Teaching for Creativity: Where There's a Will, There's a Way

By Mary Murdock and Susan Keller-Mathers*

* Originally published in Celebrate Creativity Newsletter of the Creativity Division of the National Association for Gifted Children, 2002, 13(2), pp. 3-4, 10-12.

Copyright 2002 by Mary Murdock and Susan Keller-Mathers.

Author's Note: Teaching for creativity is a challenging and rewarding endeavor whether one does it on occasion or as a full time occupation. In our case, we do it for a living, fulltime, all the time. So you might say that we have a high interest in theories, models, tools or techniques that really work. In our use of the Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) over the last fifteen years at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY, we have used the TIM extensively in our own class designs and in actual teaching with adults whose backgrounds range from education to organizations. What our students report (and we ourselves confirm) is that "It works!" We are happy to share some basics of the model with Creativity Division members who may face the same challenges in encouraging the teaching and learning of creativity in the classroom.

What Is The Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) and How Does It Work?

The Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) for creative learning and teaching is one of the few models in the domain of creativity whose major purpose is the design and delivery of creativity content. Although its original purpose is to provide a model for integrating creativity content into other disciplines or content areas, it can be used either separately or within another discipline. Effective use of the model presupposes a "skill base" of pertinent concepts that are basic and necessary to teach as creativity content (see additional article in this issue). Thus, using the TIM requires a clear understanding of the distinctions between the creative process of using the model itself and the creativity content it seeks to deliver. In fact, these dynamics between content and process form the unique metacognitive framework that makes the model so effective in integrating creativity into other content areas (Murdock, 1993).

Background and Research On the Torrance Incubation Model

According to a Torrance, the concept for the incubation model goes back as far as his work in mental health in 1949 when he wanted to motivate teachers in his classes at Kansas State. He noted that "For a long time I had been bothered that courses in psychology and education had such little impact upon what happened in classrooms. I knew that something had to be done to arouse and motivate teachers and keep them thinking about their insights" (Torrance and Safter, 1990 p. v).

But was not until 1966, when he served as creativity consultant for the Ginn Reading 360 Program, that the model began to take shape. It first appeared in the journal literature as an instructional model in 1979 in the now-classic incubation issue of the Journal of Creative Behavior. Several early studies documented the engagement and ongoing motivation of students with the Ginn material (Clymer, T. et. al, 1969; 1976; Plooster, 1972), and interest continues in classroom applications from elementary to higher education (Weiner, 1985) and even in training designs (Garas, in preparation).

Torrance noted in 1990 that the model was challenging and "deceptively simple," and our own experience with it over the years in bears this out in practice. We have used the model in higher education for over 15 years to design and deliver classes and training for adults. In one particular class we have consistently taught it to adult students (not all of whom were teachers) and required them to use it to design and deliver creativity content to others. Feedback and formal evaluations for the course consistently support both the model's efficacy and the students' depth of learning from it. But using the TIM, as Torrance noted early on, requires training and a level of understanding about basic creativity skills.

The Basic TIM Model: Three Stages, Cognitive Strategies and A Delivery System

The Torrance Incubation Model has three basic stages, and each stage has a set of cognitive strategies within it. The premise is that for creative learning to occur, and in particular for creativity thinking to continue, there must be some deliberate activities before, during and after instructional situations. The before, during and after approach is common to many models, but Torrance's deliberate use of cognitive strategies in each stage forms a basic delivery system for a creativity skill base that fully operationalizes how and what creativity skills can be deliberately taught, regardless of the content in which they might reside. (Murdock, 1985; 1999). This metacognitive aspect makes it particularly powerful for practicing complex thinking and problem solving.

The three stages are (1) Heighten- Heightening ing Anticipation Anticipation; (2) Deepening Expectations; and (3) Extending Learning Learning. Each stage is designed to promote a particular function in regard to learning and incubation. Torrance noted, however, that "Although incubation usually occurs in the third phase, the first and second stages are necessary for it to happen" (Torracne & Safter, 1990, p. x). The stages are most often depicted in a 3- dimensional model (Weiner, 1985, Torrance and Safter, 1990), but the strategies are not presumed to be linear. In practice the model is iterative or recursive, moving in a spiral as the momentum builds. A key to making the TIM's design and results effective is flexibility. It is a "given" in this model that one thing must be allowed to lead to another. Teachers or trainers should not presume to have all the answers, but be willing to not only allow, but encourage discovery from learners and themselves.

Stage 1: Heightening Anticipation

Heightening Anticipation consists of six strategies that are designed to guide teachers or trainers to motivate and engage learners in a creative way. In stage one the teacher or the trainer attempts to do six things: (a) Create The Desire To Know Know; (b) Heighten Anticipation and Expectation Expectation; (c) Get Attention; (d) Arouse Curiosity Curiosity; (e) Tickle The Imagination Imagination; and (f) Give Purpose and Motivation Motivation. The first five may be used in any combination with the last one which is designed to "prepare learners to make connections between what they are expected to learn and something meaningful in their lives" (Torrance & Safter, 1990, p.7). The key to setting up the learning situation in Stage I is to engage the learner and connect this deliberate psychological state of readiness to pertinent content.

Stage 2: Deepening Expectations

The purpose of Deepening Expectations is to sustain the motivation created by the warming up strategies and then to use that motivation to encourage deeper exploration of a topic. Accomplishing this requires alternating between anticipatory and participatory learning strategies.

To accomplish this, Deepening Expectations provides choices of eight cognitive strategies represented in the model by the following metaphors: (a) Digging Deeper (diagnosing difficulties, integrating information, synthesizing, elaborating); (b) Looking Twice (deferring judgment, keeping open, searching for new information, evaluating); (c) Listening for Smells (making use of the senses); (d) Crossing out Mistakes or Talking/Listening to a Cat (understanding your feelings in response to information; making guesses; checking, correcting, modifying, refining, diverging); (e) Cutting Holes to See Through (summarizing, getting the essence, simplifying, discarding, targeting/focusing); (f) Cutting Corners (summarizing, getting the essence, simplifying, discarding, targeting/focusing); (g) Getting in Deep Water (searching for unanswered questions, dealing with taboos, confronting the unimaginable, being overwhelmed by complexity, becoming absorbed or unaware); and (h) Getting Out of Locked Doors (solving the unsolvable, going beyond more and better of the same, opening up new vistas).

These strategies are not intended to be linear, but combinations of any or all of them result in behaviors and thinking that go beyond the basics and require higher level thinking and processing. The discovery and exploration which are characteristic of the participatory nature of this stage are intense and sometimes uncomfortable. Tolerance for ambiguity is essential for both the teacher and the learner.

Stage 3: Keeping It Going

The emphasis on participation continues in Keeping It Going, and, again, participation alternates with anticipation, only this time the anticipation is related to connections and uses. Playfulness is also central. The result of this continued alternation is that the model cycles around toward warming up to the new things that will be connected, but now the warm-up effect is much more intense. This recursive movement is unique to the TIM, and perhaps most closely parallels the iterative function of the Creative Problem Solving process as Parnes originally described it.

The connecting function is accomplished by using the six strategies/ metaphors represented in Keeping It Going which, although not linear, are powerful in their combination. They describe an intense focus on activities that promote continued creative learning strongly enough to keep learners engaged and active long after the formal 'lesson' is over.

These metaphors encourage the behaviors of (a) Having a Ball (have fun; use humor and laughter); (b) Singing in One's Own Key (give information personal meaning; relate to personal experience); (c) Building Sandcastles (imagine, fantasize search for the ideal); (d) Plugging in the Sun (work hard; find and use available resources); and (e) Shaking Hands with Tomorrow (relate to future image, that which is desired or envisioned, but has not occurred yet).

Using the Torrance Incubation Model

Torrance's initial lesson design is simple and deliberate. When used to integrate creativity into content , there are two sets of objectives'one for the content topic or skills and one for the creativity skill to be taught. (Note: we recommend that you select only one or two creativity skills to actually teach with the content so that there can be focus and practice on them in the same way that you would develop and practice other content).

Getting Started

To get started with the TIM, we suggest reworking a lesson that you like and have already used so that you can spend your time concentrating on the creativity aspects and how to integrate them with ease.

• After deciding on the content piece, pick a creativity skill that either (1) compliments the content or (2) contrasts with it. The model will work with either- you will just get different results. Your own attitude will be key- keep open, explore and engage your own creativity to build the design- and remember- it's ok to make mistakes (just cross them out as the model suggests!).
• Use the lesson format and craft your content objectives and creativity objectives; be deliberate in naming what you want to happen in each; write both down and be ready to share both sets of objectives with the students so THEY will know what to focus on.
• Continue with the dual format to design activities for Warming Up, Deepening Expectations, and Keeping it Going; design activities that will work BOTH skills at the same time.
• Revise, modify adjust as needed to meet the objectives.
• Get ready to test YOUR creative hypothesis about the lesson by trying it out; be willing to keep open and to allow things to develop with the students; welcome surprises and adjustments. In other words, Plug in the Sun and Have a Ball...

References and Additional Readings

Clymer, T., et.al. (1969). Reading 360 program. Lexington, MA: Ginn.

Clymer, T., et.al. (1976). Reading 720 program. Lexington, MA: Ginn.

Ginn. Garas, T. M. (in preparation). Teaching the CPS process using humor and the Incubation Model of Thinking. Upublished Masters project. Buffalo, NY: Buffalo State College.

Murdock, M. C. (1993; revised, 1999). Incubation model overview (instructional handout). Athens, GA: Torrance Center Summer Institute; Buffalo, NY: Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo, NY.

Murdock, M. C. (1985; revised 1999). Lessons from practice: Some intriguing characteristics of the Torrance Incubation Model (instructional handout). Buffalo, NY: Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo NY.

Murdock, M. C. & Keller-Mathers, S. (2001). Time is on your side: Integrating creativity with other content areas (cassette recording ). Master Class presentation for the National Association of Gifted Children's Annual Conference. Cincinnati, OH.

Plooster, B. (1972). Pilot reading program (Ginn 360). Creative Teacher, 4(3), 4-5.

Safter, H. T. (1994). Getting beyond aha! The incubation model of teaching. Think, 4(3), 10-13.

Starko, A. (2001). Creativity in the classroom: Schools of curious delight (pp. 156-158). Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum.

Torrance, E. P. (1993). Experience in developing technology for creative education. In S. G. Isaksen, M. C. Murdock, R. L. Firestien, & D. J. Treffinger. (Eds.). Understanding and Recognizing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (pp. 158- 201). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Torrance, E. P. (1979a). An instructional model for enhancing incubation. Journal of Creative Behavior, 13(1), 23-35.

Torrance, E. P. (1979b). The search for satori and creativity. Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.

Torrance, E. P. & Safter, H. T. (1990). Incubation model of teaching: Getting beyond the aha. Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.

Torrance, E. P. & Safter, H. T. (1999). Making the creative leap beyond. Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation.

Weiner, D. A. (1985). Instructional units for integrating academic and creativity: Methods and materials in gifted education. Louisville, KY: University of Louisville.