Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

Some people are born gifted--- giftedness, but other people are well taught and well trained on their respective domains, I may guess.

I will give an example from my field: Profs. Richard Feymann and Lev Landau were gifted physicists.

So as defined in the thread: Creativity or the ability to produce novel ideas is a Born with

Nowdays I don´t see ideas, scientists are not even able to explain experiments with their theories.

Most of the time, born with, but some can learn and apply.

Mohammed Ali Bait Ali Sulaiman

Do you have one or two examples of names of people that were born with creativity and those that acquired it through learning etc.,

Thank you for your contribution د.أحمد محمد أحمد الزين

Pedro L. Contreras E.

Do you have examples of people who in your best estimate were gifted with creativity and those that whether either taught or learnt it. Let's confine ourselves to creativity for now.

There is nothing termed to be "creativity". Knowledge is acquired by people, and then novelty will be inspired by God.

I have very often observed that two students, for example with the same background and same training, one of the two can be very creative whereas the second one has less imagination: creativity is probably, in part, genetically imprinted

Thank you for your contribution Jean-Pierre Jost

Would you be in a position to put a best estimate of the genetic imprint - 80%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%?

Dear Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

In my area, yes I can give you a concrete example. My former supervisor in Moscow. Prof.M. I.Kaganov (1921-2019) A well known solid state theory physicist and science popularizator. He made something technical and very difficult to understand, accessible and interesting to the general public and to us by presenting it in a readily understandable form.

He was gifted, indeed he gave us---as diploma students---calculations that took a couple of years to do by hand (not computers at that time ~ 1989) and he knew the answer without doing it. Tell me, if that is not being gifted please?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/m-i-kaganov/

Thank you for your contribution Pedro L. Contreras E. and for the insightful example. Can I conclude then that your key argument is that "creativity is largely innate?" In other words, one is born with it.

Assuming that the premise is correct, can creativity be taught with some level of success?

Mohammed Ali Bait Ali Sulaiman د.أحمد محمد أحمد الزين

Thank you all for your participation. It seems as though most of you believe that creativity is something that one is largely born with.

If we take that premise as read, who do you think is the most creative person to have ever lived and why?

Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

Yes, I do believe that "creativity is largely innate" as you stated.

to the second question, I don´t know. Being famous in science nowdays doesn´t mean being creator! It is most about contacts and funding to slave the best students to work hard for somebody, I might guess!

I believe that creativity is a talent with which the person is born, which happens that an optimal and fruitful development requires learning and knowledge. An example of this is the nineteenth-century Russian mathematics, Sonia Kovalewsky, whose ingenuity, originality and clarity to solve problems of high complexity impressed the great mathematician Karl Weierstrass. Sonia wanted to receive Weierstrass mathematical analysis classes (since at that time women could not access university studies) and he put her to the test, giving her a battery of problems reserved for her outstanding students. Sonia solved them in a week, despite her limited mathematical knowledge. When he handed them to Weierstrass, he realized that Sonia had a great mathematical talent, so he decided to support her in her career.

Great example Francisco Martínez González and thank you for your contribution.

I think that creativity is innate.

Thank you for your contribution Atyaf Hasan Ibrahim

Balqees Al-Musawi

Thank you for your contribution. Just to understand, you think creativity can be taught?

I would say; - Both! Indeed, some people are born with high level of natural sense for creativity and they're born innovators. On the other hand, some people (and I am speaking on the basis of my personal experience after 30 years of career in science and higher education) started to be creative after formal education and even after 5-10 years of working experience, depending of their working environment and their personal professional development.

Creativity is in born ! - But it can be shaped / can be used in good work like research depending on teaching or society reformed .

Siniša Srečec

You have mentioned a critical point that has, thus far, been overlooked. The point is nicely captured in:-

Scott Fogler, H. and LeBlanc S.E., (1995) Strategies for Creative Problem Solving, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

The point is:-

"In order to cut through the maze of obstacles blocking the pathway to the solution to the problem, we need skills analogous to a pair of scissors with two special blades."

"One of the shears is made of the knowledge necessary to understand the problem and to develop technically feasible solutions. However, no cutting can be done to solve problems of invention with just one shear."

"The other shear contains creativity that can generate new and innovative ideas. Creativity alone will not generate solutions that are necessarily technically feasible, and again no cutting can be done. Creativity along with strong technical foundation, however, allows us to cut through the problem to obtain original solutions.

As a matter of fact, Graham Wallas, the author of the Art of Thought, outlined four (steps) of creativity, 1) Immersion/preparation; 2) Incubation; 3) Illumination and; 4) Verification.

In short, he argued that preparation or immersion into the subject or problem, is a necessary condition for creativity, along with stepping away from the problem/incubation. Apparently, most inventors, got the insights to their invention when they stepped away from the problem, to do something unrelated.

Archimedes got insights into the Archimedes Principle whilst bathing.

Interesting read Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

One of the four steps of creativity mentioned is very interesting: illumination.

What does it mean illumination in a creativity context? when somebody notice something very unusual, I might guess. Eureka!

It is exactly that Pedro L. Contreras E. the "Eureka Moment" or the "Aha Moment," similar to when Archimedes jumped out of the public bath and ran naked in Syracuse, shouting, "Eureka," "I found it."

It is when things fall into place or when you see the connections that you never saw before.

I would suggest that the word "taught" is perhaps not the right one. Certainly creativity can be stimulated. Then there's a question of talent, or innate ability, which is another aspect of the question. People can be stimulated to be more creative.

From my experience teaching dance, I've noticed which types of learning processes increase creative thinking / working, and which ones don't. For example, prescriptive learning - in the case of dance that would translate as "do this step, in this way, and in this amount of time" - does not necessarily stimulate creativity, whereas tasks that have clear instructions, but that leave room for the doer to find their own pathway through them, may well stimulate creativity. So, to give an example, on the one hand a ballet class is not particularly creative, although it can include elements of creativity, or can inspire. On the other hand, a real time invented or improvised sequence of movement, for example, that occurs within certain parameters, where the subject cannot repeat movements, nor can they stop to think, nor go backwards in order to find a more comfortable way forward obliges creativity and indeed stimulates inventiveness and opens up new ideas, possibilities, etc.

Some people are more gifted than others, however all humans are capable of some degree of creativity, which can be increased through the exercising of that creativity.

Great contribution Susan Kempster

I think you are on the money. Ed Catmul of Toy Story and Ratatouille talks "fostering creativity at Pixar." I think that most people when they hear the work creativity, they tend to think firstly, about a mysterious lone ranger somewhere who is different and churns out all sorts of creative products; b) many think only about people/personality traits.

As you rightly point out, creativity is about; a) People - personality traits etc., but it is also about three (3) other things. These are; 1) Environment or Press; 2) Creative Processes and lastly; 3) creative products.

Net, you could have great "creative people," but without a stimulating environment and some creative processes, you would struggle to come up with great creative products that "shoots the light" out, or else, if you do, you become a "one hit wonder."

In the end, this is what separates Catmul and Katzenbach et al from the rest of us.

Yes, exactly Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

Dear Kheepe Lawrence Moremi ,

how it would be possible to foster creativity with press/environment during Prof. Maxwell´s times? Indeed---a creative product, he produced---I agree on that.

Pedro L. Contreras E.

I do not know. I have some idea of how others have done it. You could look at how IDEO fosters creativity. Equally, you could look at Pixar. See the attachment below:-

https://hbr.org/2008/09/how-pixar-fosters-collective-creativity

Either of the two precedents. But majorly creativity is born out critical thinking and imagination.

Thank you for your contribution Taiwo Alare

The second sentence of your response struck a chord. Critical Thinking and Imagination.

Wit that in mind, I would think that most degrees teach critical thinking. The question then, is can imagination be taught?

Let me try to break down the question, with some help from Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995). To make the question clearer, I will make two (2) basic assumptions. Firstly, I will assume we have two characters; 1) Dr. Creative - who was born with creativity and; 2) Mr. Student.

The questions we need to ask are:-

I would argue that irrespective of Mr. Student's "creative endowment stock at "point 0," if conditions explained in 1 - 3 above exist, we can reasonably conclude that those that are born with creativity can teach those that are not creative or where not born with creativity?

Would this be a fair conclusion? Pedro L. Contreras E. Susan Kempster @

Creativity can be enhanced by triggering learners to think out of the box kind of thing. It can also be promoted by democratic scaffolding attempts of mentors to mentees. All these don't mean that one's natural talent has a little contribution. I mean, given all the opportunities constant those with higher talent will exhibit better creativity.

Thank you for your contribution Solomon Melesse Mengistie . Your view is very important. I think you make critical point.

If I understand you correctly, you are saying the following:-

A - Teaching, scaffolding etc., could impact B1 - individual without inborn creativity and; B2 - Individual with inborn creativity talent, but the impact will be different and as a consequence, product - C of B2 will be different or superior to B1?

@kheepe Moremi To my view imagination is thinking out of very possibilities. There imagination is a thought of different kind.

Thank you for your contribution Vadim S. Gorshkov

if it is taught it wont be 'creativity' anymore.. a brilliant and new idea that suddenly appears is creativity, yet this theoretical idea could be supported by institutions, coworkers, family... to be applied and followed up...

Taiwo Alare

I see your point Taiwo Alare . The question to you though, is are there no tools, techniques etc., to trigger imagination or "thinking out possibilities."

I think there. See examples below:-

Sure! You got me dear Kheepe Moremi

Thank you Solomon Melesse Mengistie for the great contribution.

Thank you for contribution Marwah Firas Abdullah Al-Rawe

Let me make sure that I understand your submission Doctor Paula Romanos

Are you saying if there are two (2) subjects/creative persons. One such creative person who for convenience we will label "CP1" has inborn creativity and, CP2 has acquired creativity.

If both CP1 and CP2 develop some work, irrespective of the nature of their outputs, the product of CP1 would be deemed creative whilst the product of CP1 will not be deemed creative. Is this the point you are making?

There are techniques which is in steps first is critical thinking that is thinking all possibilities And selecting the best possibility. Follow by logical questioning of the possibility.

Dear Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

Thank you so much for the replay and the interesting link. I checked it, but I didn´t like the words "collective creativity" in the way they mention, and the examples from those movies didn´t convince me either.

I prefer the "team" formed by cap Kathryn Janeway of the star trek Voyager. They crossed back from the Beta Quadrant defeating the "borg´s collective"

The point I tried to elaborate by mentioning Prof. Maxwell´s example, it is that at his timeline (19th century) it seems to me that these creative scientists, could elaborate their theories and experiments at their on pace and without publicity, without press.

That is why I think, it was so huge amount of creativity in their works, I might guess.

No paparazzis around their timeline!

Interesting Prof. Vadim S. Gorshkov

Point taken!

Dear Prof. Pedro L. Contreras E.

Without a shadow of doubt, Prof. Maxwell would be a "top drawer' example of creativity. His work on electromagnetism was ground breaking. Would you consider him to be in the same league as Elvis Presley?

I take your point about the role of the media in creating hype and in some cases, some distortions.

Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

You said the words "we can reasonably conclude that those that are born with creativity can teach those that are not creative or where not born with creativity?" Would this be a fair conclusion? "

Yes, it would be a fair conclusion. Only a point to notice: Not always all creative scientists like to create schools (Prof Richard Feynman as an example) but they indeed write excellent books.

Yes Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

I consider Prof. Maxwell in the same league as Elvis Presley . Forever Known!

Only to notice that Prof. Maxwell should shave to look more attractive to new generations in order to create hype.

Thank you for the qualification Prof. Pedro L. Contreras E.

Help me understand the "create schools" phrase.

I'll light it up Prof. Kheepe Lawrence Moremi

To create a school is when---one very very creative scientist---get together a group of students and stablish his/her own team, in order to hammer up his/her "very very creative ideas"

Thank you Pedro L. Contreras E.

I got the essence.

Creativity is definitely learnable though, as with many things in life, some start with a greater advantage. We have researched this topic extensively.

You could try this for starters:

Article Lucas (2019) Teaching and assessing creativity in schools in...

This is a thorough review:

Technical Report Durham Commission on Creativity in Education

Bill

Bill Lucas Thank you for participating and sharing the work that you are doing with Durham University and OECD, amongst others.

creativity to some extent is a born instinct , but i believe it can be learnt or acquired. its an ability to think and apply your knowledge in order to create new designs.

Thank you for your contribution Sugandha Kamalakar Lad

I am answering this question based on my own experiences as an art educator, (not as a scientist). People are unique, therefore, they have different learning styles( Gardner's Multiple intelligences,1991). I believe that some people are born more creatives than others; however, creativity can be taught using some creative thinking. Creativity should be encouraged in all subjects in school and at work, not only in the art field.

Thank you Jane Griffo for your valuable contribution. Your point makes a lot of sense to me. In a nutshell, we all start off with different levels of creative stock, but all of us can acquire additional creative stock, albeit at different rates and differently.

The art sociologist Howard Becker has written that creativity is 'not a scarce commodity' but is seldom recognised or rewarded when practised in ordinary life by 'ordinary' people. Importantly, he believes creativity occurs in a social context, but has been hijacked by those holding power as a 'rare' quality possessed by the chosen few. Creativity can therefore be taught, and learned, but only if given encouragement and space, which few people are. Those presumed to be born with it are usually given encouragement to develop it at an early age. For more see: Becker. American Behavioural Scientist 2017 Vol 61 (12) pp 1579-1588

Thank you for your participation and great contribution Sheila Murray . I would also add that unfortunately, when "practised in ordinary life by ordinary people," at times creativity is seen as "deviant behaviour."

Creativity is a hidden feedback/stimulus power which normally coming into action after sufficiently deep understanding about any matter. In practice, whenever we understand some thing very deeply/cleanly in comparison to the standard scales, their also exists many other secrets/facts that are invisible to those who do not have real conceptual understanding about the problem at hand. However., the person who have understood such problems with extraordinary deep thinking, such people trying to know and understand more deep secrets about the problem. This stage is said to be a stage/step of creativity, and is based on how deep he/she wanted to go deep further with more visibility. Such internal extra hidden knowledge is comparatively strong power for extra visibility about the problem in comparison to other people, and we may say this phenomena or stage of deep understanding as creativity. Consequently, creativity needs strong conceptual understanding and deep understanding need strong motivation/desires/determination etc.

Thank you for your contribution Muhammad Ali

Your view, especially the first part of your proposition is consistent with Graham Wallas (1926) preparation phase.

Thank you Jasim Hassen

I would agree with you. If a small fraction of people on the globe were to use their imagination and creativity in the right way, we would solve most of the world's problems.

Born with because it is something to do with imagination and artistic. But it can be taught and shown the way for our younger minds, so that they can acquire at a later stage in life.

Thank you Chung Tin Fah

Born with, but can be taught seems to be the overall thrust. Thank you for your participation.

Everyone was born with a certain level of creativity. From the age of three to five, children have the greatest potential for creativity.They are often at the genius level. Later, various social, cultural and moral constraints lead to the suppression of creativity deep inside us.The biggest challenge for any society is to find the best way to release tremendous repressed creativity for the good of each individual and the entire society.

Thank your for your time and contribution Dragoljub Šarović . The essence of your response is that a certain level of creativity is inborn. It is either brought to life, enhanced or suppressed through socialisation?

A person may be born with an intelligence that is different from others, but creativity can be cultivated through thinking

Thank you Yousif Yaqoob Shahtha

Creativity can be cultivated?

At Harvard, research on intelligence coefficients in children was done.The results showed that children as young as four were at the genius level, and that after the fourth year, that level of creativity declines.The primary reason for suppressing our creativity within our being is the messages and prohibitions we receive from parents, kindergartens, schools, society...For example, we get messages from all sides that we need to approach a problem differently from our own way.

(e.g. You shouldn't do this like this.).The consequence of such messages, which do not come from us but from the environment, is a marked suppression of creativity sometime until our middle years of life. So those messages and the prohibitions we get from the outside that tell us how the world works are a direct attack on our innate creativity.

Thank you for a comprehensive response Dragoljub Šarović

Highly appreciated.

Creativity is classified as ability, skill. This means that it can be genetically determined, i.e. congenital, in a certain part. But without shaping, improving, developing this ability, without shaping creativity, without taking into account the need to develop creativity in the education process, without stimulating young people to create creative solutions, unfortunately this ability may not be fully used.

Regards

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Yes, creativity skills can be learned. Not from sitting in a lecture, but by learning and applying creative thinking processes. 

Creativity is not taught, it is only formed

Thank you Dariusz Prokopowicz . I also think that some level of creativity is innate, but it can be shaped, enhanced or refined by education and the environment.

Thank you Dmytro Leshchenko , yes, the overall consensus is that creative skills can be learnt.

Sabir Nishanbaev I am interested to hear the reasoning behind your point of view.

It is in part innate, it is also shaped by education and practice, but overall it requires personal motivation, intentionality and a lot of effort to produce creative, valuable things!

Thank you Luis Olsina for your time, participation and insights. Your view is valuable.

Creativity refers to individual. Some people require guidance and others develop their own.

Thank you Nelaturi V Raghavaiah for your time, participation and considered response.

Thank you Amer B. Dheyab

The creativity from a person is a given talent that can be able to develop such amazing creation and how much more if a person is academically inclined then they can create more than expected. Creativity can be learned of from any discipline and most especially if you are align and passion with that field.

Moreover, there are no University or Colleges is teaching such creativity. You can not enroll in Fine Arts if you don't have talent as well as in Engineering and Architectural fields if you don't have talent too. However, critical thinking can be developed because of your creativity and passion in solving problems with an accurate solution.

Adversity is a great teacher of creativity. Although some are born with innate creativity - an external trigger either enhances or suppresses their creative talent.

Lots of research to show that it is definitely learnable, especially when we think of it as 'small c' creativity; this does not mean we are all geniuses. We have researched and written about this at length:

Book Teaching Creative Thinking: Developing learners who generate...

Article Lucas (2019) Teaching and assessing creativity in schools in...

I believe you can learn how to be creative but majorly creativity is born with and you've learn your creativity before you can effectively use it.

I believe you can learn how to be creative but majorly creativity is born with and you've learn your creativity before you can effectively use it

Thank you for your contribution Taiwo Alare

Learning assist in one's creativity which one's born with

Creativity as well as ingenuity is taught not born. Creativity begins with exposure to information at a very young age or even at birth.

As I indicated 2 months ago, IMHO, without being a researcher in this area, creativity is partly innate (it is embedded in the genetic code and program), as well as determined primarily by education and practice. But, in any case, it requires personal motivation, intentionality, and a lot of effort to produce creative and valuable things!

We, as living beings, as any entity or thing, have properties and power (capabilities) that allow us to interact (both with ourselves and with others). It is the property that enables power. Even if this property is changing the state due to interactions, there exists the innate property .

Thank you Luis Olsina Busayo Adetunji Kehinde Alare

Partly innate, but shaped by experiences and learning and driven by motivation/passion. Is that fair summation?

I agree with your summary Kheepe Moremi@

Thank you Luis Olsina

Creativity I feel is inbuilt one cannot be taught to be creative. One can be taught one aspect of something, he may improvise that more but being creative means one creative in all field.

Thank you for your time and contribution Vibha Sharma . I get your point of view. "Creativity is innate."

Herbert Simon and William Chase (1973) were the first to propose a 10-year rule based on the cases of chess prodigies Boby Fisher and Judit Polgar who in a space of 10 years attained master’s status. Any novice can attain mastery subject to following dimensions (Feldman, 1999, p.171-172):

1. Cognitive processes

2. Social/emotional processes

3. Family aspects: growing up and current

4. Education and preparation: formal and informal

5. Characteristics of the domain and field

6. Social/cultural contextual aspects

7. Historical forces, events, trends

Broadly, it reinforces that that creativity too is an outcome of reciprocal determinism among environment, individual characteristics and behaviour as argued by social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986).

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive Psychology, 4(1), 55–81.

Feldman, D. H. (1999). The development of creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 169–183). Cambridge University Press.

Thank you for a considered, well researched and articulated response Yogesh Upadhyay This is super educational.

Dear Mr. Moremi,

From my experience as a professor of fine arts, I would say that most students can be taught to become more creative/inventive. What is needed is a pedagogy that offers students a logical structure for creative exploration. One must guide students to explore alternative pathways, to ask "What if..." questions.

Steve