Brainstorming

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By: Megan Prats

8/5/2014

Brainstorming is the first step of the creative process. I explained it to my student as “vomiting” ideas because brainstorming is when the student allows a free flow of ideas to be generated.

How do you teach brainstorming when it is something that, like your heart beat, just comes naturally and really cannot be consciously controlled? Well, the answer is that you cannot really teach brainstorming, as you cannot really teach the heart to beat, but what you can teach is how to optimize the natural potential (like you can teach someone how to optimize efficiency of the heart).

The first and most natural place to start the brainstorming process is to explain to the student how the brainstorming process works. Thus, define brainstorming to the student and explain to the student that it is like the heartbeat – organic and mainly outside of one’s control. Explain to the student that brainstorming is an activity that really has no rules or time constraints. It operates fluidly in the infinite realm of knowledge.

Once the student understands what brainstorming is, the next step is to have the student start generating ideas.  Give the student a few minutes to write down all of the ideas that come to mind.  Even though brainstorming ideally has no time constraints, you shouldn’t spend too much time in the lesson with this activity.  After the student has finished, assess whether the quality and quantity of the ideas are sufficient.  If not, then it is time to develop the student’s ability to think “outside of the box”.

 

© Megan Prats 2014

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By: Megan Prats

8/5/2014

Brainstorming is the first step of the creative process. I explained it to my student as “vomiting” ideas because brainstorming is when the student allows a free flow of ideas to be generated and collected for the second phase – Idea Selection.

How do you teach brainstorming when it is something that, like your heart beat, just comes naturally and really cannot be consciously controlled? Well, the answer is that you cannot really teach brainstorming, as you cannot really teach the heart to beat, but what you can teach is how to optimize the natural potential (like you can teach someone how to optimize efficiency of the heart).

The first and most natural place to start the brainstorming process is to explain to the student how the brainstorming process works. Thus, define brainstorming to the student and explain to the student that it is like the heartbeat – organic and mainly outside of one’s control. Allow the student to understand how the brainstorming process fits in the entire creative process so that she can obtain a comprehensive understanding of it. Explain to the student that brainstorming is an activity that really has no rules or time constraints. It operates fluidly in the infinite realm of knowledge.

Once the student understands what brainstorming is, the next step is to have the student start generating ideas.  Give the student a few minutes to write down all of the ideas that come to mind.  Even though brainstorming ideally has no time constraints, you shouldn’t spend too much time in the lesson with this activity.  After the student has finished, assess whether the quality and quantity of the ideas are sufficient.  If not, then it is time to develop the student’s ability to think “outside of the box”.

 

© Megan Prats 2014

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