Creative Education Foundation

Founded in 1954, CEF is a non profit US-American membership organization based in Buffalo (New York) which is devoted to foster creativity, creative problem solving and innovation in theory and practice in order to help youth, individuals and organizations reach their creative potential.

History

The organization was established in 1954 by the advertising specialist and creative professional Alex F. Osborn,^[1] who was known as the inventor of the term and the creativity technique Brainstorming. As an early contribution according to its mission statement the organization held in 1955 the first annual Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), an international creativity conference, at the University of Buffalo.^[2]

For years the organization had been directed by Alex Osborn together with the creativity theorist and education researcher Sid Parnes. When Alex Osborn died in 1966, Parnes took over the initiative and the chair. He installed the lifetime creative achievement award which was granted upon suggestion to persons who earned outstanding merits in the field of applied creativity. Also he installed a media-program of CEF-publications.

In 1987 John Meyerhoff took over as the CEO. He expanded CEF’s educational perspective to include business training.

Further CEOs added partnership programs and VIP-days and reinstalled CEF consulting and training programs.

Work

In the beginning the focus relied on organizing the annual conference, evolving and applying creativity tools and techniques which can be utilized professionally and personally, conducting research in the field of applied creativity, problem solving and innovation, publishing books and teaching materials, and in the development of a comprehensive educational program which includes creativity specifically for scholars and young people.

As a part of its research aspirations, in 1967, the organization launched the Journal of Creative Behavior (JCB),^[3] a peer-reviewed first research publication devoted entirely to the science of creativity, which is now published by Wiley-Blackwell. Later, in 1972 it was followed by Creativity in Action, CEF’s monthly newsletter.

Since 1979 the CPSI-conference has offered four major program streams: Springboard for novices, Leadership Development Program, CPSI YouthWise,^[4] and Extending sessions for exploratory studies.

Since 1989 the organization sponsored creativity conferences in the CPSI-sense on different continents to spread the idea of creativity and creative education; it started with the first Australian CPSI and was later followed by the South African ACRE-conference (since 1994) and the European CREA-conference (since 2003).

In 2003 the CEF YouthWise-program was launched in South Africa, and in 2011 the Creativity in the 21st Century Classroom course enhanced the CPSI program.

Today the goals of CEF span a broad range of fostering creativity and giftedness including dialogue, serious play and training programs, conferences, programs, publications and other services in order to pursue the idea of creativity as human capacity which can deliberately be developed and nurtured. The mission statement says: "The purpose of the Creative Education Foundation is to engage and develop the next generation of creative thinkers and innovators." ^[5]

The CPS Process

Central to the Creative Education Foundation is their strong belief in the CPS Process. The diversity of approaches to the creative problem solving process that have developed since is a testimony to the power of the idea. While many models exist, the Creative Education Foundation focuses on an evolution of the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process called the CPS Learner’s Model. Based on the Osborn-Parnes process, the CPS Model uses plain language and recent research. The basic structure consists of four stages with a total of six explicit process steps. Each step uses divergent and convergent thinking. The steps are clarify, ideate, develop and implement; while the core principles include convergent and divergent thinking must be balanced, ask problems as questions, suspend judgement, and focus on "yes and..." rather than "no, but...". ^[6]

Programs and Workshops

Creativity Problem Solving Institute (CPSI): CEF's major platform for delivering training to various people including business leaders, educators, community activists, students, and more is through their annual conference the Creative Problem Solving Institute. CEF has over one hundred members which train more than five hundred participants in the creative problem solving process. All age levels participate in workshops and lectures regarding creative thinking and applying creativity to increase productivity. ^[7]

Youth Education: Core to the mission of the Creative Education Foundation is “developing the next generation of innovators and thinkers.” The main way CEF achieves this is by training educators on the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process. Attempting to give educators the tools to help students develop creative problem solving and critical thinking skills, CEF offers a track to a deliberate creativity process that attempts to help educators, youth leaders, or administrators transform their work with kids. Utilizing experiential activities, educators can explore creativity in themselves and learn how to apply it with students, all in the context of developmental theory. CEF explores recent brain research and applies it in teaching and learning that works to enhance teacher's abilities to work and teach creatively. In addition, there is an annual camp for kids during the CPSI conference in June, where we directly engage youth in creative problem solving challenges. ^[8]

Business Training and Consulting: CEF offers business training and consulting in areas related to applied creativity with a particular focus on applied creative thinking, the creative problem solving process, effective decision making, and creativity and innovation. Innovation Consulting is offered with focus on strategic planning, new product development, promotional strategy development,team building, creative problem solving, and effective decision making. ^[9]

Research

The Journal of Creative Behavior: CEF publishes a quarterly academic citing research in creative thinking titled, "The Journal of Creative Behavior". Edited by Ronald A. Beghetto from the University of Connecticut, the journal deals with methods to foster creative productivity, giftedness, management of creative personnel, testing, creativity in business and industry, development of creative curricula, creativity in the arts and sciences, and reviews of literature on creativity and problem solving. The content also focuses on the creative process. After self-publishing 45 volumes since 1967, the Journal of Creative Behavior moved to Wiley-Blackwell, a market for academic journals.^[10]

External links

References

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