Lesson 2: What Creativity Is Not
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Welcome back! In this lesson, we'll be diving deeper into some of the most common misconceptions about creativity, and try our hand at practicing creativity ourselves. Get your colored pencils ready!
30 Circles Challenge
Before we jump into our discussion about the misconceptions surrounding creativity, let’s try our hands at practicing creativity ourselves. We’ll be participating in the 30 Circles Challenge. The object of this challenge is to use your creativity to turn an ordinary circle into something unique. Here’s an example of some of the drawings from my own try at the 30 Circles Challenge:
The rules are simple. You can use any art medium you’d like to complete this challenge, and you can take as much time as you would like. However, do not search the internet for inspiration. The goal is that whatever you put down on paper comes from your own creativity. If you’d like, you can also set a 10-15 minute timer for yourself to see how much you can come up with in that time frame. It is not necessary to complete all 30 circles. You can use paper that you already have, or you can download this template:
How did you do? Are the creative juices flowing? I’d like for you to discuss your experience with the 30 Circles Challenge on a new Padlet forum, linked below. How many were you able to create? Was it difficult to come up with ideas? List some of your illustrations in your discussion, and pay attention to the similarities and differences of your peers’ experiences. Do you think your illustrations tapped into your creative potential? Helpful Tip: To add a new post to the forum, click on the plus sign in the bottom right corner of your screen. Type your response, then click "publish."
30 Circles Challenge Padlet Discussion
Common Misconceptions About Creativity
Depending on your experience with the 30 Circles Challenge, you may still have doubts about your own creative potential. And that’s okay– creativity is a skill that takes practice to develop, but as we learned, it is also found in the simple joys we experience every day. In fact, one of the most common misconceptions about creativity is that it is an innate quality that you either have, or don’t. A study conducted by Anderson et al. (2022) found that prior to engaging in teacher training about creativity, educators had a very fixed mindset towards creativity. Several educators even indicated that it was a skill that could only be improved upon to a certain extent. However, after learning about creativity and participating in the training, the teachers “had a newfound interest in promoting creativity in students” and recognized that creativity is a natural part of learning (Anderson et al., 2022, p. 8).
Another common misconception about creativity is that it has to have a specific outcome. Conradty and Bogner (2018) wrote that “creativity is not a domain exclusive to art, but a mental ability required for all spheres of life” (p. 237). Being creative does not simply mean creating an arts and crafts project. It is coming up with new ideas and solutions to problems, engineering innovative products that help society, and discovering medical advancements. But it is also knitting a gift for a family member, experimenting in the kitchen, or woodworking.
It’s also important to remember that making mistakes or “messing around” with your creativity can also lead to great outcomes. Consider Lonnie Johnson, who started working as a nuclear engineer at NASA when he was thirty years old. In his free time, he would “mess around” with other ideas for pure enjoyment…until, one day, he invented the Super Soaker, which went on to become the bestselling children’s toy in the United States in 1991 (Stone, 2021). Or Jennifer Doudna, whose love of nature as a child and curiosity about the world around her led her to winning a Nobel Prize for creating CRISPR, a gene-editing tool (Stone, 2021). These people, like many other amazing inventors throughout history, decided to exercise their creativity because they saw problems that needed to be solved and were curious about the world. Everyone has the power to create and invent – you just have to start.
Here’s a TED Talk from a music video director who discusses misconceptions about creativity, and how those misconceptions are created as we grow older. As you watch, think about your own misconceptions surrounding creativity. What misconceptions did you have prior to beginning this course? What misconceptions do you still have? How has your knowledge of creativity changed? After watching the video, be sure to add more of your learning to your KWL Chart that we started working on in Lesson 1.
Wrapping Up
Before we wrap up, I want to highlight one last misconception about creativity, specifically as it relates to teachers’ perceptions of creativity. Oftentimes, teachers view academic intelligence as a marker of a creative student, but this is inaccurate. When students express creativity, their behaviors do not typically follow the expected measures of conformity (Anderson et al., 2022). Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule. There are several qualities teachers should recognize as characteristics of creativity in their students, including critical thinking, problem-solving, self-confidence, and imagination, among others.
By understanding the differences between what creativity is and what creativity is not, educators can better support their students’ creativity in the classroom, and more effectively teach for creativity. Remember the Padlet we added our definition of creativity to at the beginning of this unit? Now that you know more about creativity, go back to that Padlet and write a new definition. You may want to use the following scaffold to write your new definition: After completing Unit 1, my new definition of creativity is…
Now, I encourage you to take a doodle break and stretch your legs. And, whenever you’re ready, we’ll meet up in Unit 2, which will discuss creative learning environments and the realities that educators face with teaching for creativity. If you'd like to read more about the research mentioned in this lesson, you can find those links under the "Lesson 2 Resources" heading below.
Go to Unit 2- The Ideal Learning Environment vs. Our Reality
Go to Teaching for Creativity Course Homepage
Lesson Resources
Anderson, R. C., Katz-Buonincontro, J., Bousselot, T., Mattson, D., Beard, N., Land, J., & Livie, M. (2022). How am I a creative teacher? Beliefs, values, and affect for integrating creativity in the classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education, 110, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103583
Conradty, C., & Bogner, F. X. (2018). From STEM to STEAM: How to monitor creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 30(3), 233-240. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2018.1488195
Stone, W. (2021). STEM content vs. a sense of wonder and joy of learning: It shouldn't have to be a choice. International Journal of the Whole Child, 6(2), 55-63. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1328378
TEDx Talks. (2020, January 30). The myth of being creative [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/Hav54GuQs6E