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 first thing that comes to our minds when we think of “creativity” is things that have to do with arts. This is not true. Being creativity and having creativity can also be used in many activities or professions such as in businesses, creating a sport team, and in any other things you name it. Robinson has taught this through his book, “Out of Our Minds” but also how writers and artist see the world a little different compared to how others, scientists, mathematicians, historians, and psychologists look at the world. Also how educations and ageing plays a role in our creativity.

Understanding of creative learning differs from those who see creativity as freedom to express ourselves to those who link it to self-discipline, practice and crafts.

“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.

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 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

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.

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).

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

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

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.

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

Today students are natural producers and consumers of information. It is a natural ability which possesses every student. In the traditional classroom, it was not valued enough so today teachers should use every opportunity to promote creativity. The teacher should encourage students to analyze the information they learned and to make new connections with that information. Doing rewarding projects and meaningful tasks give them challenges to show their creativity. When you ask them what they would like to create you will get different responses. Students need the freedom to express their new ideas without judgment. They are constantly searching ways to express their creativity and uniqueness and creative student have the courage to make a

Our education system is preparing our youth, as well as it has prepared our past selves to the oncoming future, and the society that awaits us, including what will happen and preparing ourselves. That we often numbing our youth, including our education systems by depriving or lacking the creative motive to push ourselves further than we can imagine, and using up the full potential of our inner humane selves. Through this system we are currently establishing in our society, and our education systems we aren’t improving the creativity aspect, or pushing for a more open system rather we are expecting and preparing our youth for a future we aren’t familiar with and removing that creative potential that may exist. During the ‘Ted Talk’ video, the host tells the audience that “we aren’t born into creativity, more that we should grow out of it”, rather that we shouldn’t be held or confined to some ideal or structure of “creativity”. We hold the capacity to dream, come up with ideas and pursue those goals and continue to flourish through them. Our society rather than creating these fundamental pillars that we continue to cycle through and use, we need to be able to continue our creativity not as a society but as individuals, using our full potential to improve and create a more open and less demonetized way of life. Through this we can better relate to ourselves and not feel punished as we may feel in real life, whether it be in business or and so forth.