| OCR Text |
Show , Spring 2004 page 3 Francois Camoin, director of the Writing Program, finds that ambiguity and uncertainty can facilitate creativity in graduate students. in early childhood, part of this class included observing pre-school children's creative and cognitive development. Interesting enough, students noticed that ideas in which young children believed were creative were in fact, not very creative but sometimes boring from a college student's point-of-view. However, students were able to "re-learn" the meaning of creativity from a child-like perspective. As well, for extra credit students enrolled in an affiliated course called "Child Development Practicum" in order to gain experience working with children. Class assignments included writing letters to teachers with whom students identified over the years. This activity forced students to reflect why and how certain teachers have been influential mentors as well as evaluate their own learning styles. According to Wright, today's education system is geared toward auditory learners. However, there is only a small percent of students who find auditory learning effective. On the contrary, more students prefer learning through visual and sensual experiences. "Without a doubt, the more senses you can engage the more powerful learning is," said Wright. In Wright's class, many group activities and creative projects were both educational and interesting for the students. For example, students participated in Lego building contests. They also formed academic teams where students would come up with creative questions for reviewing exams. They had fun drawing a mural of a family environment which facilitates creative and cognitive development. They even illustrated "an exciting learning opportunity" which intimidated many students because they were worried about their artistic abilities. They built things out of recycled materials like toilet paper rolls, film canisters, all types of paper, water bottles, coat hangers, and even tin cans. According to Wright, this was an open-ended assignment that encouraged students to come up with the creative designs. All of the exercises enabled students to let their imagination run wild and inspired creative thinking. "College students have been so used to the idea of anonymity by sitting and listening in class that they have become uncomfortable with the basic physical aspect of learning," commented Wright. For this reason, Wright incorporates kinesthetic learning into her teaching to help students not only be more comfortable with their physical movement but also facilitate multi-tasking. Students stood up and moved around the classroom while thinking and responding to her questions. If they try to answer a question, they throw a basketball in a basket placed at the center of the room when they answer correctly. Why don't college students go on field trips? Was it only something for grade schoolers? Perhaps as another effective teaching strategy, college instructors can incorporate field trips and more outdoor activities into the learning process in order to motivate students. "Multi-sensory and social experiences are the most effective learning strategies because they are not just objective but fun and educational," said Wright. "Being creative will make you the best in the field because it's so interdisciplinary." Indeed, creative abilities will help everyone become better thinkers and problem solvers. Meanwhile on the other side of campus, Elizabeth DeWitte, adjunct professor in the art department, teaches Creative Problem Solving. According to DeWitte, every semester the class is different because the dynamics of the students change. Sometimes students feed off of each others' ideas while other classes need to be pushed. In class, students do a lot of puzzle solving. One group activity involves dividing the class into groups of four to five, and over a two-week period, they have to come up with a different application to something that is used and seen everyday. A good example is using car keys as jewelry. The teams compete against each other to come up with the most creative solution to a problem. Teams are assigned complex tasks such as suspending a cup using three cups and three knives. In the end the students that experiment with possibilities triumph. "Experimentation is a key to creativity." Dewitte recommends students to solve a problem using as simple as "the diamond method." The diamond method begins with the problem in mind. Then students think of many solutions. And finally narrow it back down to one solution. "When it comes to creatively solving a problem, it's all about breaking out of the mold," DeWitte concluded. There are also some interesting classes that stimulate creative thinking in the English and writing departments at the University. Professor Heidi Blitch, an adjunct faculty member since 1998, teaches Introduction to Creative Writing which prepares students for 3000-and higher levels of writing. Parallel to incorporating creativity, the English department allows instructors to teach the class however they want just as long as both poetry and fiction writing are taught. "Students come to writing classes wanting tips on form and preset ideas but this class does the complete opposite by readjusting students' thinking and de-emphasizing structure," said Blitch. "It forces students to work outside of their comfort zone because the common writing standards that have been taught since high school may not always be useful but in fact tie you down when writing stories like Harry Potter or Lord of the RingsV In the class, Blitch works with students on writing free verse poetry and creating original stories with fictional characters. She tries to give students enough freedom so that students can play with their own ideas. For example, one writing assignment requires students to imagine a fictional character and describe a space associated with the character without using the character in the piece at all. Other creative assignments include asking the students to write about a "fender-bender" argument giving two contrasting viewpoints and re-imagining what they see as metaphors of certain poetry and coming up with their own ideas |
