Concept and Definitions of Creativity, nature of Creativity, Stages of Creativity, Elements of Creativity, Characteristics of Creativity and creative child, role of Teachers in fostering Creativity.

3. Creativity
Dr. Manju N. D
Assistant professor
S.V.K. National College of
Education

4. Meaning of Creativity
• Creativity is the capacity or ability of a person
through which something new ideas, objects,
arrangement or re-arrangement of old elements
can be built up for bringing about uplift in the
society.
• The creative thinkers always explore new areas and
makes new observations, new predictions and new
inferences.

5. Definitions of creativity:
• According to Robert E. Franken creativity is defined as the
tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or
possibilities that may be useful in solving problems,
communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and
others.
• Spearman (1931) “Creativity is the power of human mind to
create new contents by transforming relations and generating
new correlates”.
• Drevdahl (1956):“Creativity is the capacity of a person to
produce compositions, products or ideas which are essentially
new or novel and previously unknown to the producer”.
• Guilford (1959):“Creativity is the capacity to produce ideas
that are both new and useful through divergent thinking”.

6. Nature of Creativity
Nature of creativity in a person can be summed up as follows:
Creative child is courageous in the conviction of his
beliefs and values.
The creative child is curious to know more and
more about his environment.
Independent judgment is another characteristic of a
creative child.
The creative person is independent in thinking
about the problems of various types.

7. Creative child becomes pre-occupied with a
task where he concentrates all his mental
energies on the task in hand.
Willing to take risk is another capacity of a
creative child.
The creative child has vision of future
problem.

8. Stages of Creativity:
Wallas (1926) has emphasized there are four stages to
creative thinking.
Preparation
 This stage consists of purposeful study and enquiry in
order to collect experience and information needed to
solve problem.
The plan of action is formulated by means of collecting
and analyzing the information
Incubation
This stage is an absence of creative thinking about the
problem,
There is a period of rest when there is no obvious
activity and progress.
It seeks uncover new relationship among familiar facts

9. Illumination
Sudden idea occur through insight and it
provide better solution to the problem.
Thinker gets a insightful solution
Verification
Illumination is tried out.
Verify idea or solution, whether it is correct or
not.

10. Elements of Creativity:
1. Fluency: The ability to think well and effortlessly in
order to generate a quantity of ideas, responses,
solutions or questions. (Brainstorming builds fluency)
Ex: List all things you can think of that are blue or have
the word “blue” in them (Butterfly, sea, sky, blueberry)
2. Flexibility: ability to easily abandon old ways of
thinking, adopt new ones, and produce ideas,
responses, questions or solutions in a variety of
categories. Flexibility generates a variety of ideas.
Ex: Write many uses of paper?

11. 3. Originality: It is the ability to develop ideas that are
statistically unusual, novel or unique
Ex: Invent a machine to help you clean your room.
Be sure to write down details on how the machine
works, what it uses, and what it is made of. Draw a
picture of your new invention and give it a creative
title.
4. Elaboration: The ability to add details in order to
modify or expand upon an idea or a general
scheme.
5. Sensitivity: the ability to notice and perceive the
problems before others notice it or see it again.

12. Characteristics of the creative children:
Creative children or creative individuals have a great deal
of energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.
• Creative children/ individuals tend to be smart, yet also
inexperienced at the same time.
• Creative children have a combination of playfulness and
discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
• Creative children alternate between imagination and
fantasy ant one end, and rooted sense of reality at the
other.
• Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on
the continuum between extroversion and introversion.

13. • Creative children are also remarkable humble and
proud at the same time.
• Creative children to a certain extent escape rigid
gender role stereotyping and have a tendency
toward androgyny.
• Generally, creative people are thought to be
rebellious and independent.
• Most creative persons are very passionate about
their work, yet they can be extremely objective
about it as well.
• The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals
often exposes them to suffering pain yet also a
great deal of enjoyment.

14. A creative child has the following personality
characteristics:
 Autonomous
 Bold
 Complex
 Dominant and self-assertive
 Emotionally sensitive
 Independent of judgment, introvert
 Self-sufficient
 Self-accepting and self-controlled
 Flexibility, originality and fluency
 Divergent thinking
 Risk taker
 Wide interest
 High aspiration

15. Role of Teacher in fostering student’s creativity:
Freedom to respond
Opportunity for ego involvement
Encouraging originality and flexibility
Removal of hesitation and fear
Providing appropriate opportunities and atmosphere
for creative expression.
Developing health habits among children
Using the creative resources of the community
Avoidance of blocks to creative thinking
Proper organization of the curriculum
Reform in the evaluation system
Use special techniques for fostering creativity.
Teaching by example

16. Special techniques for fostering creativity
Brainstorming
Developed by – Osborn -1957
It is the strategy or technique for allowing a group to
explore ideas without judgment or censure. In practice,
The children may be asked to sit in a group for solving a
problem and attacking it without any inhibition from
many angles
In fact , literally storming it with a number of possible
ideas and solutions. To start with, the students may be
provided with a focus.
Three stages ( warm up, ideation and Evaluation)
Four steps (Selecting a problem and challenges, Fact
finding, Brain storming Stage, Evaluation)

17. Lateral thinking
 It is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach,
 Using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving
ideas
 The term was coined in 1967 by Edward de Bono
 It is sometimes referred to in business, to use your inspiration
and imagination to solve problems by looking at them from
unexpected perspectives.
 Lateral thinking involves discarding the obvious, leaving behind
traditional modes of thought, and throwing away preconceptions.
Synectics
 It derived from the Latin word ‘Synetikos’ meaning-‘hold
together’
 Synectics is a problem solving methodology that stimulates
thought processes of which the subject may be unaware. This
method was developed by George M. Prince and William J.J.
Gordon in 1961.