The following techniques are useful in generating creative ideas:

1.    Brain Storming. It is a group technique, but is can also be used by individuals. The brainstormed takes up a fairly clearly stated problem which has interest among children in science. The rafter, the individual or panel of brainstormed is encouraged to  “brainstorm”, i.e, generate in a rapid-fire fashion a novel solution to the problem. All criticism or evaluation of any idea during this brainstorming phase is generally discouraged. Barnstorming is based on the principle that quantity of ideas begets quality and to get many ideas, it is necessary to suspend evaluation of ideas daring the idea generation phase.

2.    Attribute Analysis. It attempts to generate alternative ways of satisfying the major characteristics of a product or activity. It is useful for designing or redesigning a specific product or service or an activity. It also combines the convergent thinking principle of forming categories with brain storming principle of generation many alternative solution. Crawford suggested the following steps in attribute analysis:

(a)    Identification of major attributes of an object or an activity.
(b)    Generation of many alternative ways of securing the possible attributes.
(c)    Evaluation of alternative designs in terms of criteria like cost, marketability, etc.

According to Crawford, much creativity arises from changing the attributes of an object or an activity, or from grafting on to the object or activity an attribute or attributes of some other object or activity.

The following steps are involved in attribute listing:

(a)    Listing of basic but modifiable attributes or properties or specifications of a particular object or activity.

(b)    Generating alternatives to the current attribute or specification.

(c)    Listening abstract or generic attributes of a concrete object a activity. It helps in generating more ideas in place of listing the concrete attributes.

  3. Synaptic. It is a group technique which uses a variety of analogies in problem-solving. The word ‘synaptic’ has been adopted from the Greek word synecticos which means incorporating diverse elements. Technique of synaptic is intractable te cynical problems. Synaptic is a difficult technique at its principles of constructive psychological strain is most practical. It consists of mechanisms-analogies and emtaphors-that bend and stretch the mind in every direction.

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