What is creativity?
Creativity, of course, is not just the ability to think suddenly. It needs a keen observation which can see the opportunity that others did not see. Creativity is also constructed on the basis of abundant knowledge and can find new clues in the existing clue.
There will be many attempts and failures in the process of creation. So it is also an opportunity to nurture the mind and adjust the mindset of things we look at. Unfortunately, our education system does not attach much importance to the personal development of students.
Our education focuses on students to follow the norms, so often compress the space of free creative development of students. The students are trained to provide the standard answer. Only some of the subjects emphasized “innovation” such as Art and Music are subjects of artistic nature. The responsibility of training students to develop creativity only falls on these teachers.
But the human creation is infinite and boundless. Creativity is not limited to the arts. We can also play our imagination and new direction of thing in various fields like mathematics, engineering, dance, cooking, literature, agriculture.
Source: http://epaper.heeact.edu.tw/archive/2016/07/01/6577.aspx
How does the university develop the students’ creativity?
The cultivation of creativity is an extremely personalized development. As with other intelligences, even if everyone’s intelligence is inherently different, the acquired creativity can be nurtured. The following is a brief discussion of how to improve students’ creativity:
1. Give students the opportunity to create and the sense of accomplishment
In fact, everyone can have innovative ideas and practices, but we always habitually to limit ourselves to miss the new ideas or the excitement of creating new things. When the students do research design, the teacher can encourage the students to choose their own topics. Even if their selection of topics may not be related, the teacher should still allow them to assess and analyze their own selection. Then redefine the topic and design the necessary steps to complete it.
This process can not only provide students with the opportunity to play themselves, but also to develop students’ self-planning ability. If the teacher only gives multiple-choice questions, students will only be limited to the choices provided and will not spend more time seeking innovation. They do not know where their potential and do not understand their own strengths or shortcomings in the learning process.
2. Give students time to create
Creative work cannot be rushed. We need time to understand the problems and to think about the various possibilities from different angles. So cramming, too much homework or a single way of evaluation will stifle the development of creativity.
When the teachers are teaching or designing curriculum, leave time and space for students to think and create. Because some novel thoughts are often fragmented and need time to arrange, hatch and nurture to gradually shape.
3. Cultivating students to accept uncertainty factors and the consequences of failure
Any new creation is extremely uncertain. Innovative thinking or solutions are often produced in failure. Teachers must lead by example that not to use a unified standard to assess the results of each student’s learning and not to use a single score to assess the effectiveness of their learning. Don’t let students feel that failure is shameful, but let them use the experience of failure to develop the ability to modify themselves.
Teachers should also give students timely feedback and encouragement so that they dare to try again and again. Teachers can use a number of questions like “brain teasers” in the classroom so that students learn from the simple problems from a new perspective and find the answer. Accept the uncertainty factor can also cultivate students to accept the breadth of thinking. Teachers can use team work to train students with others ability, learn to listen to their different voices and learn how to brainstorm with others from different perspectives.
Avoid these obstacles to Creativity
Too Busy kills Creativity
The problem is that many of us can go entire days without putting our brains on idle. At work, we’re intensely analyzing problems, organizing data, writing—all activities that require focus. During downtime, we immerse ourselves in our phones while standing in line at the store or lose ourselves in Netflix after hours.
We need to find ways to give our brains a break. If our minds are constantly processing information, we never get a chance to let our thoughts roam and our imagination drift.
Simply put, creativity happens when your mind is unfocused, daydreaming or idle.
Too Many Toys Kills Kids’ Creativity
In the experiment, parents were asked to bring toddlers to a play area where the little ones were given either four toys or 16 toys to play alone with for 30 minutes. Each of the 36 toddlers who participated was observed by the researchers who were on the lookout for activities that could be counted as creative.
The researchers found that the toddlers playing with four toys engaged in more creative activities than did the toddlers who had 16 toys to choose from. They also found, unsurprisingly, that toddlers with fewer options tended to play with each of the toys available to them for a longer amount of time. Much of that additional time, the researchers noted, was taken up with finding news ways to play with them.
A team of researchers at the University of Toledo in the U.S. has found that children are more creative when they have fewer toys to play with at one time.
Japanese creativity on ads …
How does creativity develop?
Creativity can be divided into two types: Big C and small C
Big C refers to great inventions or creations that can change the creation of human civilization and life, such as the invention of computers and networks. Big C is a high risk when it comes to the invention of a long-term commitment or inability to see results in the short term. But if it succeeds, it will be a high profit just like the research of basic science is the type of innovation.
Small c refers to the creative life. Everyone needs to problems in our life. Sometimes small ideas can defuse the crisis. Innovation is not necessarily an invention. It can be a unique combination of different elements. Marketing ideas such as the existing products to do new packaging and application of the existing products is an example of small c.
5 Recipes for Cultivating creativity
1. Believe that everyone is creative
First of all, there must be a belief that everyone is creative. Each person has a unique experience in life which can produce special ideas. So if you can listen to everyone’s thoughts, the supervisor listens to the subordinates and the colleagues listen to each other, then the creativity is encouraged and stimulated.
2. Affirmation and inclusion of creative 3T
A good creative environment must affirm creativity and creative people. Richard Florida, author of The Rise of The Creative Class. In his book, the new “creative class”, which is used by creative workers such as scientists, artists, and creative cultural workers. Florida has found that some cities have fallen, some cities have prospered. The prosperity is the ” Creative City ” to retain enterprises and talents.
These creative cities can be achieved as a continued prosperity of the environment because they attract a lot of creative talent. That is to have 3T: Talent, Technology and Tolerance.
3. Mental relaxation of the 3B
Creativity is sometimes pale, without effort. Some people say that creativity comes from 3B: Bath, Bed, Bus. The concept is to let the spirit in the most relaxed situations. Some people will go into meditation, or the mountain retreat.
4. Experience Life
Experience includes indirect and direct experience. Viewing art, reading, listening, watching movies are examples of indirectly learnt from other people’s experience. Therefore, reading books are conducive to creative stimulation. Direct experience is to participate in some creative groups and do some creative work. This kind of experience can be a job-related task or an amateur hobby.
5. Search for a Dream Team
Everyone has different abilities and expertise, so consult and seek different people for cooperation can make the idea more complete, that is, the construction of a Dream team will help inspire creativity.
Source: https://www.managertoday.com.tw/articles/view/352
Creativity could be the next industrial resolution.
Think through and Act Now!
Growth in the first industrial revolution was driven by engineering, the second through electricity and production lines, and the third by technology and information. The modern economies that will undergo a fourth industrial revolution will not be those that worship machines, but those that support human creativity. When we understand how people think and work best, we will be compelled to put our workers’ well-being first in the name of both health and economic productivity.
As robots increasingly take on manual labor, we will need to foster what differentiates human from machine (at least for now): creativity. Evidence that psychological and physical well-being is paramount to creative thinking will turn the historic exchange of human health for economic growth on its head.
For centuries, human health has been systematically traded for economic growth.
