Teaching Creative Thinking Skills

in Primary Grades

We teach for creative thinking so that students will be

producers of knowledge rather than consumers of
knowledge.
We teach for creative thinking so that students can
become better problem solvers.
Our rapidly changing world means that creativity and
problem-solving skills will be increasingly necessary in
the job market.
Academically gifted students tend to be uncomfortable
taking risks and dealing with ambiguity; therefore there
is a need for teaching thinking and encouraging
divergent production. Karen B. Rogers, Ph.D.

UAGC 2013
Presentation by Collette Justesen/ Jordan School District

What is a creative idea/product?

New to the creator

Satisfying to the creator
Appropriate (meets standards
accepted by the audience)

Myths About Creativity

Creativity must be the work of a solitary genius, rather
than collaborative.
Creativity is a sudden flash, not the result of preparation.
Creativity must be spontaneous to be authentic, and the
result of the pure, blank slate that can only be corrupted
by planning and technique. (Eide 2005)

Creativity is not the ability to imagine something out of

nothing, but the ability to generate new ideas by combining,
changing, or reapplying existing ideas.
A creative person realizes that there are other possibilities
like peanut butter and banana sandwiches, or chocolatecovered prunes.
www.virtualsalt.com

How can I encourage creativity in

my classroom?
Systematic teaching of creative thinking skills.
Examples of Appropriate Commercial Materials available to teachers
The New Direction in Creativity program under the direction of Joseph Renzulli includes the
following training manuals: Mark A (K-1), Mark B (2-3), Mark 1, Mark 2, Mark 3 (4-6).
Creative Learning Press ($25.95 per manual)
* Scamper and Scamper On by Bob Eberle (Grades 2-6). SCAMPER is an acronym for
Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse A list of
changes that you could make to existing products and services to open up new opportunities.
Prufrock Press ($14.95 per training manual).
* Big Tools for Young Thinkers (Grades K-4): Problem-solving lessons/tools for young
children. Prufrock Press ($17.95)

Open-ended assignments/challenges
CAREFUL! Unrestricted freedom is often a bad idea. Explicit standards &
imposed limits are critical. Limitations motivate creativity by narrowing the
realm, forcing students to focus and bring new ideas to the surface. Openended simply means that the assignment/challenge allows for more than one
answer or approach.

Questioning Techniques
Require more than one right answer. What is another way to solve the problem?

Teacher Behaviors for Fostering Creative Thinking

Set ground rules

Provide well-planned activities
Show respect for each student
Provide non-threatening activities
Be flexible
Accept individual differences
Exhibit a positive attitude
Model thinking skills
Acknowledge every response
Allow students to be active participants
Create experiences that will ensure success at least part of the time for each student
Use a variety of methods
Teaching Thinking Skills, Kathleen Cotton, 1991

Creative Thinking Skills

Creativity, Renzulli says, is based on fluency, flexibility, and originality
of thought. Students whose teachers encourage them to experiment with ideas and to be
"mentally playful" -- including taking risks in their thoughts and actions -- stand a good
chance of being creative and productive.
FLUENCY (Many)
Produce many responses to an open-ended question or problem - A technique to develop
a method for listing a large number of options to consider or evaluate.
List things that are blue, things that come in threes, ways you can spend your
allowance, things that fall, reasons for not cleaning your room, things to do with a
newspaper, words or phrases to describe a rainy day, things that begin with m,
things that are sweet, things your family can do on the weekend, things you could
make from an old tire, ways to measure time, words related to animals.
FLEXIBILITY (Varied)
Generate unconventional ideas and view situations from different perspectives. A
technique for developing a number of options from a variety of approaches - What other
ways? What different kinds? Category thinking: People . . . places . . . objects.
What different ways could we use a comb? How might a doctor use a comb? How
might a babysitter use a comb? How might a dog use a comb? A
policeman? What might you find in a junk drawer? What might a principal
have in a junk drawer? What are some other ways bed sheets might be used
(curtains)? How might the sheets be modified (cut them into strips to make a longhaired wig for a girl in a play)? List words associated with Thanksgiving (from
different perspectives). What might be a different way to look at this problem?
ORIGINALITY (Unusual)
Produce/select a unique, unusual, or novel response - A search for new ideas,
new approaches and unique solutions.
Imagine you are stuck in a room with nothing but four walls for an entire day with
one other person and only the following items in your backpack. What might you
do to keep yourself entertained? Imagine that you are 2 inches tall. What would
you use for a bed? What would you use for a house? Use only the following items
to create props for your play, create a new alphabet, new ending for a story, a
new way to study spelling words.
ELABORATION (Unusual)
A technique for making an idea/product more detailed or more interesting to make
it more complete. Show/tell: When, where, why, how-feels like, smells like, sounds like,
etc.

What does creativity have to do

with academic achievement?
CHOICE (Open-ended assignments/challenges)
+ SKILLS (Tools for creative thinking)
______________________________
= MOTIVATED students!

There is a direct correlation between student achievement and

motivation. Motivated students believe that success is possible.
They welcome challenge and are more persistent.
Renzulli's research on students' creative and productive
behavior indicates that, with the right kind of teaching and
curriculum, almost all kids are willing and able to tackle and
solve complex problems.
When you walk into a creative classroom, you can feel the
electricity of the learning
Studies, which looked at achievement over time, found that
thinking skills instruction accelerated the learning gains of
participants.
Those with true or quasi-experimental designs generally found that experimental students
outperformed controls to a significant degree. Reports with such findings include: Barba
and Merchant 1990; Bransford, et al. 1986; Crump, Schlichter, and Palk 1988; Freseman
1990; Haller, Child, and Walberg 1988;, Horton and Ryba 1986; Hudgins and Edelman
1986; Kagan 1988; Marshall 1987; Matthews 1989; MCREL 1985; Nickerson 1984;
Pogrow 1988; Ristow 1988; Riding and Powell 1985, 1987; Robinson 1987; Sadowski
1984-85; Snapp and Glover 1990; Sternberg and Bhana 1986; Tenenbaum 1986;
Whimbey 1985; Wong 1985; and Worsham and Austin 1983 . . .

Ideas?