Are students at the University of North Florida using the resources provided for Academic Innovation?

The question is, are college students using the resources that universities make available to them?  Depending on the college or university, the number of resources being provided may vary. However, most schools give out the resources students need to transfer the knowledge acquired from high school, and put it to good use in college. Whether it's a community college or a university, academic innovation is indeed possible to accomplish. Even for a small school like the University of North Florida, it has countless tools that benefit students academically. From Greek life and academic organizations, to study abroad programs taken place around the globe. There’s no excuse for students to say that there are not enough resources. Fairs and events taken place at the student union are constantly being held to promote clubs. Some instructors and professors even offer research study participation which can really open doors for new opportunities.

 The most prominent part of achieving academic innovation isn'y solely what is being provided by the schools, it is what the students does with the resources they receive. Really, students have only two options, you either use the tools and try to achieve academic innovation, or you don’t. You won’t really know what you’re capable of achieving if no effort is being made. College is the place in order to do so, there are countless of opportunities given out that create the basic foundation of academic innovation, but it’s the students job to take those opportunities and challenge themselves for self-actualization. For people unfamiliar with the term, self-actualization this is a psychology term coined to express people who have reached their maximum potential of their talents: a state in which people are at their very best. “A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement.” —Bo Bennett

What's To Know About Creativity?

Nipper, Kyle 

What’s To Know About Creativity? 

When dealing with something like creativity, which is abstract and intangible, and not to mention totally random at times, it seems difficult to pinpoint a single factor which makes certain individuals much more creative than others. While a biological basis for creativity could definitely exist, due to the intangible nature of it, I believe environment plays a role just as crucial a role in creative development. Without the proper environment to foster creativity, it would be much more difficult for it to thrive. That being said, certain individuals seem to be gifted with their creative abilities, and a biological explanation for those outliers would really shed some light on the subject for most. 

Creativity is an abstract concept, but research has found that could link it to a scientific basis. In a text titled Brain Structure Links Everyday Creativity to Creative Achievement written by Wenfeng Zhu, Qunlin Chen, Chaoying Tang, Guikang Cao, Yuling Hou, and Jiang Qiu, they explain that link. The authors of the text have conducted research and they state “We found that every day creativity was positively correlated with the volume of the right premotor cortex” (Zhu et al. 138). Since they conducted the studies themselves, I would believe them to be credible sources. The authors of this text relate to another work, Beyond Big and Little: The Four C Model of Creativity by James Kaufmann and Ronald Beghetto. In their text Kaufmann and Beghetto introduce the model to categorize creativity, the 2C system. It consists of a Big/little C/c where the Big C represents grand scale creativity, like creative professionals. Little c represents everyday creativity. Kaufmann and Beghetto believe that instead of the 2C system, a 4C system would be more effective at mapping the creative spectrum. Zhu et al. reference this 4C system in their work.

Studying creativity is imperative to certain fields of work. To understand the nature of creativity and the factors that affect how humans function creatively is vastly important to those who base their entire careers on their own creative output. Artists who sell their paintings for a living must be able to produce paintings which are new and exciting to the viewer of the painting or else it won’t sell. Being self-aware of how to boost creative capacity is imperative to making themselves effective in their respective fields. Being able to control the environment or the thought process could be an invaluable skill to someone whose well-being is defined by their ability to perform creatively. This would be a vastly useful skill to learn for anyone, but it would mainly affect those who are in entertainment or creatively-driven fields. 

In the journal article Creative Days: A Daily Diary Study of Emotion, Personality, and Everyday Creativity by authors Tamlin Conner and Paul Silvia, the style that the information was gathered in was most similar to Zhu et al.’s text, where the information was mainly gathered by the authors who wrote the text. Tamlin and Silvia wrote this article based on information gathered from one of their studies. According to the article, they conducted an experiment where the examinees would write a journal online and would rate their experience between 18 positive and negative emotions. According to the information they received from this study, they found a positive correlation between positive emotions and high creative capacities. Negative emotions also showed an antagonistic effect on the creative output of the individuals. The study is fairly similar to the study conducted by Zhu et al. where the objective was to find a reason for everyday creativity and its variance between individuals. They differ because of different explanations for it. Silvia and Conner posit that creativity is heavily affected by emotional state, while Zhu et al. argues that it is because of the activity of the RMC (right motor cortex). These two explanations aren’t mutually exclusive and both could be correct that both factors have a strong effect on the creativity of the individual. 

Categorizing creativity may require more than 4C's but I do think that it could cover a vast majority of it. The issue with trying to categorize something abstract on a spectrum like creativity is that spectrum have so many niches in different areas that make the possibilities seemingly endless. Zhu et al. tries to link the categories of Kaufmann and Beghetto's system to a scientific basis. Experiments done by Zhu et al. found an association between the amount of grey brain matter someone has and their creative capacity. While there is an association, it is not definitive that someone with a higher volume of grey matter in their brain will have a higher creative output. It is not entirely unlikely for an individual to be more creative yet have a smaller RMC or lower volume of grey matter in their brain.

In The Social Spark: How Conversation Triggers Creativity and Insight by Karen Nestor, the idea of “aha moments” are explored. Nestor explained an aha moment as “the sudden experience of comprehending something that you didn’t understand before” (Nestor 1). Nestor elaborates that the area of the brain that is active during one of these moments is the same as the one that is active when comprehending a story. This blog post made by Nestor references a wide variety of cases and studies between her points to strengthen her points. With the backing of several studies, the information contained in the blog post becomes much more credible. The information that an area of the brain that is associated with understanding new concepts is also associated with people reading stories could be revolutionary for the academic field. In terms of academic innovation, instructors structuring their lessons like contemporary stories could be effective in making lessons more coherent for students. This method isn’t tested, but it could be explained given the correlation between the area of the brain that lights up during understanding a new concept and when comprehending stories. 

A form of academic innovation made at the University of North Florida is the addition of an exceptional gym on campus that is accessible to all students. This addition tackles improving academic success from another angle that isn’t normally addressed. The physical condition of the students can have a significant effect on their mindset in academic settings. According to Nestor’s text, their emotions will have a significant effect on their creative capacity, and normal exercise often has quite a positive effect on people. Going by this frame of thought, including a gym on campus that is accessible to all students would improve the performance of the students. All students aren’t going to use the gym, so the increase in performance wouldn’t be seen across the entirety of the student body, but those that are not opposed to going may find it more appealing since it is already included. One of the ways UNF could innovate academically is implementing adult-themed courses that instruct young adults on tasks that are not explained but expected of adults. Things like taxes, the stock market, finding a job are topics that are never addressed in your average curriculum. The closest the current system comes to addressing any of these is helping students make a resume, and more often then not this resume is geared towards academics as opposed to a job. One of the most effective things that UNF could do to prepare their students is offering courses on how to function as an adult for those who were never taught prior. This could potentially make the students who pass through the system more prepared for what they encounter outside of it. 

Creativity even though it seems erratic at times, can most times be explained scientifically. Despite the correlation with grey matter in the brain or activity of the right motor cortex, creativity has an inexplicable element to it that manifests in certain individuals. With regards to musicians, there are many who practice every day to hone their techniques, but there are also those who can play just as well while putting a fraction of the effort in and naturally connect with the creative medium without excessive practice. This could potentially be explained by the emotional approach from Nestor’s text, but it is only plausible. Though many strive to find a definitive origin for human creativity, due to its intangible nature, it will more than likely prove to be multifaceted and elusive. 

Work Cited: 

Kaufman, James C., and Ronald A. Beghetto. "Beyond big and little: The four C model of creativity." Review of general psychology 13.1 (2009): 1. 

  

Conner, Tamlin S., and Paul J. Silvia. "Creative days: A daily diary study of emotion, personality, and everyday creativity." Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 9.4 (2015): 463. 

  

Zhu, Wenfeng, et al. "Brain structure links everyday creativity to creative achievement." Brain and cognition 103 (2016): 70-76. 

“The Social Spark: How Conversation Triggers Creativity and Insight” https://www.booksatwork.org/social-spark-conversation-triggers-creativity-insight/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.