Creative Thinking
The creative thinking competency involves the generation of new ideas and concepts that have value to the individual or others, and the development of these ideas and concepts from thought to reality. The Creative Thinking Competency Profiles have been developed by BC teachers based on students’ work.
Facets of Creative Thinking:
Creating and innovating
Students get creative ideas that are novel and have value. An idea may be new to the student or their peers, and it may be novel for their age group or the larger community. It may be new to a particular context or absolutely new. The idea or product may have value in a variety of ways and contexts – it may be fun, provide a sense of accomplishment, solve a problem, be a form of self-expression, provoke reflection, or provide a new perspective that influences the way people think or act. It can have a positive impact on the individual, classmates, the community, or the world.
Generating and incubating
Students may generate creative ideas through free play, engagement with other’s ideas, or consideration of a problem or constraint, and/or because of their interests and passions. New ideas and inspirations can spontaneously arise from the unconscious mind, but students can also develop strategies to facilitate the generation of ideas – learning a lot about something, engaging in a period of reflection, providing time for incubation, and doing relaxing or automatic activities to quiet their conscious mind. The capacity for creative thinking expands as individuals increase their range of ideas and concepts to recombine them into new ideas. The ideas available as raw material for creative thinking depend on previous experiences and learning, as well as students’ cultural legacies.
Evaluating and developing
Students reflect on their creative ideas in order to decide which ones to develop. They consider whether their idea would ultimately support the well-being of self, community, and the land. They do this with a sense of place and taking into consideration unintended consequences for other living things and our planet. If they decide to develop an idea, they work individually and/or collaboratively to refine it and work to realize it. This may require accessing the knowledge of those who have gone before, building the necessary skills, sustaining perseverance, using failure productively over time, and reflecting on process and results. It may also require the generation of additional creative ideas to come up with solutions to problems along the way.
Source: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies/thinking/creative-thinking
Profiles for Creative Thinking: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/sub-competencies-and-profiles.pdf
CURIOUSITY IN OUR SCHOOLS
Great article to help us think about encouraging curiousity in schools: The Future Belongs to the Curious
SD60 ILLUSTRATIONS – CREATIVE THINKING
#1 CREATIVE THINKING ILLUSTRATION
Description of Illustration: The class was studying their own stories; stories found in their own lives. Students were asked to create a Claymation story incorporating setting, characters, and plot. They discussed their story, planned their story, created their story then finally shared their story through Stop Motion Video.
When asked about his story Kevin responded: “I kinda thought about me and my brother chopping down trees and then we came back home and we seen a lynx and I changed it into a bear. We have big trees at Mile 62 and half on the Alaska Highway. So I put big trees in the story and I made a bear because we have bears at our place and a bear climbed up a tree at our place so that’s what I put in my video. At the end, I had the bear eating the person to make something interesting in the movie and sometimes I’m scared they might eat me when I’m chopping wood.”
KL, CM Finch Elementary, Mrs. McCharles
