Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

300 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
Figure 40.1
Idea Tree for Names of Horses
The teacher would invite the whole class to offer ideas in response to each of these story
prompts. Then students would work in small groups or individually with three more randomly
selected ideas from the chart. The teacher would talk to the students about incubation and tell
them to expect to have an even better idea occur before they started working on the stories the
next day.
ONE, TWO, THREE, GO!
It is important for students to learn to develop at least two or three alternate approaches or
big ideas for their project or product. If they make themselves think of at least two or three
possibilities, then “the little man in the back of their heads” will keep asking “Yes, and what else
could be?” If students stop with their first idea and try to develop that, the “little man” shuts down.
Students can then find themselves stuck if that idea doesn’t work out well. Similarly, incubation