Creativity/Critical Thinking

What is

Creativity

DEFINITION

IS CREATIVITY A MUSCLE?

HABITS

DIFFERENT MYTHS

CHARACTERISTICS

IS CORE KNOWLEDGE IMPORTANT?

The ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.

• Ingenuity
• Making Unusual Connections
• Innovation
• Imagination
• Rule-breaking/bending
• Artistic
• Problem solving

• Create everyday.
• Work through "blocks"
• Know that their first idea may or may not be their best and their last idea may or may not be their worst.
• Seek out inspiration, collaboration, and advice from other creators, past and present.
• Seek out inspiration, collaboration, and advice from other creators, past and present.

• creativity can be developed in anybody- research supported
• have to practice to increase your creativity
• four C model- mini C level, little C level (builds on mini C), pro C level (becoming expert), big C (changes the world)

Core knowledge provides the foundation or building blocks to fuel creativity. Although getting to deep into knowledge within a domain can stifle creativity.

• Myth: you are born with creativity, or you are not
• no common definition of what creativity is so people begin defining it themselves (a movie of the tortured genius)
• Creativity varies depending on environment and individual personality

Creativity

In the Classroom

MODELING

QUAULITY LEARNING

TALKING ABOUT ONES CREATIVITY

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Give students the tools to be able to talk about their creativity and creative products. Allow them opportunities to practice convincing others and themselves that they are creative.

To ensure that creativity leads to quality leaning and products you must make sure students have many opportunities to engage in the creative process. Creativity is a muscle and if properly exercised students can create some really exceptional work with ease.

What is

Critical Thinking?

DEFINITION

HABIT OR INTELECT?

HABITIS

CHARACTERISTICS

TOOLS TO THINK CRITICALLY

The process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea, without allowing feelings or opinions to affect you.

• Logic
• Bias- detection
• Questioning/Interrogating
• Deductive/Inductive Reasoning
• "Why?"
• Pattern-seeking

• Know when more information is needed and that some information is more reliable than other information
• Examine all sides of an issue and assign more weight to the sides with the best evidence or arguments
• Question everything that does not make sense—and many things that do make sense

Critical thinking has more to do with making it a habit then one's actual intellect. In our everyday lives we don't have time to question everything we do but if we find small ways to make critical thinking a habit we will do it with out thinking.

• Skepticism- doubting the truth
• Open to changing ones mind when facts change
• Challenge why we believe something to be true
• Objectivity
  • neutral point of view
  • focus on facts that matter

Critical Thinking

In the Classroom

MODELING

QUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM

STRATEGIES

It important to model critical thinking to students

• Show your thought process
• evaluate evidence to a claim
• probing the credibility of a source
• explain reasoning

Ways to incorporate critical thinking in the classroom.

• Analogies
• Interaction amount students
• open ended questions
• Reflection
• Use real life problems

It is important to teach students at a young age that you cannot find the answer to everything in a book or through Google. You have to look within yourself to find many answers and, most importantly, justify why that is your answer.