76coffman klinger

Creative Thinking for the 21st Century

Session 7.6, 1:40-2:40 pmJanuary 9, 2015

AFACCT ‘15 Conference Carroll Community College, Westminster, MD

• This presentation examined how educators can embed 21st century skills into their teaching curriculum.

• The goal was to show that by using innovative teaching and learning processes students gain skills in collaboration and team building, enhanced communication through presentation, and applied analysis of information.

• Teaching and learning strategies to engage students to think differently about their own learning and to move beyond critical thinking to creative thinking was emphasized.

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–Jerome Bruner

“The first objective of any act of learning, over and beyond the pleasure it may give,

is that it should serve us in the future.

Learning should not only take us somewhere; it should allow us later to go

further more easily.”

Critical thinking and problem solving have been components of human progress

throughout history, from the development of early tools to agricultural advancements

Global awareness and information literacy are not new, at least not among the elites

in different societies

The need for mastery of different kinds of knowledge, ranging from facts to complex

analysis, is also not new

In the Republic, Plato (380 BC) wrote about four distinct levels of intellect, these may have been the 3rd-century

BCE Skills

www.educatethewholechild.org

“We’ve progressed from a society of farmers (AGRICULTURAL AGE) to a society of factory workers (INDUSTRIAL AGE) to a society of knowledge workers (INFORMATION AGE). And now we’re progressing yet again – to a society of creators and empathizers, of pattern recognizers and meaning makers (CONCEPTUAL AGE).”- Daniel Pink

What is new? Changes in our global economy and how citizens interact with the

world……in the conceptual age

Then Now

Managers Leaders

Follow rules Think, solve problems, ambiguity

Punch time clock Get the job done

Compete Team/Collaborate

Communicate F2F, mostly with text

Communicate F2F and virtually,

using multimedia

Degree = career Degree = interview

World of Work

Creativity = Creating something original and usefulTo be creative requires divergent thinking

(generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the

best result)

http://www.newsweek.com/creativity-crisis-74665

What does this mean for today’s educator?

A more deliberate approach to teaching critical thinking,

collaboration, and problem solving to all students …

vhsip.pbworks.com

… by incorporating big ideas and active strategies

Helping to develop skills in ….

collaboration and team building, enhanced communication through presentation,

and applied analysis of information

Can one be inhumane and civilized at the same time? (Explain your answer)

Making Meaning

interplay of lower- and higher-order thinking

This means that the design of curriculum and instruction needs to set up this interplay

The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crack code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys. (p. 1)

The wealth of nations and the well-being of individuals now depend on having artists in the room. In a world enriched by abundance but disrupted by the automation and outsourcing of white-collar work, everyone, regardless of profession, must cultivate an artistic sensibility. . . . Today we must all be designers. (p. 69)

A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Information Age to the Conceptual Age (Pink, 2005)

personal construction of meaning. Creative thinking employs imagination and

playful tinkering with shapes, sounds, colors, words, and ideas. Creative thinking is the birthplace for unique and innovative

products, cultural expressions, and solutions to global problems

flexible; can examine situations, objects, and issues from multiple perspectives;

and can propose novel solutions to persistent problems

Creative Thinker

What does a Creative Mind look like?

How do you get a creative mind?

Ask big questionsTap into the power of collaboration

Be intensely curiousBe open to always learning

See failure as one step closer to successSeek out new experiences

Always be open to expressing yourself

collaboration and team building, enhanced communication through presentation, and applied analysis of information

Active Learning Strategies

The act of involving students

in doing things and thinking

about the things they are doing

(Bonwell & Eison, 1991).

www.me-and-us.co.uk

Our brain requires….

Building on prior knowledge and connecting to student inter-ests

Projects are important but…

http://www.kumiyamashita.com/portfolio/building-blocks/

Perspectives on Learning

Acquisition

(individual,

affective)

Participatory

(interactions, observation,

social)

Knowledge

Creation

(learning community)

Active(relationship, schema, connections, patterns)

Our practice must incorporate all of these perspectives

Critical and Creative Thinking means creating a Thinking Curriculum

Such as incorporating video into a lecture to highlight a point

then

stopping the video to have students do something,

such as work in groups to solve a problem

coming together as a whole group to discuss

thenthen

Creating thinking is not just about a good idea, it is

about having the skills to make good ideas happen

Paul Collard, Creative Partnerships

debate

simulations

interactive discussions

ice breakers

write-pair-share

student summaries

question and answer pairs

one minute paper

focused listeningproblem-based learning

shared brainstorminggenerating questions

note check

background knowledge probe

reciprocal questioning

corners

ice breakers

http://www.slideshare.net/shazza08/thematic-approach-to-teaching-chinese

m.newshunt.com

breaking it down

http://youtu.be/nQlvZ24xRIo

Embed 21st century skills into your curriculum

What can you do to offer opportunities for creativity and

how can you embed these opportunities into your everyday practice?

3 things come to mind:

• how you present content• how you model good practice

• how you encourage your students to be creativeYou must provide opportunities in your classrooms for your learners to feel

empowered to "think for themselves" and, as a result, become more

confident when tackling standard questions.

By building into your instruction room for your students to explore

and still covering everything that needs to be covered

Sharing • Communal Bookmarking• Photo/Video Sharing• Social Networking• Writers’ Workshops/Fanfiction

Thinking• Blogs• Podcasts• Online Discussion Forums

Co-Creating•Wikis/Collaborative File Creation•Mashups/Collective Media Creation•Collaborative Social Communities

Possib

ilities

with

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og

y

Innovative teaching and learning means teaching

students skills in collaboration and team

building, enhanced communication through presentation, and applied analysis of information

using real-world tools that are relevant to your discipline

classrooms need to be student-centered

learning must be socialemotions are integral

learners are different

students need to be stretched, but not too much

assessments should be for learning not of learning

learning should be connected across disciplines

Understanding that….

Understanding Flow

Flow

Frustration

Boredom

creativ

ity

Skill Build

ing

Task

Skill Level

MotivationCuriosityInterest

Engaged Learners

Deep Learning

Flow also called "Optimal experience" is a concept developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1975.

Csikszentmihalyi (1993: 178-9) defined eight dimensions of the flow experience:

Element Details

challenge &curiosity

• an activity should trigger curiosity and allow the learner at the same time to formulate goals, while preserving some element of surprise regarding the outcome.

control • levels to play (in gaming), technical difficulties in project, some liberty to select goals strategies & tactics

fantasy • imagination and freedom (make believe + voluntary activity)

feedback • clear and immediate feedback should be provided if the goal or not has been reached.

self-esteem • tasks should be adapted (see above) and encouragement to learn & augment results should be provided.

Important constituent elements of the flow experience

flow experience = intrinsic motivation

flow – the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it (Csikzentmihalyi, 1991)

Intrinsically Engaged

Tactically Engaged

Withdrawn

DefiantCompliant

How can you change your teaching to incorporate more critical and creative

thinking experiences for your students?