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Brainstorming Debunked
March 5, 2013
I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.'
-Toni Morrison
-Toni Morrison
The first refutation came from Yale researchers who in 1958 set up 12 groups of four undergraduates each and 48 students working by themselves. The groups and individuals were given a series of creative puzzles, and the solo students came up with twice as many ideas as the brainstorming groups. The conclusion was: "Brainstorming didn't unleash the power of the group, but rather made each individual less creative." In a more ambitious research project in 2003 at UC Berkeley, students in groups where criticism and debate were encouraged produced twenty percent more ideas than groups where negativity was not permitted.
Teaching Young Children Tool Kit
Exchange has packaged seven of its teaching resources into a single "Teaching Young Children Tool Kit" and is offering the entire set at a discount. Separately these resources would cost $194.00, but we are offering the entire Tool Kit for only $154.Resources in the kit include:
- Beginnings Workshops Book #3 - Child Development
- Beginnings Workshops Book #7 - Child Development II
- Places for Childhoods: Making Quality Happen in the Real World
- Teaching Four-Year-Olds: A Personal Journey
- The Intentional Teacher
- Voices DVD: Caring for Infants and Young Toddlers
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsUnited States
How long were the student's working by themselves given to work on the problem vs. how long the groups met? Has anyone tried comparisons with smaller groups vs. individuals?
United States
I find myself thinking what, if anything, this comment about group think says, given that we are all careful to be positive and specific about children's ideas and efforts.
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