Thursday, December 23, 2010

American Kids aren't creative?

As a teacher that has only been teaching for less than ten years, I don't think I have enough experience to back this up with anecdotal evidence from my own teaching as the article, but I definitely have worried about the impact that technology will have on creativity. Hopefully now with the capabilities to create on the internet (see: aviary, a free set of web based tools meant to replace photoshop style programs) this concern over lack of creativity will slowly recede as technology tools catch up with how fast imaginations can work.

"Americans' scores on a commonly used creativity test fell steadily from 1990 to 2008, especially in the kindergarten through sixth-grade age group, says Kyung Hee Kim, an assistant professor of educational psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. The finding is based on a study of 300,000 Americans' scores from 1966 to 2008 on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, a standardized test that's considered a benchmark for creative thinking. (Dr. Kim's results are currently undergoing peer review to determine whether they will be published in a scholarly journal.)"

from the article A Box? Or a Spaceship? What Makes Kids Creative by Sue Shellenbarger

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