Teaching the Content of Creativity Using the Torrance Incubation Model: Eyes Wide Open to the Possibilities of Learning

By Susan Keller-Mathers and Mary Murdock*

* Originally published in Celebrate Creativity Newsletter of the Creativity Division of the National Association for Gifted Children, 2002, 13(2), pp. 3-4, 7-9.

Copyright 2002 by Susan Keller-Mathers and Mary Murdock.

It is a goal of education to stretch students beyond their current thinking to view the world in diverse ways. Every day teachers strive to go far beyond imparting knowledge and open students' eyes to a broad spectrum of knowledge and opportunities. New perspectives and a deeper understanding of learning are essential for growth. Yet how often do we purposefully focus, even for a short while, on a particular skill that teaches students to improve their ability to formulate diverse perspectives? By deliberately focusing on the creativity skill of Look at it Another Way, students can practice and gain insights into looking beyond an initial perspective to more easily see multiple perspectives.

Two lessons are included below. The first lesson uses the Torrance Incubation Model's (TIM) approach to teach the creativity skill of Look at it Another Way. The second lesson integrates the creativity skill of Looking at It Another Way into a subject matter lesson using the TIM. Objectives are developed for both the content (such as the social studies subject matter in the second lesson) and the creativity skill you are teaching (such as the Look at it Another Way skill used in both lessons). Since the first lesson focuses on a creativity skill as the content of the lesson, therefore, you'll notice that the Content Objective and the Creativity Objective are the same.

Each of the two lessons begins with a warming up or heightening anticipation. The purpose of Warming Up prior to or at the beginning of the lesson is to heighten anticipation and expectations. Through warming up, a desire to know, to find out or to understand begins to occur.

The second stage of the Incubation Model lesson is called Deepening Expectations. During this stage, students engage in activities that help them to (1) heighten awareness of the problem or challenge; (2) accept limitations and improve with what is available; (3) engage in creative problem solving; (4) use deliberate elaboration; (5) deal with incomplete information and requires them to fill in gaps; (6) maintain open-endedness; (7) deal with the unpredictable or predict from limited information; (8) acquire new skills; or (9) consider surprises.

The last stage of the Incubation model is Extending the Learning where you attempt to connect information to personal meaning and usefulness. In this stage you facilitate incubation and continued thinking by encouraging students to (1) play with ambiguity; dream or imagine; (2) acknowledge their own uniqueness in thinking and action; (3) look for relationships and connections to their lives and future work or actions; (4) go beyond the obvious; (5) find appropriate sources or information; (6) have fun; or (7) experiment; and diverge.

Look At It Another Way Lesson

Content AND Creativity Objective

1. to identify and practice the key characteristics of Look At It An- Another other Way by examining different perspectives
2. to promote incubation through the deliberate use of the three stages and strategies of the TIM.

Materials: kaleidoscopes, multiple examples of half of eight, pictures that can be viewed in more than one way (e.g. two faces/vase, old woman/young woman).

Warming Up

To get attention and heighten anticipation, have the room arranged in a different way before students come in (e.g. reverse back to front). To arouse curiosity about what is going to happen, have small kaleidoscopes out on every desk.

To provide focus and motivation, use the kaleidoscopes to encourage playfulness, and then begin a discussion about the characteristics and results of looking at things differently. Have students view the room through a kaleidoscope and describe what they see. Ask them How do things look different? What do you notice that you didn't see before? Discuss how familiar things begin to look different through the kaleidoscope.

Continue the warming up practice by showing a picture that can be viewed in more than one way (for example, the old woman/young woman perception drawing). Ask students: What do you see? What else do you see? Who sees something different? How were you able to switch from one view to another? Was it easy or hard?

Deepening Expectations

To make the transition into deepening expectations while sustaining motivation, begin a discussion on the various responses that are common when asked What is half of eight? Then ask students to dig deeper into this question and consider answers that require a different perspective. If you were playing a game of pool, for example, half of eight might represent half of the number eight ball. If you considered fractions, you might answer 4/8th. If you examined the question from the perspectives of the months of the year, the answer might be April. Have students draw, write or state many perspectives to answer this question. Encourage surprising angles and uncommon views. Discuss how in viewing this differently you've taken something that's familiar (half of eight is four) and made it strange by considering the various ways one might answer this question.

Extending the Learning

To facilitate incubation and continued thinking, encourage students to keep their kaleidoscopes with them for the rest of the day and to take them out at least three times to look around and remind themselves to look at things differently. Ask students to stop and consider a different perspective to situations or concerns that arise throughout the day. Continue students' thinking through a journaling activity where they observe, discuss or reflect on looking at things differently by "making the strange familiar and making the familiar strange."

Using the Torrance Incubation Model for a Social Studies Lesson

Content Topic Topic: Constitutional Rights

Content Objective Objective: To examine the rationale for each right included in the Bill of Rights

Creativity Skill Skill: Look at It Another Way Creativity Skill Objective To stretch students' thinking to look from unexpected angles and consider different points of view

Warming Up:

To get attention and heighten anticipation, show students several CD covers such as those from the artist EmanEm that represent music that might be considered controversial. Discuss opinions on banning some music. Ask students to look at it another way by taking the opposite view and defend that view. Discuss the multiple perspectives that emerged, and encourage students to stretch to consider unique perspectives.

Deepening Expectations:

Introduce the material on the Bill of Rights; deepen expectations by discussing the right of "Freedom of Speech" and provide examples of why this right was included in the Bill of Rights

Divide students into teams and have each team research and report on examples of why each of the rights was included in the Bill of Rights.

Encourage different viewpoints by asking students to examine each right in the Bill of Rights from multiple perspectives. Give each group a role to play (e.g. student club, governor of state, new immigrant from another country) and ask them to explain why that right is important from their perspective (e.g. right to bear arms from the perspective of a sport hunter; right of free speech from the perspective of a newspaper editor). Debrief the role play and summarize key learnings from the activity.

Extending the Learning:

To keep the thinking going, pass around various shoes of different sizes and shapes and discuss how each group took a different perspective. Discuss how "walking in other people's shoes" can give us a new perspective. Ask students to deliberately put themselves in "another's shoes" and examine one of the rights we have as Americans from a different person's perspective. Have students report the issue they focused on and the different perspective they considered. Student might also interview several people who are diverse in their perspective regarding their opinion on an issue pertaining to a certain right.