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For Your Hands: "Slow Looking"

From How 'Slow Looking' Can Help Students Develop Skills Across Disciplines, by Emily Boudreau ()

Did you know that experts estimate the length of the human attention span is only 8 seconds?!

"For educators working with a new generation raised in a world of rapid information exchange, it may seem difficult to hold students’ attention when it comes time for extended observation.

"As an antidote, Project Zero researcher Shari Tishman offers 'slow looking' — the practice of observing detail over time to move beyond a first impression and create a more immersive experience with a text, an idea, a piece of art, or any other kind of object. It’s a practice that clears a space for students to hold and appreciate the richness of the world we live in."

Here some activities from the article you might try with your students to encourage slow looking.

Slow looking helps students navigate complex systems and build connections
Activity: Take something apart, whether it’s a physical object or an idea like “family.” What are the different components and how do they function together?

In this activity, students develop an appreciation for complexity and how small pieces can come together to form a larger whole — and in turn, can inspire students to use what they know to design new systems.

Slow looking fuels empathy and self-awareness
Activity: Change your vantage point. That might mean looking with the naked eye and then through a microscope, asking students to think about what a glass of water might look like to an ant, or examining eating utensils from around the world.

Slow looking allows students to understand how they see something through their own lens — and opens them up to how others in the world and in the classroom may see the same object or idea differently. It also provides a space for them to notice the commonalities in different perspectives.

Students can build off the ideas of others and think together
Activity: Have the class look at an object or image. Go around and have students each say one thing they notice about that object. They can’t repeat, but they can add on to what a classmate has said. Reflect on what students have picked up on: What’s the same or different? What questions do they have?

Often, a member of the community will share something that will spark new thinking or bring eyes to something other people may not have picked up on originally.

Students learn to describe in detail
Activity: Descriptions don’t just have to be written. Have your students draw something multiple times. What did they notice the first time? Was there something they picked up on the second time? What did they notice as they kept studying the object?

While instructors may often ask students to write down these observations, drawing can provide the same kinds of meaningful insights, especially if you emphasize that the point of the activity isn’t to draw an accurate picture, it’s to notice more detail.

For Your Heart: The Golden Circle
How Great Leaders Inspire Action

For Your Head: Recognize & Encourage Creativity

From "How to Combat America's Creativity Crisis", by Michael Ruiz ()

According to the KH Kim, author of The Creativity Challenge, “America has an increasingly limited number of individuals who are capable of finding and implementing solutions to problems the nation faces today,” she writes. “If this trend isn’t reversed soon, America will be unable to tackle the challenges of the future.”

"In the 20th century, global immigration to America brought different perspectives that helped fuel the country’s creativity, she [Kim] explains. In turn, the American educational system encouraged creativity with its emphasis on intellectual diversity, curiosity, risk taking, and non-conformity. However, economic realities caused a shift in these values: Starting in the 1980s, cultivating creativity didn’t seem like the path to a stable job, and schools shifted to focus on improving standardized test scores in order to get funding, Kim writes."

In order to help combat this problem, it is important that we create environments that "encourage creativity and all of the benefits it brings."

8 Signs of a Creative Person

• Big-picture-thinking: Creative people think abstractly, looking past the concrete details of the current situation and seeking new solutions. However, with their optimism and curiosity, they are sometimes seen as dreamy and unrealistic.
• Spontaneous: Creative individuals tend to be flexible and act fast on new opportunities, approaching them with an open mind and a playful perspective—which can come off as impulsive.
• Playful: Creative people tend to be lighthearted and have a drive to explore the world. On the other hand, this can also be seen as mischievous.
• Resilient: Creative people can pick themselves up after a failure and bounce back from challenges, refocusing on new ways to overcome adversities. Sometimes, this comes across as combative.
• Autonomous: Creative people often strive for independence in their thoughts and actions, relying on intrinsic motivation to pursue their goals. At times, such individuals can seem out of control.
• Defiant: Creative people have a tendency to reject existing norms and authorities in pursuit of their own goals. This allows them to see what others cannot see and develop solutions that push boundaries, which can seem rebellious.
• Risk-taking: Fueled by their optimism, many creative people are willing to forgo security in favor of uncertain rewards. To the average person, this may come across as reckless.
• Daydreaming: By daydreaming, creative individuals are able to envision new perspectives and solutions—but along the way, some of their ideas might seem delusional.

How to Support Creatives

• Offer creatives the resources they need. Innovators are like plants, Kim says; they are hungry for resources so that they can grow and develop. This includes offering them the time and freedom to explore informal activities that might inspire them, from continuing education at work to alternate assignments at school. If an employee wants to spend a work day visiting a new exhibit at a museum, you might let them—perhaps they’ve fallen into a rut and need something to spark their next project idea.
• Foster diversity. Environments that are multicultural and open to diverse languages, ethnicities, and sexualities make room for different perspectives that challenge our pre-existing thought patterns. Leaders should aim to avoid creating a community that is culturally homogenous and conformity-based.
• Encourage mentorship. Kim suggests that mentors are beneficial to individuals’ sense of creativity. “They eventually push mentees toward new opportunities to discover their own uniqueness by taking intellectual risks or defying the crowd,” she writes. Leaders can structure their organizations in a way that encourages more experienced workers or students to mentor others.