Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Advanced vs Creative Thinker

I have been think about the difference between these two lately. I feel like a lot of our shorthand measures of giftedness are quantitative: doing 4th grade work in 1st, reading early, etc.

But definitions of giftedness tend to emphasize creative and critical thinking, seeing the world differently, making unexpected connections, etc.

I guess what I'm wondering is how much overlap is there between these two? Couldn't we have a kid who works well above grade level but exhibits little or no creative thinking? Or do the two always go hand in hand? Conversely, what about the kid that just thinks differently and thus may not work ahead perhaps because the evaluation measures don't recognize their ways of thinking?

I realize that "advanced" is easier to measure than creative thinking, but how do we nurture those creative thinkers, then? I feel like the push is always onward and upward on the same path, but how can we maintain alternate pathways for our kiddos who see the world differently and may have some great contributions to make if we can nurture their perspectives?

I have thought about this lately also. I don't necessarily think my son is very advanced but his thinking is just different.
Here is an example:
We go to the dog park a lot. My four year old has gotten tired of going and only has fun when he finds another little kid there he can play with. We are unloading and he is walking around a bit while I am getting the baby in the carrier and the dog leashed. He comes up and says he wants to go home because he is the only kid there. I say you can't know there are no kids here. There are over fifty acres of forested trials and there is only a small meadow visible from the parking lot. His response - no cars here have car seats or boosters. I checked. I am the only kid here.
It is not like coming to that conclusion the way he did was necessarily advanced, it just seemed like a creative way to determine if there were kids in the forest.

Anyway, he doesn't seem all that academically advanced. He has little interest in reading by himself, writing or math. He'll sometimes read a big word or randomly do multiplication in his head but nothing with any consistency to make advanced school work necessary. Those moments seem to come out of nowhere and he won't or can't explain how he came up with it in the first place. If it weren't for his scores, I would wonder if he was gifted at all and didn't just have a big vocabulary an amazing memory and an odd way of looking at the world.

There really isn't any formula to nurturing creativity, because it manifests itself in so many different ways, so I'd say the only possible answer to that question is, "be creative."

Check out the "three ring model of giftedness" by Joseph Renzulli

I've been thinking about this a bit too primarily b/c of the thread about case studies in science talent development. The article linked there seems to define "gifted" as the intersection btwn high IQ and high creativity. Nowhere does that necessitate high achievement, though, since one can be of high IQ/ability and not performing highly in school for a variety of reasons.

Page 37 has the following table (formatting is messed up here I'm sure):

Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for IQ and Creativity Test Scores (Z Scores for the Four Ability Groups: Gifted, Creative, Intelligent, and Average)

IQ test Creativity test
Group n M SD M SD
Average 12 99.83 4.63 49.67 5.02
Gifted 11 129.82 4.60 64.00 2.93
Creative 11 106.18 8.60 66.54 3.72
Intelligent 15 127.33 3.75 48.87 4.78

In other words, they state that:

The "average" kids had:
average IQs and average creativity

The "gifted" kids had:
IQs around the 98th percentile plus or minus a bit and high creativity

The "creative" kids had:
average IQs and high creativity

The "intelligent" kids had:
IQs pretty close to as high as the gifted kids and average creativity

I recently excerpted an article on "How to Be Creative" http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....25157/How_To_Be_Creative.html#Post125157

A high IQ doesn't necessarily mean you're creative, divergent, and/or a visual-spatial person. I know some may dispute it, but visual-spatial people do think and learn differently.

The vast majority of tests and work on giftedness involve auditory-sequential children or those who sit still, pay attention, think linearly and sequentially - you're ideal student. Performance in reading, writing, and math are easier to measure than say art/music or STE part of STEM. Here's a chart between the two - http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm

Creative and divergent thinkers do think differently; and the two are separate. Many creative people are divergent thinkers, but not all. Still, the two often go hand and hand. I think of this with artists/musicians/writers. I'm thinking of Captain Underpants' author Dav Pilkey and Roald Dahl - both of whom are highly creative and divergent thinkers.

Dr. Linda Silverman (author of Upside Down Brilliance) has studied those visual-spatial people like Dav Pilkey and how they can have high/average IQ and still excel in creativity and visual-spatial abilities. What she noticed with profoundly-gifted visual-spatial kids with high IQ is that they had exceptional reading, writing, and mathematical abilities. Some of the visual-spatial kids with lower IQ scores had learning disabilities (dyslexic) or attentional issues that hampered them. She describes how visual-spatial kids think and learn differently, which some of us have found very helpful.

For divergent thinking, here's an article from Dr. Lovecky's center:
http://www.grcne.com/divergent-thinker.html

Here's another article on high-IQ, creativity, and convergent/divergent thinking. It says that IQ does not measure divergent thinking and is only one piece of the puzzle:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...ergent-thinking-are-necessary-creativity

As a parent of a 6.5-yr-old, eg/pg visual-spatial kid, I can understand and identify with what you're saying - lack of consistency at times and out-of-box thinking. How to nurture - besides arts/crafts? Well, I try to make sure we've got Legos and plenty of building blocks (wood or cardboard) around or opportunities for open-ended play (i.e. multi-colored pom poms for imaginative baking). I really don't do anything, but let my son think of different ways to use the materials - heaven, forbid, I make a suggestion or have an idea.

If a kid falls in the forest but doesn't have a carseat...



This is just a "ditto..." DS1 is really wierd, and I'm often blown away by how "advanced" other kids are compaired to him. But then something comes up and I have to make some stupid excuse for why we're reading *that,* or why he can do *that...* and then I'm convinced the same other kid is just parroting, and then it flips and it flops, and I'm left very confused. DS1 doesn't "know" anything unless he knows it in a way other kids just don't seem to worry about... he needs multiplucation to understand counting, evolution to understand what a flower is, etc.

I think DS is more different than "smart," but I do think he's auful smart. He is kinda sorta working above grade level, but he's 3, so take that for what it's worth. He shuts down when presented with kindergarden material because it's too simple *and* too hard; ask him if there are more boys or more girls, and he asks you to define your terms, which the teachers don't get at all.

Did I mention it's confusing...

My biggest concern is that our kids' natural creativity is being educated right out of them. How do we expect them to be creative thinkers when they are continually rewarded for conformity at school?

By rewarding nonconformity at home.