(c) Michele Root-Bernstein 2013 WHAT THE ARTS OFFER TRANSDISCIPLINARY TRAINING IN CREATIVITY SNAAP Conference, March 2013 Plenary Session 2: “Skills, Skills,

(c) Michele Root-Bernstein 2013

WHAT THE ARTS OFFER TRANSDISCIPLINARY TRAINING

IN CREATIVITY

SNAAP Conference, March 2013Plenary Session 2: “Skills, Skills, Skills”

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Michele Root-Bernstein, Ph.D.Michigan State University


A New Age: Creative Society

“Success is based not only on what you know or how much you know, but on your ability to think and act creatively.”

~Mitchel Resnick, director,

Lifelong Kindergarten research group at MIT Media Lab


universal

intuitive

sensual

& teachable skills

The 13 “thinking tools” represent what creators across the arts and sciences have to say abouthow they think, imagine and create.


The 13 Thinking ToolsBODY THINKING……………………


…means honing ALL the senses to perceive acutely & accurately…


…. involves mental sensation of things observed or imagined, using any or all of the senses, in the absence of direct perception…


…involves the representation of a complex thing or process in simplified or analog form;

used to test, modify, or play with its properties...


…goal-less activity performed for fun or enjoyment that incidentally develops skill, intuition, and knowledge…


ORIGAMITOOL-BOX

A mnemonicaidthat defines & exerciseseach tool.


Bloom’s Taxonomy & Imaginative Thinking Tools

Experiencing

imaging, body thinking

abstracting, patterning

empathizing, transforming

all tools, all senses

patterning, playing

patterning, analogizing, modeling

modeling, patterning, synthesizing

http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm


http://arts.k12.hi.us

Haw

aii Arts A

lliance

http://arts.k12.hi.us/



Science Textbooks vs. Science Practice


Addressing the disconnect between creative practiceand pedagogy atGeorgia State U:



Exercising Thinking Tools in Worldplay:

a complex form of pretend play that involves the invention of an imaginary world

Imaginary Worlds

Daydreams & Invented Stories PlayactingSimple Pretense & Animism

Imag

inat

ion

Age


Worldplay is persistent (lasting months or

years),elaborative (accumulating

detailed histories of persons and place)

& creative (often involving the making of artifacts). A young C.S. Lewis made maps, drew

pictures, and wrote stories of Animal Land, thereby exercising imaginative skills such as observing, imaging, modeling and playing.


Worldplay in childhood & adulthood:

Claes Oldenburg, invented the imaginary country of Neubern as a child and parlayed the processes of worldplay into his adult artwork…,

In adulthood, Desmond Morris, zoologist, writer & visual artist, has created an imaginary world of biomorphs, surreal creatures modeling zoological behaviors and evolutionary forces…

© Michele Root-Bernstein 2013


Artifact of an Imaginary World(Worldplay Workshop: University of Georgia, March 2010)


Bookmaking Project & Worldplay

Ren Hullender, Central Michigan University:Art Education Class

© Ren Hullender 2013

(c) Michele Root-Bernstein 2013Maps© Ren Hullender 2013


History

Climate© Ren Hullender 2013


Puns Poetry Lyrics

Languages



Measurements

Inventions



Hullender found dramatic initial results:• Change in student affect, effort, and engagement• Evidence of deep learning • Change in the culture of the classroom



© Clar Baldus, U. of Iowa: class on Creativity, Imagination and Play in Human Development in Art


8 Strategies for a Creative Education

1. Teach tools for thinking

2. Teach the creative process

3. Place arts on a par with sciences

4. Use common, cross-disciplinary language

5. Emphasize trans-disciplinary content

6. Model exemplary individuals & polymaths

7. Utilize many forms of expression

8. Specialize in imaginative breadth


In sum:

The more we can be explicit about what we mean by imagination and creativity, in terms of imaginative thinking tools and other relevant skills and behaviors, the more we can be precise about the cognitive value of the active engagement people experience in art training, and the more we can purposefully transfer that value to the pursuit of knowledge in other fields.

© Michele Root-Bernstein 2013


THANK YOU !Michele Root-Bernstein

[email protected]

(c) Michele Root-Bernstein 2013 WHAT THE ARTS OFFER TRANSDISCIPLINARY TRAINING IN CREATIVITY SNAAP Conference, March 2013 Plenary Session 2: “Skills, Skills,

Documents

tnmichele rootbernstein

exercising thinking

modeling modeling

imaginative skills

senses patterning

transformingall tools

place creative

complex form of pretend