By : MAJED ALALI
There have been several curricula, and educational and psychological plans that can be applied to the study and development of creative abilities. For about fifty years, beginning with the research by Guilford up to the present time, creativity has received considerable attention from the various educational, psychological and social trends and schools in order to identify the main influences and aspects of creativity.
Yet, some aspects of this long studied issue are still vague and controversial such as the relationship between creativity and intelligence. That is, there is still room for research to be conducted on creativity. The question that imposes itself is which type of programs is the most effective for enhancing creative abilities. Torrance and his students reached this conclusion after surveying hundreds of studies conducted on creativity from 1972 to 1985.
Because the individual’s cognitive development is the outcome of the interaction between heredity and the environment and because the limits of this development are determined by heredity-related factors, then what can be achieved within these limits is determined by environmental factors. Naturally, cognitive development reaches its maximum in case the environmental factors are supportive. On the other hand, if the environment is poor and frustrating, development will be kept within the narrow limits of heredity. Since it is not possible, so far at least, to modify the genetic structure of the child, the only choice left is the modification of the environmental determiners. It is universally accepted that the development of intelligence is a social process that depends on the type and structure of the environment where the child lives.
Since genetic influences play an important role in the child’s cognitive development, especially the early educational experiences gained inside and outside the family, many researchers have stressed the importance of addressing creativity in early childhood. The early experiences of creative thinking pave the way for further creativity in older ages and help the child to know how to use his/her potentials in divergent thinking and creative solution of problems.
Early childhood (from 3 to 6 years of age) is of paramount importance as children in this stage have a spontaneous desire to explore the surroundings. Research has shown that children in this age use creative techniques in recognizing things and seeking truth. These techniques include arousing successive questions, inquiry, experimenting, play, and examining the facets of the things. When facing an error or disturbance of some kind and when being unable to make sense, they begin to give questions, guesses, examinations and revisions. Once they discover something new to them, they quickly and enthusiastically inform the people around them about it.
Any treatment of creative education case should be implemented within the comprehensive view of the role of the family and the society, and the prevalent educational, economical, and cultural influences. The education of the individual can not be implemented away from his/her social and physical environment.
The nature and the role of the educational process in creativity is determined by a set of personal, affective and motivational features of the individual. These features allow potential creativity to turn into tangible creative performance. The features that characterize the personality of the creative individual can, in most cases, be acquired from the social environment that surrounds the individual. Accordingly, the educational situations the individual experiences whether in the process of socialization inside the family or in formal and informal educational situations in the society and its institutions are also important for the development of creativity .
This refers to the significant role education plays in regard to these features. Education can either facilitate or impede creative thinking. That is, education can create the atmosphere that is supportive to the growth of these features in the individuals who have creative potentials. However, the role of education exceeds the mere creation of that kind of supportive atmosphere. It can adopt the educational procedures and methods that can secure the transfer of these features into behavioral actions that characterize the individuals’ with creative potentials.
In this respect, Torrance in 1965 suggested five reasons why education should attend to creativity:
- Utilizing the power of the creative individuals.
- Securing the psychological well being of the creative individuals.
- Increasing the scholastic achievement of the creative individuals.
- Securing professional success.
- The social importance of creativity.
Countries, whether developed or developing, should think of the basic issues and needs of creativity, taking into consideration the basic needs of young people whose creative abilities and talents need to be enhanced to reach their utmost. These should be applied at all levels: in the family, the school and the whole society.
The main issue here is the extent to which we are aware and convinced of the importance and influence of creativity in changing all aspects of life in the society, even those that relate to affection.
There are several issues that need to be evaluated and investigated in order to outline the factors and influences that can be used in developing creativity in people. The developing countries, with their recent conditions and the political, educational, social and economic crises, cannot secure the simplest means to develop creativity in students. Rather, developing countries cannot eliminate illiteracy that is prevalent in most of such countries. Even the most optimistic person cannot expect to find creativity in the curricula or daily life of developing countries with their current circumstances.
Therefore, it is a must that developing countries eliminate the obstacles that deter creativity and its development in their citizens. The development of creativity in developing countries is, in fact, of paramount importance since it can improve all aspects of life and help them make progress. Since psychological research is at the heart of the study of creativity, it should investigate creativity profoundly and identify the best ways to promote it in developing countries. It should identify the kind of environment that is supportive to the development of creativity. This is of special importance for developing countries where such environment is currently lacking. As for the State of Kuwait , the researcher offers in the following section some recommendations which, if considered, can enhance the creative output of Kuwaiti students:
- Providing creative individuals with material and spiritual stimulation.
- Giving creative individuals the priority of being admitted to colleges concerned with applied sciences.
- Giving creative individuals privileges, i.e., allowing them to use the State’s scientific and tourist utilities freely or for reduced prices.
- Modifying the school curricula to be more flexible and practical, so they would satisfy the aspirations of creative students.
-Increasing awareness of the importance of creative activities and their positive reflections. among parents, teachers and other categories of the society .
-Increasing creativity-centered training courses that teachers and creative students attend, so they would be more acknowledged of creativity and the ways to promote it.
-All the society’s institutions should participate in enhancing creativity and creative individuals both materially and spiritually.
-Making use of the recommendations of research on creativity
-Making use of the international experiences and experiments on creativity.
-Investigating the characteristics of the creative individuals and the factors that influence them.
The State of Kuwait is a rich country and, therefore, should allocate a special fund for creativity and its development in students. But unfortunately the current fund, in fact, is not enough to meet the aspirations and hopes of creative students. Sufficient funds are necessary to provide the required facilities like laboratories and scientific instruments, which are of great importance to creative students. Hopefully, this is expected to promote creativity in the society, taking into consideration that Kuwait is rich in educational institutions that sponsor creative people. The following are among these institutions:
-The Kuwaiti Science Club.
-Science clubs.
-Youth centers.
The researcher recommends that Kuwaiti creative individuals should be given more care so our educational aims that relate to creativity can be fulfilled.
Creativity cannot be investigated in any society, regardless of its psychological and social characteristics, away from its relationships with other psychological and educational variables. Creativity affects other variables and at the same time is affected by other variables. Thus, creativity cannot be studied away from the other variables with which it correlates.
For example, the findings of this study and other studies revealed lack of correlation between creativity and intelligence. This issue is still controversial among researchers. Several psychological studies found inconsistent results concerning the relationship between creativity and intelligence. Some found negative relationships and still others found positive relationships. Even the results of some studies were inconsistent for the same society. Since creativity and intelligence are two of the long investigated psychological variables and owing to their reflections on the development of societies, the present researcher recommends that more studies be conducted to shed more light on the relationship between them using different age groups.
Based on what was mentioned above and the work the present researcher has done on creativity with different age groups, the researcher presents the following suggestions. These suggestions are general, i.e., they are not confined to the State of Kuwait. They can be considered by researchers and the ministry of education, and any other educational organizations in any country:
1-Developing teaching methods and techniques in the light of the recent research findings in the field of teaching and learning. Methods known to have good reflections on the development of creativity should be introduced to the educational practices .
2-Considerable emphasis should be placed on the school activities curriculum. It is through these activities that we can detect and develop creative abilities in the students.
3-Providing teachers with continuous in-service training courses in order to train them on the recent teaching methods that can enhance creativity in the students. In these courses, teachers should be alerted of the following:
-Class time should not be wasted on indoctrination.
-Democracy and free expression of opinions should be prevalent in the classroom.
-Encouraging creative students whose creative abilities should be separated from their academic achievement.
-Varying teaching methods, so they would be more arousing and useful to the students.
-Making oneself a good example to the students in terms of behavior and thinking.
-Making students feel dependent, responsible and capable of achievement.
-Urging students to respect manual work and making them realize its importance in meeting many social needs.
Making the learner the center of the educational process.
-Responding to students’ comments in a way that stimulates further thinking on their part.
-Using questions that can probe divergent thinking and, hence, develop creativity.
4-Establishing schools or institutes for creative students where psychological and scientific atmosphere supportive to the development of creativity can be secured.
5- Exploring the background of creative students in the fields of science, technology, art and literature in order to know about the significant environmental, social and genetic factors influencing their creative productions.
6-Adopting two main methods in education. The first postulates ideas and studies on creativity and criticizes them constructively. The second develops programs to deal with the ambiguous stimuli in his/her environment, courses and activities that can be put into action and help the learner .
7-The general educational atmosphere in any educational schools or centers should be away of anxiety situations and circumstances regarding to the negative relationship between creative thinking and anxiety on one side , and the anxiety considered as one of the pest predictor of creative thinking on the other side .
8-In scholastic environments, the administration must follow many educational tichniques and styles to promote creative thinking.
9 - Creative activities and teacher record are the best predictors for creative thinking, so the scholastic curriculums must focus in their contents on the techniques that support the previous variables, to get creative students to use their creative thinking abilities.
In the light of the results of the present study and the researcher’s inability to explore the relationship between creativity and several other variables, the researcher offers the following suggestions for further research:
1-Investigating the most important psychological and social variables that affect creative production, so they could be used in predicting creative abilities.
2-Developing educational and psychological programs to enhance students’ creative abilities both in subject matters and the accompanying activities.
3-Conducting more investigations on the relationship between intelligence and creativity, so a more definite understanding of the two variables could be reached.
4-Studying the various psychological and social dimensions of performing extra curricular activities and their impact on the development of students’ creativity. A positive correlation was found between creative thinking and creative activities in the present study.
5-Conducting further investigations of the gender differences in creativity. This could have significant reflections on the way creativity is attended to in classrooms .
6-Investigating the relationship between the various types of thinking, scientific, imaginative, logical, critical…. etc, and creativity. As far as the researcher knows research in this area is little even though it is of great importance for the development of creativity.
7-Exploring the factors that induce and increase students’ anxiety. The present study found a reverse relationship between creativity and anxiety. Identifying anxiety-provoking factors, we can create a more relaxing environment where creative individuals can practice and enhance their creativity.
8-Conducting cross-cultural studies on creativity in order to explore the reflections of the different cultures on creativity and its development in young and adult students.
9-Exploring the most important family, environmental and societal influences and obstacles that relate to creativity and its development.
10-Conducting longitudinal studies investigating the significant influences and characteristics that increase creative productions, the personal changes that creative persons undergo, and the interaction of personal and environmental factors in creative and non-creative persons.
11-Investigating creativity in students from public (Government) and private schools and from different nationalities in order to identify the effect of the type of school and nationality on creativity.
12-Developing and standardizing instruments to measure creative performance and abilities in the various scientific and artistic fields at the different educational stages.
13-Examining the cognitive styles and personality traits that relate to creativity since creativity is related to many variables rather than mental abilities and traits.
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