Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Creativity
CHAPTER 40
Creative Problem Solving
JULIA ELLIS
It is interesting to listen to how people talk about creativity or “being creative.” Often, people will
say that they are not creative because they do not write poetry, paint pictures, or engage in the
performing arts. In so doing, they dismiss the creative ideas they generate to improvise solutions
to everyday problems such as revising a recipe, making a child’s costume out of too little of the
needed materials, or planning an event that will accommodate the diverse needs and interests of a
group of people. Creativity has been the focus of much research and debate. People have argued
about whether the word, “creative,” should be awarded to the person or the process, or reserved
for the product. Maybe some people are creative only some time. And maybe some people are
creative but never accomplish anything of broad social significance. Nevertheless, through all the
research and debates we have come to better appreciate the nature of the creative process and the
attributes, habits and processes of people who are capable of generating a creative response to
the challenging events of life or work. Through this work we have become more attuned to the
conditions that make creative responses more possible or likely. In this chapter I hope to share
a few ideas about how we can support students in classrooms in being creative throughout their
lives. I will begin with an autobiographical reflection highlighting key events in my own journey
with creativity and creative problem solving. Then I will present some specific suggestions for
how to engage students in creative problem solving in the classroom. Finally, I will highlight
some of the happy side effects of using such practices in the classroom.
MY JOURNEY WITH “CREATIVITY”
Although I didn’t yet have the word, creativity, in my vocabulary, my appreciation of it first
emerged when I realized how much I enjoyed companions who made me laugh. Laughter makes
you feel wonderful and connects you to the people you laugh with. The friends we laughed with
when we were ten are still so easy to relate to forty years later. The conceptual playfulness that
gives rise to wit and humor are manifestations of the creative process.
Still without the word, creativity, as a focus, I found in English literature courses in my
undergraduate program. I wondered most about the authors of the pieces we read. How could
they do it? What was the process? How had they become the process?