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Enhancing Creativity
Through Story-Telling
Innovative Training
Programs for
School Settings
Edited by
Alessandro Antonietti
Paola Pizzingrilli · Chiara Valenti
Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture
Series Editors
Vlad Petre Glăveanu
Department of Psychology and Counselling
Webster University Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Brady Wagoner
Communication and Psychology
Aalborg University
Aalborg, Denmark
Both creativity and culture are areas that have experienced a rapid
growth in interest in recent years. Moreover, there is a growing interest
today in understanding creativity as a socio-cultural phenomenon and
culture as a transformative, dynamic process. Creativity has traditionally
been considered an exceptional quality that only a few people (truly)
possess, a cognitive or personality trait ‘residing’ inside the mind of the
creative individual. Conversely, culture has often been seen as ‘outside’
the person and described as a set of ‘things’ such as norms, beliefs,
values, objects, and so on. The current literature shows a trend towards
a different understanding, which recognises the psycho-socio-cultural
nature of creative expression and the creative quality of appropriating and
participating in culture. Our new, interdisciplinary series Palgrave Studies
in Creativity and Culture intends to advance our knowledge of both
creativity and cultural studies from the forefront of theory and research
within the emerging cultural psychology of creativity, and the intersection
between psychology, anthropology, sociology, education, business, and
cultural studies. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture is accepting
proposals for monographs, Palgrave Pivots and edited collections that
bring together creativity and culture. The series has a broader focus than
simply the cultural approach to creativity, and is unified by a basic set of
premises about creativity and cultural phenomena.
Enhancing Creativity
Through Story-Telling
Innovative Training Programs for School Settings
Editors
Alessandro Antonietti Paola Pizzingrilli
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
Catholic University of the Sacred Catholic University of the Sacred
Heart Heart
Milan, Italy Milan, Italy
Chiara Valenti
Department of Psychology
Catholic University of the Sacred
Heart
Milan, Italy
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
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Preface
Since the 50s of the past century, the need to promote creativity in people
has been stressed and many attempts have been made to devise methods,
techniques and procedures to enhance individual and group creativity and
to test the efficacy of such approaches. Educating creativity became one
of the most salient goals of school instruction. The interest towards the
possibility to foster creativity grew up further and nowadays it is still one
of the eminent topics in education. Why is it still important to try to
stimulate creativity?
It is argued that habitual behaviours and thoughts may not be appro-
priate in a world that changes rapidly and where people have to face new
challenges almost on a daily base. New answers to new questions must
be rapidly found. These responses are expected to be faster and more
adequate from creative individuals. Flexibility and imagination should be
the qualities of the leaders of tomorrow. Hence, schools and companies
are expected to prepare young people to develop those skills. Moreover,
creativity seems to be particularly necessary in times of crisis. Because of
the absence of traditional resources and opportunities, escape routes—
which so far were not prefigured—are needed. Thus, it is hoped that
someone may devise new paths, produce new discoveries, identify new
strategies which can open unexpected horizons and allow persons to face
difficulties and impasses, even where no way out can apparently be seen.
A second set of reasons that justify the attention that schools should pay
to creativity is as follows. Often parents, teachers and principals complain
v
vi PREFACE
those disorders (and also the representation that parents and educa-
tors have of the students in question) by leading them to recognise
that, despite the deficits associated to the disorder, they have some
potentialities. Further, it is possible to engage them in creative activ-
ities, where they should excel, to motivate them. Rehabilitation activ-
ities can become more interesting for them if presented in a creative
way as well. Cultivating the creative aptitude of these students can
result also in providing them strategies they can apply to address school
works in non-standard manners, which match the way they process
stimuli and reason, so to circumvent the difficulties produced by the
disorder.
Two main approaches can be followed in order to lead people to
learn to be creative (Parnes & Harding, 1972). The first approach orig-
inates from suggestions provided by active pedagogies and, more specif-
ically, by the learning-through-discovery movement. The main purpose
is to arrange learning settings to induce individuals to express personal
ideas, to freely imagine unusual situations, to look for new and not
obvious solutions to problems. Usually no specific materials are devised
for these aims; Educators are generally invited to modify traditional ways
of managing learning activities by paying attention to their attitudes and
communication styles, so to create a climate which facilitates learners’
expressivity and ideational fluency (Barron, 1968). The second approach
consists in employing sets of exercises useful for stimulating creative ways
of thinking. For instance, learners are asked to devise several manners to
use a given tool, to figure out possible ends of an uncompleted tale and to
find alternative linguistic expressions for the situations described. Funny
games, curious experiments and practical trials are employed to stimu-
late creativity, sometimes through the manipulation of concrete materials,
graphical signs and visual patterns.
Six main questionable assumptions seem to be shared by many of the
past attempt to enhance people’s creativity:
having no ideas or opinions about creative strategies and are not able
to control them. All this has to be “imprinted” into their allegedly
“empty” minds.
3. Even though trainees are instructed with non-ecologically valid
materials (such as puzzles, riddles and so on), the training
programmes can succeed in prompting the subsequent spontaneous
transfer of creative strategies to everyday situations.
4. The development of creative thinking can be induced by simply
asking trainees to perform a specific mental operation a given
number of times. In other words, getting some practice in executing
an operation should be sufficient to allow people to learn it.
5. Creativity is only a matter of cognitive processes. Therefore, trainees
must be taught only to activate particular kinds of cognitive oper-
ations, without any reference to the complex interaction of these
operations with other cognitive processes, emotion, motivation and
the context.
6. Creativity can be promoted as a general ability, without making
reference to specific domains.
The final message that can be drawn from recent investigations is that
a particular learning environment is needed and that creativity requires
a global involvement of individuals, who should be taught to manage
by themselves the mental mechanisms that promote creativity (Gardner,
1991).
In the present books some training programmes devised to enhance
creativity in children and adolescents are described. They are grounded
on a tradition in which attention to the educational aspects of creativity
has been paid (Antonietti & Cornoldi, 2006) and have been designed
in accordance with the assumptions mentioned before and, even if they
were elaborated in different periods and in different circumstances, they
all share the same general theoretical approach. The description of each
training programme includes examples of the materials and activities
included in the programme. In some cases the training programmes have
been also tested in experimental studies, whose findings are summarised
in the book.
PREFACE xi
In the first chapter the theoretical model at the basis of the training
programmes which are reported in the book is explained. The model
tries to synthesise the main theoretical positions about creative thinking
in order to define a coherent framework to be applied in education. Three
general mental operations seem to rely on the basis of creativity: Widening
(W), Connecting (C) and Reorganising (R). W concerns the tendency to
keep an open mind and to deal with a great number of elements. C refers
to the capacity to establish relationships among different elements and
to combine them in unusual ways. R consists of changing the perspec-
tive and inverting relationships among elements. The model of creativity
resulting from the integration of W, C and R is described by reporting
several examples coming from everyday life and from cases of innovation
in the field of arts, science and technology.
In the second chapter two training programmes aimed at increasing the
creative skills inspired to the WCR model and targeting the youngest chil-
dren are described. The first training programme is addressed to kinder-
garten children and to children attending the first years of the primary
school. It is based on a set of short stories whose protagonists are common
objects which can be found at home. The second training programme
is addressed to children attending the last years of the primary school
and consists of four tales. Each tale is framed in a different scenario and
it is divided in episodes corresponding to work units. In both training
programmes activities (verbal, pictorial/graphic and practical) aimed at
developing creative skills are included in some points of the narration.
In the third chapter a structured training programme—addressed to
children aged 4–8 years—consisting of an interactive story in which it
must be discovered why a volcano is extinct is illustrated. In the story
some tutors accompany children in search of the secret of the volcano.
During such a search children meet characters who personify psycho-
logical features which obstacle creativity. Children have to overwhelm
the non-creative aspects of the situations they encounter and to adopt
a productive and innovative perspective. The training programme was
designed to induce children to learn a set of creative strategies and to
stimulate metacognitive skills. It also tries to encourage autonomy in the
management of thinking strategies. Furthermore, the critical situations
where children are trained have obvious counterparts in common life.
Finally, the application of a given thinking technique is linked to the
development of the corresponding attitude. The program has been tested
in two studies involving, respectively, 300 4 to 6-year olds and 900 4
xii PREFACE
to 8-year olds. There was evidence that classes engaged in the program
resulted in a significant higher test-retest increase of the creativity scores
as compared to control classes. Besides these quantitative results, teachers
who applied the training programme reported modifications of children’s
behaviour and attitudes in other school tasks.
The fourth chapter is about a more recent training programme
designed to be implemented in primary and secondary school (a distinct
version is available for each school level). Each version includes two
different kinds of training: the metacognitive approach and the symbolic-
imaginative approach. Both approaches have the same narrative plot, but
they present two different styles: It is more structured in the metacogni-
tive approach and more provocative in the symbolic-imaginative approach.
The episodes of the training programme are about some students who
have to deal with situations of both scholastic and personal life. The main
characters present some stereotypical features that help students to iden-
tify themselves with them. Furthermore, each character shows resources
and limits. The focus is on positive and negative aspects that every
person/situation has. Each training activity included in the story is not
separated from the curriculum, but actually it refers to some scholastic-
related contents that can be dealt by the teacher in the class. With refer-
ence to the first approach, the aim is to develop a metacognitive-reflexive
attitude in students so to help them to generate self-awareness acts and
remarks about different aspects of their mental functioning. Self-awareness
acts can be produced in three different temporal moments: before an
action, during it or at the end of it. These acts are about different aspects:
strategies, resources, difficulties, processes and individual/personal expe-
rience. The three creative operations of the WCR model are empow-
ered with activities put on three different levels: modelling (a model is
presented; It can motivate, invite to the personal assimilation, suggest
transformation prompts), research (a problem-solving request is proposed
that stimulates individuals to find unconventional answers) and inter-
rogation (the generation and the discovery of questions is stimulated).
Each episode of the training presents, in some points, different activi-
ties focused on a creative operation. After each activity, some metacog-
nitive stimuli are presented: They invite to reflect on previous activities,
on observed difficulties, on the possibility to improve the process. The
symbolic-imaginative approach is less structured than the metacognitive
one. In this case, there are not activities to be carried out, but the narra-
tion is interrupted by “evocative stimuli” in some points. They provide
PREFACE xiii
References
Antonietti, A. (1997). Unlocking creativity. Educational Leadership, 54 (6), 73–
75.
Antonietti, A., Colombo, B., & Memmert, D. (Eds.) (2013). Psychology of
creativity: Advances in theory, research and application. Hauppauge, NY: Nova
Science Publishers.
Antonietti, A., & Cornoldi, C. (2006). Creativity in Italy. In J. Kaufman & R.
J. Sternberg (Eds.), International handbook of creativity (pp. 124–166). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Barron, F. (1968). Creativity and personal freedom. Princeton: Van Nostrand.
Cancer, A., & Antonietti, A. (2019). Creativity and dyslexia: Theoretical insights
and empirical evidence supporting a possible link. In S. Kreitler (Ed.),
New frontiers in creativity (pp. 125–148). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science
Publishers.
xiv PREFACE
Cancer, A., Manzoli, S., & Antonietti, A. (2016). The alleged link between
creativity and dyslexia: Identifying the specific process in which dyslexic
students excel. Cogent Psychology, 3, article 1190309, 1–13. 10.1080/233
11908.2016.1190309.
Gardner, H. (1991). To open minds. New York: Basic Books.
Manzoli, S., & Antonietti, A. (2016). Gli studenti con dislessia sono creativi?
Uno studio nella scuola secondaria di primo grado. Psicologia Clinica dello
Sviluppo, 20, 121–134.
Osborn, A. F. (1957). Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative
thinking. New York: Scribner.
Parnes, S. J., & Harding, H. F. (Eds.) (1972). A source book for creative thinking.
New York: Scribner.
Contents
xv
xvi CONTENTS
Index 97
Notes on Contributors
xvii
xviii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
xix
xx LIST OF FIGURES
xxi
CHAPTER 1
A. Antonietti · P. Pizzingrilli
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy
e-mail: alessandro.antonietti@unicatt.it
P. Pizzingrilli
e-mail: paola.pizzingrilli@unicatt.it
B. Colombo (B)
Champlain College, Burlington, VT, USA
e-mail: bcolombo@champlain.edu
examples coming from everyday life and from cases of innovation in the
field of arts, science and technology.
1.2 Widening
The first mechanism that we see operating in creative thinking consists
of coming out from the limited conceptual framework within which
people spontaneously pigeonhole situations and breaking all the “thinking
bonds” that often restrain them. To produce something new and original,
it is important to move in a wider mental field that will mobilise ideas and
lead to new directions of thinking, helping to find new opportunities and
new meanings.
A good example is related to marketing. For decades, manufacturers
of tennis rackets were bound to a standard shape and size, when actu-
ally no regulation prevented the use of different rackets. Breaking this
implicit constraint, the owner of a sporting goods company successfully
launched onto the market the “big racket”, a tennis racket with a wider
6 A. ANTONIETTI ET AL.
than usual tailpiece. A tennis racket with this shape and this size offers
several advantages over traditional rackets: First, beginners are more likely
to intercept the ball; Second, a larger tailpiece allows tennis players to give
more strength to the shot; Finally, the effects of the return stroke on the
elbow ligaments are lower. The designer of this “big racket” expanded the
field of mind, acknowledging that tools with better and different features
could be produced.
This link between creativity and breadth of the mind field within
which people move can be found in early childhood. For example, when
faced with disconnected data, individuals enact categorisation strategies
in order to gather more data within the same class. In such situations
it is possible to stress individual differences. On the one hand, there are
those (broad categorisers) who tend to form broad categories; On the
other hand there are those (narrow categorisers) who tend to make a lot
of subtle discriminations among data and gather them under the same
class only on the basis of close similarities. A positive correlation between
broad categorisation and creativity has been proven. In fact, broad cate-
gorisers—as happens with creative individuals—are prepared to process
large amounts of information, not based—as happens with narrow cate-
gorisers—on well-structured principles, and proceed by changing their
own thought patterns and integrating new ideas in a quickly changing
mental organisation (Wallach & Kogan, 1965).
A situation similar to that previously described and likely to bring out
individual differences in “style” of thought is made up of a task of concep-
tualisation in which, faced with fifty images of everyday objects, people
have to group them into classes and justify their choices. In this task
subjects may adopt different criteria. There is, first of all, who classifies
objects on the basis of analytical-descriptive criteria, that is, based on phys-
ical characteristics and perceptual aspects. Then there are those who sort
objects based on categorical-inferential criteria, that is, based on the fact
that certain objects are all examples of a given concept (for example,
the objects “fork”, “glass” and “cup” are grouped into as members of
the category “dish”). Finally, there are those who divide the objects on
the basis of relational-thematic criteria, inserting objects into broad cate-
gories (for example, the objects “comb”, “clock”, “port” and “lipstick”
are grouped as representatives of the concept “ready to go out”) (Kogan,
1974). It is observed that individuals with high intelligence and low
creativity prefer the categorical-inferential criteria and shun the thematic
1 THE MECHANISMS OF CREATIVE THINKING 7
1.3 Connecting
We consider now the second creative mechanism, namely, the mental
operation which leads one to link together apparently disparate realities.
Why do unusual associations support creativity?
Sometimes not trivial or bizarre associations have led scientists and
artists to mature brilliant insights. For example, Wilhelm Röntgen, while
investigating the properties of cathode rays, discovered, almost by chance,
that, on a screen near the table on which he was conducting his
experiments, a green luminescence was produced. He associated this
phenomenon to the rays he was studying and, carrying out specific
experiments in this new direction, discovered the existence of X-rays.
Similarly, Alexander Fleming, while studying cultures of bacteria, noticed
that one of these cultures, carelessly exposed to air, had been destroyed.
He associated the exposure to the death of the bacteria—two factors with
apparently nothing in common—and came, on the basis of this insight, to
the discovery of penicillin. Darwin reported that the insight that led him
to develop the theory of evolution was prompted by the reading of an
essay of demography and economics written by Malthus and from having
established a connection between the dynamics governing the growth of
human populations and those of the animal world.
These cases of scientific findings suggest that establishing a link
between aspects of reality that we usually separate can lead to identifying
useful hidden similarities. This is also true of technical discoveries. For
example, Leonardo da Vinci designed a system to automatically move a
rotisserie, establishing a connection between the instrument itself and an
environmental element that had nothing to do with it. When we cook
a dish stuck on the spit over the fire, it produces smoke. Would it not
be possible to establish a link between smoke and spit? If the smoke is
conveyed in a hood at the end of which is placed a windmill, the smoke,
going up, will set it in motion. Such bloodstream motion of the whirlwind
can be transmitted, with appropriate couplings, to rotate the spit without
any human intervention. In a similar way, Henry Ford was able to reduce
the production cost of the Model T, an innovative car that was launched
on the market, demanding that the goods supplied to the factories were
packed in boxes of a defined size and with the screw holes made in specific
8 A. ANTONIETTI ET AL.
locations. The walls of the boxes were actually used, being designed with
the right dimensions, as the floors of the cars that were built in the factory.
The ingenious idea was to establish a relationship between two elements
usually conceived as distinct: packaging material and the product inside
the package.
A particular case of combination is analogy, which consists in transfer-
ring what is known in a familiar domain to a different, possibly new or
unfamiliar, domain. Analogies suggested discoveries and inventions. For
example, technologies for the operation of radar devices were inspired
by the mechanism of emission and reception of ultrasound by bats. The
current research aimed at improving the systems for humidification of the
passenger compartments of cars are inspired by studies on the anatomical
structure of the nose of the camel. To design a roof that was white to
repel heat in summer and dark in winter to absorb heat, the behaviour
of the scales of a fish in particular situations suggested a stratagem to
achieve this. The flounder, when swimming in the water, takes on the
colour of the surrounding environment. This happens thanks to the
chromatophores, vesicles of dark pigment that is retained when pressure
exerted on the skin of the animal is not high (as happens when the fish is
near the surface of the water) and is released when the pressure is high (as
happens when the fish swims deep), so allowing the fish to be indistin-
guible from its surroundings. This phenomenon suggested the idea of
building a roof completely covered with black plastic small white spheres.
These beads were dilated with the heat making the roof lighter, while the
cold would be restricted, making the roof darker.
Also the ability to combine ideas thanks to analogies is connected to
cognitive style. Field-independence, as shown by investigating individual
differences in analogical reasoning (Antonietti & Gioletta, 1995), is one
of the personality traits related to the connecting phase of problem solving
by analogy: Mapping the solution strategy embedded in a familiar situa-
tion onto a novel problem, so as to integrate two different frameworks,
is more likely to occur in field-independent than in field-dependent indi-
viduals. Consistently, creativity can be increased by stimulating people to
look beyond the immediate cognitive field and to perceive the opportu-
nities which are at hand in other fields. In fact, training students to make
analogies is a successful way to enhance creativity (Antonietti, 2001).
1 THE MECHANISMS OF CREATIVE THINKING 9
1.4 Reorganising
If we were asked to determine the volume of a ball, we could use our
school memories trying to recall the formula to calculate the volume of
the sphere. But if we were required to determine the volume of an irreg-
ular solid (e.g. a small rock), there would be no formula or past experience
that could help us. Instead, we might think to immerse the rock in a grad-
uated jug, partially filled with water, and measure the resulting increase
in the level of the liquid. The increase corresponds to the volume of the
dipped rock. In this case the success is caused by setting the problem
in different terms: not related to formulas, but as a practical-operational
problem. Assuming a new perspective allows us to find an original and
effective response. Another example: If I want to help a depressed friend,
rather than following the obvious path and trying to comfort him, I could
reverse the relationship, pretending to be the one needing help. Reversing
the roles—in order to help my friend, the one in need, I ask him to help
me—can, in some circumstances, lead to solution.
Also a historical case can be relevant, particularly relating to the Thirty
Years’ War. The Spanish army had defeated the French and was spreading
out into French territory, destroying villages and raging on the popula-
tion. A small village received the news of the arrival of the Spanish army
and people gathered to decide what they could do to defend themselves.
It was clear that trying to oppose the enemy troops with barricades would
be futile, given the disproportion between the number of attackers and
the villagers. Hence, the men of the village decided to do just the oppo-
site of what people would expect: Rather than trying to resist the enemy
and defend their home and family, they escaped, leaving in the village only
children and women. This reversal of attitude—to leave their loved ones
and their properties rather than defend them—proved to be a winning
solution. When the Spanish army reached the village, they entered it
without a fight. If the soldiers had fought, they would then have had
the “right” to persecute the losers, but since they not have “earned” the
looting right, according to their military code they would had been men
without honour if they used violence without having to fight for this right.
Hence, the Spanish army passed over, respecting the people and proper-
ties in the village. As a more recent case, we can remind that during the
Second World War, when Nazi occupied Denmark, they wanted to impose
the obligation in that country for Jews to wear the armband with the Star
of David. The Danish king did not agree, but he had no power to oppose
10 A. ANTONIETTI ET AL.
this law. Forced, he signed the requirement to bring this despicable badge
of distinction, but he first began to wear the armband. In this case, it was
impossible for him to do what he wanted to do (not signing the edict).
Thus, he made the opposite. The king, instead of opposing to what the
German occupiers forced him, conformed more than was required. In
doing so, he found a decent way out of a situation that looked like a dead
end. He expressed his opposition against the measure and his solidarity
with the Jewish population and thus emptied it of its meaning as a symbol
of disgrace. In fact, if the king was wearing the armband—the population
thought—it was not so humiliating to wear it.
Perspective reversal is a mechanism that we find at the basis of another
of Leonardo’s inventions. For example, the conception of the cochlea,
a tool designed to bring water from one level to the next, involves the
mental operation we are discussing. The main aim of this instrument is to
bring water upwards; But, to do that, it operates in the opposite direction,
actually going down. The spiral wrapped around the rotating cone, “pen-
etrates” the water tank placed in the lower level. Part of the water enters
the first segment of the spiral. The rotary motion leads this segment at
the top and the water contained in it falls down into the next loop, which,
with the next rotation, finds itself at the top and so the water, lap after
lap, reaches the exit at the top.
The restructuring act appears to be the core of what De Bono (1967)
calls lateral thinking . Lateral thinking is opposed to vertical thinking.
The latter consists in the application of rigid reasoning patterns related to
consolidated habits, routines and previous experience. It is characterised
by sequential and systematic processing procedures in which the various
steps are connected one another on the basis of logical links. Vertical
thinking may be associated to the image of the ascent of a staircase (where
each step rests on the previous one) or to the construction of a tower by
means of the superposition of many cubes. In contrast, lateral thinking
moves from one pattern of reasoning to another one and induces people
to look at problems in new ways, to follow directions not explored previ-
ously and not usually considered to overcome the obstacles, to examine
all alternative forms of reasoning. On other occasions De Bono has desig-
nated lateral thinking by using expressions such PO thinking (PO comes
from suppPOse, POssible, hyPOthesise, words that suggest exploration
and search) as opposed to the YES-NO thinking (logical thinking, crit-
ical and dogmatic) (De Bono, 1972, 1973), the water-logic (based on
1 THE MECHANISMS OF CREATIVE THINKING 11
second case imagery would help the subject to mentally manipulate the
elements of the situation, encouraging the design of the structure of the
situation and allowing a smooth and rapid transformation of the elements.
With more specific reference to creativity, reorganisation is facilitated by
images which are sensitive to structural symmetries and organisations. The
images allow individuals to transform data so that the changes which are
to be produced in reality can be simulated more flexibly in mind. Finally,
images allow people to reorganise the way in which one represents a situ-
ation so that it can be reconsidered more productive. In short, the mental
representation of information in visual form work can facilitate reorganisa-
tion by providing a pictorial support to abstract concepts, keeping various
elements of the situation simultaneously present within a single scenario,
encouraging a comprehensive view of the situation, supporting the iden-
tification of relationships between data. In short, mental imagery would
promote creative thinking since it is a kind of representation which is very
flexible and easily transformable (Antonietti, 1991).
1.5 Conclusions
The present chapter proposed an integrated view of creativity by high-
lighting that three main mental operations—Widening, Combining and
Reorganising—can be meant as the core mechanisms of creative thinking.
The WCR model can be meant as a basis to devise instruments to assess
creativity skills. Such tools are useful in educational settings to evaluate
students’ creativity levels and possible increases depending on age and/or
instructions.
The WCR model was also conceived as a framework to devise inter-
ventions to train creative thinking. It is possible to design training
programmes which stimulate mental dynamics in students that favour the
emergence of streams of thought which are rich, varied and original and
to provide teachers and educators precise suggestions about the manner
in which this can be done.
Research showed that an “open” style of interaction is not always the
best option to promote the development of the cognitive components of
creativity. Instead, structured activities specifically aimed at this goal are
needed. In order for them to be successful, the structured nature of such
programmes requires part of the activities to be run in a “steering” way.
Hence, a conduction marked by excessive freedom and acceptance—such
1 THE MECHANISMS OF CREATIVE THINKING 13
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14 A. ANTONIETTI ET AL.
“Enough, enough, stop it! You can’t go on in this way. But you don’t
understand that only together, each one in its place, you can be fine and
I can still work? [reference to activity 4] If you don’t end your quarrels, I
will be thrown away and you with me”.
The numbers were immediately silent and they realised that the phone
was right: There was not one number more important than another
among them, but each was useful as it was and where it was. They imme-
diately made up and each number quickly returned to its place [reference
to activity 5].
The red telephone started working again as before and to this day its
numbers always get along and they never dream of changing their order
[reference to activity 6].
ACTIVITY 1
(a) The teacher draws some objects resulting from the combination
of geometric shapes on the blackboard and asks the children to
draw other objects resulting from a different combination of these
shapes. An example is shown in Fig. 2.1 [Involved Operation:
COM ].
(b) A slightly more difficult version of the previous exercise occurs with
non-geometric shapes, such as those shown in Fig. 2.2 [Involved
Operation: COM ].
(c) Finally, the composition of parts is suggested in situations where,
unlike in the previous cases, there is only one possible answer.
These tests stimulate creativity because they help subjects to over-
come the tendency to make the most “natural” combinations in
favour of combinations that contravene symmetry or involve an
inversion of the setting of the problem [Involved operation: COM ].
ACTIVITY 2
The children are asked the following questions: “If you wanted to
change the ‘place’ like the numbers in the story, who, what and where
would you like to be?” Children make a drawing about it [Involved
operation: PRO].
ACTIVITY 3
The teacher recalls the moment in the story when the quarrel of
numbers creates a great deal of confusion. He/She asks the children to
think of other situations where a change in order or position produces
inconvenience [Involved operation: SIM ].
ACTIVITY 4
Insisting again on the importance of a certain order of elements, the
teacher offers children simple anagrams, whose solutions are perhaps
given by words drawn from history. It can also be interesting to propose
anagrams with multiple solutions (for example, “malb”; solutions: balm,
lamb) [Involved operation: COM ].
ACTIVITY 5
The teacher presents some cartoons and he/she says they are pages
of a book that a mischievous wind has scattered. It is now necessary to
reorder them. Each child can sequence the cartoons as he wishes and
invent a story about it. An example of usable cartoons is given in Fig. 2.4
[Involved operation: COM ].
2 SHORT STORIES FOR HIGH GOALS … 23
*****
*****
*****
Wirpoi, varpoi
Tuoreeks, terveeks',
Netäliks velkapiäks,
Wuueks vapaaks;
Siulle vitsa,
Miulle kakkara.
"Nedjälin" eli viikon perästä tulevat näet onnentoivottajat
virpomispalkkaansa saamaan. Heitä silloin kestitään piirailla y.m.
Wirpavitsat jätetään taloon, jossa niitä onnentuojina säilytetään.
Löytyy toinenkin virpaluku, näin kuuluma:
*****
*****
*****
*****
"A midäbö kuuluv vierahal. Ishtu velli lautshal, pagishe min tiiät."
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