MODULE 5

CREATIVITY

Descriptors/Topics
 Concept, Nature and Characteristics of Creativity
 Process of Creativity
 Measurement and Uses of Creativity Tests
 Development of Creativity, Theories
 Creativity and Imagination, Learning Styles, Cooperative Learning
 Creating an emotionally secure classroom that encourages democracy, self expression,
and self-determination

CONCEPT OF CREATIVITY

• Creativity is the capacity of a person to produce compositions, products or ideas which

are essentially new or novel and previously unknown to the producer and characterized
by original adaptiveness and realization.
• Creativity is the basis of the entire social development and new inventions and
discoveries in the field or science and technology.
• Creativity is distinguished by novelty, originality and is unusually inventive.
• All persons to a certain degree are creative. People differ greatly on the degree creativity.
The creative abilities may not have realized and remain potential owing to lack of proper
stimulating conditions or owing to long neglect.
• Creativity is the power of the mind to form new ideas and thoughts. It helps one imagine
something new and special. E.g. drawing, painting, writing, comes from being able to
wonder at its beauty. Creativity brings out something special in an individual
• If we analyse the definitions of creativity, it seems to fall under 4 categories:
- The person who creates
- Mental processes asserting within the person who creates (e.g. BIG 5 personality)
- Cultural and environmental factors working on the creator
- Products of creativity, i.e. poems, paintings, theories and inventions
 NATURE OF CREATIVITY

• Creativity is the resultant of some interaction.

• Creativity is the ability to synthesise ideas or objects

• It is an ability to create new ideas, theories or objects

• It is an ability to develop something original

• It is a process as well as a product

• It is a complex and dynamic process

• It knows no special medium, place, person or time

• It is the capacity to accept challenge

• It is the readiness to change self and environment

CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVITY

Though creativity has some general characteristics, its nature of work differs from person to
person. For example, creativity to the artist is the ability to evoke an emotional mood. To the
architect, it is the ability to evoke new approaches, forms and new materials. To the scientist,
creativity is the ability to explore new way of extending knowledge. To the teacher, it is the
ability to discover and apply dynamic methods of teaching learning whereas to the student it is
the ability to use words and phrases in new situations, to solve sum speedily, to prepare new
types of charts, to write essays and stories depicting new ideas.

Torrence has compiled a list of 84 characteristics of a creative person. Some of these are:

- A creative person is very - It can be summed up that creative

adventurous children are:

- He is flexible in thinking, feeling - Constantly probing

and doing
- Discovering
- He is very keen to explore and
invent - Imaging

- He is intuitive, self-disciplined, - Asking questions

visionary and willing to take risk - Guessing

- Wondering
 PROCESS OF CREATIVITY

The process of creative thinking involves some specific and definite steps and represents a
scientific and systematic analysis of a higher creative process. These are:

1. PREPARATION

• Creative thinking in most fields of endeavour requires some preparation.

• It includes much trial and error.

• Deliberately or involuntarily turning away from the problem is the beginning of the
second stage which is known as incubation

2. INCUBATION

• This stage is characterized by absence of activity or thinking about the problem.

• One can take rest or engage in other activities. Sometimes when an individual us engaged
in other work, this experience might provides clue to the solution of the problem

3. ILLUMINATION/INSPIRATION

• This experience of sudden appearance of the solution is known as inspiration or

illumination

• It occurs at anytime, even in dreaming.

• A solution may appear when it is least expected. This insight or ‘Aha’ experience to the
thinker

• E.g. Archimedes came out of the bathroom shouting “Eureka”. This is the ‘Aha’
experience which is also known as illumination.

4. VERIFICATION

• During this stage illumination or inspiration is tried out.

 • We determine whether the idea or solution appears sudden is correct or not. In case if it
does not work well, fresh attempts are made for the solution. Sometimes the solution
needs slight modification or change.

• Then in light of the results of verification or testing revision is made and the solution or
idea is made workable. But at no stage, the creative thinker thinks it complete.

• It is open for essential modification or revision at any time when needed.

Though these are the different stages in this process, one should not consider the stages as rigid
and fixed for all the times for all the thinkers because one may get the solution in the last stage,
one may repeat the cycle again and again till for a proper solution.

MEASUREMENT AND USES OF CREATIVITY TESTS

MEASUREMENT OF CREATIVITY

• Measurement is essential to know the existence of anything.

• According to Torrence, measurement of creativity is essential in identifying creative

individuals. This is essential because:

- It enhances understanding of human mind and personality

- Helps in individual teaching

- Helps in guiding the mental growth and development

- Emphasises the need for guidance in future

- Helps in arranging remedial programme

• Creativity can be identified in various areas like academic, artistic, mechanical and
scientific, etc.

• An individual is unique; they have their unique ways of thinking. So they differ in their
areas of thinking and also in their areas of interest. These areas can be identified using
various testing and non-testing techniques:

- Observation
In this technique the behaviour of the individual in different situations is observed.
From this observation they are able to identify the individual’s creative areas.

- Cumulative Record
 It helps to know about the past activities of the individual. The record if properly
observed enables one to identify the area of creativity of the same individual.

- Informal Tests
Small questions may be informally asked between the class discussions or general
talks and may hope some idea about the individual’s creative ability.

- Standardized Tests
Different types of creativity test developed by psychologists are used to measure
creativity. Some of them are ‘foreign tests’ and some are ‘Indian tests’

a. Foreign Tests
• Guilford and Merifield test of creativity for college Students
• Burron and Weish Art Scale
• Harris Test of Scientific Creativity

b. Indian Tests
• Mazumdar Scientific Creativity Test
• ISPT Creativity Performance Scale
• Chatterjee Mosaic Tests
• Passi - A battery of Creativity Test

• Besides these, Guilford and Merrifield have developed test techniques that measures
fluency, flexibility, originality, re-definition and sensitivity to problems.

• Getzels and Jackson have used five different measures of creativity in their research.
They are:

- Word-association tests: Here, students are required to give as many definitions and
numbers of different categories into which they could be placed.

- Uses of Things test: Students are asked to give as many uses as they can for a
common object

- Hidden Shapes test: A student in this is required to find more complex form of
figure on card in a simple form

- Three different endings: A student is required to suggest 3 different endings to

incomplete short tables
 - Make up Problems: A student is required to makeup as many mathematical
problems he can on the basis of information given in a complex paragraph

• There are also Minnesota test of creative thinking comprising non-verbal tests like picture
construction, creative thinking & creative design, circles and shapes, etc.

USES OF CREATIVITY TESTS

• Creativity is a natural endowment and needs stimulation and nourishment. Most of the
creative talent if not given proper training, education and opportunity for creative
expression, results in wastage.

• Creativity is universal. It is not monopoly of a few geniuses only. Every one of us to

certain degree possesses creative abilities.

• Creativity tests are useful in finding the nature and amount of creativity among the
children. This helps to provide proper environment and guidance to develop the
originality of the individual in a fully fledged way.

• It becomes convenient to organise various activities and situations to develop creativity

among children according to their abilities.

DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY, THEORIES

1. DIVINE INSPIRATION OR GOD-GIVEN GIFT THEORY

• Creativity is a gift from god to the human beings which is not universally distributed.

• Some people get a large share of this skill while to others it is denied

• This theory is irrelevant because scientific thinking is the basis for acceptance of
theories these days.

2. THEORY DESCRIBING CREATIVITY EQUIVALENT TO INSANITY

• Some scholars like Cesare Lambroso have concluded that creativity and insanity go
hand-in-hand.

• An insane person lives in his own world. His thinking, feelings and actions are
concentrated and centred on his own interests and intentions.
 • The states of mind of highly creative persons are somewhat similar and their
behaviour may not be considered quite abnormal and even insane.

• These findings are not based on objective and empirical studies.

• No definite correlation has been established between insanity and creativity.

• The creative individual may seem to be far from normal because of his constant
absorption in his creative pursuits, but that does not mean mentally abnormal or that
his creative strivings can be taken as signs of madness

3. THEORY DESCRIBING CREATIVITY AS NATIVE OR INBORN

• In this viewpoint, creativity is regarded as something native, an innate or inborn trait,

a special mental power or unique cognitive ability that cannot be acquired by learning
or training.

• This theory suggests that creatives are born and not made

• One may have a special inborn sensitivity to sound; another may have extremely
sensitive vocal chords, senses of touch, sight or smell to enable him to be highly
talented or creative in any of these spheres.

• One may have been born with extraordinary intuitive power for a sudden or quick
grasp of new things or phenomena in any field or a fine imagination and insight for
discovering new things like scientists James Watt, Newton, Einstein or
Mathematicians Gauss and Ramanujan

4. THEORY OF ENVIRONMENTALLY ACQUIRED CREATIVITY

• According to this viewpoint, creativity is not only the result of one’s heredity, inborn
capacity of God’s gift.

• It is acquired and nurtured like other human traits.

• A positive environment or situation that is open, democratic and free may be said to
contribute positively to the release and development of creative potential.

• On the other hand, a closed society, culture or situation may act as a strong deterrent
to the development of initiative within the individual.
 • Arieti (1976) proposed the concept of creativogenic society to emphasize the
influence of culture and environment on the development of creativity.

• According to him, the creativogenic society or environment is tolerance for and

interest in divergent points of view, and its use of incentives and rewards for
creativity.

• As a result of such favourable environment creativity may get full nourishment and
creatives build up. Hence, it is the environment- favourable or detrimental- which is
responsible for making one creative or non-creative

5. TAYLOR’S LEVEL THEORY OF CREATIVITY

• According to the level theory enunciated by I.A. Taylor (1975), creativity may be
described as existing at 5 levels in an ascending hierarchy. A person is said to be
creative to the extent that he is able to reach these levels. The 5 levels are the
following:

- Expressive creativity

- Productive creativity

- Inventive creativity

- Innovative creativity

- Emergent creativity

6. HEMISPHERE THEORY OF CREATIVITY

• According to this theory, creative acts are said to be the result of interaction between
the two hemispheres of the individual’s brain. It gives quite a predominant biological
base to the upsurge and functioning of creativity.

• The researches into hemispheric functioning of Clark (1983) and Kitano and Kirby
(1986) have demonstrated that creative individuals are usually right hemisphere-
dominant while logical, rational thinkers are left hemisphere-dominant
7. PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY OF CREATIVITY

• The school of psychoanalysis considers creativity as a means and product of one’s

emotional purging, an opportunity for sublimation and catharsis.

• Freud, the father of this school, considers the creations as nothing but attempts for the
expression of the repressed desires, mostly sexual in nature.

• Kris (1952), Kubie (1958) and Jung (1933) had a different approach that explained
creative expression. They opposed the unconscious-seated and sex-dominated
approach of Freud and advocated the use of preconscious rather than unconscious
mental mechanisms in the creative act.

• The views of these psychoanalysts have been under constant attack chiefly on account
of their being over-generalised, their sole dependence on unconscious motivation and
early conflicts for explaining all types of human behaviour including creative acts.

8. ARIETI’S THEORY OF CREATIVITY

• This theory represents the contemporary views about the nature and meaning of the
terms creativity, the creative process and creative output. The major theoretical
notions underlying this theory are as follows:

- Creativity and mental illness are parallel to one another in that both involve the
transformation of reality. The distinction between them is that while creatives
aim to change reality for broader and more useful social purposes and self-
actualization, psychotics want to transform reality within the framework of their
private world regardless of serving any useful purpose to their selves or society

- To say that a creative person is mentally ill is quite incorrect. He is, in fact, a
person who enjoys good mental health which energizes his cognitive abilities to
create something unique or novel.

- The creative process is a ‘magic synthesis’ of the modalities, the primary process
and the secondary process and may thereby be termed the “tertiary process”

- Arieti (1976) says “in the creative process, both these primary and secondary
processes work in the quite strange and intricate combinations, synthesizing the
rational with the irrational and, thus, instead of rejecting the primitive, the
creative mind integrates it with the normal psychological processes. It is from this
magic synthesis that something new, novel, the unexpected and the desirable
emerges”
 CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION

• Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. Imagination is the door
to possibilities. It is where creativity, ingenuity and thinking outside the box begin for the
child development.

• Imaginative and creative play is how children learn about the world. During imaginative
play, children manipulate materials, express themselves, express themselves verbally and
non-verbally, plan (intentionally or unintentionally), act, interact, react, and try different
roles.

• Great opportunities for learning are possible when children participate in creative play
with dolls, vehicles, blocks, rocks, cardboard, or boxes.

• Employing creative thinking while manipulating play dough, creating recipes by mixing
dirt and water, working with art materials, splashing in puddles, or pretending to fly can
further child development.

• Imagination fosters cognitive and social development. Everyone wants to raise children
who reach their highest intellectual/emotional potential.

• In early childhood education, critical thinking skills and creative problem-solving

abilities are goals for children’s development.

• Imagining, trying new ways of doing things and experimenting help develop critical
thinking in children and foster creative problem solving.

• Imagination builds social-emotional development by allowing children to contemplate

different resolutions, thus boosting children’s confidence, which can be used in
interactions with others.

• Imagination and creativity are also skills that our children will need when they join
workforce of the future.

NURTURING CREATIVE MINDS

• Spend time outdoors: nature is ever changing, it provides countless opportunities for
discovery, creativity, and problem solving. The natural world inspires children to think,
question, make suppositions, and develop creative minds.

• Invent scenarios: when child invents a scenario, he tries on lots of different roles and
organizes his thoughts while developing social and verbal skills. A child should be
encouraged to play house, doctor, zoo, farm, space station, school, etc.
• Verbal activities: from rhymes to riddles, silly sounds to phonics, games such as “I spy”
or making up lyrics to common tunes, verbal interactive activities can inspire and nurture
creative minds. Simultaneously, these activities build vocabulary and help child learn
phonics. These games are also the perfect and fun way to spend time in car rides

• Encourage art activities: art is creative expression that nurtures imagination, not a
lesson in following directions. Through painting, sculpture, collage, clay, drawing or any
other medium, art is a way for the children to work through emotions, make decisions
and express their ideas. Manipulating art materials provides a sense of freedom yet also
encourages focus and concentration. Art activities also develop fine motor skills and
hand-eye coordination. Furthermore, art activities build confidence because children gain
a sense of mastery over materials resulting in a new creation

• Share literacy activities: make reading time memorable and discuss other possible
scenarios or endings for the story by using your child’s imagination. Making up stories
with the child, at times with the child as the main character; other times propose moral
dilemmas.

• Ask open-ended and thought-provoking questions: asking questions that provoke

imaginative and creative thinking is an effective way to invite the child to express the
ideas and share his visions, while giving the message that expressed ideas are important

• Limit screen time (television, movies, computer, tablet, smart phone, handhelds,
videogames, etc): nurturing imagination and parenting in the digital age can be tough.
Focusing on a screen is a passive way of learning for the children. An alternative would
be to encourage children to create something new and different. Engaging children in a
kinaesthetic manner using their entire bodies and their five senses also opens the mind

• Freedom to respond: adequate freedom should be given to children in responding to a

situation. They should be encouraged to think about as many ideas as they may for the
solution of the problem.

• Opportunity for involvement: the feelings like “it is my creation”, “I have solved” give
much satisfaction to children. Therefore opportunity should be provided to them to derive
satisfaction from being a cause.

• Encouraging originality and flexibility: originality on the part of children in any form
should be encouraged. They should also be asked problem questions to answer. In
learning a task if they need to change their methods of learning, they should essentially
be encouraged to do it.

• Removal of hesitation and fear: the cause of hesitation and fear for doing any work
should be discovered and removed as far as possible
• Providing appropriate opportunities and atmosphere: a healthy favourable
atmosphere for creative thinking and expression is an essential condition for the
stimulation and nourishment of creativity among children

• Developing healthy habits among children: industriousness, persistence, reliance and

self confidence are some of the qualities that are helpful in creative output. Therefore
children should be helped to imbibe these qualities

• Using the creative resources of the community: children should be made to visit the
centres of creative art or scientific and industrial creative work.

• Avoidance of blocks of creative thinking: factors like conservatism, faculty methods of

teaching, rigid habits of work, unsympathetic treatment should be avoided.

• Proper organization of the curriculum: curriculum should reflect what it desires from
the creative children in terms of fluency, flexibility, originality, divergent thinking,
inventiveness and elaboration, etc.

• Use of special techniques: besides these uses, special techniques also should be used to
foster creativity, researchers have suggested some special techniques like:

- Brainstorming: it is a technique which emphasizes the importance of divergent

thinking. It involves generating ideas in response to some problem in a group. It
allows the children to attack and solve a problem without any inhibition or restriction

- Providing self examples and ideals: self example is better than precept. Children are
very imitative. Therefore the presents, teachers and elders should try to develop the
habit of creative thinking among themselves

• Art and craft allow children to use their imagination and practice creativity

LEARNING STYLES

• It talks about identifying how people learn best.

• Understanding learning styles grew up in the 1970s and 1980s.

• Most evidence suggests that personal learning preferences have little or no actual
influence on learning outcomes.

• There are many ways of categorizing learning styles, but Neil Fleming’s VARK model is
one of the most popular. Fleming introduced an inventory in1987 that was designed to
help students and others learn more about their individual learning preferences
• According to the VARK model, learners are identified by whether they have a
preference for :

- Visual Learning (pictures, movies, diagrams)

- Auditory Learning (Music, discussion, lectures)

- Reading and Writing (Making lists, reading textbooks and taking notes)

- Kinaesthetic learning (movement, experiments, hands-on-activities)

• CRITICISM: Labelling students as having one specific learning style can actually be a
hindrance to learning

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

• Cooperative learning is an instructional method in which students work in small groups

to accomplish a common learning goal under the guidance of the teacher.

• Cooperative learning is based on group work.

• The core element of cooperative learning is to showcase the positive effects of

interdependence while underlining the importance of personal responsibility

• This happens naturally in cooperative learning since students work with one another, but
they have a different task to accomplish or concept to explain

• The experience of working socially can help students with soft skills, which is a nice
bonus to cooperative learning in general.

• The teacher is not ‘teaching’ directly when cooperative learning occurs. Instead they are
ensuring groups of students to stay on task.

• Teachers get the chance to work on core competencies and on students’ communication
and soft skills, which are valuable for students’ success in life and work, integrating them
in school curricula.

• Strategies can be used both in pairs and groups are designed to fulfil all the so called
PIES principles:

- Positive interdependence

- Individual accountability
 - Equal participation

- Simultaneous interaction

• Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work
together to maximize their own as well as each other’s learning. Class members are
organized into small groups after receiving instruction from the teacher.

• They then work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand
and complete it. Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so
that all group members gain from each other’s efforts.

• Some basic Cooperative learning strategies:

a. Three-step interview: from pairs of students. The teacher may ask students to read
necessary matter beforehand.
Step 1: One student interviews another within specified time limits.
Step 2: The two then reverse roles and conduct the interview again. Same questions
or similar type of questions may be used.
Step 3: In a learning team composed of two pairs, the students then share the
highlights of the information or insights got from the paired interview.

b. Roundtable: A cooperative learning structure useful for brainstorming, reviewing, or

practicing a skill, uses a single sheet of paper pen for each cooperative learning
group. Students in the group respond in turn to a question or problem by stating their
ideas aloud as th ey write them on the paper. Team members are encouraged not to
skip turns, but if their thoughts are at a standstill, they are allowed.

CREATING AN EMOTIONALLY SECURE CLASSROOM THAT ENCOURAGES

DEMOCRACY, SELF EXPRESSION AND SELF DETERMINATION

• Prioritize relationship

• Encourage creativity as a means of self expression

• Create a warm and inviting space

• Incorporate self-reflection and mindfulness