Torrance Journal for Applied Creativity

Creativity
Although almost universally
perceived as advantageous, beneficial,
and valuable, no single definition for
creativity exists. Creativity has been
defined variously, with different perspectives
affecting how one understands
and experiences the process. Some view
creativity as the interplay between desire
for preserving important features and
qualities of experience and the desire to
transform it (Feldman, Csikszentmihalyi,
& Gardner, 1994). Others have stressed
the importance of novelty and value,
emphasizing that, “creativity is the ability
to produce work that is both novel (i.e.
original, unexpected) and appropriate
(i.e. useful, adaptive concerning task constraints)”
(Sternberg & Lubart, 1998, p.
3). These definitions are thoughtful and
perceptive, demonstrating the necessity
for understanding how a field’s body of
knowledge exists and how it might be
improved. When working with children,
however, something more is sometimes
desired, both to acknowledge children’s
developing understandings of many
disciplines as well as to provide guidance
through more concrete activities that
teachers can deliver, observe, and assess.
Torrance (1962) remedied this need for a
more school-friendly definition, describing
creativity as, “the process of sensing
gaps or disturbing, missing elements;
forming ideas or hypotheses concerning
them; testing these hypotheses; and
communicating the results, possibly
modifying and retesting the hypotheses”
(p. 16). This definition is especially
helpful for teachers and others interested
in developing children’s creative thinking
and problem solving because it identifies
skills and procedures that can be taught,
practiced, and mastered by children as
the result of instructional sequences in
the classroom.
In the current standards-based
environment, children are sometimes
viewed solely in terms of their test scores.
This is unfortunate, as test scores provide
only a partial picture of a child’s abilities,
struggles, achievements, and talents
(Schroth, 2015). Certainly, teachers
and parents are responsible for a child’s
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academic progress. However, those who
work with children understand that
they are just as accountable for student
growth in a variety of other competencies,
including creative nature, leadership
ability, potential in the performing arts,
social and emotional wellbeing, moral
development, sense of civic responsibility,
manners, and citizenship. Teaching
creative thinking and problem solving
is inexorably linked to an underlying
concern for the whole child, and permits
teachers and parents the freedom to
address each child’s skills, talents, and
needs (Torrance, 2002; Treffinger, Isaksen,
& Stead-Dorval, 2006). Rather than
focusing solely on academic performance,
effective teachers also concern themselves
with how the children think, how they
respond to problems, and whether they
possess the tenacity and drive to face an
especially difficult dilemma (Torrance
& Torrance, 1973; Treffinger, Selby,
& Schoonover, 2013). Torrance, in his
famous Manifesto for Children, perhaps
summed up best what this means in
practical ways:
1. Don’t be afraid to fall in
love with something and
pursue it with intensity.
2. Know, understand, take
pride in, practice, develop,
exploit, and enjoy your
greatest strengths.
3. Learn to free yourself from
the expectations of others and to
walk away from the games they
impose on you. Free yourself to
play your own game.
4. Find a great teacher or
mentor who will help you.
5. Don’t waste energy trying
to be well-rounded.
6. Do what you love
and can do well.
7. Learn the skills
of interdependence.
These suggestions are so important
because while they do not teach creative
thinking and problem solving skills
themselves, they create a learning environment
that permits students to thrive
and prosper.
Matilda Jeffris
While children too often are
criticized for “shortcomings” and “deficiencies”
exhibited in the classroom, Torrance’s
Manifesto for Children shifts the
focus from problems to passions. Many
strategies that develop creative thinking
and problem solving skills require children
to reflect on what their greatest gifts
and deficits might be—a process that
aligns perfectly with Torrance’s charge
to make use of one’s greatest strengths
and talents (Torrance, 2002). Torrance
also suggested that not everyone will
cheer their successes or welcome their
original thoughts (Torrance, 2002).
Many children find this difficult because
they have had no constructive school
experiences where their ideas meet with
resistance. Providing opportunities
for their most original concepts to be
critiqued by others frees children from
these constraints and permits them to
develop the tenacity and grit necessary
to become adept advocates for their own
ideas. Encouraging students to find a
great teacher or mentor emboldens them
to consider how learning experiences are
working for them, and to seek out those
who can help them. Discovering what
they love and can do well allows children
the opportunity to channel their energies
into those areas where they might make
a difference, rather than building greater
competency in areas they do not need
(Torrance, 2002). Although it may cause
many of the current generation of school
reformers palpitations, not all poets need
to be proficient in calculus nor must all
chemists be adept as painters.