Think Smarter: Creativity, Brainstorming, and Solving Problems

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Think Smarter: Creativity, Brainstorming, and Solving Problems

Educational Psychology · Chapter 2: Memory, Thinking, and the Learning MindSection 2.9 · lesson 14 of 1009 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

Divergent and convergent thinking, and the techniques that generate ideas.

  • Define creativity by its dual criterion of novelty and usefulness
  • Distinguish Big-C from little-c creativity
  • Contrast divergent and convergent thinking
  • Select a brainstorming technique to fit a specific failure

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,164 words). Read along, or search it.

Memory, Thinking, and the Learning Mind

Think Smarter: Creativity, Brainstorming, and Solving Problems

Ask a room of adults whether they are creative and most say no. Ask the same room of five-year-olds and every hand goes up. Something happens in between, and part of it happens in classrooms. This section is about what creativity actually is, cognitively. We will define it precisely, which turns out to rule some things out. We will separate divergent thinking from convergent thinking. We will look at brainstorming, and why it usually underperforms. And we will meet four structured techniques that do better. The framing to hold throughout is this. Creativity is a cognitive skill, not a personality type.

Definition

Novel Is Only Half of It

Creativity is one of the most complex constructs in educational psychology. But most researchers agree on a dual criterion. Creative work produces ideas or products that are novel. And that are appropriate, or useful. Both halves are required, which is more restrictive than people assume. Mere originality is not creativity. A random or bizarre response fails the test. It does not meet any standard of relevance or value. That second criterion is what separates creative thought from simple divergence. And it has a practical consequence for teachers. Because appropriateness counts, creative work can actually be assessed. If only novelty mattered, nothing could ever be judged.

Scope

Big-C, Little-c, and Domain Knowledge

Psychologists draw two further distinctions worth knowing. The first is about scope. Domain-specific creativity requires deep expertise within a particular field. General creative thinking skills can be applied across domains. The second distinction is about scale. Big-C creativity means transformative contributions to a field. Paradigm-shifting scientific theories. Masterworks of art. Little-c creativity means everyday creative problem-solving and novel thinking. And crucially, all individuals can engage in it. Education concerns itself primarily with fostering little-c creativity. Though it also supplies the domain knowledge that Big-C contributions require. So the two are not rivals. One is built on the other.

Guilford

Divergent and Convergent Thinking

J.P. Guilford drew the distinction that still organizes this field. Divergent thinking generates multiple possible responses from one starting point. Multiple solutions, multiple ideas, from a single prompt. Convergent thinking does the opposite. It narrows many possibilities down to identify the single best solution. Now notice which of those most standardized tests require. Convergent thinking, almost exclusively. A student can spend twelve years being assessed in convergent mode. And conclude, reasonably, that they are not a creative person. What they have actually learned is that only one mode gets rewarded. That is a conclusion about the assessment, not about the student.

Four Measures

What Divergent Thinking Is Made Of

Divergent thinking is not one thing. It has four measurable components. Fluency is the quantity of ideas generated. Flexibility is the variety of categories those ideas fall into. Originality is how unusual the ideas are. And elaboration is how far each idea gets developed. These four come apart, which is why the distinction is useful. Consider a student who scores high on fluency and low on flexibility. Twenty ideas, all of the same kind. Now consider a student with three ideas from three different categories. Those two students need different feedback. The first needs prompting to change category, not to produce more. The second needs encouragement to keep going.

Key Idea

Two Modes, Not Two Camps

Here is the key idea of the section. Divergent and convergent thinking are complementary, not competing. Creativity requires both. Divergent thinking generates a rich set of possible solutions. Convergent thinking evaluates them and selects the most promising one. Effective creative problem-solving uses them in sequence. And each one fails in a characteristic way when used alone. Divergence without convergence produces a long list nobody acts on. Convergence without divergence picks the best of three obvious options. Classrooms that value only correct answers train the second mode only. Classrooms that value both open exploration and rigorous evaluation are the ones that cultivate genuinely creative thinkers.

Brainstorming

Suspending Judgment on Purpose

Brainstorming was developed by Alex Osborn, and its logic is precise. It explicitly suspends evaluative thinking during idea generation. That is the mechanism. Not enthusiasm, not group energy. Suspension. Divergent thinking is allowed to work without premature criticism inhibiting it. Four core principles follow from that. Defer judgment during the generation phase. Encourage quantity over quality, at least initially. Build on the ideas that others have offered. And welcome unusual or seemingly impractical suggestions. The first of those is the one groups abandon fastest. Within about ninety seconds someone will evaluate an idea out loud. Unless a facilitator actively protects the rule, brainstorming stops working.

Better Variants

Brainwriting and Production Blocking

Research has identified variations that improve on the basic technique. Brainwriting is the most useful of them. Participants write ideas independently before sharing them. That reduces social inhibition, which is the obvious benefit. But it also removes something less obvious, called production blocking. In a spoken brainstorm, only one person can speak at a time. Everyone else is holding an idea rather than generating the next one. So group brainstorming quietly limits its own output. The larger the group, the worse that effect gets. Electronic brainstorming tools solve the same problem differently. They allow simultaneous input, and they reduce social comparison effects.

Structured Prompts

SCAMPER, Mind Maps, Six Hats

Three structured techniques are worth knowing by name. SCAMPER is an acronym of seven prompts. Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify. Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse. It generates ideas by systematically varying the attributes of something existing. Which makes it the right tool for a student staring at a blank page. Mind mapping was developed by Tony Buzan. It creates a visual brainstorm radiating outward from a central concept. Six Thinking Hats was developed by Edward de Bono. It assigns different cognitive perspectives to structure a group discussion. Factual, emotional, critical, optimistic, creative, and process-oriented. Everyone wears the same hat at the same time, which is the clever part.

The Techniques

Five Ways to Generate Ideas

Five techniques, and the useful question is which one to reach for. Classic brainstorming defers judgment and prizes quantity, in a group. Brainwriting has people write individually before sharing. SCAMPER supplies structured attribute-variation prompts. Mind mapping builds a visual diagram radiating from a central concept. Six Thinking Hats assigns cognitive perspectives to structure the discussion. Choose by the failure you are trying to fix. Brainwriting fixes inhibition, and quiet students who never get a turn. SCAMPER fixes a blank page and no starting point. Six Thinking Hats fixes a group that only ever argues in one register. Reaching for the same technique every time wastes most of their value.

In Practice

Uses for a Paper Clip

Watch both modes run inside a single art lesson. The teacher poses a challenge that sounds trivial. How many uses can you think of for a paper clip? Students generate dozens of them. Structural engineering models. Jewelry. Whatever they can reach. That is divergent thinking, and you can measure it. Fluency in the count, flexibility in the range of categories. Then the teacher makes a second move that many lessons skip. Choose the most promising idea, and develop it further. That is convergent thinking, in the same lesson, on the same material. And this is why creativity belongs in every subject. Problem-finding and seeing familiar things from new angles are cognitive skills. They serve students across the curriculum, and long after it.

About Educational Psychology at UPI Study

Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) is a self-paced online course of 100 video lessons in 11 chapters, from memory, conditioning and child development to motivation, individual differences, assessment, instruction and educational technology. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.

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Universities that work with NCCRS

Educational Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Thomas Edison State UniversityThomas Edison State UniversitySigned partnerUniversity of the PeopleUniversity of the PeopleSigned partnerCharter Oak State CollegeCharter Oak State CollegeSigned partnerStrayer UniversityStrayer UniversitySigned partnerColumbia Southern UniversityColumbia Southern UniversitySigned partnerIndiana TechIndiana TechSigned partnerPenn StatePenn StateWorks with NCCRSSouthern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire UniversityWorks with NCCRSSUNYSUNYWorks with NCCRS +many more cooperating universitiesFind my college →

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Think Smarter: Creativity, Brainstorming, and Solving Problems

How do psychologists define creativity?
Most researchers define creativity by a dual criterion: a creative idea or product must be both novel and appropriate, or useful. Mere originality is not enough, since a random or bizarre response fails the usefulness test. Psychologists also distinguish Big-C creativity, which transforms a field, from little-c creativity, the everyday creative problem-solving that anyone can practice and that schools mainly foster.
What is the difference between divergent and convergent thinking?
Divergent thinking generates many possible ideas or solutions from one starting point, while convergent thinking narrows many possibilities down to the single best answer. J.P. Guilford drew this distinction. Creative problem-solving uses both in sequence: divergence produces options, and convergence evaluates and selects among them. Most standardized tests reward convergent thinking almost exclusively.
What are the four components of divergent thinking?
Divergent thinking has four measurable components: fluency, the number of ideas; flexibility, the variety of categories those ideas fall into; originality, how unusual they are; and elaboration, how fully each idea is developed. They can come apart. A student with twenty ideas of one kind needs prompting to switch categories, while a student with three varied ideas needs encouragement to generate more.
Why does group brainstorming often underperform?
Group brainstorming often underperforms because of social inhibition and production blocking, since only one person can speak at a time while others hold their ideas. Alex Osborn's method depends on deferring judgment, which groups abandon quickly without a facilitator. Brainwriting, where people write ideas independently before sharing, reduces both problems, and structured tools such as SCAMPER help when students have no starting point.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Educational Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 100 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
Which universities accept UPI Study credits?
UPI Study has signed partner agreements with universities such as Thomas Edison State University, University of the People and Charter Oak State College, and works with universities such as Penn State, SNHU and SUNY. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities. Use "Find my college" on this page to check yours.
How long does Educational Psychology take?
It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 100 lessons total about 15 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
How are the exams done?
Quizzes and assignments are online in the course. The final exam is taken online with proctoring; a person on the UPI Study team checks assignments, usually within two days.
How do my credits reach my college?
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100 video lessons, a quiz after each one, and the graded work that earns the credit. Recommended for credit by NCCRS.

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