Do you ever have those moments when a principle you know to be true is demonstrated, and you are amazed anyway? Watching eggs being sucked into a bottle or cans being crushed by air pressure do that to me. I know it should happen, but I’m still amazed, especially if I do the experiment myself. … Continue reading
Today I’d like to (for now) wrap up my comments on the so-called “Creativity Killers,” common classroom routines that stifle both students’ motivation and their creativity. Today we consider choice—or the lack thereof—and its impact in the classroom. Collins and Amabile (1999) put it bluntly, “The best way to help people maximize their creative potential … Continue reading
Today I’d like to continue my comments on the so-called “Creativity Killers,” common classroom routines whose negative influences can loom unseen over our classrooms. If you recall, Amabile and her colleagues have worked for years to study the relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity. In her early work she identified several practices as “Creativity Killers” … Continue reading
Last Thursday I introduced the variables designated as “creativity killers” because they have been found to inhibit intrinsic motivation: evaluation, surveillance, reward, competition, and lack of choice. I know, the list is depressing. Procedures that are so familiar and common in classroom life can, vampire-like, suck the creative lifeblood from our classrooms. To add to … Continue reading
Creativity killers. Sounds pretty scary—my immediate image is of brain-sucking aliens or some such thing, draining creative energies from the people around them. The reality is less dramatic but still pretty frightening. Last week I talked about the importance of intrinsic motivation in creativity. In fact, Amabile proposes a three-part model of creativity in which … Continue reading
One of the most interesting and puzzling dilemmas in thinking about creativity and schools is the relationship between creativity and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation, of course, is defined as the motivation to do something for its own sake, for the sheer pleasure or satisfaction of the task. A runner may run marathons for the joy … Continue reading
How could I not pass this along? Last weekend’s New York Times published an op-ed piece by Suntae Kim, Evan Polman and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks describing research in which they asked young adults to solve creative problems while sitting either inside or outside a box. Yes, an actual box. Titled When Truisms Are True, the article … Continue reading
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