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Creativity and Innovation: Imperative for the . Bonnie Cramond, Ph.D. The University of Georgia. 21 st Century.
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Creativity and Innovation: Imperative for the Bonnie Cramond, Ph.D. The University of Georgia 21st Century
1909 “Children, please take your slate home and show your parents what you learned. If they have questions, I’ll speak to them about it at services Sunday. Now, fifth year children, take out your science books and turn to page 141 so we can read about the eight planets.” 1959 “Kids, please have your mother sign the graded papers and send them back as soon as possible so you don’t get a demerit. Now, take out your science books and turn to page 141 so we can read about the nine planets.” 2009 “OK, quick texting each other and put the iphones away. Please remember to get your parent or guardian to log in to the class home page so that I know that someone has seen your posted assignments. Now, take out your science books and turn to page 141 so we can read about the eight planets.” Time Travel in a Classroom
Time Travel • Many things have changed in the last 100 years… • Now, we have smaller class sizes, more diversity, less order and respect for teachers, more technology • Content reflects recent events and understandings, there is more technology, and the reading level of the textbooks is easier
Has Curriculum Changed? Then • Reading • Writing • Arithmetic • Gym • History and Geography • Science Now • Language Arts • Mathematics • P.E. • Social Studies • Science Has it really changed? No, not in 100 years.
We are moving from industrial societies to knowledge societies We must realize that it is time to move past the 3 Rs of Reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic B.Cramond, University of Georgia
In 1993, Doll Proposed the 4 Rs • Richness of curriculum - deep & multi-layered • Relations - making of connections • Rigor - high standards • Recursion - reflective interaction with the environment, others, culture, and with one’s own knowledge B.Cramond, University of Georgia
5th R: Reverse the Role of the Learner • Passive---> Active • Consumer---> Producer • Dependent--> Independent B.Cramond, University of Georgia
A partnership between the American Psychological Association, Montgomery County Public Schools, and Vanderbilt University
The Other 3 Rs: • Reasoning • focusing on effective problem solving particularly in regard to academic challenges. • Resilience • recognizing challenges as part of life, viewing obstacles as challenges, and developing persistence. • Responsibility • Being accountable for one's own actions and inactions • Academic • Personal • Social http://www.apa.org/ed/cpse/threershome.html
In Great Britain… • The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (1999) warned that the curriculum not only did not nurture creativity, it actually stymied it. • Watch the Ken Robinson video on YouTube Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
In the U.S. • The groundbreaking 2006 report, Tough Choices or Tough Times (National Center on Education and the Economy, 2006), advised a systematic change in the curriculum.
“Strong skills in English, mathematics, technology, and science, as well as literature, history, and the arts, will be essential for many; beyond this, candidates will have to be comfortable with ideas and abstractions, good at both analysis and synthesis, creative and innovative, self-disciplined and well organized, able to learn very quickly and work well as a member of a team and have the flexibility to adapt quickly to frequent changes in the labor market as the shifts in the economy become ever faster and more dramatic.” (p. 8, Executive Summary).
The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life(2002) There is a new social class, the creative class, who generate new ideas, new technology, and new creative content that profoundly influence work and lifestyle issues. The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent (2005) Nations are in competition to nurture and retain their most creative talent because they are linked to a nation’s prosperity. Richard Florida, Economist B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Top Ten Countries for Creativity According to Prof. Florida’s Index*: • Sweden, • Japan, • Finland, • the US, • Switzerland, • Denmark, • Iceland, • the Netherlands, • Norway and • Germany *Talent, technology, and tolerance
Number of Nobel Prizes Awarded By Country--All Categories Physics Chemistry Medicine Literature Peace Economics
Other Indicators of Creative Energy:Creative Enclaves or Constellations • Greek Mathematicians • Florence at the beginning of the 15th century • Paris in the mid-to-late 18th century • The Royal Society • Tang Dynasty (constellation of poets) 7th C • Vienna at the end of the 19th century: • Harlem Renaissance/New York Creative Enclaves-- gregclinton.com
Where are some Creative Enclaves Now? • India--film industry • Silicon Valley, CA--technology • Milan, Paris, New York, Tokyo--fashion
How much of what you learned in school is no longer true? • There may have been only 48 states in the U.S. • Man had not walked on the moon; even airplane trips were reserved for the wealthy, but travel was easy. • Our food was not zapped, and our files were not zipped. • The idea of a Black man or a woman running for president was unthinkable. (In 1960, the idea of a Catholic running for president was controversial.)
How much of what you learned in school is no longer true? (cont’d) • YouTube, iPods, cell phones, Skype, Blue Tooth, email, eBay, and Facebook had no meaning. • Amazon, chats, Second Life, and MySpace had different meanings. • “Text” was not a verb. • People, not machines, got viruses. • Going to school in your pajamas was a nightmare, not a fashion statement.
Hoffer, 1973 “In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live only in a world that no longer exists” B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Why People Generally Don’t Feel Creativity Is Important-- Failure to Recognize That Creativity…
1…Can Be Expressed in Many Ways • Association only with the Arts
Types of Creativity • Inventive • addresses a worthwhile problem • novel and appropriate solution • Expressive • Illustrates the creator’s emotions and aesthetics • original and valuable B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Inventive Creativity • Exhibited in mathematics, science, and social arenas • Recognizes and identifies problems that may or may not be apparent to others, • When solved result in an improvement in the domain Dean Kamen, Inventor B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Dean Kamen • Inventor-multimillionaire “inventrepreneur” • Didn’t graduate from college • Holds more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for innovative medical devices Segway B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Mohandas Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. • May produce an intangible product--such as a social movement B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Expressive Creativity • The impetus for the arts • Results not from the recognition of a problem, • But from the need to communicate with others. B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Not real dichotomy inventive expressive • Aesthetic experience in the realization of an elegant solution to a problem • There are many problems to be solved in the completion any artistic expression B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 1999 • Interviewed scientists and artists at the highest levels of accomplishment, many of whom were Nobel Prize winners, who noted the similarity in their work. • French physician Armand Trousseau, “All science touches on art; all art has its scientific side. The worst scientist is he who is not an artist; the worst artist is he who is no scientist.” (p. 11). B.Cramond, University of Georgia
2. Can Be Expressed at Different Levels: C or c • Association only with the highest levels of creativity • Maslow, “A good soup is more creative than a bad poem.”
3…is Needed to Solve World Problems Overpopulationn • Inventive • Novel solutions to unsolved problems • Early recognition & product creation • Market response Geopolitical Restructuring Hunger Conflict Obesity Economic Woes Pollution Natural Resources Disease New Markets B.Cramond, University of Georgia
4…Maximizes Human Abilities “The intuitive mind is the gift, the rational mind is the faithful servant. We have honored the servant and ignored the gift.” Einstein
5…Provides the passion that leads to achievement • "We are not born with unlimited choices... Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal that we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” Pressfield, S. (2002). The war of art: Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles. New York: Warner Books.
6…Makes Life Easier Ben Carson Dean Kamen
In some cases the very qualities that cause creative individuals to have problems are the same ones that may facilitate their creative accomplishments. 8…Is Developmental
…And Nurtured even when it is hard to do so.
9…is something that we all have, like intelligence • When a person has no learned or practiced solution to a problem, some degree of creativity is required”
According to Torrance, “When a person has no learned or practiced solution to a problem, some degree of creativity is required” B.Cramond, University of Georgia
What Can We Do About It? • Cherish our most valuable resource
Education Must recognize and develop • Inventive Creativity – to solve problems • Expressive creativity – to help us understand and express our feeling about our changing world B.Cramond, University of Georgia
Remember the Past • R. Buckminster Fuller, writer, mathematician, architect, etc. recalled that during his childhood, at the turn of the century, • only about 1% of the world was literate, • fewer still thought of humanity in world terms
Look at the Present… • people tried to predict the future and could not begin to conceive of automobiles, electrons, travel to the moon, or even air wars as reality.
Prepare for the Future! • We, too, are poised on the brink of change in this new millennium • Prediction is still true: successful adaptation to world change and enrichment of our world depend on creative endeavors.