Reference no: EM132210114

Question: INTRODUCTION

Creative thinking (sometimes called "lateral thinking" or "divergent thinking") is NOT a talent that only a few are born with. It is a natural ability we are all born with, and a skill we can all develop. Lateral thinking is an ability that's crucial to innovating solutions to a problem or task, in any situation, in any academic major or any career field. Lateral means side-to-side, as opposed to vertical, which is up-and-down.

Most of us are accustomed to moving from a question/problem directly to the correct answer--that's what you might call vertical thinking, or convergent thinking. Lateral thinking means moving side to side and all around a question/problem, developing multiple possible solutions, and then selecting the solution that works best. You can probably see how valuable lateral thinking is. Many scholars believe creative thinking skills are absolutely necessary in American education, business, and industry, and that there is a "creativity crisis" in our country resulting in an inability to be as creative or innovative as we could/should be. What does creative thinking/lateral thinking look like? What is the "creativity crisis," exactly? Where does it come from? What does it mean to America, and to you as an individual?

WHAT TO DO

FIRST, watch the videos at the bottom of this page--start at the top and move downward. Their purpose is to show you a little about how our brains typically work in everyday situations, and how lateral (creative) thinking looks and works. You might notice that there's a big difference between the two!

GORILLAS AND CARD TRICKS

From second to second in our everyday lives, our brains have to do an enormous amount of work. Even sitting on the couch and channel-surfing your TV requires your brain to manage millions of complex instructions and calculations. It's no wonder that our brains try to simplify their work whenever possible. Example: When we're given instructions, our brains focus on following the instructions rather than expending extra energy on seemingly unnecessary observations. The two videos below offer visual puzzles to test that notion.

Selective Attention Test (YouTube video)

Observation Test (YouTube video)

THE FLOATING CORK

In addition to ignoring "irrelevant" information while following directions, our brains also tend to rely heavily on past knowledge/experience when faced with new experiences that defy logic. In other words, our brains go with what they already know (or think they know) in order to interpret and make sense of the world, and our brains tend to go with the simplest, easiest solution rather than explore other possible answers. Can you figure out how the man in the video below makes a cork float in mid-air?

The Floating Cork (Youtube video)

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Lateral thinking, or creative thinking, is often referred simply referred to as "thinking outside the box," and that's not a bad description. Test your own creative thinking skills with the puzzles in the videos below.

The first video is a classic lateral thinking puzzle--the 9 dot puzzle. Pause the video before the solution is revealed and see if you can figure it out.

The second video offers a few different lateral thinking puzzles. They're presented as a teaching activity--you'll hear the narrator talking about how to present each puzzle to an audience, and what you might expect from audience responses. Ignore that aspect of the videos. Focus instead on the puzzles themselves. Again, after each puzzle is presented, pause the video and see if you can solve the puzzle on your own.

REMEMBER: The point is NOT to find the right answer, but to engage with the process of creative thinking, and evaluate the current state of your creative thinking abilities. By the way, don't feel discouraged if you can't find the right answers to these puzzles--they're pretty challenging!

If You Are a Genius, Solve This (YouTube video)

Lateral Thinking Puzzle (YouTube video)

SECOND, read "The Creativity Crisis" Newsweek article, published on July 10, 2010.

Along with that, watch the following YouTube video.This a clip from a longer presentation by Sir Ken Robinson delivered at the TED conference in 2006. The TED conference is a national, annual conference that brings together the best, brightest, most creative minds to share their thoughts, discoveries, innovations, etc. with the world. Robinson is a well-known and respected educational philosopher.

Robinson speaks quickly with a British accent, so you may need to watch more than once, or turn on closed-captioning.

TED Talk: Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity? (video)

THIRD, after you've read the Newsweek article and listened to Robinson, write a thoughtful response to the questions below, and post your response on The Creativity Crisis discussion thread (click the "Reply" link below and start typing, or click the "Discussion" tab to your left, locate the Creativity Crisis link, and start typing).

• How would you summarize the main point of each piece?

• What similar and different points do the pieces make?

• What ideas in either piece do you agree/disagree with? Why?

• Do you see any evidence in your everyday life, your academic major, or your career field that there really is a "creativity crisis" to be aware of?

FOURTH, read through all of your classmates' messages, and respond to at least ONE of them by playing devil's advocate. That means taking an opposing viewpoint on an idea in the original post, and offering a counterpoint or a counterargumentto that original idea. You don't necessarily have to agree with your devil's advocate stance, just play the part. The goal here is simply to think about the complexities of the creativity crisis by looking at alternate points of view on it. We also want to work hard to move forum discussions beyond "I think ____," and a response of "I totally agree!" Of course, once you've done that, you're also encouraged to share any other thoughtful thoughts you have in response to the original post.