Harriet J. Bauman
The area of creativity is a relatively new field of research. J.F. Guilford introduced the area with a report to the American Psychological Association in 1950 called “Creativity.” Three of his books,
The Analysis of Intelligence
(NYC: McGraw-Hill, 1971),
Intelligence
,
Creativity,
and their Educational Implications San Diego, Calif.: R.R. Knapp, 1968), and
The Nature of Human Intelligence
(NYC: McGraw-Hill, 1967) expand upon his theory of the range of creativity through the “Structure of Intellect.”
The “Structure of Intellect” model is one way of explaining the thinking processes. It is made up of three overlapping concepts. The first consists of operations which are principal intellectual functions such as cognition (recognizing understanding or comprehending information), memory (stored information), divergent production (generating a variety or a quantity of alternative information), convergent production (generating information through analysis and reason), and evaluation (comparing the information generated with established criteria).
The second concept is the
contents
or broad classes of information. They are divided into four areas: 1) figural which presents information in concrete form, in images, using the senses of sight, touch, and hearing; 2) symbolic where the information is represented by signs, letters, numbers or words but have no intrinsic value in and of themselves; 3) semantic in which there is meaning in words as in verbal communication and thinking, or in pictures; and 4) behavioral which is nonverbal information about people’s attitudes, needs, moods, wishes, and perceptions.
Products
, or the forms or characteristics of the processed information make up the third concept. Units are the separated items of information. Classes are sets of items grouped by common characteristics. Relations show the connections between items based on the characteristics that can change. Systems are interrelated parts and/or structured items of information. Transformations are the changes in the existing information or its function. The implications are the predictions, expected outcomes, or the consequences of the information.
1
The model that Guilford has designed takes the form of a cube in which any and all of the operations, contents and products can work together in creating a new idea. Other theorists have adapted this model for their own uses. One of these theorists is Frank E. Williams.
Williams’s model is three dimensional and shows how teaching strategies in many subjects can be used to bring out four cognitive and four affective behaviors in the students. His book,
Classroom Ideas For Encouraging
Thinking and Feeling (Buffalo, New York: D.O.K. Publishers, 1970) explains his model, and more importantly, provides detailed lessons utilizing all three of the dimensions. Dimension 1 is the subject areas such as art, music, science, social studies, arithmetic and language. The focus of this book is elementary school but the ideas can be adapted to any grade level. Dimension 2 consists of the eighteen teaching strategies that can be employed to elicit Dimension 3, the kinds of pupil behaviors desired. The pupil behaviors can be divided into the intellectual and the affective. The intellectual behaviors are fluency (generating a large number of ideas), flexibility (being able to change categories), originality (the ability to come up with a unique idea or thought), and elaboration (the ability to take one idea and embellish it).
The affective behaviors that Frank E. Williams is interested in producing in his students are curiosity, courage to take a chance, complexity or willingness to challenge an idea or statement, and imagination or intuition.
2
His model is more complex than Guilford’s but they both are striving toward an increase in creative output.
Alex F. Osborn continued the interest in creativity with the following works:
How to Become More Creative 101
Ways to
Develop Your Potential Talent
(N.Y.: Scribner, 1964) and
Applied Imagination
:
Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem-Solving
(N.Y.: Scribner, third edition 1963). In
Applied Imagination
, Osborn introduced the idea of deferred judgment (no judging or evaluating an idea for a certain period of time). The technique he stressed was brainstorming, which can be used throughout the creative thinking process. Brainstorming is listing as many ideas as possible about a given topic without making any decisions. All ideas are acceptable. Combining and improving on previous ideas is also acceptable (this is called piggybacking or hitchhiking).
Applied Imagination
explains creativity and how to develop it. It also presents the problem-solving process in detail. Osborn points out the tendencies that inhibit creativity, which have been expanded upon by James L. Adams in
Conceptual Blockbusting A Guide to Better Ideas
(San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1974). Adams delineates all the kinds of conceptual blocks that hinder creativity: perceptual, cultural and environmental, emotional, intellectual and expressive. Adams also presents ways in which to break these blocks so that imagination can solve problems.
Sidney J. Parnes is another important theorist in the area of creativity. He has written several books about the mental processes involved in creative thinking. He has also written many articles and edited several books on the same topic. He developed a program for teaching the many facets of creativity along with two books, the
Guide to Creative Action Revised Edition of Creative Behavior Guidebook
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977), and the
Creative behavior Workbook
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967. These two books comprise the program for teaching creative thinking. The
Workbook
contains exercises and activities designed to teach the creative thinking process of fact-finding (a full analysis of the problem), problem-finding (definition of the problem), idea-finding (generating a large number of ideas about the problem), solution-finding (evaluating all possible solutions to a problem), and acceptance-finding (selecting one solution to a problem). The
Guid
e
to Creative Action
consists of a rationale for creativity, a detailed lesson plan for each of the units in the
Workbook
, and a section of readings about creative behavior.
E. Paul Torrance has written many books and articles on the theory of creativity as well as several activity books to be used with students. His major contribution is the development of tests for creative thinkers. “Thinking Creatively With Pictures” tests a student’s figural and visual skills. “Thinking Creatively With Words” tests the student’s writing ability. These tests are the best indication of potentially gifted creative thinkers.
Connecticut can claim another important innovator in the area of creativity in the person of Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli of the University of Connecticut. Dr. Renzulli along with Dr. Linda Smith developed
A Guidebook for Developing IEP’s for Gifted/Talented Students
(Mansfield Center, Connecticut: Creative Learning Press, 1979) in which they show the teacher how to develop a strategy for teaching the curriculum to gifted students. They also developed a
Learning Styles Inventory
(Mansfield Center, Connecticut: Creative Learning Press, 1978) which illustrates the ways in which students prefer to learn and the ways in which teachers prefer to teach.
The men cited above, and many others have developed the “science” of creativity to a degree which allows it to be adapted to regular students and their daily schoolwork. Most of the techniques, methods, and materials can be used and/or adapted to fit any grade level and any subject area.