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Creativity is key for developing an imagination strong enough to solve problems, and science and math are the tools that must be used to execute and organize the solution. If we don’t know that a tool exists and how to use it, then we can’t apply it. A sound creative mind will allow the individual to know when and why to use the tools that they have learned about. In regards to schooling, I’m referring to scholastic skills like reading, writing, math, and science as the tools. The biggest issue in education is that there is no sense of why students are learning what they learn when they are learning it. It’s something they have to do and must have faith in the system that eventually they will really need it. Yet, “for now” and the convenience of our educational administration we can tell the students they need these tools in order to pass the class and move on to the next class. A mere get-by, as so many students do…do what it takes to get by.

Needless to say, cramming, and getting by is a skill in and of itself, but what if we could foster an environment that truly allowed for an application for a need to be creative. A sense of pressure driven by a call to action that derives an intrinsic motivator out of student? This takes place on a regular basis in acting conservatories, actors in training must be truthful in an imaginary circumstance, and in doing so their skills in memory and literary analysis are passively fine tuned in order to perform under the greatest pressure…to an audience; while still “forgetting” about the technicalities of blocking, or if they got the lines right. Cognitive embodiment and emotional elicitation is key to fostering creativity and having something to work on that is of passion for the student and will thereby will develop problem-solving skills because they will actually care to solve the problem. Today’s students are spoon fed information, no wonder why they are having a hard time being creative…they don’t need to be.

Transfer is a matter of being exposed to enough skill sets and specialties so that they can apply concepts from one specialty to the setting of another. Again the teaching of transfer skills cannot be technically derived, it must be simulated passively and anecdotally. An example of this is in a theatre rehearsal an actor is having a hard time projecting his voice. So the director approaches him and instead of saying you’re not being loud enough, he changes the circumstance and tells him that your acting partner is partially deaf. Naturally, the actor would have to raise his voice and he convinced himself to do this based on past experience in real life with people who are hard at hearing. The hard part is training teachers to instruct in this manner and understand that the best way to convince someone of something is to have them believe that what you are trying to convince them of was their original idea.

Once this, the student will build momentum for drawing on other disciplines and personal experiences to solve a particular problem at hand and the act of combining multiple disciplines and experiences will foster creativity as they have to envision the end result of their combination at an abstract level. … like a dynamic spatial game (i.e.: envisioning cubes rotating in one’s mind) using abstract principles that are based on a keen understanding of concepts, simplified for communication by their labels. This is why language learning is so important, because when we learn skills we are learning the labels that are used to communicate those skills. In medicine we may talk about the range of motion, or the systolic pressure vs the diastolic pressure, or hypo vs. hyper prefixes, in business we may talk about return on investment and say out ROI or Cap Rate to cover those concepts and come back with a proposed profit margin on an idea. Todays students need a depth in a particular skill but “linguistic” ability to communicate with those of other skills. Content learning isn’t as important anymore, because of our information highways, it’s how to use the content we are exposed to and creatively apply it with our scholastic tools to solve life’s problems is what’s important in education. Therefore a new emphasis on collaboration and life simulation by project learning is what will drive a well educated and meta-cognitive future generation.

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I was sitting in my Cognitive Learning Class today (2/2/11) and my lecture notes turned into these notes half way through, just thought I’d share:

Side note:
Everyone is waiting for someone to give the answer and then writing them down so they can study for the test…the info won’t be retained, it’ll be studied, not applied.
Potential Solution: have open discussions, where no notes are allowed, without the pressure or concern of having to take the exam or any kind of testing. The people are in the course because they want to be there, so the information is of genuine interest so the contributions are emotionally driven…therefore committed to memory.

Raising interest in other topics: Every student has a dynamic; for example, one may like baseball and biking whereas the other may like baseball and rock climbing. The biker may not have been introduced or compelled to try climbing, but because his personality resonates with that of the biker they may be compelled to try the activity together. This concept can transfer to other domains within a course structure and having students do core studies that they are often required to do. To answer the notorious question: Why do we have to learn this or when will we ever use this? You find someone who genuinely uses and applies it (besides the teacher; that’s like a child not listening to a parent vs. retaining the same advice from a friend or “favorite uncle”) and you expose them to the students experiencing the notorious question. Suddenly the topic is interesting and genuine motivation for diversity sets in.

Study Direction: A pool of people with one common interest must have a second major interest that no other person in the pool has and let the Socratic discussions begin! Test: have a caveat where the students must at some point in the discussion express the other hobby or interest that they have within the context of the main topic.

Proactive vs reactive…being able to internalize information and see multiple applications versus honing in on one application respectively. Always compare the arts’ reactivity to practical proactivity!

As I’m sitting in class, I get bored with the material and go off in my own world based on a seed that was given to me in class…pro: If I weren’t in class I would not have been funneled into a creative mentality that allows me to go off on my creative tangent while in class. The con: I am in class and missing the material that is to be applied to class exams-hence I fail the test and have to chase the professor to give me an incomplete so I can sleep ten hours a week to make up all the work! = Practical problem based on social condition/ or diamond in the rough if the creative circumstance is extracted and used properly!

Random Thoughts:

• ADHD Physical needs for heightened attention: origami and drawing?
• Make class like going to the theatre, you expect to be entertained so you get drawn into the experience without waiting for the thrilling moment.
• Math = step functions (get or don’t get it at various points in time, feels like you’re making no progress but all of a sudden you get it (practice)
• Organic Chemistry: maybe a combination but essentially needs linear mastery learning
• Practice in a domain can be hindered by fear so one should be trained to fight the fear or laziness or both (i.e.: public speaking
• Understand human emotions in order to understand human functionality-how? Meisner and Cognition = holistic cognitive embodiment
• Learning to trust yourself and what you know, and having the confidence to push forward regardless of the hurdles in front of you
• Finding a rhythm
• Classes and life need lanes on the roads but no train tracks or training wheels necessary
• The training wheels are used during exposure to the “tools of education”.
• Knowledge should be retained fluidly, dynamically, rhythmically not compartmentalized…let the body function as a whole.

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