Divergent thinking
Divergent thinking is a thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.
It typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing, "non-linear" manner, such that many ideas are generated in an emergent cognitive fashion.
Activities which promote divergent thinking include creating lists of questions, setting aside time for thinking and meditation, brainstorming, subject mapping, bubble mapping, keeping a journal, playing tabletop role-playing games,[1] creating artwork, and free writing.
[3] The author noted that during the study, while observing the children's behaviour at play, they "noted individual differences in spontaneity, overtones of joy, and sense of humour that imply a relationship between the foregoing qualities and some of the factors found in the intellectual structure of creative adults and adolescents".
"[5] For this reason, being able to use divergent thinking can be beneficial in lessening anxiety and depression symptoms by "having a more active and open approach" to problems or stressors.
Pier-Luc Chantal, Emilie Gagnon-St-Pierre, and Henry Markovits of Université du Quebec à Montréal conducted a study on preschool-aged children in which the relationship between divergent thinking and deductive reasoning were observed.
[6] They found that incorporating components of divergent thinking into learning, such as generating unique ideas, "might be a powerful tool to improve reasoning.
"[6] Guila Fusi, Sara Lavolpe, Nara Crepaldi, and Maria Lusia Rusconi conducted a systematic review on the effect of age on divergent thinking.
Of course, "new and more accurate information about which of the DT abilities might be preserved or impaired in the elderly population could have significant practical implications.
"[7] In a study at the University of Bergen, Norway, the effects of positive and negative mood on divergent thinking were examined.
[8] Nearly two hundred art and psychology students participated, first by measuring their moods with an adjective checklist before performing the required tasks.
[8] This group of researchers drew a parallel between "their findings and creative problem solving by arguing that participants in a positive mood are better able both to differentiate between and to integrate unusual and diverse information".
[8] This shows that their subjects are at a distinct cognitive advantage when performing divergent thinking-related tasks in an elevated mood.
Eventually these children grow up and are not prepared to navigate the real world or workforce because they are misunderstood and do not have the knowledge of their disability.
With incorporating divergent thinking into musical classrooms we can allow students to broaden their perspectives and create more cultural expressions.
The first process has been modeled by emulating responses to the Remote Associates Test (RAT) by Olteţeanu and Falomir (2015)[15] and Klein and Badia (2015).
Other ideas for DT generation, include Veale and Li (2016)[19] template approach, and López-Ortega (2013)[20] who proposed an application of divergent exploration in a multi agent system.
