Response to Article "Creativity, flexibility, adaptivity, and strategy use in mathematics" by Christoph Selter
Throughout this program, we have focused on the goal of teaching/facilitating students to think, rather than just instructing them to remember implementation methods. This article further breaks down what is meant by getting students to think. Specific takeaway points include understanding 3 main terms:
1. Creativity: ability to invent new or modify known strategies
2. Flexibility: ability to switch between different strategies.
3. Adaptivity: ability to apply appropriate strategies.
This led me to think about the relationship between the three, which is most important and which is easiest to learn.
In my effort to figure out which is most important, I further examined the article. Which terms are discussed more, what are there definitions? I used a basic approach – search for occurrence of the terms (or their roots). It resulted in the following:
· “strategy” – 104 occurrences
· “adapt” – 75 occurrences
· “creative” – 24 occurrences
· “flexib” – 7 occurrences
My main ideas from this are:
1. Strategy, although not defined in this article is referred to as “a plan of action”. The article does indicate that a strategy can be deliberate or sub-conscious. The most important part is that a student recognize that s/he is not blindly guessing at something and that that whether deliberate or sub-conscious, a student needs to solve today’s problems based on past information and learning. One of the best things we can do for a student is to enable them to make the connections.
2. The hierarchy of this terms for me would be flexibility -> adaptability -> creativity. Although I think they are interrelated, I do believe that flexibility is the foundation for many of the other terms.
3. Creativity does not necessarily mean to start with a blank sheet of paper. I like that the definition includes NEW or MODIFY. Many people are very creative but need to start with something existing or a problem to solve. I believe that necessity is the mother of invention and also ensures that inventions have purpose.
In summary, I like the further breakdown of critical thinking as it makes it more approachable and less intimidating for new teachers to consider in their lessons.
Donna，you used a very "creative" approach of analysing occurrence of key words as an entry point for understanding the relationship between these inter-related concepts in the paper. Good idea!
ReplyDeleteI agree, your approach was very "creative" and I really liked how you broke down this article into words and definitions of these words. I too think that it is not so necessary that a student always be thinking about being flexible or creative, but rather that they have a strategy to go with and start from, whether or not that strategy be the "best" strategy, as I believe the idea of a "best" strategy can be a very subjective idea.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked that you picked up on what the definition given in the article of creativity said about "new" and "modify". Creativity does not have to be a brand new original thought never before seen.
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ReplyDeleteYes Donna, I do agree that creativity does not happen in a vacuum and human civilization, innovation and inventions were and are based on what already exists. There is some basic knowledge needed as a starting point to build on new ideas. Yet, the critical factor here is to show the kids that sky is the limit.
ReplyDeleteBTW Enjoyed you approach very much
Interesting response, I like your approach on how you broke down the article by counting the terms.These three terms are very interrelated, it seems a little too difficult to separate them. Seeing that strategy was the most frequent term, I guess that's what makes teaching so incredible, there are endless strategies of how we can present the knowledge. In order to plan well, I guess it all ends up on how well we know our students to deliver the best strategy of learning.
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