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SUMMARY:'Title case’  The Use of 'Tools' for Nurturing and Assessing Cre
 ativity - Dr Kevin Bryon
DTSTART:20100317T160000Z
DTEND:20100317T180000Z
UID:TALK23682@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ewa Illakowicz
DESCRIPTION:There are two main considerations in the design and developmen
 t of activities aimed at nurturing creativity with groups of schoolchildre
 n or students. These are what are commonly known as ‘Tools\, techniques 
 and frameworks’ on the one hand and ‘Creative behaviours’ on the oth
 er. An over-emphasis on the former can result in more adaptive rather than
  creative outcomes in such activities. In contrast nurturing creative beha
 viour in the absence of tools or a framework can produce outcomes that hav
 e little practicality or value. In the latter case this could be considere
 d unimportant if nurturing creative thinking is the sole aim. However\, th
 ere is a distinction to be made between nurturing creativity and nurturing
  a wild imagination. It could be argued that the tools\, techniques and fr
 ameworks represent the means by which creativity is coupled in parallel wi
 th innovation (in its widest sense) in order to help produce ideas that ar
 e ‘original and useful’. Tools and techniques have another important u
 se also in that they can be used to assess creativity.        \n      \nTh
 is presentation will describe some group activities and workshops that wer
 e developed and presented at primary and secondary schools in Hertfordshir
 e\, where the emphasis was on nurturing creativity. Particular emphasis wi
 ll be placed on one of the many tools that have been devised for ‘idea-f
 inding’ that has been useful in assessing creativity irrespective of the
  ‘conceptual spaces’ in which the activities were placed.  \n\nDr Kevi
 n Bryon\n\nKevin Byron received his Ph.D in Applied Physics from the Unive
 rsity of Hull and pursued a career in research in the telecommunications i
 ndustry for some twenty five years. During this time he was an honorary vi
 siting lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a visiting Fellow at the 
 University of Salford and was elected to Fellowship of the Institute of Ph
 ysics. \n\nThroughout his time in industry he also developed a growing int
 erest in education and training and in particular creative skills\, and th
 e award of a three year NESTA Fellowship in 2002 enabled him to set up his
  own training consultancy to pursue these interests. As part of the fellow
 ship he developed and delivered a number of skills training workshops to a
  range of groups including school children\, undergraduates and university
  academics. \n\nIn 2008 he joined the student development team at the Univ
 ersity of Leicester. Working with the science faculties he developed and p
 resented a number of research skills workshops and resources for postgradu
 ates as part of the roll-out of the Robert’s skills agenda.\n\nHe has pr
 esented his research in creativity at several international conferences in
  Italy\, Canada\, the USA\, South Africa\, Qatar and the UK. He is a co-au
 thor of the book 'The Alchemy of Innovation' and also authored two monogra
 phs on ‘Inventing and Problem-Solving’ and ‘Counter-intuition’ pub
 lished by the Institute for Cultural Research. In December 2009 he publish
 ed ‘The Creative Researcher’ booklet as part of the research councils
 ’ skills agenda for postgraduate research students.  \n\nHe is currently
  Enterprise Education Coordinator at Queen Mary\, University of London and
  a free-lance trainer specialising in research skills\, creativity\, perso
 nal effectiveness and enterprise training for higher education and busines
 s. \n\n
LOCATION:Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, room GS1
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