Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Creative and Critical Thinking

Often when I explain that I teach Creative Studies, people think it is about art and music.  They also think it is more important to have critical thinking.  Those thoughts are based on misinformation.

Creative Studies is about thinking.  It includes metacognitive thinking, cognitive thinking skills, affective thinking skills and the ability to both diverge in thought and converge in thought using evaluative tools.  My concern is that people have been taught to BE critical and that has been considered critical thinking.  Usually the first word children learn and understand the meaning of, outside of possibly mommy and daddy, is "no."  If we show students an unusual product, the first instinct is for them to say what is wrong with it.  True evaluation is about looking at the positives as well as the negatives - seeing what is right, interesting or possible and what the concerns might be.  Creativity also involves looking at the concerns and finding ways to improve the product or ways to deal with it in context.

Critical thinking, it seems to me, looks for one right answer to a problem.  Creative thinking looks for the right answer to the problem for the people, the organizations, and the context involved.  The right answer is different if those elements are different.  And whether the answer is right or wrong is in the eyes of those it affects.  There is great joy when people find the "right" answer for themselves.  Creativity allows that to happen.  There are no judges saying the answer is wrong to them.  Ideas are only judged affirmatively - what's good about it, what would you like to change or improve about it, what concerns do you have, and how might you overcome those concerns.

We teach children that there is a right answer.  We criticize their mistakes.  They lose confidence and feel they will never catch up.  I think the confidence, energy and enthusiasm that comes with students solving their own problems is a better learning experience than always being expected to be right.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Impact

Today I saw a student from last semester's CRS 205 class.  He came up to me to say how much he enjoyed the class and how it changed the way he thinks.  He said the learning was like hitting a wall, but now he can't turn off his creative thinking.  It has been cropping up in his other classes. 

Also today, we said goodbye to our dear friend, known as Peter, who will return to Beijing early tomorrow.  He was a visiting scholar in finance at Buffalo State for more than a year.  He visited my CRS 205 classes many times and loved them.  He said they don't allow that kind of creativity in Chinese schools.  He's hoping that I can some day go to Beijing to teach some classes.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?

These are not new or unusual reactions to creativity classes.  I've met adults in their fifties who say that creativity classes changed their lives.  It's interesting to speculate what might happen if creativity classes - even one - were mandatory.  Would more people find excitement in coming up with new and relevant ideas easily?  Or would the fact of a mandate cause them to rebel and fight the learning?  I think the former possibillity because it is hard not to get drawn in when you can't get wrong answers and having fun is part of the program.  Our schools seem to basically tell kids, "There is only one right answer and you probably don't know it."  They come into my class feeling insecure and anxious - afraid to answer questions, afraid to share ideas, low self-esteem.  When I ask how many think they are creative, few raise their hands.  When asked to write as many ideas as they can on paper in three minutes, many have less than five written at the end of the time.  At the end of the semester, most have more than thirty ideas in three minutes and virtually all now see that they are creative.

Somehow, creativity is often thought of as "fluffy,"  unnecessary, or only for the arts.  In fact, creativity is necessary for innovation, change, good personal relationships, business dealings, almost anything you can name.  The skills of creativity are used any time we need or want a new and useful solution to a problem, challenge or opportunity.  It is positive, upbeat, productive, useful and FUN.  Creativity rulz!