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INTRODUCTION - WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

Creativity is a word that is variably defined by many and as a result, confusion with regards to its
specific meaning occur. Eggen and Kauchak (1994: 229) defined creativity as the ability to
create original and divergent products in the solution of some problem. This means that they
consider people who are able to be innovative and different, in trying to solve certain matters are
those who are considered as creative.
Meanwhile, Ausubel (1963) believes that creativity refers to a talent in a scope of area that is
both extraordinary and inimitable. He further stated that creative achievement signifies a
phenomenal capability for developing insights, understanding, and appreciations in a scholarly or
artistic activity of a specified subject area. Thus, according to Ausubels definition, creativity in
a person is much rarer than intelligence.
Other than that, Child (1986) noted that both British and American psychologists tend to
tantamount the word creativity with terms such as imagination, divergent thinking,
inventiveness, intuition, venturesomeness, exploration, giftedness and so on. Hence, the
question of what is considered as creativity is ambiguously answered and there is no universally
accepted definition to this complex word.
However, the numerous definition and query on creativity are indicative of its general
significance. In terms of education, Sternberg (1989) and Torrance (1975), related creativity to
IQ. Whereby, higher intellectual capacity usually results in similarly elevated creativeness. Other
than that, all of the earlier stated definitions are also inclined towards relating creativity to
positive criteria such as inventiveness, giftedness and divergent thinking which are strived for in
the reformation of Bruneis current academic curriculum of SPN-21.

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DISCUSSION
CREATIVITY AND DIVERGENT THINKING
Throughout the introduction of the term creativity, its complexity was emphasized. However, for
the purpose of this essay, creativity shall be divulged further in alignment with Eggen and
Kauchaks definition which centralizes on divergent thinking (the ability to generate alternative
original answers). This idea perhaps was derived from Guildford who, these authors identified as
one of the most eminent researcher in the terms of creativity. Guildford (1967) categorized
divergent thinking as one of the five basic classes of mental operations in his multifaceted model
of intelligence. Then, he further subdivided divergent thinking into 3 dimensions; flexibility,
fluency and originality.
As mentioned by Cecco and Crawford (1974) Guildford illustrated what is flexibility via the
diversified replies to the word brick in his Unusual Uses Test. In this test, students were asked
to list down all the uses of bricks that they could think of under a limited amount of time. It was
noted that one student in particular listed construction related answers such as build a barn and
build a house which are indicative of little flexibility. While another student responded
divergently giving answers such as making a bookcase, drowning a cat and so on. In other words,
flexibility is concerned with ones capability in diverting away from one generic group of
answers.
Although the earlier mentioned students signified one having more flexibility than the other, both
of the students however, possess fluency. Fluency is simply the ability to generate various ideas
in correlation to a problem (Eggen and Kauchak, 1994) and having more fluency means
producing larger volume of answers (Cecco and Crawford, 1974).

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The final dimension of divergent thinking is originality. This word itself is self-explanatory
whereby it emphasizes on the ability to create answers or ideas that are novel and different. For
example, in a discussion about reducing pollution, students who possess originality would give
answers such as sending the wastes to the moon as oppose to recycling.
CREATIVE PROCESSES (Child, 1986)
The processes of creative thoughts have intrigued many researchers and teachers throughout the
recognition of this cognitive operation. However, a study done by Graham Wallas of Helmboltz
and Poincare identified four stages involved in the creativity cycle. The stages are:
1) Preparation
The excitement and obsession of the creative mind is usually triggered by the presence of
a problem which was initially spotted. Hence, preparation would be done in the form of a
thorough investigation of all the possibilities surrounding the problem from reading,
discussing and questioning to making notes and trying out solutions.
2) Incubation
Subsequent to the hectic stage of preparing, incubation is the period of time that could be
short or long where there would be no apparent effort to solve the problem being done. It
is not known as to the exact ongoing during this process but an assumption was made that
this is the period where subconsciously, reformation and evolvement of new combination
of ideas occur.

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3) Inspiration
This is the stage where the earlier investigation and period of lag abruptly stops. Then the
confusion of ideas previously begins to take shape. One such example is the formation of
the Eureka can.
4) Verification
Although ideas of solutions are obtained by this period, affirmations are required and this
involves active review, development and alteration.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE/STUDENTS
Creativity associated with gifted and talented students
As stated by Eggen and Kauchak (1994), Renzulli defined gifted and talented students with three
criteria:

Possesses ability that are above average

Have high levels of motivation and commitment to task.

Have high levels of creativity.

Mentioned in one of the criteria above is that having high level of creativity is a necessity in
gifted and talented students. This means that it could be assumed that students who are gifted and
talented are very creative and hence, identified characteristics of such students could also be used
for distinguishing creative students. Other than that, the first criterion also correlates to Ausubels
definition of creativity.

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Hence, one of the ways in identifying creative students is by identifying gifted and talented
students. The characteristics of gifted and talented students agreed upon by experts as mentioned
by Eggen and Kauchak (1994) are that they:

Favor working solitarily.

Are imaginative, enjoy pretending.

Are highly verbal and flexible in thinking.

Go beyond assignments

Are often weary of regularized tasks.

Are at times impulsive with little interest in details.

Other possible characteristics of creative students according to biographical studies
(Child, 1986):

Possesses an IQ greater than 140 on the Terman-Merrill Intelligence Test. Terman believes
that there is a linear connection between IQ and creative talent.

Cattells researches resulted in other characteristics that he believed creative people have the
tendency to have which are they are more reserved, dominant, serious, emotionally sensitive,
radical and self-sufficient than others.

Other studies generalized the characteristics of creative people as singleminded, stubborn,

non-conformist and persistent in tasks which requires imagination.

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FOSTERING CREATIVITY IN STUDENTS WITH ACADEMIC DIFFICULTIES

In trying to aid students enhancing their creativity, many solutions have been brought up and
they shall be discussed in terms of Biological studies.
Problem solving
In relation to the definition chosen whereby creativity is related to the cognitive operation of
divergent thinking. Problem solving aims to enhance flexibility, fluency and originality.
However, the problems presented are required to be of certain nature and as distinguished by
Getzels (1964) there presented problems and discovered problems. The latter kind of problem is
the type that is significant to our subject matter. For example, in Biology, rather than directly
telling the students about the effect of tobacco on the body, teachers could simply present two
different lungs and ask the students about any observable difference and the possible explanation
for the difference. Are there any problems with the lungs in the first place? What does a healthy
lung look like? This will aid the students in developing their thinking processes.
Brainstorming and lateral thinking
Child (1986), Cecco and Crawford (1974) all agreed that brainstorming and lateral thinking are
useful in creative problem solving and this links to the above activity of discovered problems.
Different studies have the tendency to contradict each other when it comes to whether it is better
to apply brainstorming in a group or individual activity. Hence, with regard to helping
academically challenged students, I personally feel that it is better that he or she brainstorms in a
group. This is because the reason for brainstorming is to de-clutter the ideas in our head and
perhaps doing so in a group would aid the student in his/her process. For example, in one section
of Biological studies, the social implication of abortion may be asked and some students may

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brainstorm and come up with the fact that it is seen as cruel and murder but this idea could
trigger the other student into thinking that it is possible that letting the child live and suffer
hardship is even more cruel than terminating it.
Inquiry based instruction
An observation of a science teacher during a practical by Longo (2010) resulted in the further
justification that problem solving enhances creativity and as well as learning. Example of inquiry
based instruction fostering creativity is asking the students to find out the effects of various
stimuli on human nervous system and instead of telling them to do it in a certain specific way,
encourage the students to try and figure out the effects in their own ways.
Amalgamation of play and role play
According to Hupp and Polling (2009) researchers such as Marantz (2008) Singer and Singer
(2005) have found that play enhances creative thought, foster trust, helps develop divergent and
conditional thinking and reduces stress which leads to increased learning. One way of
incorporating such activity is by turning acquisition of facts into games. For example, it is
possible that the Biology contents are to be used in making famous television game show such as
Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Students could form groups and compete against each
other.

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CONCLUSION
Creativity is a term that is both complex and ambiguously defined even now. It has been
associated with the cognitive operation of divergent thinking which consist of fluency, flexibility
and originality. However, due to uncertain researches and results, this could be disputable mainly
due to the unclear correlation between divergent thinking and originality. Other than that, the
characters of a creative student is also imprecise as it stems from the definitions itself and the
fostering of creativity could be done in many ways and some examples are problem solving,
inquiry based instruction, problem solving and incorporation of play into learning.

(1,715 words)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cecco, J. P. & Crawford, W. R (1974). The psychology of learning and instruction. USA:
Prentice Hall Inc.
Child, D. (1986). Psychology and the teacher. Great Britain: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Ltd.
Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. (1994) Educational Psychology. USA: Macmillan College publishing
company.
Getzels, J.W. & Jackson, P.W. (1962). Creativity and intelligence. New York: Wiley.
Guillford, J. (1967) The nature of human intelligence. New York: McGraw Hill
Hupp, J. M. & Poling, D. A (2009) College teaching, 57, 221-228
Longo, C. (2010) The clearing house, 83, 54 57.