Helping Students Discover the Central Organizing Principle for their Films: An Empirical Study to Determine Creative Self-Efficacy
Lisa Mills, Ph.D.
Randy Finch, J.D.
University of Central Florida
Research Problems
Too many students are making films that are at best, derivative and at worst, shallow or superficial.
Students do not work hard enough or long enough developing the premise or Central Organizing Principle of their films.
Students do not consider whether their films have something meaningful to say.
Research Questions
What are faculty doing to encourage meaning and creativity?
How can we teach students about film making while encouraging original insights?
Are we enhancing potential or simply providing tools for conformity?
More Research Questions
Is it even possible to teach students to be more creative?
Do exercises exist which give students real experience with the process of original thought?
If so, is it possible to design a study that measures the effectiveness of such creativity exercises?
Background for Our Study
UCF’s narrative and documentary BFA aims to guide students toward the indy film genre and away from the industrial model
This study is supported by UCF’s “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” program
Lisa Mills teaches documentary film, Randy Finch teaches narrative film. (Both teach in the Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema MFA program as well).
Recent Studies in Film Pedagogy
Jon Stahl (2002) used the Hollywood model to develop his model for a Media Writing course but collected no data to determine its effectiveness
David Franklin (2001) explored the effects of “professor censorship” as creative limitation for student films but collected only anecdotal evidence in his classroom.
Frank Tomasulo (2008) quantified artistic learning outcomes for assessment purposes at FSU
Relevant Studies in Education and Social Psychology
Jean Piaget (educator) connected creativity to the process of discovery
Theresa Amabile (social psychologist) found evidence that intrinsic motivation brought a more creative outcome than extrinsic (reward)
Most educational and psychological studies have been conducted on small children
Creativity in the form of “problem solving” and “critical thinking” has been studied in adult workplaces.
Philosophical Foundations
Aristotle, Kant, Schiller, Jung
The ability to conceptualize the imaginary is the basis of the human creative experience
There is an “unconscious element” that must be harvested in the creative process
There is a psychological need to satisfy the Ego
Lajos Egri
Connected storytelling with “its basis in the creative interpretation of human motives”
A story’s premise can be written in one simple, declarative sentence (Central Organizing Principle)
“Something (main character trait) leads to something (a universal truth realized by the character through the dialectic)”
Methodological Concerns
Discomfort with evaluation of students’ creativity
SOtL requires approval by the Institutional Review Board, thus limiting the kind of data would could collect in small production classes
What could we really measure?
Our Study Design
Create exercises to help students develop their COP
Collect student responses to exercises (immediately following and 24 hours after)
Pretest/Post-test/Control design to test for a significant difference in creative self-efficacy at the beginning and end of the term
We invite you to join us
We need data from a variety of programs and students
We provide you the exercises and student response instruments (we also need control groups who do not receive exercises)
We support your efforts to get the data to us for analysis
We’ll do everything we can to make it easy for you!
Study Timeframe
Early Fall 2009 receive IRB approval
Mid-Late Fall 2009 pilot tests (are we measuring what we think we’re measuring?)
Spring 2010 first data collection series
Fall 2010 second data collection series
Spring 2011 data analysis
Summer 2011 report results at UFVA
Goal is to produce a publishable paper
Contact Information
Lisa Mills (407) 823-3606 lmills@mail.ucf.edu
Randy Finch (407) 823-6111 rfinch@mail.ucf.edu
Lisa Mills, Ph.D.
Randy Finch, J.D.
University of Central Florida
Research Problems
Too many students are making films that are at best, derivative and at worst, shallow or superficial.
Students do not work hard enough or long enough developing the premise or Central Organizing Principle of their films.
Students do not consider whether their films have something meaningful to say.
Research Questions
What are faculty doing to encourage meaning and creativity?
How can we teach students about film making while encouraging original insights?
Are we enhancing potential or simply providing tools for conformity?
More Research Questions
Is it even possible to teach students to be more creative?
Do exercises exist which give students real experience with the process of original thought?
If so, is it possible to design a study that measures the effectiveness of such creativity exercises?
Background for Our Study
UCF’s narrative and documentary BFA aims to guide students toward the indy film genre and away from the industrial model
This study is supported by UCF’s “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” program
Lisa Mills teaches documentary film, Randy Finch teaches narrative film. (Both teach in the Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema MFA program as well).
Recent Studies in Film Pedagogy
Jon Stahl (2002) used the Hollywood model to develop his model for a Media Writing course but collected no data to determine its effectiveness
David Franklin (2001) explored the effects of “professor censorship” as creative limitation for student films but collected only anecdotal evidence in his classroom.
Frank Tomasulo (2008) quantified artistic learning outcomes for assessment purposes at FSU
Relevant Studies in Education and Social Psychology
Jean Piaget (educator) connected creativity to the process of discovery
Theresa Amabile (social psychologist) found evidence that intrinsic motivation brought a more creative outcome than extrinsic (reward)
Most educational and psychological studies have been conducted on small children
Creativity in the form of “problem solving” and “critical thinking” has been studied in adult workplaces.
Philosophical Foundations
Aristotle, Kant, Schiller, Jung
The ability to conceptualize the imaginary is the basis of the human creative experience
There is an “unconscious element” that must be harvested in the creative process
There is a psychological need to satisfy the Ego
Lajos Egri
Connected storytelling with “its basis in the creative interpretation of human motives”
A story’s premise can be written in one simple, declarative sentence (Central Organizing Principle)
“Something (main character trait) leads to something (a universal truth realized by the character through the dialectic)”
Methodological Concerns
Discomfort with evaluation of students’ creativity
SOtL requires approval by the Institutional Review Board, thus limiting the kind of data would could collect in small production classes
What could we really measure?
Our Study Design
Create exercises to help students develop their COP
Collect student responses to exercises (immediately following and 24 hours after)
Pretest/Post-test/Control design to test for a significant difference in creative self-efficacy at the beginning and end of the term
We invite you to join us
We need data from a variety of programs and students
We provide you the exercises and student response instruments (we also need control groups who do not receive exercises)
We support your efforts to get the data to us for analysis
We’ll do everything we can to make it easy for you!
Study Timeframe
Early Fall 2009 receive IRB approval
Mid-Late Fall 2009 pilot tests (are we measuring what we think we’re measuring?)
Spring 2010 first data collection series
Fall 2010 second data collection series
Spring 2011 data analysis
Summer 2011 report results at UFVA
Goal is to produce a publishable paper
Contact Information
Lisa Mills (407) 823-3606 lmills@mail.ucf.edu
Randy Finch (407) 823-6111 rfinch@mail.ucf.edu
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