Step by step guide to brainstorming By Jeffrey Baumgartner Preface: Brainstorming Is Not an Effective Creativity Tool Before you read the article below, there is one thing you should know. Brainstorming is not a very good way to generate creative ideas. The article below was first written in 1997. Meanwhile, I leave the original text of the Step by Step Guide to Brainstorming below for archival purposes. The Step by Step Guide to Brainstorming Brainstorming can be an effective way to generate lots of ideas on a specific issue and then determine which idea – or ideas – is the best solution. A brainstorming session requires a facilitator, a brainstorming space and something on which to write ideas, such as a white-board a flip chart or software tool. Brainstorming works best with a varied group of people. There are numerous approaches to brainstorming, but the traditional approach is generally the most effective because it is the most energetic and openly collaborative, allowing participants to build on each others' ideas.
How To Think and Communicate Visually Visual storytelling is nothing new. We only need to look to the earliest signs of humanity for proof—simple paintings on the walls of caves tell the story that people are a visual tribe. Today, it seems, communications must be visual in order to be compelling, as well as to compete with the massive amount of information available to us at any given moment (even Google acknowledged this in 2001 by introducing image search). Whether it’s a web video, infographic, or illustration, visual assets can communicate a wealth of information rapidly, and in ways that our brains process differently than other, more traditional mediums. The secret to producing these compelling, yet bite-sized morsels of information is having “visual literacy,” or being able to think in pictures. As someone who thinks visually, I want to share five tips that I believe will work for anyone who is looking to communicate and influence through a medium that transcends the written word: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Final Thoughts P.S.
Where do I start? Choosing a research topic To gather useful information for a research project you need to develop a focused research topic. When you choose your topic, consider the steps: Choose a topic Prepare before you search What's the assignment Brainstorm for topic ideas Read general background information Focus in on your topic Identify concepts Define your topic as a focused research question Research and read more about your topic Formulate a thesis statement Need to do some research? Anxiety: How do I start this project? It's normal to feel any or all of these reactions. Your past success or failure at research Your general knowledge about how to do research Your familiarity with the sources available to you. Prepare before you search Good news - you are invited to a party! Do you hop in your car and start driving, hoping to find it by sheer luck? No-if you want to get there in time, you will probably want to focus your search with a map and some instructions. What is the Assignment?
Six Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven, and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction. PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it "looks like" in the classroom. We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. 1. We all know that heterogeneous grouping works, but sometimes homogenous grouping can be an effective way to differentiate in a project. 2. Reflection is an essential component of PBL. 3. This is probably one of my favorites. 4. Another essential component of PBL is student voice and choice, both in terms of what students produce and how they use their time. 5. 6.
Critical Thinking On The Web Top Ten Argument Mapping Tutorials. Six online tutorials in argument mapping, a core requirement for advanced critical thinking.The Skeptic's Dictionary - over 400 definitions and essays. The Fallacy Files by Gary Curtis. What is critical thinking? Nobody said it better than Francis Bacon, back in 1605: For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things … and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. A shorter version is the art of being right. More definitions... Program for Critical Thinking Program for better decision making Our umbrella site. 6 Dec 21 May
Research 101 -- Topics -- Using A Topic to Generate Questions Research requires a question for which no ready answer is available. What do you want to know about a topic? Asking a topic as a question (or series of related questions) has several advantages: 1. 2. 3. Developing a question from a broad topic can be done in many ways. brainstorming noun: 1. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 Brainstorming is a free-association technique of spontaneously listing all words, concepts, ideas, questions, and knowledge about a topic. concept mapping noun phrase: 1. You may create a concept map as a means of brainstorming; or, following your brainstorm, you may take the content you have generated and create your map from it . Combining brainstorming and concept mapping (brainmapping, if you will) can be a productive way to begin your thinking about a topic area. <<previous pg. | next pg
Scamper - Creativity tools from MindTools Improving Products and Services This tool can help you develop new products and services. © iStockphoto/aladin66 It can often be difficult to come up with new ideas when you're trying to develop or improve a product or service. This is where creative brainstorming techniques like SCAMPER can help. This tool helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you to think about how you could improve existing ones. We'll look at SCAMPER in this article. About the Tool SCAMPER is a mnemonic that stands for: Substitute.Combine.Adapt.Modify.Put to another use.Eliminate.Reverse. You use the tool by asking questions about existing products, using each of the seven prompts above. Alex Osborn, credited by many as the originator of brainstorming, originally came up with many of the questions used in the technique. Note: Remember that the word "products" doesn't only refer to physical goods. How to Use the Tool SCAMPER is really easy to use. First, take an existing product or service. Adapt
Self Teaching Self Teaching Critical Thinking For self-teaching, a good way to start is to look at the "Twenty-One Strategies and Tactics for Teaching Critical Thinking" on this web site. Start in particular with the first three suggestions and apply them to questions, issues, conversations, things you read and see, etc., in your daily life, no matter what your principal activities are. After a period of time, perhaps a day, a week, a month, or even a year, depending on your present critical thinking level, start applying the other suggestions in "strategies and tactics". At the same time, start examining the definition/conception of critical thinking on this site, perhaps starting with the twelve-item "super-streamlined" conception. Sit down and write out an account of your making a decision about some questions or issue, following the FRISCO outline and exhibiting attention to RRA and SEBKUS. For more examples and practice you might work your way through a critical thinking textbook. Robert H.
Brainstorming Research Questions- CRLS Research Guide /** * Simple encryption to hide email addresses from crawlers in webpages. * This code is Free Software provided under an MIT License. * Written by Diego Doval: bnaeQ0bvPXOnZQYgaZqp1ZQO * */ CRLS Research Guide Brainstorming Research Questions Tip Sheet 10 Ask these questions: What is it? It is the process of thinking up and writing down a set of questions that you want to answer about the research topic you have selected. Why should I do it? It will keep you from getting lost or off-track when looking for information. When do I do it? After you have written your statement of purpose, when you will have a focused topic to ask questions about. How do I do it? You will be making two lists of questions. Asking factual questions: Assume your reader knows nothing about your subject. Make a list of specific questions that ask : Who? Asking Interpretive Questions: These kinds of questions are the result of your own original thinking. A. B. C. D. E.
DO IT - A Simple Creativity Process - Creativity Techniques from MindTools A Simple Process for Creativity Follow this 4-step process. © iStockphoto/3dbrained DO IT is a process for creativity. Techniques outlined earlier in this chapter focus on specific aspects of creative thinking. These help you to get the best out of the creativity techniques. DO IT is an acronym that stands for: D – Define problem.O – Open mind and apply creative techniques.I – Identify best solution.T – Transform. These stages are explained in more detail below: 1. This section concentrates on analyzing the problem to ensure that the correct question is being asked. Check that you are tackling the problem, not the symptoms of the problem. 2. Once you know the problem that you want to solve, you are ready to start generating possible solutions. At this stage of DO IT we are not interested in evaluating ideas. You can use the whole battery of creativity techniques covered earlier in this section to search for possible solutions. 3. 4. Many very creative people fail at this stage. Key Points
Assignment Research Calculator - Step 2F: Is Your Topic Too Narrow or Specific? If a topic is too specific you will not find enough material for your research. Example: How does teenage pregnancy among minorities affect grades and dropout rates in Fresno high schools? Use Academic Search Premier in different search interfaces to help broaden your topic. Another possibility is to use the cloud feature of Quintura: Seek and Find to manipulate your topic and see what you can find on the web. SWOT analysis A SWOT analysis, with its four elements in a 2×2 matrix. A SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. Some authors credit SWOT to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.[1][2] However, Humphrey himself does not claim the creation of SWOT, and the origins remain obscure. Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective. Matching and converting[edit] One way of utilizing SWOT is matching and converting.