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Whether you get mesmerised by Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night or Albert Einstein's theories about spacetime, you'll probably agree that both pieces of work are products of mindblowing creativity. Imagination is what propels us forward as a species - it expands our worlds and brings us new ideas, inventions and discoveries.

But why do we seem to differ so dramatically in our ability to imagine? And can you train yourself to become more imaginative? Science has come up with some answers, based on three different but interlinked types of imagination.
Creative imagination
" Creative imagination " is what we normally consider to be creativity with a large C - composing an opera or discovering something groundbreaking. This is different from everyday creativity, such as coming up with imaginative solutions to household problems or making crafts.

Creative inspiration is notoriously elusive. Being able to train creativity or induce a state of creativity has therefore long been the aim of many artists and scientists.

But is it possible? We know that some individuals have a more creative personality than others. Yet research has suggested that creative imagination can also be boosted through our environment or simply putting in lots of hard work. For example, experimental studies have shown that when children engage with creative content or watch others be highly creative, they become more creative themselves.

There are two phases to creative imagination. "Divergent thinking" is the ability to think of a wide variety of ideas, all somehow connected to a main problem or topic. It tends to be supported by intuitive thinking, which is fast and automatic. You then need "convergent thinking" to help you evaluate the ideas for usefulness within the main problem or topic. This process is supported by analytical thinking - which is slow and deliberate - allowing us to select the right idea.

So if you want to write that masterpiece, having lots of brainstorming sessions with friends or taking a course in creative thinking or writing may help you come up with new ideas.

However, that doesn't necessarily help you select a good one. For that, research suggests that the first requirement is actually exposure and experience. The longer you have worked and thought in a field and learned about a matter - and importantly, dared to make many mistakes - the better you are at intuitively coming up with ideas and analytically selecting the right one.

Creative success is therefore not so much about finding a muse. As microbiologist Louis Pasteur said: "Fortune favours the prepared mind." This also applies to art, with Pablo Picasso advising: "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."
Fantastical imagination
For many people, the ability to become completely absorbed by an idea is key to finalising a successful, creative project. For that you need something scientists call "fantastical imagination", probably best predicted by your fantasy proneness and imaginative immersion. These describe your tendency to have highly vivid and realistic fantasies and level of absorption in imaginary worlds.

However, given that fantastical imagination can increase daydreaming and distract from everyday obligations, it may not seem like a desirable ability to have, at first glance. There's even a dark side - one's fantastical imagination tends to increase as a response to traumatic events by becoming an escape from reality.

But there are benefits. Fantasy engagement in children is associated with increased creative imagination, narrative ability, and perspective taking. For adults, it may help improve memory consolidation, creative problem-solving and planning.

This is also an ability you can boost. Research shows that children who were encouraged by their parents to participate in pretence play and role playing have higher levels of fantasy proneness later in life. And it's never too late to start - amateur actors are known to have higher fantastical imagination too.
Episodic imagination
"Episodic imagination" is similar to fantastical imagination but predominantly makes use of real (episodic) memory details rather than imaginary (semantic) details when visualising events in our mind's eye.

This helps individuals to better imagine alternative pasts and learn from their mistakes, or imagine their futures and prepare for them. The little research that has been done on this so far indicates that individuals with a higher capacity for visual imagery experience more sensory details when imagining their future.

Moreover, though years of self-improvement books suggest to "imagine it and it will happen", this is actually the opposite of what you should be doing. The best preparation for the future is paradoxically to imagine the process - not the outcome - of your desired future event. One study showed that when students imagined desired outcomes (good grades for an upcoming test) they performed significantly worse than students who imagined the process getting to the desired outcomes (imagining studying thoroughly). Perhaps something to keep in mind for your New Year's resolutions?

We all have imaginative ability to various degrees, and it's difficult to imagine where humankind would be without it. So even though you are yet to actually write that novel you've got in you somewhere, keep trying. There are many routes to boost creativity, with play, practice, and experience being crucial. It may even make you smarter.

As Einstein himself reportedly once said: "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."
Valerie van Mulukom is a Research Associate in Psychology at Coventry University. This article was originally published on The Conversation on January 3, 2018. Read the original article.

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The secret to creativity - according to science

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Whether you get mesmerised by Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night or Albert Einstein's theories about spacetime, you'll probably agree that both pieces of work are products of mindblowing creativity. Imagination is what propels us forward as a species - it expands our worlds and brings us new ideas, inventions and discoveries.

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What doctors can learn from looking at art.

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What doctors can learn from looking at art.

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"The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632" by Rembrandt van Rijn, Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands Credit... Getty Images/Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

By

It was a welcome change to find my eyes glued not to the endlessly frustrating loop of the Krebs cycle, but instead to a portrait of 19th-century aristocrats in top hats and ball gowns. The afternoon, spent at a museum of British art, wasn't a stolen escape from medical school. It was a required class.

I stared at the painting, carefully studying each face. I took note of the intensity of a woman's deep blue eyes, the streaks of gray in a man's bushy sideburns. I noted details the way I had previously only pretended to when strolling through museums with more sophisticated friends. For the first time, I didn't just look - I saw.

Then, in small groups, we described what we'd seen with our fellow medical students. The purpose was to help us become more thoughtful and meticulous observers - a skill, perhaps more than any other, that lays the foundation for good medicine.

In the coming months, the class's lessons would creep up on me at unexpected moments during patient rounds: noting asymmetry on an old man's face; describing angry purple blisters to a colleague; considering the shadowy contours of pneumonia on an X-ray. A picture was indeed worth a thousand words, I thought - and in my case, those were medical words I still struggled to spell, memorize and pronounce.

Therein lies the significance of learning through art: It is subtle and indirect, yet it ingrains insights deep within your consciousness. You feel and know even before you can think or speak.

Medical schools are increasingly using art to teach medicine. One of the first classes was started by Dr. Irwin Braverman, a professor of dermatology at Yale. Dr. Braverman noted that doctors in training often didn't completely and accurately describe what they saw - instead jumping to conclusions or relying on technology to make a diagnosis. He thought asking students to describe something nonmedical, like art, might help them collect and relay visual information. His intuition was correct: Students who took his course were 10 percent more likely to pick up on important details in their patients.

This finding caught the eye of other medical educators, including Dr. Joel Katz at Harvard. Dr. Katz, a graphic designer-turned-physician and director of the internal medicine residency program at Brigham and Women's Hospital, co-created a nine-week course in 2003 called Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis for first- and second-year medical students. Students meet weekly with curators at museums throughout Boston to study concepts ranging from symmetry and texture to form and motion. Then they apply those insights while examining patients in the classroom.

In one session, students study a limestone sculpture that appears different when viewed from various angles. They then observe the breathing patterns of patients with respiratory illnesses in different positions to determine if the problem lies in the muscles, spine, lungs or somewhere else altogether. In another session, students scrutinize John Singer Sargent's "El Jaleo," a large painting that portrays a dancer in motion. Afterward, they examine patients with gait issues and assess their balance, stance and step. Students who took the course made 38 percent more observations on visual skills examinations of patients than those who didn't.

"Very early in clinical training, students stop trusting their physical exam skills," Dr. Katz said. "They get labs and radiology to replace the exam. We're trying to teach them to trust their vision, to look carefully before making judgments."

Dozens of medical schools now have art programs through which they teach students not only observational skills, but also about ambiguity. Grappling with uncertainty is an essential part of practicing medicine. Even seemingly straightforward conditions like heart attacks, strokes or pneumonia often present in unusual ways that lead to misdiagnosis. Studying art can help medical students think broadly and entertain various possibilities before settling on a final interpretation.

"Ambiguity is inherent in art and in medicine," Dr. Katz said. "In both, we have to avoid prematurely narrowing our thinking."

Art can also help doctors understand how patients are feeling and what they might be going through. Research has found that medical students who study art are better able to interpret the emotional expressions on patients' faces.

"There's a lot of ambiguity in the human face," said Ivana Viani, a medical student at Harvard who took the Training the Eye course. "There are so many nuanced expressions that often we don't notice."

For Ms. Viani, the class also taught her the importance of completing the picture: putting a patient's illness into a broader context by examining not only the main character, but also the scene.

"In class, we do exercises where we're not allowed to look at the center of a painting," Ms. Viani said. "When you examine the periphery, it's amazing how much detail you see. Now when I walk into a patient room, I look around. Do I see cigarettes popping out of her purse? Does she have greeting cards and flowers? Or is she alone?"

This broader perspective may be the most valuable aspect of art in medicine. In an era of proton beams and immunotherapies, art can help doctors hit the pause button - and refocus our attention on the patient. It reminds us that while medicine and technology prolong life, beauty and meaning make life worth living. And that in the end, we all just want to be seen.

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What Doctors Can Learn From Looking at Art

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By It was a welcome change to find my eyes glued not to the endlessly frustrating loop of the Krebs cycle, but instead to a portrait of 19th-century aristocrats in top hats and ball gowns. The afternoon, spent at a museum of British art, wasn't a stolen escape from medical school.

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Can studying art help medical students become better doctors?

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Can studying art help medical students become better doctors?

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It's become more evident over the past few decades that medical school admission committees are thinking more "outside the box" in terms of identifying and selecting specific skills that may define an "ideal" candidate for medical school.

Previous experience with critical thinking in the sciences (left brain) has been a common theme for perceived success in medicine. Sprinkled with these important traits and skills, it turns out that the value of a humanities background, emphasizing more "right brain" characteristics (including imagery, poetry and drawing) may actually hold greater value in the eyes of some experts.

Being accepted into medical school used to mean selecting time-honored disciplines such as biology or chemistry, taking a more traditional route as a "pre-med" to gain entrance. The goal was to be the most prepared for the onslaught of biochemistry, pharmacology, anatomy and science-related material that has traditionally permeated the first several years of medical school, prior to the transition to formal clerkships.

In the past two decades, however, with the advent of the problem based learning promoted through Harvard Medical School, along with an earlier exposure to seeing patients in various electives, the traditional pre-med student that admission committees use to seek out has begun to change.

As medical schools have become more innovative, and as their approach to training medical students has evolved--as evidenced by new and progressive schools such as the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University -having a strictly science-related background may not be the only way to increase the probability of gaining entrance.

Dr. Salvatore Mangione, Associate Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, and a master of artistic expression and physical diagnosis feels that such alternative artistic and visual skills may enhance the ability of a student to excel in medical school and become a successful physician in practice. Dr. Mangione also serves as Director of the Physical Diagnosis Course as well as the History of Medicine Course at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University.

In his view, medical students with a more diverse background, which could include artistic and visual skills may potentially hold an edge in today's selection process.

It seems that students with more "right brain" qualities--related to imagery, visual and drawing skills--have begun to emerge as more successful in today's digital, image-based world of medicine.

"More and more, the data are quite convincing that people that think in pictures may actually have greater innovation and greater creativity than people who think in words." says Dr. Mangione.

He adds, "It goes back to the idea with the right brain expressing imagery, music and poetry and the left brain completely being mostly verbal. Of course we live in a society that fosters the left [brain] and stifles the right [brain]."

Mangione explains that much has been written about the capacity of the visual arts to allow physicians to pick up more physical findings. He explains that actually "many physical findings were first described by artists, and only later by their left brain critical counterparts."

According to Mangione, an observation-type program, originally created at Harvard Medical School, and specially designed to enhance visual literacy has now been replicated at many other schools, helping to improve students' visual-spatial skills, with improved performance noted during their clerkship rotations.

Mangione describes a great quote by Leonardo Da Vinci, set next to an impressive rendition of an ox heart, in which he asks a writer peering at his work, "What kind of words would you fetch to describe so awkwardly what I could do so magnificently with just one picture? He jokingly adds, "Just give up"!

Some physicians who have struggled through medical school, perhaps with undiagnosed dyslexia, may have relied upon their ability to think in pictures, with this parodoxically being a reason that they could excel in medical school.

In an aside, Mangione jokingly adds that "medical school attracts those that are left brain, but then proceeds to atrophy what is left of their right brain".

Mangione draws a parallel to Albert Einstein by explaining that he spoke late at age 4, fluently only when he was age 9, "so his left brain came online quite late, so he was clearly more right brain". Mangione adds, "he thought in pictures, unlocking the secret of relativity by imagining himself as a light beam".

Mangione further explains that Dr. Frank Netter, the great medical illustrator of our time, never actually wanted to become a physician. Although true passion was sketching and drawing, his parents felt that he should go to medical school to become a doctor as a more prestigious career. During medical school, Netter's penchant for drawing became evident as his way of taking notes by drawing elaborately detailed pictures--notes which became quite valuable to him as he evolved through his years as a surgeon.

According to Mangione Dr. Frank Netter was quite similar to Leonardo da Vinci-being able to capture pages of text in just a few drawings or illustrations.
Dr. Frank Netter's Ongoing Contribution to Medical Education
Frank Netter, (1906-1991) born in Brooklyn, NY, was an artist before he became a medical doctor. He was actually a commercial artist, and worked for the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and Life Magazine. He trained at NYU School of Medicine, after his parents felt that he needed to have a more professional career than working as an artist. He developed a successful illustration practice, creating medical illustrations for his professors. In 1938, while practicing as a surgeon in Manhattan, Ciba Pharmaceuticals invited him to illustrate a pamphlet advertising heart medications.

His detailed drawings were extremely popular among physicians, and he realized that he was earning more from his medical illustrations than he was from his surgical practice. He decided to work with Ciba, and eventually created more than 4,000 drawings in specialized watercolor or gouache from pencil sketches, as well as more than 2,300 paintings.

Dr. Netter certainly had a unique talent and perspective, combining his artistic training with his medical background, ultimately making medical illustration a special art form. His illustrations have been a regular part of the education of generations of physicians in the US, as well as globally.

Today, medical educators are combining art and medicine to develop unique new ways to involve the humanities to focus on skills in diagnosis and observation to understand a patient's needs.

As medical students become more accustomed to the the arts--where being innovative and creative is as valued as "out-of-the-box" thinking is rewarded--students will ideally see that the practice of medicine is actually an art.
Historical Basis for Art To Change Medicine
Mangione explains that "medicine as we know it" started after the French revolution "as a right-brained, humanistic, bedside-oriented model" which then transitioned to a British influence by Sir William Osler. As British influence later yielded to German influence, physicians donned a white coat, moving to the laboratory. Medical style and approach, in his view, has remained mostly German-influenced in nature of philosophy and approach.

With the current epidemic of "burn-out" rampant among medical students and physicians, creating negative images of physicians in the public, what Mangione feels is necessary is a re-direction of efforts to place a focus and emphasis on art and drawing as a relevant skill to developing a well-rounded physician. He feels that perhaps this should be re-introduced during the undergraduate years prior to medical school.
AAMC and Art and Medicine
In conjunction with the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) holding their annual meeting November 1-6, 2013 in Philadelphia, Elsevier, publisher of Frank H. Netter's landmark Atlas of Human Anatomy has also planned a two-day conference, Art + Medicine: How Art Can Make Better Doctors, November 1-2, 2013.

The purpose of the conference is to celebrate the achievments and legacy of Dr. Frank H. Netter as America's most well-known medical illustrator. The conference will present multiple programs examining the unique synergy of art and medicine. The goal of the conference is to raise awareness among prospective medical students, current medical students, and medical educators, along with promoting the work of Dr. Netter and his newly completed work, The Atlas of Human Anatomy.

Madelene Hyde, Vice President of Global Medical Education at Elsevier, believes that Dr. Mangione's work as a master of physical diagnosis is instrumental in preserving the art of physical diagnosis, helping to instill the importance of art as a conduit to reinforcing key physical exam findings.

"The medical illustrators in the future will likely use more 3D technology as key elements in their apps and illustrations, helping to pull layers apart to reveal the inner aspects and structure", says Hyde.

Innovative and interactive apps such as Interact Elsevier and the Netter Atlas further help medical professionals to reinforce anatomical detail through 3D animation, according to Hyde.

Hyde further believes that Netter's rich legacy will be reinforced through his artwork, and if he were still alive today, "he would take great pleasure in seeing the clinical relevance of his work related to his dissections".

The goal of the upcoming conference is also to provide first year medical students with a beginner and advanced elective course to learn ways to incorporate art into medicine - ultimately leading to better physical diagnosis.

Elsevier will also have access to students' sketch books from the course, culminating with a vote on best sketch book, with the winner being sent to a future event at NYU School of Medicine in March, 2014.

As Mangione prepares to deliver a lecture about the anatomical genius of Leonardo da Vinci next month at Art and Medicine in Philadelphia, he feels that the lines separating the boundaries between art and science have been blurred.

"It's not art, it's not science--it's the same thing", says Mangione.

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Can Studying Art Help Medical Students Become Better Doctors?

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Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, Galleria dell' Accademia, Venice (1485-90) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It's become more evident over the past few decades that medical school admission committees are thinking more "outside the box" in terms of identifying and selecting specific skills that may define an "ideal" candidate for medical school.

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From Painters to Potters, Scientists Stage an Online Art Show

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From Painters to Potters, Scientists Stage an Online Art Show

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Top 10 Skills Children Learn from the Arts.

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Top 10 Skills Children Learn from the Arts.

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You don't find school reformers talking much about how we need to train more teachers in the arts, given the current obsession with science, math, technology and engineering (STEM), but here's a list of skills that young people learn from studying the arts. They serve as a reminder that the arts - while important to study for their intrinsic value - also promote skills seen as important in academic and life success. (That's why some people talk about changing the current national emphasis on STEM to STEAM.) This was written by Lisa Phillips is an author, blog journalist, arts and leadership educator, speaker and business owner. To learn about Lisa's book, "The Artistic Edge: 7 Skills Children Need to Succeed in an Increasingly Right Brain World," click here. This appeared on the ARTSblog, a program of Americans for the Arts.

By Lisa Phillips

1. Creativity - Being able to think on your feet, approach tasks from different perspectives and think 'outside of the box' will distinguish your child from others. In an arts program, your child will be asked to recite a monologue in 6 different ways, create a painting that represents a memory, or compose a new rhythm to enhance a piece of music. If children have practice thinking creatively, it will come naturally to them now and in their future career.

2. Confidence - The skills developed through theater, not only train you how to convincingly deliver a message, but also build the confidence you need to take command of the stage. Theater training gives children practice stepping out of their comfort zone and allows them to make mistakes and learn from them in rehearsal. This process gives children the confidence to perform in front of large audiences.

3. Problem Solving - Artistic creations are born through the solving of problems. How do I turn this clay into a sculpture? How do I portray a particular emotion through dance? How will my character react in this situation? Without even realizing it kids that participate in the arts are consistently being challenged to solve problems. All this practice problem solving develops children's skills in reasoning and understanding. This will help develop important problem-solving skills necessary for success in any career.

4. Perseverance - When a child picks up a violin for the first time, she/he knows that playing Bach right away is not an option; however, when that child practices, learns the skills and techniques and doesn't give up, that Bach concerto is that much closer. In an increasingly competitive world, where people are being asked to continually develop new skills, perseverance is essential to achieving success.

5. Focus - The ability to focus is a key skill developed through ensemble work. Keeping a balance between listening and contributing involves a great deal of concentration and focus. It requires each participant to not only think about their role, but how their role contributes to the big picture of what is being created. Recent research has shown that participation in the arts improves children's abilities to concentrate and focus in other aspects of their lives.

6. Non-Verbal Communication - Through experiences in theater and dance education, children learn to breakdown the mechanics of body language. They experience different ways of moving and how those movements communicate different emotions. They are then coached in performance skills to ensure they are portraying their character effectively to the audience.

7. Receiving Constructive Feedback - Receiving constructive feedback about a performance or visual art piece is a regular part of any arts instruction. Children learn that feedback is part of learning and it is not something to be offended by or to be taken personally. It is something helpful. The goal is the improvement of skills and evaluation is incorporated at every step of the process. Each arts discipline has built in parameters to ensure that critique is a valuable experience and greatly contributes to the success of the final piece.

8. Collaboration - Most arts disciplines are collaborative in nature. Through the arts, children practice working together, sharing responsibility, and compromising with others to accomplish a common goal. When a child has a part to play in a music ensemble, or a theater or dance production, they begin to understand that their contribution is necessary for the success of the group. Through these experiences children gain confidence and start to learn that their contributions have value even if they don't have the biggest role.

9. Dedication - When kids get to practice following through with artistic endeavors that result in a finished product or performance, they learn to associate dedication with a feeling of accomplishment. They practice developing healthy work habits of being on time for rehearsals and performances, respecting the contributions of others, and putting effort into the success of the final piece. In the performing arts, the reward for dedication is the warm feeling of an audience's applause that comes rushing over you, making all your efforts worthwhile.

10. Accountability - When children practice creating something collaboratively they get used to the idea that their actions affect other people. They learn that when they are not prepared or on-time, that other people suffer. Through the arts, children also learn that it is important to admit that you made a mistake and take responsibility for it. Because mistakes are a regular part of the process of learning in the arts, children begin to see that mistakes happen. We acknowledge them, learn from them and move on.

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Top 10 skills children learn from the arts

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You don't find school reformers talking much about how we need to train more teachers in the arts, given the current obsession with science, math, technology and engineering, but here's a list of skills that young people learn from studying the arts.

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How 'Artful Thinking' Can Improve Your Visual Intelligence

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How 'Artful Thinking' Can Improve Your Visual Intelligence

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A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania shows how principles from the field of visual arts can successfully be applied to medical training to increase observational and descriptive abilities.

Observational skills are critical for medical students and yet students undergo no specific training to develop them. Several medical fields in particular, like ophthalmology and dermatology, are heavily dependent on the doctors' ability to provide a diagnosis and treatment based on visual examination.

In contrast, art education provides plenty of formal training in visual literacy - the ability to interpret and find meaning in images. With that in mind, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with educators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see what happens when medical students undergo training similar to that of art students.

The researchers randomly assigned 36 first-year medical students to an art-training group and a control group. The art-training group received six, 1.5-hour art observation sessions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The facilitators used the "Artful Thinking" approach, which focuses on introspection and observation before interpretation.

The results were impressive. Observational skills as measured by description testing improved significantly in the art training group - the students improved their clinical observational skills, as assessed by retinal photographs and photographs of external signs of eye disease.

One student participating in the study said:

"After just one session, I found myself listening to a radiologist discuss the same principles we used to look at art when analyzing a CT scan. Later I found our practice of creating narratives in the art class helped guide me when interacting with standardized patients."

The researchers conclude that art training alone can help teach medical students to become better clinical observers. Another positive aspect of the finding is that the Artful Thinking course is an easy to implement, low-cost intervention.

The Artful Thinking framework was developed by Harvard Project Zero and the Traverse City, Michigan Area Public Schools. It relies on six "thinking dispositions" or "palettes" - Comparing and Connecting, Exploring Viewpoints, Finding Complexity, Observing and Describing, Questioning and Investigating, Reasoning.

Each thinking disposition has several thinking routines - short, easy-to-learn mini-strategies that extend and deepen students' thinking. For example, in the Observing and Describing disposition, students are encouraged to look at an image quietly for at least 30 seconds, list 10 words or phrases about any aspect of the picture, and then repeat the activity again to find 10 more words or phrases. This routine helps students slow down and make careful, detailed observations by encouraging them to push beyond first impressions and obvious features.

Look at the artwork and invent a headline for it or topic that captures an important aspect of it. This is a routine from the "Comparing and Connecting" disposition. This routine helps students identify and clarify big ideas. / Credit: Artful Thinking

Horace DeLisser, MD, associate dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the Perelman School of Medicine, says about the study:

"It is incredibly encouraging to see that principles from a field, such as art, that can seem so vastly different from medicine, can be so successfully applied and utilized to help improve clinical skills and overall professional development for medical students. We look forward to continuing to see how these principals can be used long-term for medical trainees and practicing physicians."

Amy E. Herman, JD, MA is the founder and developer of The Art of Perception courses. She trains top officers in the United States military, law enforcement, medicine, education, and industry in how to increase their visual intelligence. In the following video she explains how different aspects of visual intelligence like the "pertinent negative" are relevant to our personal and professional lives.

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How 'Artful Thinking' Can Improve Your Visual Intelligence

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A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania shows how principles from the field of visual arts can successfully be applied to medical training to increase observational and descriptive abilities. Observational skills are critical for medical students and yet students undergo no specific training to develop them.

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Innovation & Imagination: 12 Benefits Of Creativity

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Innovation & Imagination: 12 Benefits Of Creativity

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by TeachThought Staff

Creativity is a valuable skill.

All too often people outgrow their imagination as adulthood approaches due to an encroaching sense of self-doubt, an ingrained belief that it's an impractical pursuit, or firm guidance from more experienced grown-ups advising engineering over art school.

Although almost everyone would agree that creativity is important, budget cuts to areas of education like art and music programs demonstrate differently.

However, even those in S.T.E.M.-related fields benefit from thinking creatively. Henry Ford gave people automobiles instead of the faster horses they would have requested; Elon Musk is working on an underground tunnel system with car elevators and a hyperloop instead of improving ground transportation - efforts like these require more than technical ability; they demand imagination, creativity, and a sense of belief in the impossible.

"Without imagination and investigation of ideas our collective fund of knowledge would languish. We do need assessments to determine what students learn and understand, but we can incorporate imagination in the creation of those assessments to ensure that students' creative thoughts and higher executive functions are incorporated into their assessment experiences," said Dr. Judy Willis in Planning For Creativity: 4 Simple Strategies You Can Master . Creativity should be encouraged along with technical knowledge since the two go hand in hand.

And maybe more importantly, creativity infuses life with a different sort of depth and richness. As Osho said, "To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it."

The ripple effect of encouraging that sort of philosophy in students would be vast and broad-reaching. Creativity inspires happiness and a desire to share that with others. What's more important than that?

Sylvia Duckworth created the following sketchnote listing 12 benefits of creativity in the classroom. An actual list would be nearly endless, but these are a great start to that conversation.
The Significant Benefits Of Creativity In The Classroom
1. Creativity is Multidisciplinary

Not only can you practice creativity through many different mediums, its benefits are applicable to almost all professions.

2. Creativity allows you to express yourself

An integral part of the human condition involves learning who we are and recognizing how that fits into the rest of the world. Creativity allows self-discovery, as well as the opportunity to share a hidden side of ourselves.

3. Creativity promotes thinking and problem-solving

From technical details of writing, drawing, or composing to the challenge of creating, problem-solving is a required component of the creative process.

4. Creativity reduces stress and anxiety

People usually pursue creative projects because they enjoy the process or the outcome. Just the act of creating inspires a sense of contentment.

5. Creativity allows you to enter your happy zone and have fun

Creativity is really another form of play, and play is universally important to each individual's sense of joy and well-being.

6. Creativity gives you a sense of purpose

Writers, artists, and musicians often identify by those words whether they make money at their craft or not. Their creative method is their way of processing the world and a way of describing who they are.

7. Creativity can lead to feelings of accomplishment and pride

T he combination of brainstorming, the technical process, and a finished process is often the perfect recipe for personal satisfaction.

8. Creativity can link you to others with the same passion

Art is important because it fosters a sense of connection and understanding of what it means to be human. A creative focus can help you find your community and feel less alone in the world.

9. Creativity improves your ability to focus

The act of creating requires dedication and commitment, not only to each individual project but to the craft itself.

10. Creativity promotes risk-taking and iteration

Making things isn't easy; making things others will appreciate is even harder. Creativity requires courage, confidence, and the willingness to fail and try again.

11. Creativity is a prerequisite for innovation

Every advancement known to mankind started with a new idea, and new ideas are inspired by imagination and creativity.

12. Creativity encourages us to be lifelong learners

Creativity requires the humbleness to know that there's always room for improvement and a commitment to continue challenging your ideas and ability until new growth occurs.
The Benefits Of Creativity In The Classroom

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The Significant Benefits Of Creativity In The Classroom

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by TeachThought Staff Creativity is a valuable skill. All too often people outgrow their imagination as adulthood approaches due to an encroaching sense of self-doubt, an ingrained belief that it's an impractical pursuit, or firm guidance from more experienced grown-ups advising engineering over art school.

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Creativity is often associated with elementary students who are encouraged to draw or color as a means of self-expression. For college students, it's often thought of as courses or degrees that require specific creative skills such as art or writing majors.

Yet for many students, the idea of intentionally being creative is lost. Business students, for example, must have a "serious" mindset because they are working with theories, developing critical thinking skills, and examining real-world problems. But creativity is not just about using crayons or drawing; it's about developing innovative ideas and solutions.

If you learn how to tap into your creative side you will likely find a new source of ideas and inspiration for your schoolwork.
What is Creativity?
If creativity is a skill that all college students can use, how is it defined? Mark Batey, a creativity researcher and Chairman of the Psychometrics at Work Research Group at Manchester Business School, provided a definition in his Psychology Today blog post, Top Ten Creativity Questions: "Creativity is the capacity within individuals to develop ideas for the purpose of solving problems and exploiting opportunities." When we think of being creative as a capacity, it can then be viewed as something that is learned instead of a trait that we are born with. This means you do not have to be a natural artist or singer to have a creative capacity, and more importantly, you can learn to develop creative skills through practice.

Creativity is also associated with innovation, which relies upon a balance of reasoning skills and imagination - what many people refer to with the cliché "thinking outside of the box."

The field of neuroscience is shedding light on how creativity actually leads to innovation. Antonio Damasio, head of the neurology department at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, has found through his research that emotions also play a role. In The Innovation Factor: Your Brain on Innovation, Damasio was noted for stating that "what you're really doing in the process of creating is choosing one thing over another, not necessarily because it is factually more positive but because it attracts you more." When you develop a capacity for creative thinking you utilize your emotions as a guide when evaluating new ideas. What you imagine may not be immediately confirmed by logic, but it feels innovative.

Another explanation of creativity is to define it as moments of inspiration, when we come up with new ideas. As explained in The Aha Moment - The Creative Science Behind Inspiration, "there are different representations we use to describe good ideas - sparks, flashes, light-bulb moments; inspirations and innovations; muses and visions. But what makes these moments so mystifying is that they usually materialize abruptly, without warning and seemingly out of thin air." Developing a creative mindset is about releasing restrictive thought patterns and allowing yourself to imagine, dream, feel, and be inspired.
Are College Students Taught Creativity?
Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roska of the University of Virginia produced the results of a study titled, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, which has been widely quoted because it found that 45 percent of the undergraduate students interviewed found no significant improvement in their intellectual and creative skills. What this does indicate is that 55 percent of the 2,300 students who participated in the study did have improvement. From my perspective as an educator, these results are encouraging because undergraduate students are often not taught to develop creative skills across all disciplines. In addition, creativity can be a subjective skill that is difficult to measure and if a majority of these students did have a measurable increase that indicates it is a skill students do use.

Jeffrey Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education, shared another perspective in Beyond Super and Ill-Prepared Students, How About Some With Creativity?. Selingo cited examples from The New York Times ( Super People) and The Washington Post ( Our Unprepared Graduates), which state that college students either possess extreme abilities or they lack basic skills because schools are coddling them. Selingo suggested that both opinion pieces could be correct and "perhaps super students are well prepared for making the grade and checking off all the right activities on a résumé, but ill prepared for the creative forces that will define the global economy in the future."

Selingo points to a common practice of teaching to the test as a reason for this condition. This begins in primary education and continues through post-secondary or college courses. The traditional teaching practice he is referring to is one that has students memorize information for an exam instead of completing projects that require creativity. While this is true to a certain extent, educators understand the importance of applying theory to the real world and it is not uncommon for students to have projects throughout their coursework that require the development of new ideas or solutions.
How to Tap Into Your Inner Creative Self
The good news for students is that you don't have to take a specific course that requires creativity. This is a skill that you can practice developing on your own, beginning right now. There are three strategies you can use to tap into your creative potential.
1. Know When to Work and When to Stop
Jonah Lehrer, author of Imagine: How Creativity Works, shared his perspective for development of creativity as a skill in his article, How To Be Creative. In order to access our natural creative ability we need to learn to rely upon our intuition, which researchers call our "feelings of knowing". There are two types of problems that require creativity: moment-of-insight and nose-to-the-grindstone situations. If you are working on a project and have a feeling (your intuition) that you are close to getting an answer or solution, that's the time to keep working through it (nose-to-the-grindstone). However, if you feel that you are stuck and need new insight, that's the time to take a break (moment-of-insight). When you feel the need for a break that's an indication you either need an alternate perspective or additional information. And research shows you are likely to get the insight or "aha" moment once you step away from the project or problem.
2. Tap Into Your Imagination
Michael Michalko, author of Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques, talked about the dynamic nature of the brain in his article, Creative Thinkering. Michalko believes that the brain "thrives on the creative energy of feedback from experiences real or fictional. You can synthesize experience; literally create it in your own imagination. The human brain cannot tell the difference between an 'actual' experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail." He cites Albert Einstein as an example and how Einstein used imaginary scenarios first to create experiments and that ultimately led him to develop innovative ideas about space and time. Walt Disney said "if you can dream it, you can do it." That forms the basis for creativity, being able to dream and then put your imagination to work.
3. Develop a Mindset for Creativity
This is probably the one barrier that prevents students from learning to develop their creative capacity, a limiting self-belief. The statement, "I'm not a creative person" can limit your possibilities. You can train yourself to be creative simply by allowing time to use your imagination. It does not have to be a complicated process either. The next time you are given a project that requires you to develop a new outcome, solution, or alternative perspective, take a few minutes to allow your mind to wander. Some students refer to this as brainstorming or free-writing. Let the ideas flow first and then process it through logic, reasoning, and feelings. The best answer may not always be the "right" answer, and that's how you learn to become creative.

You can follow Dr. Bruce A. Johnson on Twitter @DrBruceJ and Google+.
This is a cross-post from content partners at onlinecollegecourses.com; image attribution flickr user zbigphotography

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Creativity is often associated with elementary students who are encouraged to draw or color as a means of self-expression. For college students, it's often thought of as courses or degrees that require specific creative skills such as art or writing majors. Yet for many students, the idea of intentionally being creative is lost.

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Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are the center of attention in most US public schools today. The focus on STEM fields was initiated to increase global competitiveness and the project does have its merits. However, it has left the arts languishing far off in the periphery. This is quite unfortunate, as art education is known to improve academic performance. The STEAM, not just STEM Education Infographic presents interesting facts and stats pointing out the significance of arts education.

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

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STEAM, not just STEM Education Infographic

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Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are the center of attention in most US public schools today. The focus on STEM fields was initiated to increase global competitiveness and the project does have its merits. However, it has left the arts languishing far off in the periphery.

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https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-01-21-is-creativity-a-skill