Friday, December 22, 2006
Creativity by Karen Wagner
“Everyone is creative. Those who are more creative have learned to be so.”
Jane Piirto in Understanding Creativity
“Creativity” in academics is often looked at separately than creativity in the arts. I’m not sure why this is. Common sense says that both intellectual and artistically talented people are creative. Gardner believes that creativity is an aspect of all forms of intelligence. Perhaps the issue has to do with the difficulty of assessing a person’s creative potential without tying it to critique of a performance or product. Perhaps it is that we too narrowly define creativity as something “artsy”, and that our culture does not value “artsy.”
Like other aspects of giftedness, exposure to opportunities to be creative is essential. Structured group activities are one way to help children explore creativity. My own children participated in school and after school and summer programs for sports, music, dance, theater, art, academics, and community service (hmmm, pretty strong focus on “artsy”). Each activity offered the chance to learn group process, explore a talent, perform and/or create a product. I‘m convinced that these activities helped inspire each of them find their places in the world, develop leadership and communication skills, gain self-confidence and explore things they truly love to do, while being creative. Without early exposure to music, movement and theater and significant encouragement from teachers, would my daughters have discovered their talents in these areas? Maybe, but they might not have pursued so many opportunities to gain mastery. Their commitment to learning in turn led to deeper involvement in the creative process, resulting in performances and/or products at a more demanding level. How can this not be linked to developing their intellect? How can being a self-confident leader not have a positive impact in the classroom as well as on stage?
We felt blessed to have talented and committed instructors/facilitators for most of these programs. Modeling their own talents was important inspiration, and provided the right climate for creativity. The programs that were most successful had, in addition to good direction, appropriate support from all constituents and sponsors, were funded in a way that allowed all interested children to participate, involved families and the community, expressed defined goals and had beginnings and endings. As a parent I had to make a commitment to supporting their explorations, which involved volunteering time, spending money, finding teachers to provide special lessons, and being an avid patron of all their events. Though more intuition than knowledge, my actions are supported by both Renzulli and Piirto use of a pyramid structure to show the development of giftedness and creativity – beginning with natural ability and interest, nurtured through exploration, experience and practice and resulting in a “calling” or motivation and commitment to achieve mastery. This imagery helps me to think about the importance of environmental factors in the process of talent development. It should guide our efforts to help children discover and develop their gifts, and help us assess the roles that individual program models and activities have in the process.
I chose to research Future Problem Solvers for this assignment because I am interested in creative intellectual opportunities, and because of the focus on cooperative group learning. Founded in 1974 by E. Paul Torrance, noted expert in the field of education and creativity, FPS offers students the chance work as a group to solve problems with unique and creative solutions. The six step FPS model teaches students how to think, not what to think, as they explore challenges and propose action plans to complex social problems. The problems include current problems as well as imagined futuristic problems. Groups, or teams, get two practice problems and one qualifying problem to work on during the school year. If teams want to be part of the competitive process, they submit their solutions to the qualifying problem. Top scoring teams are invited to state competitions in the spring and state winners advance to the international conference in June.
FPS can be a whole-class or after school activity option. There are three divisions of teams, for grades 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12. In addition to the team problem solving curriculum, there are Futuristic Scenario Writing and Individual Problem Solving competitions, a Community Problem Solving option and Action-based Problem Solving, designed as a year long, non-competitive program for use with grades K-9 in the regular classroom.
A program like FPS is beneficial for the gifted student in several ways in addition to providing an intellectual challenge. Problem solving requires students to generate many ideas, try different approaches, provide unique and creative solutions and expand basic concepts (otherwise known as Fluency, Flexibility, Originality and Elaboration). The nature of the complex challenges presented and reliance on a group process requires students to take risks, be curious, use their imaginations and rely on intuition. Though the problem generates a solution, how effective that solution is may not be evaluated for months, and may not result in an award winning trip to the next level of competition (postponement of gratification). Group success will develop pride in accomplishment, strong leadership, communication and team-thinking skills, and the belief that it is ok to rely on one another. Individual success is tied directly to the team success, inspiring students to overachieve “for the team” and work to their potential. As an after school activity, FPS will likely attract students interested in using their brains, providing validation and socially acceptable interaction with others. Group success may also lead to positive recognition within the school and greater community. Typically leaders of FPS activities are teachers and/or parents with a passion for higher order thinking, providing students with important models and potential mentors. Finally, involvement in something that is interesting, stimulating, creative and fun may make a critical difference in engaging the gifted student who is unchallenged or underachieving within the regular classroom.
Because of all the ways group problem solving meets the needs of gifted learners, every school should have FPS or a program like it! Founder Dr. Torrance writes that “what is rewarded in a culture will be cultivated there.” If we are to develop the cognitive and affective abilities of tomorrow’s leaders, we need to establish a national climate more favorable to expressions of giftedness and creativity.
The only potential negatives to a program like FPS that I can forecast have to do with management and direction of the program. If the program comes and goes (like Destination Imagination has in our district), or is run by a teacher or parent unable to carry out the philosophy of FPS, the results could stifle individual students’ creativity and cause the community climate to be unfavorable for future efforts. Launching a program like this without broad support and a sense of its purpose within the bigger picture renders it potentially less effective.
In looking at the other programs mentioned (Talents Unlimited, Destinations Imagination, math team, drama, etc.), I think they all meet many cognitive and affective needs of students. How well they do this depends on the factors mentioned above. A nationally recognized organization like FPS has structure, standards, accountability, and training for leaders. Local efforts may or may not have proper scaffolding. Alluded to earlier, some of the programs my children were involved in were not as beneficial to them as others (though there are always lessons to be learned about individual and group behavior), primarily due to inexperienced, unskilled or just plain awful direction.
To end on a positive note, I’ll echo something noted in my assignment on program models - any similar enrichment program for students that is supported by a local commitment and belief that it is necessary, has adequate funding, and is run by a charismatic, passionate and creative individual, has the potential to benefit students and inspire creativity.
Jane Piirto in Understanding Creativity
“Creativity” in academics is often looked at separately than creativity in the arts. I’m not sure why this is. Common sense says that both intellectual and artistically talented people are creative. Gardner believes that creativity is an aspect of all forms of intelligence. Perhaps the issue has to do with the difficulty of assessing a person’s creative potential without tying it to critique of a performance or product. Perhaps it is that we too narrowly define creativity as something “artsy”, and that our culture does not value “artsy.”
Like other aspects of giftedness, exposure to opportunities to be creative is essential. Structured group activities are one way to help children explore creativity. My own children participated in school and after school and summer programs for sports, music, dance, theater, art, academics, and community service (hmmm, pretty strong focus on “artsy”). Each activity offered the chance to learn group process, explore a talent, perform and/or create a product. I‘m convinced that these activities helped inspire each of them find their places in the world, develop leadership and communication skills, gain self-confidence and explore things they truly love to do, while being creative. Without early exposure to music, movement and theater and significant encouragement from teachers, would my daughters have discovered their talents in these areas? Maybe, but they might not have pursued so many opportunities to gain mastery. Their commitment to learning in turn led to deeper involvement in the creative process, resulting in performances and/or products at a more demanding level. How can this not be linked to developing their intellect? How can being a self-confident leader not have a positive impact in the classroom as well as on stage?
We felt blessed to have talented and committed instructors/facilitators for most of these programs. Modeling their own talents was important inspiration, and provided the right climate for creativity. The programs that were most successful had, in addition to good direction, appropriate support from all constituents and sponsors, were funded in a way that allowed all interested children to participate, involved families and the community, expressed defined goals and had beginnings and endings. As a parent I had to make a commitment to supporting their explorations, which involved volunteering time, spending money, finding teachers to provide special lessons, and being an avid patron of all their events. Though more intuition than knowledge, my actions are supported by both Renzulli and Piirto use of a pyramid structure to show the development of giftedness and creativity – beginning with natural ability and interest, nurtured through exploration, experience and practice and resulting in a “calling” or motivation and commitment to achieve mastery. This imagery helps me to think about the importance of environmental factors in the process of talent development. It should guide our efforts to help children discover and develop their gifts, and help us assess the roles that individual program models and activities have in the process.
I chose to research Future Problem Solvers for this assignment because I am interested in creative intellectual opportunities, and because of the focus on cooperative group learning. Founded in 1974 by E. Paul Torrance, noted expert in the field of education and creativity, FPS offers students the chance work as a group to solve problems with unique and creative solutions. The six step FPS model teaches students how to think, not what to think, as they explore challenges and propose action plans to complex social problems. The problems include current problems as well as imagined futuristic problems. Groups, or teams, get two practice problems and one qualifying problem to work on during the school year. If teams want to be part of the competitive process, they submit their solutions to the qualifying problem. Top scoring teams are invited to state competitions in the spring and state winners advance to the international conference in June.
FPS can be a whole-class or after school activity option. There are three divisions of teams, for grades 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12. In addition to the team problem solving curriculum, there are Futuristic Scenario Writing and Individual Problem Solving competitions, a Community Problem Solving option and Action-based Problem Solving, designed as a year long, non-competitive program for use with grades K-9 in the regular classroom.
A program like FPS is beneficial for the gifted student in several ways in addition to providing an intellectual challenge. Problem solving requires students to generate many ideas, try different approaches, provide unique and creative solutions and expand basic concepts (otherwise known as Fluency, Flexibility, Originality and Elaboration). The nature of the complex challenges presented and reliance on a group process requires students to take risks, be curious, use their imaginations and rely on intuition. Though the problem generates a solution, how effective that solution is may not be evaluated for months, and may not result in an award winning trip to the next level of competition (postponement of gratification). Group success will develop pride in accomplishment, strong leadership, communication and team-thinking skills, and the belief that it is ok to rely on one another. Individual success is tied directly to the team success, inspiring students to overachieve “for the team” and work to their potential. As an after school activity, FPS will likely attract students interested in using their brains, providing validation and socially acceptable interaction with others. Group success may also lead to positive recognition within the school and greater community. Typically leaders of FPS activities are teachers and/or parents with a passion for higher order thinking, providing students with important models and potential mentors. Finally, involvement in something that is interesting, stimulating, creative and fun may make a critical difference in engaging the gifted student who is unchallenged or underachieving within the regular classroom.
Because of all the ways group problem solving meets the needs of gifted learners, every school should have FPS or a program like it! Founder Dr. Torrance writes that “what is rewarded in a culture will be cultivated there.” If we are to develop the cognitive and affective abilities of tomorrow’s leaders, we need to establish a national climate more favorable to expressions of giftedness and creativity.
The only potential negatives to a program like FPS that I can forecast have to do with management and direction of the program. If the program comes and goes (like Destination Imagination has in our district), or is run by a teacher or parent unable to carry out the philosophy of FPS, the results could stifle individual students’ creativity and cause the community climate to be unfavorable for future efforts. Launching a program like this without broad support and a sense of its purpose within the bigger picture renders it potentially less effective.
In looking at the other programs mentioned (Talents Unlimited, Destinations Imagination, math team, drama, etc.), I think they all meet many cognitive and affective needs of students. How well they do this depends on the factors mentioned above. A nationally recognized organization like FPS has structure, standards, accountability, and training for leaders. Local efforts may or may not have proper scaffolding. Alluded to earlier, some of the programs my children were involved in were not as beneficial to them as others (though there are always lessons to be learned about individual and group behavior), primarily due to inexperienced, unskilled or just plain awful direction.
To end on a positive note, I’ll echo something noted in my assignment on program models - any similar enrichment program for students that is supported by a local commitment and belief that it is necessary, has adequate funding, and is run by a charismatic, passionate and creative individual, has the potential to benefit students and inspire creativity.
# posted by MSAD 48 Gifted and Talented Program @ 7:57 AM 
