Sidney Parnes (1922 - 2013) was an exceptional pioneer in laying the foundations for creative problem-solving education. He truly believed that creativity enables us to make the world a better place and that opportunities can be found in any problem, even the death of a loved-one. And most importantly that creativity could be taught in a time where people thought it was fixed. He dedicated his life to inspire and educate others and help them to develop attitudes and abilities to meet any future challenge, positively and creatively.
After attending the first CPSI (Creative Problem Solving Institute) meeting in 1955, Parnes started to work with Alex Osborn on the Creative Problem Solving process and continues to develop and modify Osborn’s original seven-stage CPS model (orientation, preparation, analysis, hypothesis, incubation, synthesis, and evaluation) after Osborn's death. The process came to be known as the “Osborn-Parnes approach to creative problem solving.”
In 1966, Parnes assumes the leadership of the Creative Education Foundation (CEF). CEF sponsors the nation’s first graduate course in Creative Studies at Buffalo State College and launches the Journal of Creative Behavior (JCB), a research publication devoted entirely to the science of creativity in 1967. As of today, it is the longest-standing quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Creative Education Foundation devoted specifically to creativity research.
Parnes taught graduate-level creativity courses at Buffalo State College and was joined by Ruth Noller as a staff member. In 1969, Noller and Parnes began a three-year creative studies project to validate the claim that creative studies content can be taught and learned effectively. This effort was funded by the US Department of Education. The results of the study provided clear evidence for the positive effects of deliberate creativity training on both the cognitive and problem-solving skills of students. The success of this landmark investigation led the way to the permanent establishment of the undergraduate and graduate programs in creative studies at Buffalo State College.
Selected works by Parnes can be find on this Wikipedia site.
To get to know him better, these are 2 great interviews to watch:
Comments