Teaching Problem-solving: How to support divergent thinking.

What is divergent thinking?

“Divergent thinking is the center of human creativity.” – Amit Ray. What practices support nurturing divergent thinking?

Divergent and Convergent Thinking are terms often used in tandem. The terms, coined in 1956 by psychologist J.P. Guilfor, describe two complementary cognitive methods for evaluating problems and choosing optimal solutions. Convergent thinking describes a choice in which you start from many and navigate to one solution. What should I wear today? Begins with a longing stare into the closet, a few outfit tries, and you have settled on one for the day based on the weather, and what you will need to be doing all day. Congratulations, you thought convergently! We do this many, many, many times each day.

Divergent thinking, on the other hand, explores the possibilities. Thoughts diverge, separate, or spread out. If you thought divergently about getting dressed in the morning, you may never leave the house. A bit like my 2-year-old at the moment. “I could wear this. Or maybe that? Or maybe this and that? Or maybe I could wear this over that! The other day, we left with shorts, undies over shorts, and pants on top of that. No T-shirt, but a sweatshirt. No socks, but shoes for an 85 deg day! Dressing is a process for her, and divergent thinking leads the way.

Divergent thinking may get you into a bind at the grocery store or planning for dinner, but it is an essential skill for problem-solving. Not just little problems like where to put your toys away, but the big problems of the world – How do we positively impact climate change? How can we better nurture and care for our planet? What could I be when I grow up? How do we solve ethnic conflicts that have existed for centuries? How do we impact world hunger? These are big problems that our children will inherit. Divergent thinking is also at the heart of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship!

If we use both, what is the fuss about?

As a society, our communities, schools, and families are very good at teaching, rewarding, and supporting convergent thinking! Thinking that has only one answer often earns you good grades in school, praise from caregivers, and accolades at work. But the brain needs to continue to think divergently into adulthood. Often we use a convergent-divergent-convergent process to solve larger problems. Think of a paper you have had to write or a project you have had to design for a class or work. You often need to start small, with a narrow question or problem to point you in the direction you will need to go. Then you need to think divergently – explore all the possibilities, think creatively, innovatively, and often “outside the box.” With all these possibilities you then need to narrow your prospect again to one, most effective solution. Many times for larger problems, this process is repeated over and over and over again.

Young children are incredible divergent thinkers, naturally. You do not have to work very hard to get a 4 yr old to brainstorm 10 different ways the moon moves from night to night. They do this with ease. They have tremendous potential to think creatively and divergently. But this ability wanes by the time they are about 10. By 10, they are conditioned (by school and home, and society) to look for only the right answer. The continued ability to think divergently is important to rearing a creative, innovative, problem-solving generation.

How to Support Divergent Thinking at Home

Play – every day let your child play. You DO NOT need to play with them, play for them, set up, or create and structure their play!!!! The nature of play is that it is child-led and open-ended, and THEY set up the scenarios and rules. Play is so important that the UN Commission of Human Rights elevates it to the right of every child!
Simplify – Often in the Western World, the biggest inhibitor of play is lack of time. Being too busy, too involved, and too scheduled for unstructured play to take place. I feel this battle in my own family constantly, and it seems to get harder as our kiddos get older. Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne is an excellent resource for looking at your family and seeing where you can create more room for less.
Think Outside the Box – Try an “It’s not a __. It’s a ___” game. For ideas, try these two sensational books Not a Stick and Not a Box by Antoinette Portis.
Focus on “And what else…” – When your child shares a creation, idea, or thought with you. See if you can work a “And what else could it be?” into your comment. Instead of saying “Wow, you made such a great fort” (which is positive praise for a product), try “Oh look how hard you worked on your fort. You put in a lot of effort. What else could it be?” (Which is praise for process and a little dangle of divergent thinking prompt).
Support Loose Part Play – Some toys are designed with a script (which the manufacturers make) about how that toy should be played it. Some toys, typically, loose-part toys (think Lego, train sets, Duplo, blocks, dirt) have many, many ways to be played with. These toys support creative and divergent thinking. Here is more on Loose Pary Toy Play