By Laura Lewin - Trainer, author and consultant on issues of educational management, neuroeducation and classroom management.Convergent thinking is the ability to arrive at an answer logically.For example, if we ask ourselves: what is an umbrella for?, there is a logical answer: to protect ourselves from the rain.Usually, this type of thinking finds a single solution to problems.Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is coming up with various answers in creative or innovative ways.For example: what is an umbrella for?, as a cane, to fill it with earth and turn it into a pot, to reach something that we cannot reach, etc.Many people are very good at analyzing problems and making decisions.However, in general, we have not been trained too much in thinking of new ideas, new options, and in generating the climate that is not conducive to thinking of new proposals is safe, without the fear of the critical gaze of others.The development of creative thinking at school is fundamental because it has the power to modify situations, develop ideas, solve problems, offer improvements, etc.And this is not new: in the Renaissance, in each workshop there was a book in which the inspirations were noted.This was done by Leonardo Da Vinci throughout his life.In his notebook he made sketches of everything that occurred to him.When you make a notebook of ideas, in the end you end up with a "bank of ideas", that is, many ideas that may have consequences in the future and help us to elaborate or develop something.However, we expect our students to be innovative, autonomous, to think creatively and critically, in a system that puts them in an ice bucket: everyone must do the same thing, in the same way and at the same time.Let's think of a work meeting, in which a manager asks for ideas.Someone says: “I can think of such a thing”, and someone replies: “We already tried that and it didn't work”;another says: “That is very expensive”;another answers: “I don't see it possible”.What happens then?Ideas run out.After all, surely someone is going to object to us.We can be very creative, but if the general climate puts up barriers, if we do not feel empowered or do not allow ourselves to put new ideas into practice, everything will remain the same: nothing new will be tried or risks will be taken and we will lose a great opportunity to change what we want to change or improve.In other words, it is not about exercising creativity only, but also caring for the classroom climate, and developing skills such as respect for the ideas of others, the ability to improve an idea, and managing frustration, among others. others.Why should we develop students' creative thinking?Let's imagine this situation: we own an office building and the people who rent it complain that the elevator is very slow.And it's true, the elevator is old and slow, and people take time to go up or down.It is a problem that we have to solve because the tenants are threatening not to renew their leases because of the elevator.To try to get rid of the problem as quickly as possible, you look for solutions such as changing the motor or even buying a new elevator (convergent thinking: people complain because the elevator is slow, we change it).However, if we think about it, there are other solutions that could work if we reformulate the problem, that is, if we look at it from another angle.You could put mirrors in the elevator.Mirrors?Yes, people lose track of time when they get distracted.The mirror doesn't make the elevator faster, but it reformulates the problem: waiting is frustrating.That is actually the cause of the problem and the complaints: what irritates people is having to wait.If the wait is frustrating, the solution might simply be to make the wait feel less.Putting a mirror, music, advertisements, a screen with photos, videos or even data of interest will make you lose track of time and forget the delay.In general, the school focuses more on convergent thinking.The teacher asks a question and expects the students to respond in unison.If we want creative adults who can also think critically, we will need to develop both types of thinking in students.How do we capture the imagination, creativity and initiative of the students?1) Encouraging divergent thinking through exercises such as brainstorming, offering problems to solve that do not have a single possible answer, encouraging debate, putting less emphasis on memorization and more on production, working by projects, etc.2) Building confidence in your creativity: We are all creative, just some are out of practice.Just because they haven't done it so far doesn't mean they can't do it.Some exercises to activate creativity:a) Change daily routines (at school, at home).b) Give your students some sheets and colors and ask them to make their own logo or avatar.c) With another sheet and colors, ask them to express love or friendship in 5 minutes.d) Mini lectures: hand out cards with topics (climate change, the evolution of technology, social stereotypes, etc.) and that they must convince their classmates about the topic that they are touched on, whether or not they agree with the topic.3) Eliminating the voice of judgement: A good way to teach our students that “the outsider” is not always right, is to analyze these real quotes:“Everything that could be invented has already been invented”(Charles H. Duel, 1899. US Patent Delegate)“I think there is a market in the world for maybe five computers”(Thomas J. Watson, 1943. Founder of IBM –International Business Machines)“No one is interested in another witchcraft story…” – when JK Rowling submitted the Harry Potter manuscript to a publisher.4) Modifying the environment: What if we left the classroom?What if we thought up a tree?What if we fell on the floor to think?5) Taking time to think: creativity needs time to flourish.It's not about having time, it's about making time to think.6) Developing curiosity: much of the innovations in the world have been inspired by the same question: "what would happen if...?".Did you know that the supermarket cart was born from wondering how people could buy more?"What would happen if we made a bigger basket?"It would be very heavy."What would happen if we put wheels on it?"7) Experimenting: Thomas Edison already said: “I have not failed.I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."And along the same path was Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon: "I knew that the only thing I could regret was not trying."8) Evaluate based on the differences: do not always evaluate in the same way.Sometimes you can do it orally, sometimes in writing, sometimes through projects, through research papers.Sometimes individually, sometimes in a group.Offer them to choose how they prefer to display their knowledge.9) Help them capitalize on and learn from mistakes: When you make mistakes and capitalize on them, you learn!It is more important to assess the procedure than the result itself.As a teacher, we must value the process over the result.10) Work on the value of effort and perseverance: when things get difficult, many students are tempted to give up.That is why the figure of the teacher is key to being able to facilitate the emotional conditions necessary to help them persevere and achieve it.There, when the student believes that he cannot, is where the figure of the teacher is crucial and his role takes on even greater relevance.There is nothing better to develop self-esteem than achieving something that at first we thought we would never be able to do.Several decades ago, in the 1960s, Sam Glucksberg, a professor at Princeton University, took two groups of people for a test.To the participants in the first group he told them that he was going to time the time it would take them to solve a problem, while to those in the second group he promised them an economic incentive if they were the first to find the solution.The result of Glucksberg is not what they expected: those who were going to receive financial compensation took longer than the first.This, which seems to go against common sense, begins to make sense when we remember situations in our lives in which creativity has played a fundamental role and has been held back when the reward (financial or otherwise) came into play.Beware: external incentives, such as the note, do not encourage creativity.The latest from country© EL LIBERAL SA (see mobile version) Editorial Director: Lic. Gustavo Eduardo Ick Santiago del Estero / Argentine Republic