The openness and courage to explore ideas category include some personality traits that relate to one's interests, experiences, attitudes, and self-confidence. The characteristics in this category include:
problem sensitivity
aesthetic sensitivity and/or interests
High levels of curiosity
Sense of humor and/or facility for producing playfulness (or childish, silly, sloppy, immature)
Capacity for fantasy and imagination
Risk-taking (or thrill-seeking)
Tolerance for ambiguity
Tenacity and lack of inhibition (often spontaneous) in the expression of opinion
Openness to experience and ideas and not frightened by the unknown
Openness to feelings and emotions and emotional sensitivity
Adaptability; Making do with what is at hand to reach goals
Intuition
Willingness to grow
Unwillingness to accept authoritarian assertions without critical examination
Integration of dichotomies (e.g., selfish and unselfish, extroverted and introverted)
Creative people are naturally curious and open to new experiences and ideas. They usually identify problem areas before others become aware of them. As a result, they are not afraid of the unknown and can tolerate ambiguity. Not knowing where an idea might lead, but nonetheless pursuing the idea wherever it might lead is important to them. It takes a great deal of courage to pursue an idea that others do not see as important and may even express ridicule toward. It takes courage to withstand peer pressure. In school, children want to fit in and be accepted by their peers, especially at the middle school and high school levels. Students who do not fear being different and who feel free to express unpopular or unique ideas might be displaying some of the characteristics in this category.
Many of the characteristics associated with openness and courage to explore ideas are referred to as personality traits and style dimensions. People exhibit these characteristics by stepping out from the crowd, taking a risk, and making do with what is at hand to reach their goals. You might observe them engaging in:
Going beyond what is given by acquiring and using vast amounts of information.
Gathering, organizing, and analyzing data from many sources and domains.
Asking many, varied, and unusual questions.
Challenging their own assumptions and those of others.
Learning from their mistakes.
Turning negatives into positives or obstacles into challenges.
Openness and courage to explore ideas require the confidence to examine critically and challenge authoritarian pronouncements. People who possess these characteristics are not afraid to express their own beliefs and opinions. Their sense of humor and playfulness may be displayed or interpreted by others as immature and silly. Creative productive people have the confidence to stand up for their beliefs and follow their instincts.
Creating original products requires some comfort with the unknown; an ability to recognize problems where they exist, often before others become aware of them; and the desire both to analyze and play with problems and possible solutions.
Creativity often requires an individual to step out from the crowd, take risks, be receptive to new ideas and information, focus on the desired outcome, view mistakes and failures as learning experiences, and challenge one's own thinking and conclusions.
These characteristics are often recognized by those who are in a position to observe an individual's behavior over time or by the individual answering for him or herself. Assessment strategies and tools for these characteristics often focus more on personality or on style dimensions than on abilities or cognitive factors.
Openness to new ideas and the courage to explore them might best be assessed through rating scales completed by teachers, parents, and others close to individual students.
Self-report inventories and checklists may also be useful, especially when evaluating such characteristics as tolerance for ambiguity, openness to feelings and emotions, and the openness to dichotomies.
Behavior and performance data gathered through the observation of real-life activities offer many opportunities to assess these characteristics. The instruments used to record these observations must be carefully constructed.
Portfolios also offer opportunities to record indications that an individual's work exhibits the development of the characteristics.