Dr. Robert J. Sternberg "Creativity Is A Decision"

Creativity is a Decision Keys to Developing Creativity in Children and Adults

Robert J. Sternberg
Dean of Arts and Sciences
Tufts University
Collaborators
Todd Lubart
Elena Grigorenko
Linda Jarvin
Linda O’Hara
Wendy Williams
James Kaufman
Jean Pretz
Janet Davidson
Other Members of the PACE Center at Yale & Tufts

Main Message
Creativity is a decision!

Goals
To show that creativity is, in large part, a decision.
To review the most recent research findings regarding creativity and its development.
To show how to apply these ideas in educational settings.

What is Creativity?
Production of an idea or product that is
Novel
Good or useful in some way

Does Creativity Really Matter?

The Costs of Lack of Creativity
“ The Big Three” vs Toyota
CDC (Control Data Corporation) vs IBM
Eastern Airlines vs United Airlines

When People Lack Creative Vision…
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.
While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility." -- Lee DeForest, inventor.

When People Lack Creative Vision…
We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

Main Ideas

Main Ideas
Creativity is in large part a decision—to “defy the crowd.”

Main Ideas
Creative people seek to defy the crowd; by disposition, they create their own opposition
Many reactions to famous ideas, when these ideas were first disseminated, were very negative
Creativity can be developed

Examples of Rotten Reviews
This Side of Paradise (Fitzgerald, 1920): “It seems to us in short that this story does not culminate in anything.”
The Diary of Anne Frank (Frank, 1952): “The girl doesn’t…have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book beyond the curiosity level.”

Catch 22 (Heller, 1961): “I haven’t the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say…This constitutes a continual and unmitigated bore.”
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Lawrence, 1928): “For your own good do not publish this book.”

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (LeCarre, 1963): “You’re welcome to LeCarre—he hasn’t got any future.”
Atlas Shrugged (Rand, 1957): “I regret to say that the book is unsaleable and unpublishable.”

The art of Edvard Munch, Roy Lichtenstein
The science of Copernicus, Galileo
Athletics: Ski-jumping

Main Ideas
The essence of creative work is to formulate the right vision (decide where to go) and to figure out how to pull people toward it (decide how people can get there).

Main Ideas
Creative people “buy low” and “sell high” in the world of ideas.
Creative people are “value” investors in the realm of ideas; very few people want to buy low and sell high, whether novices or experts
Forbes study

Main Ideas
There are 13 key or micro-decisions behind the macro-decision to be creative.

Key Decisions
To redefine problems
Example: Automobile executive

Key Decisions
To analyze creative solutions to problems
Example: The hapless student

Key Decisions
To sell solutions
Example: A talk at a testing company

Key Decisions
To realize that intelligence and knowledge both help and hurt creativity
Example: A trip to the zoo

Key Decisions
To take sensible risks
Example: Showdown at tenure time

Key Decisions
To overcome obstacles
Example: The ill-fated IQ test

Key Decisions
To find what one loves to do
Example: Playing the trumpet

Key Decisions
To continue to grow
Example: Talk when I was in graduate school

Key Decisions
To believe in oneself
Example: Dean Koontz

Key Decisions
To tolerate ambiguity
Example: Discovery of the structure of DNA

Key Decisions
To take oneself and one’s ideas somewhat lightly and to have a sense of humor
Example: The ill-fated colloquium in Pittsburgh

Key Decisions
To seek an environment that encourages and rewards creativity
Example: Transforming admissions

Key Decisions
To recognize that creativity is a way of life
Example: Pablo Picasso

Main Ideas
Creativity is relatively domain-specific.
Example: Embarrassment in an art class

Teaching for Creative Thinking
create
design
invent
imagine
suppose

CREATE (a poem, sculpture, a new game)
DESIGN (a new system of government for the classroom, a scientific investigation, a comfortable home
INVENT (a new means of transportation, a new life form)

IMAGINE (what life would be like in another country, what it would be like to be president of a country, how bees communicate with each other)
SUPPOSE (worldwide temperatures keep increasing, people were paid to inform on neighbors who do not support the political party in power)

Assessing for Creative Thinking

Draw the Earth from an insect’s point of view

How could you tell if there space aliens hiding among us ?

Less Creative Response
Test their knowledge of countries on the Earth to see if they know what the names of the major countries are

More Creative Response
Test their knowledge of television shows and movies that Earth children would have been likely to see when they were children

What would the world be like today if some major event in history had come out differently?

Creative Essay: “What if…”
If the Trojans had heeded Laocoon’s advice and thrown Odysseus’ wooden horse into the sea, they would have defeated the Greeks at Troy. Aeneas would then never have had reason to flee the city, and he would never have ventured to Italy to found Rome. Without Rome, neither the Roman Republic nor a Roman Empire would have existed. Concrete, the arch, plumbing, and the sauna might never have been invented. The modern implications of Rome never having existed are indeed drastic. Lacking even concrete floors, people would resort to sleeping in the mud, and, without plumbing or saunas, they would be perpetually filthy and, generally, quite chilly. France could not have built the base of the Eiffel Tower without arches, so tourists would be unable to purchase miniature collectible Towers in Parisian convenience stores.

Good but Less Creative Essay: “What if…”
What if the ratification of the nineteenth amendment did not pass and women were never given the right to vote? What would life for women, like me, be like in the United States? For one thing, I probably would not be writing this essay. If women were not given their right to vote, I probably would stop going to school after this year and it would be unlikely that I would receive a college education. Without suffrage, my career options would be limited, if a career were a possibility at all. My accepted practices would be limited to staying home and taking care of the family. Rather than being equals, women would be subservient to men. I might not drive, I might not dress in the way in which I choose to, and I might not be able to live my life the way that I can in the twenty-first century.

The Rainbow Project
Measuring creativity (and practical thinking) via paper-and-pencil or computer can
Double prediction of first-year undergraduate grades
Reduce ethnic group differences by half

The Kaleidoscope Project
Measuring creativity on a university application can
Eliminate ethnic-group differences
Improve prediction of first-year grades
Select students who are more likely to be involved in meaningful extracurricular and leadership activities

The Aurora Project
Measuring creativity for 8-12 year olds across domains can enhance our identification of giftedness

Suggested References
Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2007). Teaching for successful intelligence (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Sternberg, R. J., Kaufman, J. C., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2008). Applied intelligence . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Suggested References
Sternberg, R. J., Jarvin, L., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2009). Teaching for wisdom, intelligence, creativity, and success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Summing it Up
“ The End of Eternity”

Conclusions
Creativity is a decision
Anyone can make this decision anytime
So: Decide for creativity!

http://www.slideshare.net	24
http://www.psipsychologytutor.org	20
http://www.fabbs.org	7

Dr. Robert J. Sternberg "Creativity Is A Decision"

by University of Texas at Dallas on Mar 12, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 51

Statistics

Dr. Robert J. Sternberg "Creativity Is A Decision" — Presentation Transcript