Brainstorming and creativity

Dear students, 

you have entered the first training module; you will learn something about creative thinking, which is going to follow you through the course. Pay adequate attention to it, then. In the second half of the module, we will tell you something about the first creative technique, which is called brainstorming. Try it out at home or at school - practice makes perfect.

At the completion of the module you should be able to:

• explain what creativity is and what the traits of a creative person are,
• describe blocks of creativity,
• distinguish between linear and lateral thinking,
• describe the technique of brainstorming,
• know the rules of brainstorming.

​How much time you will need

To read your study material (10 pages) carefully, you will need approx. 60 minutes. Perusing supplementary materials, practice and going through recommended literature will take an hour at most. Even the most earnest student will manage to do the assignment in 90 minutes.

​

Key concepts

Creativity - a productive style of thinking which brings something new, original, useful, heuristic...

Lateral thinking - a search for alternative ways of delimiting or interpreting a problem; this style of thinking is non-static, open, creative...

Brainstorming - a method of creative thinking based on generating ideas with the objective of finding as many of them as possible by means of associations.

Study material

Please, download this .pdf document and study it. Then you can study recommended bibliography, watch the video and do a homework. 

 

Recommended bibliography

 

 

Homework

1.

Choose any topic (e.g. Healthy lifestyle, Topic of my diploma theses, How to increase productivity, whatever...) and try self-brainstroming. 

Stop e.g. 15 min (or more) and try to find ideas about chosen topic. Write every idea that comes to your mind! Do not select and do not evaluate. Do not miss synonyms and associations.

After the brainstorming, do an evaluation. Find what is positive, what is negative for problem you serve. Then write what is practicable and what is unrealistic (there is e.g. problem with money, people, place to implement it). It is your evaluation and almost every evaluation is ok, don´t worry!

Write everything on computer (on some text editor which send me as .pdf) or on paper (then scan it for me) or you can use dictaphone (then send me .mp3 file). Try to create some scheme and categorize. Be creative!  

 

2.

Study on Internet something about six thinking hats. It is a method from Edward de Bono. Write me examples about possiblities of aplication this method. Write at least 10 exmaples. 

If you do not have enough ideas how to use thinking hats, never mind! You can use method of brainstorming. :)

 

Good luck!

 

Send your homework to dchytkova@phil.muni.cz to 9. 3. 2013.