Challenge Assumptions in the Classroom and Launch Creativity
Students in a high school history class have just completed their final projects and everyone sits down for presentations. About halfway through, just as everyone’s eyes are starting to droop, someone’s presentation blows everyone else’s out of the water - it’s creative; it’s funny; it’s enthralling. At the end, several students remark, “Well, I didn’t know we could do THAT!”
How to approach our teaching so that students WILL think above and beyond in terms of what is asked, and use their creativity!
How to Challenge Assumptions in the Classroom and Launch Creativity
Students in a high school history class have just completed their final projects and everyone sits down for presentations. About halfway through, just as everyone’s eyes are starting to droop, one student’s presentation blows everyone else’s out of the water - it’s creative; it’s funny; it’s enthralling. At the end, several students remark, “Well, I didn’t know we could do THAT!”
The thing is, there was no reason for them to think they COULDN’T “do that,” but they had each made the obvious choice when crafting their presentations. They had assumed that there was only one way to present the information.
They had not been introduced to the creativity skill of “challenging assumptions.”
Creativity isn’t one monolithic thing; it is a set of skills, and way of thinking that we can learn and develop. A creative mind learns, among other things, to challenge assumptions. This is a really fun creativity skill to master, and one that can make a huge difference in how we approach life. If we teach students to challenge assumptions, they will be more creative in how they demonstrate knowledge. They will be able to make more interesting connections between concepts, and they will better critical thinkers and problem solvers.
Going Places, written by Paul Reynolds and Peter H. Reynolds, is a story about challenging assumptions. It is based on the animated film Above and Beyond, produced by FableVision for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) to introduce the 4Cs - creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration - the skills P21 defines as necessary for students’ future success in the world.
In the story, a boy receives a kit to make a vehicle. At first, he mistakenly assumes that because his kit is just like everyone else’s, his vehicle should look like everyone else’s. Luckily, with a little inspiration and collaboration with his friend Maya, he is able to challenge his assumptions and create something truly amazing and unique.
Try this fun problem-solving activity with your students to help them learn about challenging assumptions:
Break students into groups and provide each group with a kit. The kits should be a box or tray with 4 cups holding the following materials: scissors, markers, tape, glue, puff balls, strips of paper, 3 toothpicks, and four Popsicle sticks.
The instructions: Using only this kit, make a table at least 1.5 inches tall that can hold the weight of a (specific) moderately heavy book.
In this activity, the most successful groups will probably be the ones that can view the box/tray and/or cups as building materials, not just as containers for materials! (Note that there is still not one right answer for this activity. We must not present ONE SOLUTION as the only correct way. There are many ways to build a table that fits the requirements!)
When presented with one purpose for an item, our brains often see that as its only function. This is called “functional fixedness.” If we can practice recognizing and evaluating our assumptions, we can get better at seeing possibilities all around us instead of just seeing things the way we always have.
The world’s most difficult challenges will not have a simple answer. Instead, they will require an ability to change how we look at things and evaluate whether our long-held assumptions are accurate or are holding us back. We also must be able to engage in collaboration, listen to others’ ideas in an affirmative way, and practice resilience when an idea fails. These are necessary skills for creative problem solving, and worth practicing in the classroom.
If you try this activity, let us know! What did you learn about your students’ thought processes? How easy or difficult was it for them to challenge assumptions? How can you use this knowledge to continue to cultivate creative thinking in your classroom?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sara Smith is an educator, learner, and creativity professional. She holds a Master of Science in creativity from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY College at Buffalo. Sara is compelled by learning and its intersection with creativity, and her vision is to create and support creative communities that help people to grow and to nurture their passions and strengths.
CITATIONS:
Going Places is published by Simon and Schuster and is available at The Dot Central.
Embedding Creativity in the Classroom
Sometimes it seems like creativity and the work of school are separate matters, but did you know that students learn better when what they are learning is presented creatively? Did you know that they learn more deeply when they engage creative thinking? Did you know there is a research-based method for incorporating creative thinking skills into every classroom lesson?
Is This YOUR Year of Creativity?
Classrooms all over the country are abuzz. The smell of sharpened pencils and sounds of enthusiastic voices float through the air as the new school year begins. There’s so much potential for what the year together will bring. It is our hope that teachers and students enter their classrooms brimming with creativity - with new and interesting ideas that spark their motivation, love of learning, and ability to uniquely express who they are and what they know.
Sometimes it seems like creativity and the work of school are separate matters, but did you know that students learn better when what they are learning is presented creatively? Did you know that they learn more deeply when they engage creative thinking? Did you know there is a research-based method for incorporating creative thinking skills into every classroom lesson?
Being able to see things in different ways and from different perspectives, imagining possibilities, making connections between unexpected concepts, and breaking through the “usual” way to discover alternatives are all creative skills that strengthen students’ understanding and set them up for creating a better future.
The Torrance Incubation Model, developed by psychologist E. Paul Torrance, incorporates these creativity skills into any lesson in any subject to enliven lessons and develop creative thinking in students (and teachers!). We have begun using this model to help teachers ignite creativity in their classrooms and make meaningful lessons that lead to deep learning.
In this model, a teacher weaves a creative skill into three parts of a lesson. The first part is heightening anticipation to get the students curious and excited. Perhaps in introducing the skill “Look at it Another Way” the students are presented with this image. What is it? How does it make you feel? Can you look at it another way and see something else? This creativity skill is then incorporated into the content, for example, of learning the elements of a story.
We do this in the next part, deepening expectations, by working with the content in a more thorough way while still practicing the creativity skill. This is when we dig into what the elements of a story are and what purpose they serve. While we do this, we can look at the story another way, like through the perspective of the villain. From this perspective, do the story elements change? There is a lot to explore this way, and the teacher can guide the class through analysis.
Finally, we must give the students the opportunity to use what they know outside of the context of the lesson. This is called extending the learning. The teacher may give the students the opportunity to retell, rewrite, or continue their favorite story from the perspective of the villain, demonstrating their understanding of story elements and how they move a story along.
Once we’ve journeyed through these three levels of a lesson and incorporated a creative thinking skill, the students’ minds are primed for incubation, which means they’ll hold onto the information longer and will be more ready to use it in any context to which they can connect it. They’ll also be better able to envision new ways to use and express what they know. Can you imagine the possibilities?
We believe that everyone is creative and everyone has a spark inside them. Torrance’s model, along with the 18 creative skills he defines, brings learning to a whole new creative level. Teachers that want to learn more about fanning the spark in their students and making creativity part of their everyday lessons can join our first cohort of teachers taking our new course The Creative Classroom: The Torrance Incubation Model available at FableVision Learning’s www.creativityflow.org.
Have a happy and creative year!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sara Smith is an educator, learner, and creativity professional. She holds a Master of Science in creativity from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY College at Buffalo. Sara is compelled by learning and its intersection with creativity, and her vision is to create and support creative communities that help people to grow and to nurture their passions and strengths.
CITATIONS:
The Torrance Incubation Model can be found detailed in Torrance, E. P., & Safter, H. T. (1990). The incubation model of teaching: Getting beyond the Aha! Buffalo: Bearly Limited.