Teaching Creative Problem Solving Skills.

Teaching Creativity
Bernie Dodge, San Diego State University

Thursday, February 12, 2009

According to Forrester Research
1 in 9 jobs in the US information
technology industry will move
overseas by 2010.


Visit India's ofﬁce parks and you'll see


Visit India's ofﬁce parks and you'll see

chartered accountants preparing American
tax returns,


lawyers researching American lawsuits, and


lawyers researching American lawsuits, and

radiologists reading CAT scans for US hospitals.


To ﬂourish in this age,
we'll need to supplement
our well-developed high
tech abilities with
aptitudes like....


the ability to create artistic and emotional
beauty,


beauty,

to detect patterns and opportunities,


beauty,


to craft a satisfying narrative, and


beauty,


to craft a satisfying narrative, and

to come up with inventions the world didn't
know it was missing.


Course Goals


Course Goals

Use speciﬁc techniques to improve creative thinking


Course Goals


Identify problems that invite creativity


Course Goals


Identify problems that invite creativity

Design a lesson that promotes creativity while teaching
something else


How Are You Creative?

Write down 10 instances in which you did something creative


Case 1


Dr. Sandra Hall


Elegant Solutions


Elegant Solutions

The iPhone


Elegant Solutions

The iPhone

The double helix


Elegant Solutions

The iPhone

The double helix

Slumdog Millionaire


Elegant Solutions Make
You Smile


Elegant Problems

Fluency of responses

Flexibility of problem space

Room for elaboration

Opportunities for original answers

A worthiness factor

Potential for elegant solutions


How do you know when
you’ve posed an elegant
problem?


Can We Improve the
Wanted Poster Project?


Give students more
opportunities to generate


Give students more
opportunities to transform


Circle the correct answer

The men was/were walking down the street.


Circle the correct answer

The men was/were walking down the street.

Write a seven-word sentence with
was as the third word

____ ____ was _____ _____ ___ ______.


What would you do to
make the periodic table an
elegant problem?


Case 2


What would you do to turn
this into an elegant
problem?


Technique 1: Brainstorming


Technique 1: Brainstorming

Page 311


Brainstorming


Brainstorming

Name a leader and recorder


Brainstorming


Deﬁne the topic being brainstormed


Brainstorming



Set rules: everyone contributes, respect the leader, no answers
are bad, go for quantity, all answers recorded


Brainstorming




Set a time limit and stop when you get there


Brainstorming




Set a time limit and stop when you get there

Go through the list and pick out the promising ideas


Problem: How can we
improve NE 271?


LUNCH BREAK


Technique 2: Idea Box


Technique 2: Idea Box

Page 117


Task for Learners:
Write a Short Skit


Type Song Event #1 Event #2

1 1 1 1
Comedy Rap Trip Accident

2 2 2 2
Drama Ballad Surprise Birth

3 3 3 3
Crime Hymn Visitor Party

4 4 4 4
Romance Heavy Metal Class Gift


Problem: How can we
improve SAGE?


Events Services Media Participants

1 1 1 1
Social Guest Spkrs Web DE Students

2 2 2 2
Educational Conferences Pod/Webcast Alumni

3 3 3 3
Field Trips Networking Email Professionals

4 4 4 4
Outreach Advocacy Wiki Faculty


Technique 3: Brute Think


Technique 3: Brute Think

Page 157


Melioration


Melioration

Ability to make combinations of disparate ideas


Melioration


A valuable skill for an information society


Melioration



Not explicitly taught in schools


Melioration



Not explicitly taught in schools

Described by David Passig, Bar-Ilan University


Exercise


Exercise

Group A, generate a list of concepts, ideas about lobsters


Exercise


Group B, generate a list of concepts about balloons


Exercise



Group C, generate a list of concepts about Communism


Exercise



Group C, generate a list of concepts about Communism

Then I’ll give you a problem


Homework

Read the Passig articles.

Start your lesson. Go as far as the Task and Introduction.

Choose a chapter from Michalko to teach others next time and
make slides for it.


Teaching Creative Problem Solving Skills.

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