Author Archives: knlistman

Wanted mentors: Dead or Alive

In the city of Florence, Italy stands the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore with a massive brick dome, a masterpiece in its day, built without the wooden framework required to hold up a dome while the mortar dried. Yet, it … Continue reading

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What kind of childhood?

According to a review on the childhood of exceptionally creative individuals–“The growth of creativity in a young person suggests the effects of powerful nurturing and support” (Piers 2000).  But what this research suggests does not occur most of the time. … Continue reading

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Beyond Self-Confidence

Now that innovation is essential to business, the educational institutions are attempting to encourage rather than quash creativity. With the revival of creativity as a money-making traits comes the recurring discussion of the how difficult creative people are. So what … Continue reading

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Longer or shorter life?

It is not terribly uncommon to find contradictory conclusions when it come to creativity research. However, adding fame to the mix increases the variation in finding because fame is something the individual does not control. Granted there are some creative … Continue reading

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Age and creativity

The very act of creativity means producing results that don’t resemble those produced by others. There is no easy way to arrive at a number for creativity. Instead a group of people, respected in the particular field, must view and … Continue reading

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Is creativity on a downhill slide?

Just as the business world seems to be competing to attract creative workers, students’ scores on tests of creative thinking appear to be declining. Education professor at the College of William and Mary Kyung Hee Kim analyzed scores from the … Continue reading

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Conforming to divergency

My first experience with creative problem solving competitions involved a group of rather ambitious second graders. Rather than opting for the easier non-competitive primary challenge they insisted on a difficult one. They spent hours trying to build structures out of fragile materials such … Continue reading

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Competitive disadvantage for creative women

 Every time I hear someone ask how to intrinsically motivate students, I have to laugh inside. The very definition of intrinsic means to come from inside of a person, not from an outside source, such as a teacher, instructor, trainer … Continue reading

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Is there a hidden price in creativity for women?

No matter how many different studies  are performed using different measurements in testing creativity for males and females there seems to be a consistent result. There is no difference.  Kogan (1974) found that when creativity test scores for students were … Continue reading

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Making the choice

This past Sunday was Mother’s Day in the United States. A holiday inspired by Anna Jarvis, an educator, editor and business woman who never married or became a mother herself. Instead Jarvis campaigned to honor her own mother, a socially … Continue reading

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