CREATIVE

THINKING
MATH 2 (RGEP MST)
Problem Solving
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the session, you should be able to:
define creative thinking and creativity
enumerate the ways to improve your creative
abilities
give Osborns checklist for idea generation

CREATIVE Thinking
- the process we use to
develop ideas that are
unique
useful
worthy of further elaboration
CREATIVITY
- the ability to make or
bring into existence
something new.
new solution to a problem
a new method or device
a new artistic method or form
-Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Improving
Your
Creative
Abilities
Ways to Improve Your Creative Abilities
1. Keep track of your ideas at all times.
2. Pose new questions to yourself every
day.
3. Keep abreast of your field.
4. Engage in creative hobbies.
5. Have courage and self-confidence.



Ways to Improve Your Creative Abilities

6. Learn to know and understand yourself.
7. Learn about things outside your
specialty.
8. Avoid rigid, set patterns of doing things.
9. Be open and receptive to ideas (yours
and others).
10. Adopt a risk-taking attitude.
11. Be alert in your observations.


1.Keep track of your
ideas at all times.
Many times ideas come at unexpected
times.
If an idea is not written down within 24
hours it will usually be forgotten.
9
Dont let it get away!
You never know when an idea will strike.
Moments of inspiration are POWERFUL
but FLEETING.
Capture the idea on paper.
Write it down!
Ann Morrow Lindbergh
The palest ink is stronger than the
keenest memory. Chinese Proverb

10
JOURNAL-KEEPING!
A journal is more than a memory goad.
GOAD - a means of prodding; a stimulus
It is therapeutic.
The simple act of opening a notebook to put words
down stills the crosscurrents of worry, drawing to
focus the essential thought patterns that best define
us; intersecting those thoughts with the condition
of our life at that exact moment.
A journal is one of the few anchors the human
condition allows us.
-Ralph Wayne White
2. Pose new questions
to yourself every day.
An inquiring mind is a creatively
active one that enlarges its area of
awareness.
3. Keep abreast of your field.
HOW?
Read magazines, trade journals,
and other literature in your field to
make sure you are not using
yesterday's technology to solve
today's problems.
4. Engage in creative hobbies.
Hobbies can help you relax.

5. Have courage and
self-confidence.
Be a paradigm pioneer.
Assume that YOU CAN and WILL
indeed solve the problem.
Persist and have the tenacity to
overcome obstacles that block the
solution pathway.
6. Learn to know and
understand yourself.
Deepen your self-knowledge by
learning your
- real strengths, skills
- weaknesses, dislike, biases
- expectations, fears, prejudices
7. Learn about things outside
your specialty.
Use cross-fertilization to bring ideas
and concepts from one field or specialty
to another.
8. Avoid rigid, set patterns
of doing things.
Overcome biases and preconceived
notions by looking at the problem
from a fresh view point.
Always develop at least two or more
alternative solutions to your problem.
How to break free
of RIGID PATTERNS
1. Vary your routine.
2. Try to look at the world you encounter
every day as though you had just
arrived from another planet.
3. Use familiar tools in unfamiliar ways.


9. Be open and receptive
to ideas (yours and others).
New ideas are FRAGILE.
Keep them from breaking
- by seizing the tentative, half
formed concepts and possibilities
- by developing them
10. Adopt a risk-taking
attitude.
Fear of failure is the major
impediment to generating
solutions which are risky
(i.e., small chance of succeeding)
but would have a major impact
if they are successful.

How to reduce this obstacle to creativity?
OUTLINE - the ways you could fail
- how you would deal with these failures
Creative Thinkers,
BRAVEHEARTS!
The very process of creativity involves
risk
failure
trying something
failing
then trying again

11. Be alert in your
observations.
LOOK for
- similarities
- differences
- unique features
- distinguishing
features in situations and
problems
Observe perpetually.
- Henry James

Gather data through ALL senses.
All information gets into the brain
through the sensory pathways:
visual, auditory
tactile, kinesthetic
olfactory, gustatory
24
25
Checklist for Idea Generation
Created by Alex Osborn & Bob
Eberle
Isolate the problem you want to
solve
Ask questions from each letter of
SCAMPER

SCAMPER
S > substitute?
C > combine?
A > adapt?
M > modify or magnify?
P > put to other uses?
E > eliminate? or minify?
R > rearrange? or reverse?

S-C-A-M-P-E-R
SUBSTITUTE
Who else? What else?
Other ingredient? Other material?
Other color?
Other process or procedure?
Other place? Other approach?
Change format?
Can the rules be changed?
COMBINE
What ideas/units/materials can be
combined?
Can we combine purposes?
How about an assortment?
How about a blend, an alloy, an ensemble?
What other article could be merged with
this?
What can be combined to multiply possible
users?


ADAPT
What else is like this?
What other idea does this suggest?
Does the past offer a parallel?
What could I copy or emulate?
What different contexts can I put
my concept in?
What ideas outside my field can I
incorporate?
MODIFY
How can this be altered for the
better?
Is there a new twist?
Change name? meaning, color,
motion, sound, odor, form, shape?
What changes can be made in the
plans? In the process? In marketing?
What other form could this take?
What other package?

MAGNIFY
What can be made larger, or extended?
What can be exaggerated? Overstated?
What can be added? Duplicated?
More time? Stronger? Higher? Longer?
How about greater frequency? Extra
features?
What can add extra value?
How could I carry it to a dramatic
extreme?
PUT TO OTHER USES
What else can this be used for?
Other uses if modified?
What else could be made from this?
Other extensions? Other markets?
ELIMINATE or MINIFY
What if this were smaller?
What should I omit? Delete?
Should I divide it up? Split it up?
Separate it into different parts?
Understate? Streamline? Make
miniature? Condense? Compact?
Whats not necessary?

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REARRANGE
What other arrangement might be
better?
Interchange components?
Other pattern? Other layout?
Other sequence? Change the
order?
Transpose cause and effect?
Change pace?
Change schedule?
REVERSE
Can I transpose positive and
negative?
What are the opposites? negatives?
Consider it backwards?
Should I turn it around? Up instead
of down? Down instead of up?
Reverse roles?
Do the unexpected?

Steve Jobs : Out-of-the-box thinking
Creative thinking
differently
unconventionally
from a new
perspective

Thinking
Out of the Box
If you dont get out of
the box youve been raised,
you wont understand how
much bigger the world is.
-Angelina Jolie