For a course in creativity that I am taking, I was able to read the classic article by JP Guilford that he presented to the American Psychological Association in 1950. In it he laments the paucity of research into creativity (which hasn’t changed too much), and outlines areas for future research. He also has some interesting statements about what he thinks the future of our schools and society will be like, and I think he nailed it on the head! He predicted in many ways the problems or opportunities that we are facing in our current society and educational systems. This made me laugh, and then despair to think that we’ve known about these things for 50 years and still haven’t made the adequate changes in our research and practice. <\/p>\n
For example, I enjoyed this quote especially, from page 448 when Guilford worries about the consequences of "thinking machines" (computers) which would bring on a new "industrial revolution." About this, Guilford said, <\/p>\n
"There are several implications in these possibilities that bear upon the importance of creative thinking. In the first place, it would be necessary to develop an economic order in which sufficient employment and wage earning would still be available. This would require creative thinking of an unusual order and speed. In the second place, eventually about the only economic value of brains left would be in the creative thinking of which they are capable" (p. 448).<\/p>\n
This is a significantly profound statement to have come in 1950! Almost 60 years later, it seems we are only beginning to understand what it means to have ubiquitous computing in our society. As Guilford predicted, it has begun to establish a new economic order. Yes, jobs are still available, but as he described, the jobs have moved from areas of production to areas of creation. In fact, our age is being called the Information Age to distinguish it from the previous Industrial Age. In the Information Age, it is no longer critical to be a master of information and to "know" a lot of things because the information is freely available on the Internet. For example, real estate brokers and car salesmen used to make their profits from knowing more about the real value of cars and homes than consumers. But now, information on the true cost of cars and homes is easy to find on the Web. <\/p>\n
Because of this trend, what is becoming valued in today’s society is often creativity and problem solving, or the creation of physical or conceptual artifacts that bear economic value. This modern emphasis on creativity\u2014evidenced by a 68.3% increase in the level of patent applications from 1996-2001\u2014has led our emerging society to be called the "creative economy" (Banahan, 2004). In fact, Ogunleye, 2006, explained that creative skills, according to the Construction Industry Training Board, are key requisite skills in the workplace and are critical to job and business success.<\/p>\n
I think Guilford was exactly right. In some professions–not all of them yet–the economic value of the employees is in the creativity they have, because information and even skills are cheap and easy to find. If this is true, and I believe it is, it is a terrible misjustice that our schools still emphasize rote learning of information and practice of skills while so little time is spent learning how to be creative. <\/p>\n
Another quote from Guilford’s 1950 article showed his keen foresight into future problems. On page 447, he wrote about the difficulty of objective, multiple-choice testing. He is not against this kind of testing in its rightful place, but he worries that it moves researchers and leaders away from some kinds of learning that are not easy to represent on such a test. In his article, he argues that "the quest for easily objectifiable testing and scoring has directed us away from the attempt to measure some of the most precious qualities of individuals and hence ignore those qualities." In his article, he is discussing how standardized tests ignore creative qualities, but his statement is true of many others of the most important kinds of learning. Now, nearly 60 years later, we are still gripped by the trap of standardized testing! I, like Guilford, appreciate testing for what it can do, but what Guilford said back in 1950 is very true: Our quest for objective, scientifically based evidence has led us to ignore the most important kinds of learning, such as creativity, problem solving, collaboration, social\/emotional development, and higher order thinking. <\/p>\n
This is my big worry for educational systems: That the push for accountability is leading us to teach and research less about the kinds of learning that we need most in our modern creative society. I DO support accountability, but we need to continue to search for effective ways of being accountable for our teaching and leading in ALL of the important areas of learning.<\/p>\n
References<\/strong> Guilford, J. P. (1950). Creativity research: Past, present, and future. American Psychologist, 5: 444-454.\u00a0 (The page numbers I quote in this article are approximate as I was using a scanned in reproduced copy of this article in a collection of some kind–a teacher handout). <\/p>\n Ogunleye, J. (2006). A review and analysis of assessment objectives of academic and vocational qualifications in English further education, with particular reference to creativity. Journal of Education & Work, 19(1), 95-104.<\/p>\n Tags: creativity<\/a>, information age<\/a>, creative society<\/a>, psychology<\/a>, education research<\/a>, NCLB<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n
Banahan, E., & Playfoot, J. (2004). Socio-organisational challenges in the creative economy. In L. M. Camarinha-Matos & H. Afsarmanesh (Eds.), Collaborative networked organizations: A research agenda for emerging business models. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.<\/p>\n