The earlier post, “Ideational Code Switching” described the three- and four- levels of creativity proposed by Beghetto (2007), and Beghetto & Kaufmann (2012). Based on the book Teaching creatively and teaching creativity (Gregerson, Kaufman, & Snyder, 2013), Mini-c creativity and be facilitated to little-c creative expressions.
Mathematics is an abstract subject. In school we often learn about math from Big-C, higher level concepts of math creativity that are conceptualized by math geniuses like Einstein or Leibniz. In order to discover mathematics in everyday activities, I wonder if we can teach students to code-switch using Big-C concepts and applying such to little-C everyday mathematic creativities? In essence, can we facilitate creative code-switching in reverse?
What are some ways we can facilitate ideational code-switching from the abstract to the concrete, day-to day mathematics?
Let’s consider an example.
Kai and Nahla are grade 3 students learning about basic probabilities. They both learned that Christiaan Huygens likely published the first book on probability in 1657. In these instances, it may be argued both Kai and Nahla are learning Big-C concepts and applying such to little-C, everyday activities. How can we facilitate ideational code-switching for Kai and Nahla?
- Using the concepts of basic probability, Kai camp up with the idea of calculating the likelihood that his baby sibling would either be a boy or girl. On the other hand, Nahla came up with the idea that she could calculate how likely it is she would get the joker from a deck of cards.
| Big-c
Genius Creativity |
Little-c
Everyday Creativity |
| Christiaan Huygens’s idea of basic probability | Rosie used the insight gained from basic probability to calculate the chances she could draw an ace from a half deck of cards |
| Picasso’s Cubism painting style | Sam using Cubism idea to construct a mathematical model that calculates the cube’s position in three of Picasso’s paintings |
| Merce Cunningham’s Contemporary Dance style | Jacob used to concept of dance to illustrate math concepts, like the Math Dance |
What are your thoughts on facilitating ideational code-switching in reverse? What do you foresee may be the barriers and benefits of such? Please comment below and let me know what you think!
Reference
Gregerson, M. B., Kaufman, J. C., & Snyder, H. (2013). Teaching creatively and teaching creativity (2012; ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Image source: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/343399540311137112/