The Science of Creativity

How do you teach students how to be creative? In this episode, you'll learn what research has to say about teaching for creativity. The surprising message is that we need to completely change the way we think about teaching and learning. We need to teach creative knowledge instead of shallow knowledge. We need to move from instructionist methods to a new pedagogy called guided improvisation. This episode is for every teacher, not just the art teachers, because in today's world, students need to be prepared to be creative in everything they do. After all, people are creative in specific subjects and disciplines and art forms. How can we change the way we teach in every subject, so that students learn the kind of knowledge that prepares them to be creative in that subject? This episode shows you how to create a Creative Classroom.

Chapters

(0:00) The Need for Creativity

(1:00) Two Questions

(2:49) Instructionism

(9:18) Creative Knowledge

(13:41) Bloom's Pyramid

(18:08) Domain Specificity

(21:08) Guided Improvisation

(25:40) Open-Ended Problems

(38:51) The Take-Home Message

(43:19) Fostering Creativity

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

For more information:

The Creative Classroom by Keith Sawyer. Published in 2019 by Teachers College Press.

Music by license from Soundstripe:

• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "At The Get Down" by Matt Wigton
• "Uptown Lovers" by AFTERNOONZ
• "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Toy Story is one of the best loved movies of all time. Released in 1995, it was the first fully digitally animated feature film. The Toy Story creation story is filled with surprising twists and turns. This episode reveals the secrets behind the movie, the paths not taken, the characters and events that never made it into the final movie. The initial script treatment was almost nothing like the movie we know and love. This episode tells you the backstory of Toy Story. None of your favorite characters was in the original script! When we look at how Toy Story was created, from start to finish, we see the essence of creativity. We see an improvisational, exploratory process. This episode shows you how you can use these lessons to enhance your own personal creativity.

Chapters:

(0:00) Welcome

(00:25) Introduction

(00:50) Pixar's Challenge

(3:54) The Plot

(9:10) The Surprises

(18:18) The Improvisational Path

(28:08) The Lessons

(29:25) Outro

References:

David Price, The Pixar Touch

Keith Sawyer, "The Zig Zag Path to Toy Story"

Music by license from Soundstripe.com:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

I do not hold the copyright to the Toy Story movie audio excerpts in this episode nor the episode cover art. The rights to the cover art and the audio clips remain with the original rightsholders. They are reproduced here under fair use.

Monopoly is the bestselling boardgame of all time. In this episode you'll learn how Monopoly was invented. Until the truth came out, in the 1970s, we used to believe that a man named Charles Darrow created the game in 1934 in a burst of genius. But some dedicated sleuths discovered the real invention story. It's a fascinating story about the power of collaboration and social networks. You'll hear about the battle against Capitalism, the Supreme Court, Quakers, a political campaign—this story has it all! Monopoly emerged over a 30-year period, with creative contributions by hundreds of people. Each person contributed a small spark of creativity along the way. The story of Monopoly demonstrates the power of collaboration to drive creativity.

(0:00) The Myth

(00:26) Introduction

(00:51) The Success

(1:57) Anti-Monopoly

(4:49) Charles Darrow

(9:01) The Single Tax

(10:23) The Quakers

(13:39) Professors and Fraternities

(15:06) Atlantic City

(18:10) The Supreme Court

(20:02) The Collaborative Web

(23:55) Closer

(24:22) Outro

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

SOURCES:

• Keith Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
• Ralph Anspach, The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle
• Philip Orbanes, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game and How It Got that Way
• Mary Pilon, "How a fight over a boardgame monopolized an economist's life." Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2009
• Gavin Edwards, "Overlooked no more: Lizzie Magie, the unknown inventor behind Monopoly." New York Times
• Tim Walsh, Timeless toys: Classic toys and the playmakers who created them

Music by license from Soundstripe (in order of appearance):

• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "Uptown Lovers" by AFTERNOONZ
• "At The Get Down" by Matt Wigton
• "What's The Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich