• • Creative or Productive Thinking is exceptional capability or potential recognized through mental processes (e.g., critical thinking, creative problem solving, humor, independent/original thinking, and/or products). Creative or productive thinking can manifest in a variety of ways. High levels of creativity may be demonstrated not only in products, but in the process of developing those products.

Creative students can be recognized by their imaginative thinking ability, and their ability to come up with many, varied, and unusual responses to problems or questions. They solve problems, see problems others do not see, see connections among seemingly unrelated concepts and ideas, find humor in many situations, are imaginative, and/or make adaptations or improvements on ideas and things. They can be non-conformists and intellectual risk takers.A successful and effective productive thinker can be both fully creative yet also fully critical of the results of their creativity.

Creative/Productive thinking can be related to, but is not necessarily the same as specific talent aptitudes such as art and music. Carefully consider if a student is exhibiting high levels of creativity, or if a specific talent area would be a more appropriate identification area.