Faculty Perceptions of College Creativity Courses

If you were going to teach a college-level course in creativity, would you be interested in what other instructors believe about such courses? Would you like to know their views about planned outcomes, evaluation and course content? These are some of the areas addressed in this report. The study orginated discussions at the First National Conference on Creativity in American Colleges and Universities.¹ The conference was promoted by the work of McDonough and McDonough (1987),² and was held in July of 1990 at the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center of the Northwood Institute in Midland, Michigan. It was an exciting opportunity for university-level teachers of creativity to get together and talk. To facilitate discussions, most participants brought with them copies of their course syllabi. Much of the ensuing discussion centered around the purposes of creativity courses, appropriate course experiences, required products, and the evaluation of student participation and learning. While the diversity of opinion of those present soon become clear, many participants were left questioning if the opinions heard and syllabi offered at this conference were representative of what was being done nationally. The present study is born from that question.     

Teaching Creativity at the College Level: A Synthesis of Curricular Components Perceived as Important by Instructors

The purpose of this study was to describe the components of creativity courses taught at the college level and the perceived importance of the components to teaching creativity. Teachers of college-level creativity courses were asked to rate the degree to which curricular variables were considered important to the teaching of creativity. The instrument was developed from a content analysis of college creativity syllabi and other course artifacts. Results are discussed in terms of five dimensions for teaching creativity: social climate, personality characteristics, general theories and models, processes involved, and product variables related to end results.     

Against Creativity

Creativity is typically defined as a disposition to produce valuable ideas. We argue that this is a mistake and defend a new definition of creativity in terms of the imagination. It follows that creativity has instrumental value at most and then only in the right circumstances. We consider the role of tradition and judgment in worthwhile creativity and argue that there is frequently a tension between greater creativity and the production of value.     

Depressive Thought Content Among Female College Students With Bulimia

The author used a rationalistic cognitive approach to identify typical thought content among female college students with bulimia. The study compared overall depression scores on the Beck Depression Inventoy between women with bulimia and women in a control group and examined differences in specific depression items. Results indicated that women with bulimia are more depressed than are controls and have distorted thoughts regarding body image, self-blame, somatic preoccupation, guilt, and suicidal ideation. By emphasizing competition, perfection, motivation, and attractiveness, the college environment may exacerbate distorted thinking, thus indirectly contributing to the development and maintenance of bulimia. A treatment approach focusing on cognition is proposed.     

大学生创造性4C认知及其与大五人格的关系

为探讨大学生创造性4C认知现状及其与大五人格之间的关系,采用创造性4C认知量表和大五人格中文简化版量表调查了2272名大学生。结果发现:(1)大学生创造性4C认知得分从高到低的顺序是大C、微C、专C/小C、无C,大学生能区分各种类型的创造性。(2)专业对大学生创造性4C认知有一定影响。(3)创造性4C认知与大五人格各维度之间有一定程度相关,其中开放性能正向预测大C与微C,责任心能正向预测专C/小C与微C。     

呼吁在大学中推进科普教育

从1979年开始在全国范围内展开的一场科学和迷信的大辩论,是我国实践“科教兴国“战略,迈进现代社会所不可缺少的基础性环节.在这场斗争中披着科学及传统文化外衣的迷信思潮,蒙骗了许多人,邪教及准邪教就乘机兴风作浪,损国害民,破坏安定团结,起到仇视我国进步、发展的国内外敌人所起不到的作用.“法轮功“现象就是其代表.……     

Education and Creativity

ABSTRACT: The hypothesis that the effects of positive and negative mood on creative problem solving may differ as a consequence of the degree of constraint on the solution space of the task was tested. Sixty-eight participants were divided into positive mood, negative mood, and control conditions. Mood was experimentally induced by showing selected film clips, and performance on four different idea production tasks was recorded across a time interval of 4 min for each task. Results showed a significant mood-production time interaction. Positive mood led to the highest number of scores in early idea production and the lowest number in late production, whereas both control and negative mood led to relatively superior task performance in late production. Alternative interpretations of the results are discussed, and suggestions for further studies are offered.