Thursday, July 3, 2014

Creativity Lessons with Teresa Amabile, Part 1

Teresa Amabile is currently a professor at the Harvard Business School, where her research includes individual productivity, team creativity, and organizational innovation.  Her book The Progress Principle is an Amazon top 100 seller in both Organizational Learning and Creativity.  She has numerous publications on creativity, including Creativity in Context and Growing up Creative.  Her research yields practical recommendations for arts educators.

In Growing up Creative, Dr. Amabile describes three ingredients for creativity:  skill in the domain, creative working and thinking skills, and intrinsic motivation.  These ingredients correspond closely to Professional Learning Community Question #1:  What knowledge, skills, and dispositions do our students need to have?

Amabile correctly points out that we sometimes overlook domain skill, because we take it as given.  However, it is the prime requisite for creativity.  One cannot be creative in a domain in which one has no knowledge or skill.  Einstein's remarkable creativity in physics and his average skill on violin do not imply any particular advantage as a dancer.

Arts educators are sometimes hesitant to prescribe specific knowledge and skills on the basis that prescription inhibits creativity.  In fact, the opposite is true.  We must not shy away from the fact that we must provide foundational training.  We must decide on the particular mix of knowledge and skills that students must have, and we must collaborate so that students receive those foundational skills, regardless of who is teaching the course.  Because these skills are foundational, we must have evidence about whether each student has mastered them, and we must pledge extra time and support to students who have not yet attained mastery.

And yes, this means that we assess learning and use that evidence to guide instruction.  Amabile has recommendations for assessment in art, which will be explored in a later segment.

Happy Independence Day!

References

Amabile, T. (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press

Amabile, T. (1989). Growing up creative: Nurturing a lifetime of creativity. New York, NY: Crown Publishers

Amabile, T. and Kramer, S. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press

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