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[Assessment 1015] GED preparation and creativityDavid J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.netSat Oct 27 23:17:38 EDT 2007
Hello Andrea, On Oct 27, 2007, you wrote: > Has anybody yet in this conversation defined 1. critical reading > and 2. creativity? Here's more on defining creativity. To begin with, it's quite unlikely that we will agree on a definition. There are more than 60 of them in the psychological literature (Taylor, 1988), and as far as I am aware there is no standardized measurement instrument for creativity. Some believe it is inherited; some believe it can be taught; some believe it can be nurtured or encouraged. I believe that some kinds of creativity can be taught or at least nurtured and that it involves a set of mental activities often closely aligned with the kind of mental activities we call critical thinking. Most of us would agree, I believe, that a key element is originality, but we might differ in describing the paths to it. And it may look different in different contexts, in the sciences, in the arts, in technology, and in the creative problem solving of daily living. In the context in which I raised the issue of creativity, I was thinking of the application of new ideas, what some would refer to as innovation or ingenuity. It is this applied creativity that I believe Marc Tucker had in mind as something that Americans have historically valued and excelled at, that has been an element of American economic success, and that may be undervalued or lost now in the education systems' rush toward performance on high stakes standardized tests. Are adult literacy education students (including basic education, secondary education and ESOL) capable of this kind of creativity? If so, should we nurture it? I believe they are and that we should. In many GED programs I have seen, it is not nourished, usually not even acknowledged in program goals or objectives. And I have never seen it measured. This indicates to me that, as a field, we do not value and support student creativity. I agree with Marc Tucker that, if we are interested in Americans' global competitiveness that we should value creativity, and of course, there are other good reasons to nourish creativity. What do you think about this? * Taylor, C.W. (1988). "Various approaches to and definitions of creativity", in ed. Sternberg, R.J.: The nature of creativity: Contemporary psychological perspectives. Cambridge University Press. David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net
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