Monday, July 21, 2014

WHAT IS CREATIVITY?


DOUBLE TEXT READING INTO WRITING ACTIVITY
TEXT 1
CREATIVITY IS COLLECTIVE
Digital copy: CREATIVE COMMUNITIES ARE KEY TO INNOVATION
“More than an expression of individuality, creativity takes shape in a social context”
By: S. Alexander Haslam, Inmaculada Adarves- Yorno and Tom Postmes
Published: Scientific American Mind, July – August 2014
Level of difficulty: ****
BEFORE YOU READ
·         Would you describe yourself as creative? Do you know any creative people?
·         Do you think creativity is an innate, individual characteristic or do you think it has a social dimension? Explain and provide examples.
·         Can one learn to be more creative? Can creativity be fostered by education or an appropriate work atmosphere?
QUESTIONS
1.       What widely held belief does the writer dispute? The fact that………………………………………..
2.       Which sentence in paragraph 2 best expresses the writers view concerning creativity?
3.       The importance of social context for creativity is proved by the fact that………………………..
4.       The examples of Bruce Springsteen and Domenico Cimarosa prove that………………………..
5.       An individual’s behavior will be influenced by society to the extent that………………………….
6.       The example of the way Picasso painted supports the view that………………………………………
7.       Read the 2007 experiment with the college students. In the second phase of the experiment, why were the participants’ creations in line with the earlier established group norm?
8.       It is wrong to think that groups foster conformity and ‘groupthink’ becauase………………………..
9.       Team work can produce creative ideas because members of a team …………………………………….
10.   Read the study involving the innovative municipal childcare center. The group that managed to stay motivated and engaged in the project were able to do so thanks to…………………………….
11.   Read the 2012 alcohol experiment. This experiment disproves the fact that…………………………
12.   The cases of van Gogh and Yoshisuke Ueda prove the importance of……………………………………
13.   The way people perceive creativity in other people is closely linked to whether the person in question has:
·         Shared nationality with this individual
·         A shared language with the person in question
·         Familiarity with the person in question
·         A family relationship with the person in question
·         All of the above
·         None of the above
14.   The fact that American and Chinese students judged creativity in different ways shows that …………………………………is involved in creativity.
15.   The success of this blog among students of this university proves that the blogger ……………
16.   Innovators need admirers or followers to be able to propell………………………………………………
TEXT 2
THE AHA! MOMENT
“A step by step guide to your next creative breakthrough”
        Digital copy: STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO YOUR NEXT CREATIVE BREAKTHROUGH
“Psychologists have demystified the aha moment”
By: Nessa Victoria Bryce
Published: Scientific American Mind, July – August 2014
 Level of Difficulty: ****
QUESTIONS
1.       An ‘Aha’ moment can be described as ………………………………………………………………………………..
2.       Understanding the way of thinking of innovative individuals will enable other aspiring individuals to………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3.       Read the section titled “Explore”. Ernest Hemingway is famous for describing first hand experience and observation of areas, activities and people. To do this he soaked up experience. According to researchers of creativity, by doing so Hemingway was……………..
4.       Read the section titled “Focus”. 
·         What is the prerequisite for innovative ideas?
·         How is the innovative solution hit upon?
5.       Read the section titled “Incubate”.
·         The section stresses that ………………………….by sleeping or doing something different help develop creative solutions.
·         Samuel Taylor Colleridge wrote his beautiful poem “The Legend of Kupla Khan” after day dreaming for a while. This shows that …………………………..is a good way to get the creative juices flowing.
6.       Read the section titled “Insight”.
·         Consciously pushing your right brain to describe teaching as transfer of information or a four poster bed as a table with two sets of four legs on eithersurface is a good mental exercise as……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
·         When writing questions, I sometimes come to a section of the text where I can’t hit on the right question. When this happens, I move to my large, comfortable armchair, close my eyes and listen to music for a while. This helps and the right question pops into my mind. Why does it help?
7.       When I have written a set of questions which I think are perfect, I always run them past a colleague. Why is it a good idea for me to do this?
8.       Hemingway said that his intense curiosity and interest made him a happier person an enabled him to live life to the full. Why is this so? Because such an attitude………………………
WRITING TASK
Bring the information from both texts, the individual and the social aspects, to write about creativity.
KEYS AND TEACHERS’ NOTES
These wonderful texts elaborate on the all the factors, both social and individual, that lead to creativity. They are beautifully analytical and very well written. They lead to a very well organized writing task but at this level, I am not providing any more guidance.
TEXT 1: CREATIVITY IS COLLECTIVE- KEY
1.       The notion of group creativity is an oxymoron
2.       It is problematic and unhelpful to separate the creativity of individual minds from the community in which they flourish.
3.       Scolars have failed to identify characteristics that powerfully predict which young people will go on to become creative geniuses.
4.       The nature and significance of innovation depend on the interaction between an individual’s ideas and the time and culture in which he or she lives.
5.       A particular social identity is psychologically salient
6.       The way a person evaluates an action, regardless whether it is his or her own, will reflect shared understandings of that group.
7.       Because social identities also grant people a shared perspective as well as the ability and motivation to engage in mutual social influence.
8.       Group standards shape only one facet of an individual’s creativity.
9.       Bounce ideas off one another
10.   Solidarity and conformity; OR,  social identity bolstering enthusiasm
11.   Being solidly comitted to the group makes a person blind to its faults.
12.   Groups in the appreciation of ground breaking achievement
13.   None of the above; they are too specific and not general enough. If this was an open ended question, the answer would be “ingroup”.
14.   Cultural identity
15.   Has a strong sense of the audience and gears her solutions to the perceived needs and values of that group.
16.    Cultural change
TEXT TWO: THE AHA! MOMENT- KEY
1.       The brain spontaneously reinterpreting information to reach a novel , nonobvious conclusion
2.       Recreate the process
3.       Priming his brain for creativity
4.       Advance research, by applying experience to new domains
5.       Stepping away from a problem, forcing your brain to shift gears or look within
6.       It might help prime your brain to forge connections between distant concepts; because my brain is less involved in processing visual information.
7.       Insight comes with a lot of conviction so you can’t be objective

8.       Provides you with an opportunity to discover new interests, explore unfamiliar territory, develop expertise and take breaks

No comments:

Post a Comment