What is your choice for the top learning issues of the day? Learning to learn creativity is one of our choices. Taught in schools? We have not found many that teach it. We were very surprised by this finding.
Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read: he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.
-Herbert Gerjuoy
In earlier times, perhaps several generations or so ago, our great grandparents and their parents faced an entirely different problem of learning to learn creativity. In their environment, both generations shared the same problems and basically the same solutions. Learning creativity in this environment was not a priority. Learning was simply a matter of transferring information (facts) from the older generation to the newer one.
Enter the industrial age where the world had begun to change very rapidly and grow in complexity. Old solutions, old facts, were no longer enough. Learning needed to change to keep up, switching from learning old information to discovering and understanding new information, and being creative with new ideas. Clearly, a paradigm shift had begun.
Related: Ideas on Learning Reform and Its Instructional Implications
In the information and internet ages, learning problems have gotten much worse. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years … doubling. We are clearly living in exponential times.
So how do we improve our ability for learning creativity in such a complex environment? We have defined 8 ways we believe are essential in achieving this goal. Let’s discuss each of these:
Learn by doing
Most of what we know, we didn’t learn in school. We learned it in the real world, actually doing, not reading or listening to about doing.
Confucius once said: I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.
He appreciated that being a creator was the best way to learn. Make your learning be active learning and be creators as often as possible. We believe this the most critical of the 10 ways to improve your learning.
Create curiosity
If we have the guts to think about what we don’t know, confuse our learning, perplex ourselves, and evoke real questions, we can create curiosity. This curiosity can be used to tailor robust methods of blended learning and creativity. Curiosity must come first. Questions can be fantastic windows to great learning, but not the other way around. Build your skill of curiosity … it is a necessity for good learning as well as creativity.
Practice imagination
Albert Einstein once said: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.
He understood the complexities of the world today required imagination for the discovery of new ideas and solutions. Imagination requires lots of practice; it doesn’t just happen on its own. So start working on this skill to add to improve your learning.
Related: The Most Important Secret to Learning? An Einstein Story.
Observe and reflect
By observing life’s experiences around us and careful reflection of what we observe, we can gather facts and information to learn new solutions and methods. Increase your ability to ‘connect the dots’ around you. Take notes and revisit them often.
Embrace the mess of learning creativity. In this new world of continuous learning, we are all teachers as well as learners. We realize learning is often an ugly task. Accept that the process of trial and error is an acceptable learning process.
See our article on Continuous Learning.
Employ novelty
Our brains pay more attention to things in the environment that are new to our experience. So, seek out as many new experiences to try as you can handle and become an explorer. Learn from others’ creativity.
Change and contrast
People learn new things best when they are in contrast to other information in the environment or to things that are in contrast to previous experiences. To improve creativity, work on your experience of change. Step out into the unknown as often as you can.
Connect and collaborate
