Who is a divergent learner

Research skills need to be developed by allowing them to make observations, gather data, analyze their findings, draw conclusions, and determine implications of results. Johnson, C. Skip to content Dr. Carol Johnson, Dr. Joe Pitts, Dr. Abstract of Presentation Having taught a variety of students with a wide range of abilities, Johnson became aware that certain personality traits and global learning styles were placing students in a crosswind with traditional teachers and classroom environments, and these factors were contributing to underachievement in academic performance.

Reference Johnson, C. This characteristic often has the potential to spark courage in others too. Tenacious — Tenacity is a hallmark of anyone who assumes risk and is passionate about moving forward. To fail and repeatedly get back up and try again takes the kind of tenacity that requires a significant amount of strength, reflection and personal growth to achieve.

Sometimes failing can be difficult especially if what we tried is particularly far out of our comfort zone or something we really wanted to go right. This trait of a divergent teacher keeps them moving forward when others might quit. Our goal is to persevere while lending encouragement and support to others as well. Voracious Learner — At all stages of our journey, we embrace learning as an ongoing process.

There is no finality, but instead continuous growth. Divergent teachers learn in multiple ways; through reading, reflective writing, peer observations, collaborative conversations, seeking meaningful feedback, and considering how they can improve through goal setting. They are cognizant to learn from their mistakes and retool to move toward growth. In doing so, they identify what works best for their learners and share with colleagues to contribute to the culture of learning.

Mentor — Divergent teachers have a sincere appreciation for uplifting and adding value to others to elevate education. Then, discover a few strategies for helping students strengthen and maintain their divergent thinking skills. What do we mean by divergent thinking, and how does it differ from other problem-solving strategies?

Divergent thinking is defined here as a learning strategy that encourages students to come up with many different solutions to a problem. Although divergent thinking is not synonymous with creativity—here defined as the ability to have new ideas or make something new—the two skills are closely related. Likewise, encouraging creativity in your students can lead them to consider divergent answers to their problems.

Studies also suggest that, as a whole, children have stronger divergent thinking skills than adults. For example, children are better at visualizing divergent ideas than adults. It could be argued that teaching divergent thinking to students is less about teaching a new skill and more about maintaining it. Convergent thinking encourages students to come up with one distinct answer to a question based on the information given to them.

Convergent thinking is not necessarily a negative thinking strategy. But in general, teaching divergent thinking over its convergent counterpart will help students solve problems more creatively and effectively. What are the benefits of teaching students divergent thinking skills? Convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is a thought process used to generate diverse and numerous ideas on some mental task, implying that not only one solution may be correct. The term divergent thinking is used in the sciences of learning and cognition to designate a psychological construct that accounts for the specific form of human thinking.

The goal of divergent thinking is to generate many different ideas about a topic in a short period of time. It involves breaking a topic down into its various component parts in order to gain insight about the various aspects of the topic. Fluency , the ability to rapidly produce a large number of ideas to problem solution. Flexibility , the ability to generate multiple problem solutions from different semantic Skip to main content Skip to table of contents.

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