5+1 Teacher Training Program: Week 6

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This is week six of the Teacher Trainer English program. It is also the last week of regular lectures for this session. Next week the trainees will be doing their oral presentations.

CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION

This segment is about curiosity and imagination. I suppose we could combine these and call it creativity.

Today let’s investigate a couple of dimensions of

curiosity and imagination.

  1. Energy Openness Focus
  2. Time and Pressure
  3. A Structured Process – SCAMPER
  4. A model – Dragon’s Den
  5. Practice – apply the ideas
  6. Solve a problem

DRAGON’S DEN

Watch and listen to the video. Summarize the video content by describing the:

  1. business proposal
  2. elements that make it creative
  3. response form the leaders
  4. conclusion
  5. your thoughts on the level of creativity in the business idea

SCAMPER

Here is a brief slide show which shows one technique to help people become more creative.

A checklist of idea-spurring questions.

  1. Substitute something.
  2. Combine it with something else.
  3. Adapt something to it.
  4. Modify it.
  5. Put it to some other use.
  6. Eliminate something.
  7. Rearrange it.

Example

“How can …?” “What else …?” “How else …?” If you do this at each step, you can generate many ideas. A paper clip manufacturer wants to improve his product. He would start looking for ideas by asking:

  • What can be substituted in the clip?
  • What can I combine the clip with to make something else?
  • What can I adapt to the clip?
  • How can I modify the clip?
  • What can I magnify or add to the clip?
  • What other uses can I find for the clip?
  • What can be eliminated from the clip?
  • What is the reverse of clipping?
  • What rearrangement of the clip might be better?

One manufacturer substituted plastic for metal, added color, and produced plastic clips in various colors so that clipped papers could be color-coded, thereby creating another use for clips.