Keynote Speech to be presented by Dr. C. June Maker at Creativity: A Moment of Aha!
DISCOVERing Creativity, Multiple Intelligences, and Problem Solving
Children today are different, and they are being born into a world vastly different from the world that existed even ten years ago. Change is occurring so rapidly that we can no longer simply focus on testing or developing knowledge and isolated skills. We must, instead, teach our children how to use their natural abilities to gather and process information—how to think through issues and solve complex problems. Current research shows that we can identify, support, and expand these natural abilities, allowing a child to use his or her strengths for more effective learning. Educators must provide our children and youth with choices and join with them in creating solutions to the complex problems faced by the increasingly interdependent nations of our world.
In this speech, I will share my experiences using DISCOVER, a unique model for assessing and developing problem solving abilities by recognizing the diversity of gifts and talents in people of all cultures, languages, nations, ages, and environments. Stories about children and teachers, pictures, and results of over ten years of research will be integrated to support this message about the changes we need to make in our educational systems.
DISCOVERing Creativity, Multiple Intelligences, and Problem Solving
Problem Solving
•What Is It?
•Why Is It Important?
•How Does It Relate to Giftedness?
What Is It?
Problem (Definition)…
Webster defines “problem” as“A question or situation that presents doubt, perplexity, or difficulty; a question offered for consideration, discussion, or solution” Webster’s II: New Riverside University Dictionary, P. 937)
A problem is different depending on your perspective, experience, and age.
To a 5-year old, a question that is perplexing or difficult may be:
-How do I get the piece I need to build this thing?
-How do I make this car stand up?
-What piece can I substitute to work this puzzle…?
while an 18-year old is wondering how to eliminate drug use and violence in his school.
An artist may puzzle over how to represent emotions using colors and shapes.
A poet may want to find a particular pattern of words that has just the right rhythm combined with a powerful visual image.
An engineer may want to design a new toy that will capture the attention of children everywhere.
A farmer may want to grow a bigger tomato.
A mother may want to teach her young child how to draw.
A photographer may wish to capture the light and shadows as they move across a canyon.
And a cat may want to catch a bird!
Why Is It Important?
The fact is, we all are excited by perplexity, by challenges. Oh yes, I know we sometimes want life to be “easier”—but if it were, we would surely get bored by it.
--just look at all the problems we’re constantly creating for ourselves!
The world we are living in is becoming more and more complex—and with that complexity come greater challenges and greater potential. If we are going to solve the complex problems we face—as one world—we must no longer teach our children to think the way we do, to know what we know, to solve problems in the ways we believe are best. They have fresh, new minds and fresh, new ideas. They are not bound by the rules we have learned—and they should not be. We must resist the urge to solve their problems for them…
…when we do DISCOVER assessments using the tangram puzzles, the hardest thing for the teachers and observers to learn is not to show students the solutions or work the puzzles for them. We are going to do these later. Watch how you feel and what you do when someone near you is having trouble solving the tangram puzzle.
When we tell children how to resolve their difficulties, make them memorize our ideas, and tell them the right answers to the “problems” we have posed, we contribute to patterns of “learned helplessness”, passive learners, dependent adults stuck behind a television set, homeless in a park, addicted to drugs, or violently angry because no one has ever listened to them.
We need active learners whose minds are engaged in creating new ideas, new products, and new solutions to old problems. We also need physically active learners who are encouraged to explore their world and create their own unique products.
How Does It Relate to Giftedness?
So, you may be thinking…how does all this relate to “giftedness”? I believe that people who are excited and motivated by challenges, perplexity, and difficulties are the ones who are gifted, not the “fact-collectors”, the memorizers, or those who wait to be told what to do.
For the past 13 years, I have had the privilege of watching children and teachers from many cultures, environments, languages, and economic levels. I have watched gifted learners, gifted teachers, and teachers of the gifted. I have interviewed children, teachers, and gifted adults.
One of the most important conclusions I have reached is that the key concept in giftedness is problem solving…and that there are a lot more gifted children than people have previously thought there were.
To me…
(Quote by Dr. Maker) Gifted people are those who can solve the most complex problems in the most efficient, effective, ethical, elegant, or economical ways.
Yes they can solve simple problems…or they can make a simple problem seem complex—or a complex problem seem simple. But for me, the key element is enjoyment of challenge and complexity. And dear colleagues, I don’t believe we can find them with the outdated and outmoded testing instruments widely used today. So here is my challenge: we need new ways to assess students’ abilities and new ways to structure our educational programs.
I am also proposing a solution for you to consider: going back to classic studies by Jacob Getzels and Mihalyi Czsikszentmihalyi, let’s review their framework for looking at problem situations.
Types of Problem Solving Situations (chart)
They proposed a simple model with three types of problems, depending on the extent to which the problem, method, and solution are known to the problem solver and the one who is “presenting” the problem. Getzels and Czsikszentmihalyi used problem types I, II, and V in this chart.
Dr. Shirley Schiever and I worked with these types in our research, and decided to add types III and IV to make a more gradual transition from type to type. This framework provides us a way to look at both assessment and teaching to make sure we are developing and testing a wide range of problem solving skills.
The best way to view this framework is as a continuum of problem situations based on their degree of structure—from structured and “well-defined” to unstructured and “ill-defined”.
Type I (and then back to slide 26)
A Type I problem is known to the solver and presenter, has a known method, and has a “correct” or “best” solution known by the presenter, and to be found by the solver. Here is an example from our logical mathematical assessment. (see slide)
Type II (and then back to slide 26)
A Type II problem is known, has a method and solution known to the presenter, but the solver must find the correct method and reach the correct solution. Here is an example from our math assessment. (see slide)
Type III (and then back to slide 26)
A Type III problem is known, has a “range” of possible methods and a “range” of possible solutions—several would be appropriate or correct. Here is an example from our math assessment. (see slide)
Type IV (and then back to slide 26)
A Type IV problem is known; however, the method and solution are “unknown”—that is, the person presenting the problem does not have a correct or best method or solution in mind—the choice is entirely up to the solver. Here is an example from our math assessment. (see slide)
Type V (and then back to slide 26)
Finally, a Type V problem is a “fuzzy” situation from which the solver defines or chooses a problem, invents or chooses a method, and creates a solution. The decision about appropriateness of the solution, and whether it “solves” the problem is determined by the solver. We do not have a Type V problem in our math assessment, but here is an example from the assessment of spatial artistic problem solving: “Make anything you would like to make using as many pieces as you need. You can tell us about it if you want to.
The main characteristic distinguishing Type V from all the others is the element of choice, personalization, individuality—and, I wish to emphasize—these are the types of problems we solve in our careers, our daily lives; problems that are complex, “ill-defined”, with no known methods or easily agreed upon solutions.
Here are some examples of problems identified by us and Chinese high school students in our interactive learning center in 1997, that, by the way, have not yet been solved!
Using this framework, now I would like to point out some attributes of our educational programs.
- All traditional assessments of achievement, intelligence, and academic skills contain only problem Types I and II.
- Traditional assessments of creativity and divergent thinking contain problem types III and IV.
- Performance-based assessments include problem Types I, II, III
- Traditional academic programs focus on problem Types I and II, with some Type III exercises.
- Acceleration, which is usually based on providing the traditional curriculum faster, shares this emphasis on Types I and II, with some Type III experiences.
- Enrichment programs and curricula in most programs for gifted students contain mostly problem Types III and IV, unless the emphasis is on acceleration.
- Programs like future problem solving, problem-based learning, self-directed learning, and project-based learning include a wide range of problem types.
- Qur methods of identifying gifted students and the programs we provide do not match—unless we offer only acceleration, which most will agree should not be the only option. I would argue that programs for gifted students are not appropriate without “enrichment” with real-life problem solving.
- In our work, DISCOVER, we have included all problem types in both the assessment and the curriculum.
Intelligence & Giftedness: Multidimensional & Multifaceted
•Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
•Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
•Characteristics of Gifted Learners
Instead of being unitary and describable by a number, new information and research is showing that intelligence—and giftedness—are multidimensional and multifaceted. DISCOVER is based on two new theories of intelligence:
Multiple Intelligences
(Quote) Howard Gardner
For his theory, Howard Gardner defines human intellectual competence. He says it must entail a set of skills of problem solving enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties…and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems—thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge.
He describes 8 relatively distinct intelligences that we all possess to some degree. All are necessary in all cultures, and all are used in our daily lives.
Linguistic intelligence includes such activities as…reading…writing…and…speaking.
Logical-Mathematical intelligence includes…making graphs…engineering and architecture…weaving…bargaining and many others.
Spatial intelligence includes…visual arts…origami…and activities such as decorating your own body and bodies of other people.
Naturalist intelligence is spatial and logical-mathematical intelligence applied to the natural world or environment along with an interest in and concern for nature. It involves…observation…classification…gardening…and farming.
Interpersonal intelligence involves…relating to people…working together to solve problems…and bargaining and having fun
Intrapersonal intelligence involves…knowing yourself…assessing your own progress toward goals…being able to make models of your thinking (metacognition—thinking about thinking) and making things that show your characteristics, such as Geri’s hat.
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence involves flexibility and exploration…….dancing…using your body to help you work…and using your fine-motor coordination to make beautiful things.
Musical intelligence involves…singing…singing and movement…and playing instruments, both formally and informally.
Many people criticize Gardner’s theory because they say there is no research support for it. I suggest there is much support. People are just looking in the wrong ways and wrong places. New research on the human brain shows that we have diverse abilities, and that the number and quality of the connections in our brains are a direct result of rich, varied sensory experiences.
Ronald Kotulak, summarizing his interviews with the top researchers across the United States says the brain gobbles up its external environment in bits and chunks through its sensory system: vision, hearing, touch, and taste. Then the digested world is reassembled in the form of trillions of connections between brain cells that are constantly growing or dying, becoming stronger or weaker, depending on the richness of the banquet.
We can make an analogy to eating—if you eat only potatoes, you really won’t be physically healthy—if you only read and don’t see visual images, hear and play music, move your body and use your kinesthetic sense, interact with people or nature—you won’t be mentally healthy.
Psychologists and psychometricians often criticize Gardner’s theory because they don’t find totally separate abilities—language, math, and other scores are correlated. I believe that as long as we continue to use paper-and-pencil tests or tests that are language-based, we will continue to achieve the same results. Perhaps the real “g” factor is the pencil and paper factor, not general intelligence.
J.P. Guilford, who identified nearly 200 human abilities, had to “partial out” a factor that seemed to me to be “verbal comprehension” because all his tasks involved assessment through the “filter” of language.
Triarchic Theory
– Analytical
–Creative
–Practical
Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory also is based on the concept of problem solving, but he divides it differently. He postulates three “main types” or aspects, along with several different thinking styles. I am most interested in…
Analytical
Creative
Practical
Demonstration of Characteristics of Gifted Learners
(puzzles are handed out)
Each of you received a puzzle page and a page with tangrams you can punch out. Please punch them out and solve the puzzle as quickly as you can. When you have solved it correctly, you should see a red line, but no white. You may not need all your pieces, but you should cover all the white.
Notice the problem solving strategies you use and how you are thinking about the task.
(people are given time to work the puzzles)
Time is up. I have given you 8 minutes to work on the puzzle. That is the maximum time taken by Navajo students who completed the puzzle—when they were age 14.
Strategies of Superior Problem Solvers
Spatial
Completes a puzzle(s) without physically manipulating pieces (e.g. chooses shapes without turning)
- Takes all pieces off puzzle without prompting
- Completes puzzle before any other group member
- Completes puzzle in less time (minutes) than any other group member
Logical Mathematical
Takes apart individual puzzles, when necessary, without prompting
- Makes puzzles in more than one way
- Solves complex problems quickly
- Completes puzzle in less time (minutes) than any other group member
Intrapersonal
Enjoys solving problems or completing constructions (e.g. smiles, sighs, claps, plays with construction)
Strategies of Superior Problem Solvers (continued)
General
•Makes own product(s) rather than copying product(s) of others
•Shows involvement in task (e.g. focuses on own work rather than that of others, not easily distracted)
•Follows through to completion
•Continuously works (e.g. on constructions, stories, puzzles)
•Persists on tasks that are difficult for him/her
•Solves problems quickly
•Shows non-verbal enjoyment of task (smiling, laughing, playing)
These are the behaviors most frequently noted by observers in the students who receive the highest ratings during the DISCOVER assessment of spatial analytical problem solving abilities. The more of these you demonstrated, the more likely you are to have high abilities in this intelligence.
As you can see, the task requires abilities in four different areas: spatial, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, and general.
Others can be observed, but these are the ones most frequently seen in those who demonstrate superior performance. If you are not a superior problem solver in this task, you have four other chances to demonstrate your abilities
Assessment of Problem Solving: The DISCOVER Model
• What is the assessment?
• How was it developed?
• How is it done?
• What research has been done to determine
•…reliability?
•…validity?
E.What results have been achieved?
What Is the Assessment?
DISCOVER is…
• Performance-based
• Intelligence-fair
• Standardized
• Criterion-referenced
• Future Oriented
• Problem Solving in Multiple Domains
Problem Solving in Multiple Domains
The intelligences assessed by DISCOVER are…
• Spatial Artistic
• Spatial Analytical
• Logical Mathematical
• Oral Linguistic
• Written Linguistic
• Interpersonal
How Is It Done?
DISCOVER is conducted in the regular classroom in the languages spoken by the students. The classroom teacher gives the directions and bilingual observers or interpreters give directions in other languages as needed. Certified observers sit at tables with small groups of students, encouraging them, making notes, and watching how they solve problems