Developed and maintained by Frank LaBanca, Ed.D.
Dr. LaBanca was recognized by eSchool News and Discovery as the 2006 National Outstanding Classroom Blogger for his blog, Applied Science Research
In Search of Creativity was a 2011 Edublog Awards Finalist in the "Best Teacher Blog" Category
Problem finding is the creative ability to define or identify a problem. The process involves consideration of alternative views or definitions of a problem that are generated and selected for further consideration. Problem finding requires individuals to set objectives, define purposes, decide what is interesting, and ultimately decide what they want to study.
Andragony offers an effective use of formative assessment 10/22/08
Do teachers understand? 1/31/08
An apparent paradox in idea and workload 8/29/07
The disenfranchised student, the suspect counselor, and a reflection on an Ed Tech’s perspective 6/1/07
A chat with Carol 5/2/07
I recently observed a high school student focus group for the development of an instrument that will examine college and career readiness in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). I was amazed (disappointed) at some of the comments the students made. But they are worth examining BECAUSE we need to be change agents! This is part of the call of STEM educators to improve knowledge, skills, and certainly dispositions.
When I think of engineering I think of a train
Research is looking stuff up on the Internet or print materials (not conducting investigations)
There is no creativity in science
Creativity can’t be taught
Problem solving can’t be taught
from lavc.edu
My team at the Center for 21st Century Skills at Education Connection recently produced a video about student engagement, with a “Did You Know?” feel. Check it out and share it with your friends, family, and colleagues!
As I continue to explore concepts of expertise, I look at my front yard for evidence. About 12 years ago, I made 4 Peanuts characters that I put out on my lawn at Christmas. Over the years, two were stolen, and about 5 years ago, I made the cutouts for two new ones (Peppermint Patty, Snoopy (#2)). With the throws of children and graduate school, I never painted them until this December. Now they stand on the yard – a testament to “paint by number.” (Even if I traced the number system from a Google image). I am dazzled by those who create original art and recognize that one of the most important characteristics of the development of that expertise is the ability to regularly practice the craft.
from the front yard . . .
I recently came across a great YouTube video featuring Ken Robinson speaking about education and I find it thought provoking. Although I think there are a few generalizations that are a bit over the top – his connections are very important. His talk was overlayed with an interesting video “sketch.” My favorite part is at time index: 7:42 where he talks about creativity. I always wonder how much authority teachers are willing to “give up” to allow students to be truly independent and self-directed. I certainly see strong examples in problem solving, but I think education, in general, is still weak in creativity. As I continue to struggle with an operational definition for creativity, I like what Ken has to say about creativity:
I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value.
I am much more comfortable with my problem finding definition, which of course is a little longer:
If you have a little over 10 minutes, it’s well worth the watch:
I recently spend part of a week at Raystown Lakecamping with my family. My children enjoyed spending time with their cousins cliff jumping, swimming, and boating. We did “tent it,” which always leads to some levels of uncomfort. In order to mitigate the lack of sleeping amenities we did the traditional thing: use an air mattress.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had traditionally bad experiences with air mattresses. Night one is usually fine, but then there seems to be a problem with air leaking, which just progressively gets worse. The mattress gets pumped up at night, starts off firm, but by morning, various body parts are clinging to the hard ground. Ugg.
Thinking about this, I realized that temperatures change during the day – at night, when the mattress is full, it is cool, but during the day, the heat build up. In an air mattress, that means the molecular motion of the confined air increases, causing additional inflation and higher pressure during the day. This then puts additional stress on the matress, which potentially creates microleaks.
So I thought that if the pressure was relieved, this would prevent the additional pressure from building up. Sure enough, with a partial deflation, I went back to the mattress in the afternoon to find that it felt fully inflated. This, of course, died down during early evening, when I re-pumped the mattress before bed.
Interesting . . .
When I evaluate my thinking, I see this as a problem solving situation – which in my past definitions is a logical/analytical process. However, I am forced to think that there was some creativity involved. So I am at this cognitive dissonance trying to decide whether (or how) problem solving is a creative process. I have traditionally distinguished problem finding and problem solving as different cognitive processes – but there may be some blurring that I need to think about more.
from blog.beliefnet.com
A recent .news story (which, honestly, I heard from a secondary source and haven’t yet found the primary, yet . .. ) talks about the budget crisis in New York State. Recently a Corrections Officer came up with a potential way to save a large amount of money.
Replace prisoners’ hot dog and hamburger rolls with sliced bread. (I don’t know if it’s white bread or whole wheat!:) In any event, this apparent switch will save the state of New York over $3,000,000 per year! Unbelievable.
I am looking forward to heading to the supermarket to verify the cost-savings and how many hot dogs and hamburgers we are talking about . . .
from plimoth.org
However, this gets me to thinking about teaching, learning, and creativity. We certainly have a problem finding/problem solving situation here. But I think what I see that is important is that it is situated. If the person wasn’t working in the prison environment, this would have probably been a non-existent thought. It was necessary and critical that this individual had practical, real experience with the environment so he developed an expertise to recognize that there was a potential money-saving option.
I think there is a lot here that I am not yet seeing, but wanted to be sure to document this idea for further thought and analysis.
Maggie reads to the class
Today I had the opportunity to visit my daughter’s school for her Kindergarten Author’s Tea. I LOVE when teachers give their students the opportunity to present their work in an authentic setting. It doesn’t matter what grade, K-12 – giving students the opportunity to share their work with the community increases the value and quality for the child. I’ve included a few pictures and embedded a video of her reading the story. Be sure to leave a comment for Maggie below!
Maggie shows us her book
Maggie is joined by her sister Anna
As I constantly straddle the realms of educational research and the role of a practitioner, I find myself trying to define my interests. Today I describe my research interests in somewhat of a mission statement. I am doing it in plural form as, although I operate as an autonomous researcher, I have collaborators and someday hope to be directing my own social science lab. I currently direct a high school natural science and engineering lab, and there is much more diversity in my interests and their interests:
We try to relate analytic thinking with creative thinking, which calls for multi-focused domain and divergent thinking. We are trying to promote synergic relationships between analytically and creative-oriented minds. Our research tries to bridge analytical with creative-oriented efforts, convergent with divergent thinking, to develop domain-specific expertise from non-focused or multi-focused generalism.
By using appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods, we seek to better understand what promotes scientific thinking in young adults.
Threads for study:
I recently gave an assignment to my academic and honors biology classes. I asked them to create stop-motion movies of the cell cycle, including the mitotic process. Some students elected to add music and some even posted to YouTube. Mitosis is often taught as a series of drawings and students need to “imagine” what happens from step to step. In the case of the stop-motion video, the students must take “mini steps” to make the motion occur. What I have found is that there really must be continuity to the images – they can’t just jump and thus I know if students really understand the process and the RELATIONSHIPS. The critical thinking involved to make sure that the process makes sense allows students to truly construct their understanding.
When we watched the videos in class, I was most impressed with the following example. The students were a bit reluctant at first to share, because they thought it was “too short.” I dismissed this because of the evidence of understanding. They clearly got it and made my favorite product. And the Oscar goes to . . .
The Kennedy Center Teaching Artists define arts integration as: an APPROACH to TEACHING in which students construct and demonstrate UNDERSTANDING through an ART FORM. Students engage in a CREATIVE PROCESS which CONNECTS an art form and another subject area and meets EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.
The Kennedy Center Teaching Artists define arts integration as:
an APPROACH to TEACHING in which students construct and demonstrate UNDERSTANDING through an ART FORM. Students engage in a CREATIVE PROCESS which CONNECTS an art form and another subject area and meets EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.
We should review this statement carefully, because I really think it integrates concepts of 21st-century learning very well. It also seems so relevant to science education as well. Too often, I think students think they learn science, but infer that “they’ll never use this in real life,” unless they become an engineer or scientist. What I try to stress with students is that the skills we teach in science are what is critical. The content is the medium to advance those skills. I want students to be self-directed, motivated, critical thinkers who are capable of problem finding and solving. The Kennedy Center definition also implies constructivist learning theory in their definition.
from: http://www.ade.state.az.us/
To that end, and as a springboard point for me, I am going to modify this definition for science education integration. What amazes me, is that it really doesn’t change very much from the art definition:
An APPROACH to TEACHING in which students construct and demonstrate UNDERSTANDING through INQUIRY-BASED QUESTIONS AND INVESTIGATION. Students engage in CREATIVE AND LOGICAL/ANALYTICAL PROCESSES which CONNECTS SCIENCE and another subject or skill domain and meets EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.
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