computer artificial intelligence to replicate human creativity." Jim Lerman's insight: This is a deep, scholarly article that maintains a more effective means to encourage and develop creativity lies in an approach focused on narrative theory as opposed to divergent thinking.
an interactive comic on the art & science of memory "If you’re serious about becoming a better learner, reading this online comic is worth your time. Nicky Case uses learning science to explain spaced repetition, and how to apply it." Jim Lerman's insight: This is a serious treatment of how to improve one's memory, presented in a very clever and effective format. It's actually a tremendously valuable presentation -- well worth looking at, internalizing for oneself, and sharing with other learners (of all ages).
Via Jim Lerman
Is there a difference between an imaginative mind and a creative mind? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity Podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Anna Abraham, an E. Paul Torrance Professor and Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Anna investigates the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and other aspects of the human imagination.
In part one of this two-part interview, you’ll gain insight into the similarities and differences between a creative mind and an imaginative mind based on neuroscientific research. Anna breaks down her findings on the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and how teachers can translate these to a classroom environment. Anna also identifies problems and potential solutions in unimodal forms of teaching and learning as part of the standard educational curriculum.
Plus, she shares her candid thoughts, from a neuroscience perspective, on the question: Can creativity be taught?
About Anna Abraham:
Anna Abraham, Ph.D. is the E. Paul Torrance Professor and the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Her educational and professional training has been within the disciplines of Psychology and Neuroscience, and she has worked across a diverse range of academic institutions and departments the world over, all of which have informed her multidisciplinary focus. She investigates the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and other aspects of the human imagination. Her wide-ranging contributions to the field of creativity include theoretical, methodological and empirical advances in the context of basic and applied research. She has penned numerous publications including the sole authored book, The Neuroscience of Creativity (2018, Cambridge University Press), and the multidisciplinary edited volume, The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination (2020). She is the Founding Editor of The Cambridge Elements Series in Creativity and the Imagination.
Visit Anna's websiteConnect with her on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to part 2 linked needed
Internet of Us by Michael P. Lynch
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access a variety of creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity Podcast by visiting our website, www.CreativityandEducation.com.
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You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
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"In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Matthew Worwood and I speak with world-renowned author and Professor of Engineering Innovation, Dr. David Cropley, about the psychology and ethics of creativity and innovation in the context of technology, engineering, and design. "Listen in to learn how educators can prepare students to be better equipped to work with machine learning and AI in creative and problem-solving environments. "David also explains the difference between domain-general and domain-specific creativity, why it’s more challenging to feel creative as a teacher in the sciences, and the unique role of malevolent creativity in education and business. He also speaks on how rigorous, objective creativity testing can be made accessible to schools. Plus, David shares his thoughts on the relationship between and prioritization of aesthetics, novelty, and functionality in any design process."
Free resource of educational web tools, 21st century skills, tips and tutorials on how teachers and students integrate technology into education
Via NextLearning, Dennis Swender, Jim Lerman
The late Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "chick-SENT-me high") was a long-time friend and contributor to Edge whose work changed our understanding of creativity, creation, and how meaningful work transforms the way that work is experienced. He was a deep thinker whose creativity in his own research could have been a template for the sort of creativity that he explained through experimentation.
In August 2004, Mike, as he was known to those not familiar with Hungarian, stopped by our offices on 59th Street for a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from his study of that state when play and work overlap (famously called "flow"), to creativity, to building a better future and understanding the role income disparity plays in destabilizing nations.
It was a wonderful talk full of the sort of insight that we had come to expect from him. But something happened in the dog days of summer—and his Edge conversation was never published. Only after news of Mike's passing in October did we happen to come across the unpublished feature in our archive.
So we are pleased to present a two-part tribute to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:
First, the premiere of "Flow: Positive Human Behavior," published eighteen years late.
Second, a retrospective look at his numerous responses to the Edge Annual Question from 1998 to 2014. " Jim Lerman's insight: A wonderful and loving collection of ideas expressed by Csikszentmihalyi. No better way to spend some time than reading this.
Via Jim Lerman
"What does the future of creativity and innovation look like and how do we get students involved? In our latest episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Matthew Worwood and I speak with Jonathan Nalder, a globally awarded innovator in education and Chief Futures Officer at STEM Punks, about the best practices for integrating digital tools and forward thinking in learning environments. "Listen in as Jonathan shares his thoughts on why future trends are important in education, how STEM is connected to creativity, and the trends you can expect in education in the next 10-15 years. "They also discuss the role of empathy in design thinking, how he and STEM Punks are preparing students to work in collaboration with machines and AI, and the strategies he uses in project-based learning environments to get students thinking about potential human problems of the future. Then, he sheds light on his program, First School on Mars, and how it has grown over the years."
Description by MakeUseOf "Everyone wants to be able to draw at least some of the time. But getting good at anything takes time and practice, or at least it used to. Nowadays, we have AutoDraw. "Developed by the people at Google, AutoDraw lets anyone draw quickly and effectively thanks to the power of machine learning. At first, AutoDraw looks like any other drawing tool. "All you have to do is start your doodle, and AutoDraw will then guess what you’re trying to draw. From there, you can select from a wide variety of pre-drawn images that match what you’ve created, but of higher quality. You can even fill them in to make them your own."
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"Subscribe now to join our community to build confidence, connection and communication skills for tweens and teens through near-peer mentorship. "Virtual After School Clubs Connect with like-minded peers about topics you are passionate about, facilitated by older teens - Virtual sessions meet weekly
- Engage with other students around video games, animals and pets, and exploring new places
- Meet new people and share your passions"
Arts education is often an afterthought in schools, but Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, Professor and Chair of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thinks we’ve got it all wrong. In her new book, "How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning and Instruction," Halverson argues not only do the arts belong in schools, but the core tenets of arts learning belong in every classroom. Education should use the arts—and especially the process of how artists create their work—as a blueprint to re-make more effective learning.
Halverson’s arts experience comes from Whoopensocker, an arts-based organization she founded that teaches elementary school students the process of writing and performing original plays. Through that work, she came to a realization: using standardized test scores as the measure for learning limits what students have the opportunity to learn, and gives students the impression that test scores are the final destination.
But the arts offer a new way of looking at learning. Her thesis resembles project-based learning: if classrooms embraced the cyclic process artists use to create new work—beginning with an idea, finding a way to express that idea (something she refers to as a “representation”), and then presenting the finished product to an audience—more real learning can flourish.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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Welcome to Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Toolbox. This toolbox highlights Thinking Routines developed across a number of research projects at PZ. A thinking routine is a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. If you're new to thinking routines and PZ's research, please click here to explore more about thinking routines.
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