Horsetail
Cultivate
Creativity to Study Better and Dominate Assignments
Ransom Patterson
What comes to mind when you hear the word “creativity”?
A painter toiling away at a canvas into the wee hours of
the morning?
A composer spending hours on a new piece until it’s
perfect? Or maybe an actor
bringing an audience to tears with the right word said at
just the right time?
What about that final project you have due for your Intro
to Anthropology class?
I don’t know about you, but if you’d asked me a couple
years ago if creativity
had anything to do with course work, I probably
would have said something like,
“Well, sure, but only if you have a creative major like
art, creative writing, music, drama, or dance.”
What I’ve realized lately, however, is that my
assumptions were all wrong.
Creativity absolutely has a place in your
studies, no matter what your major is.
To excel at college-level work, you have to think
creatively.
That’s why in today’s post I’m going to break down what
exactly creativity is,
how you can practice it, and how you can apply it to your
studies.
Don’t worry: berets are optional.
Want to listen to an audio narration of this article?
Just click play below:
https://collegeinfogeek.com/cultivate-creativity/
What Is
Creativity?
Like love and the recipe for the perfect burrito,
creativity is a difficult thing to define.
This hasn’t stopped scientists from trying, though. As
neuroscientist and psychiatrist
Nancy C. Andreasen explains, attempts to study
creativity
usually fall into two
categories: “little c“ and “big C.”
“Little c” refers to research that attempts
to quantitatively measure creativity.
One popular way of doing this is to give subjects tests
of divergent thinking.
Andreasen defines divergent thinking as “the ability to
come up with many responses
to carefully selected questions or probes.” This is in
contrast with convergent thinking,
“the ability to come up with the correct answer to
problems that have only one answer.”
A classic test of divergent thinking would be to ask
people a question such as,
“How many uses can you think of for a brick?”
The idea is that the more uses a person can come up
with, the more creative they are.
But “little c” isn’t the only method for studying
creativity. As Andreasen explains, such tests are based on the assumption that
creativity = divergent thinking. This, she argues, is not necessarily
the case, since there are equally creative achievements
that are the result of convergent thinking. She cites the
mathematical accomplishments of both Newton and Einstein as examples.
Because of this discrepancy, many researchers also study
“big C.” The “big C” approach starts
with a group of people who are already recognized as
being highly creative
and then attempts to study them in order to reverse
engineer a definition of creativity.
This approach also has its problems, since it involves a
subjective assessment of creativity,
not to mention neglecting all the highly creative
individuals who just haven’t been lucky enough
to achieve wide recognition.
Since science is still unsure exactly how to define and
quantify creativity,
I think that popular and philosophical definitions of
creativity are just as helpful.
My favorite definition comes from author Denise
Shekerjian, who defines creativity as,
“…the idea of connecting two unrelated things in an
efficient way.”
Shekerjian’s definition gets at the idea that creativity
is something inherently wondrous
and even magical. It’s the surprise that comes when you
or someone else notices
and articulates an unlikely connection.
With all this being said, is creativity something
that you can learn and practice? Absolutely.
Creativity is hard, but it is a skill you can cultivate.
You just need the right approach…
Why Creativity
Matters to Studying and School
“Creativity is a process, not an event.” – James
Clear
Now that we have a working definition of creativity, we
need to discuss why exactly it matters
so much to the work you do for school.
The simple answer is that rote memorization can only get
you so far.
When you were in high school, it was probably enough to
just read
the textbook,
take notes on the lectures, and then memorize the
appropriate terms and facts.
If you did even
that much, you were usually guaranteed a good grade.
In college, however, that’s not enough. Sure, you
may be able to get through
your first couple semesters just by regurgitating facts,
but to excel in any higher level courses
you need to be able to think creatively.
Higher level
courses ask you to think outside of the box, to go beyond the surface level.
For instance, let’s say that your philosophy professor
assigns you to write a paper
on the meaning of life. If you want to do well, it’s
not enough to write a paper summarizing
the opinions of different academics on the
topic. This will get you part of the way,
but to make your paper shine you need to comment on and
critique the existing arguments, integrating them into your own original
answer. Activities such as this are inherently creative.
Furthermore, creativity is essential if you want to
distinguish yourself.
This is true while you’re in school and after you
graduate. Devising creative solutions
to novel problems helps you stand out in a good way.
Particularly as many work tasks
become increasingly automated, creativity is a skill that
will only become more valuable.
This is not to say, of course, that creativity can
replace hard work. Deliberate practice
is still essential to mastering your discipline. Nothing
can replace putting in the hours (at least,
until our world becomes like The Matrix and you
can download ju-jitsu directly into your brain).
Nonetheless, creativity can augment your learning in many
different ways.
How to Apply
Creativity to Your Course Work
So what does a creative approach to studying look like
day-to-day?
Well, that depends on the type of work. In general, the
creative approach is best when you need
to create new information, devise a novel solution, or
retain a large number of complex facts.
Of course, creative thinking works well for “obviously”
creative projects that involve writing,
drawing, dance, painting, or
music-making, but it also applies in less obvious areas.
For instance, creative thinking is highly valuable when
working on a math problem
without a straightforward solution (or multiple
solutions). I can’t claim to know much about math (certainly not at the college
level), so I’ll defer to Kai Brunkalla, a professor of mathematics
at Walsh University.In his paper “How to Increase Mathematical Creativity –
An Experiment”
Brunkalla argues that creativity is involved in the
following three areas of mathematics:
Abstraction – “The
creativity of abstraction concerns the creation of models
that reflect the real world and can be solved with
mathematical tools known to the individual.”
Connection
– “The creativity of connection is the realization that known
mathematical tools
can be applied to new problems, allowing problems to be
viewed in a new way.
Connections are also made when mathematical and other
knowledge come together
to understand and solve problems from a variety of
areas.”
Research
– “The creativity of researching is the discovery of new mathematical
tools
that fit unsolved problems and add to the available tools
for other users of mathematics.”
Additionally, creative approaches are very powerful for
memorizing large volumes of information. Specific methods include mnemonics and
the method of loci.
I’ll explore each in detail below to give you an idea of
what’s possible.
Mnemonics
You’re probably familiar with mnemonics already. A mnemonic is
simply “a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that
assists in remembering something.” Really, they can be anything.
A classic
example is using “H.O.M.E.S” to remember the names of the Great Lakes:
Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Eerie
Superior
But mnemonics can also include stories and bizarre
images. For instance, in his book
Why Spanish Is Easy, polyglot Benny
Lewis describes how he used mnemonics to quickly memorize Spanish
vocabulary. To memorize the Spanish verb “caber” (“to fit” in English), Benny
came up with an image of a bear trying to fit into a taxi cab. Associations
like this are so absurd
that you’re
guaranteed to remember the word’s meaning.
As you can imagine, mnemonics are useful in dozens of
fields. With the right amount of creativity,
you can devise a mnemonic to help
you remember almost anything.
Method of Loci
Mnemonics are great for most kinds of memorizing you’ll
need to do for school.
Sometimes, though, you need to remember an
absolutely absurd amount of information.
Think all the muscles in the human body or the
capital cities of every country in the world.
If this is the case, then the method of loci may
be the approach you need.
Technically, the method of loci is a mnemonic device.
It just takes
things a bit further than your standard verbal mnemonics.
To use the method of loci, you first take an environment
that you’re very familiar with.
It could be anything, though I’d recommend using your
childhood home,
since that’s likely to be well-established in your
memory.
Each location in the environment becomes a “locus,” a
place associated with a specific category
of thing. Within each locus, you then imagine ordinary
objects and associate them
with the information you need to remember.
Taking our example of the capital cities of every country
in the world, you would first need to decide how to divide the countries to
correspond with the locations in your environment.
The details will depend on your situation, but I might,
for instance,
decide that each room in my house is a geographic region
or continent.
From there, I could associate the country and capital
with specific objects.
So my kitchen might represent Eastern Europe, and within
that I might associate Budapest, Hungary, with my kitchen sink.
All throughout, this process requires large amounts of
creative thinking.
Consider how superior this process is to just rote memorization
or even to flash card techniques.
I’m just scratching the surface of creative memory
techniques, so if you’re curious to learn more
I suggest starting with the Wikipedia article on mnemonics or
checking out the book
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer.
How to Practice
Being Creative Outside of School
As I said in the beginning of the article, creativity is
a skill that you can learn and practice.
But how exactly do you practice it? Sure, you can
always adopt creative approaches
to new course work, but if you don’t want to risk your
grades
there are plenty of other ways to practice being
creative.
In addition, these are all great stress relievers and
many of them can help you make new friends.
Here are a few ways I’d suggest practicing creativity
outside of the classroom:
Fine art –
Painting, drawing, sculpting, or even salt! This is one of the most
obvious choices,
but that doesn’t stop it from being an excellent way to
develop creativity.
Word games –
Scrabble and Bananagrams are my favorites. Divergent thinking at
its finest.
Journaling –
This one is so helpful, I even wrote a whole post about it.
You could also start your own blog.
Music –
Write your own songs, even if they suck.
As a bonus, songs can also be powerful mnemonics.
Physical movement –
There’s not a lot of creativity in weightlifting or running, but activities
such as dance, rock climbing, and skating blend
creativity, skill building, and physical exercise.
A win in so many areas.
Drama –
Especially improv. I guarantee your college has at least one improv group.
If there isn’t one, then start your own!
Drama is also a great way to improve your public
speaking abilities.
Give yourself
constraints – This one is a bit more general, but according
to James Clear,
constraints are essential to fostering creativity.
For instance, try thinking of how many words you can
create with a limited number of letters.
Paint a picture with just one color. Learn to write with
your non-dominant hand.
Build things –
This could be something old school such as woodworking or a newer activity
like programming Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Skills like
this look great on a resume.
Entrepreneurship –
Starting your own business requires creativity at every stage.
And these are just a few ideas to get you started. I’ve
no doubt you’ll find dozens more on your own.
Conclusion
There’s no manual for being creative. It’s an inexact
process that science
still struggles to measure. But the benefits of
creativity both in college and beyond are undeniable.
I hope this post has given you some ideas for bringing
more creativity to your studies.
https://collegeinfogeek.com/cultivate-creativity/
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