SCAMPER is an acronym that provides a structured way of assisting students to

think out of the box Thinking outside the box (also thinking out of the box or thinking beyond the box and, especially in Australia, thinking outside the square) is a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. The phrase als ...

and enhance their

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...

. It is thought to protect students'

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...

as they mature.

History

SCAMPER was proposed by

Alex Faickney Osborn Alex Faickney Osborn (May 24, 1888 – May 5, 1966) was an American advertising executive and the author of the creativity technique named ''brainstorming''. Founding of BBDO In 1919, Osborn joined with Bruce Fairchild Barton and Roy Sarles Dur ...

in 1953, and was further developed by Bob Eberle in 1971 in his book; ''SCAMPER: Games for Imagination Development''.

Definition

SCAMPER is an activity-based thinking process that can be performed by Cooperative learning. Here the

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

assists the students in choosing a particular topic and helps them to develop it through a structured process. After choosing an idea, the students are given a tale where they perform the activity in steps corresponding to the letters in the name. * ''Substitute'' comes up with another topic that is equivalent to the present topics. * ''Combine'' adds information to the original topic. * ''Adjust'' identifies ways to construct the topic in a more flexible and adjusted material. * ''Modify, magnify, minify'' creatively changes the topic or makes a feature/idea bigger or smaller. * ''Put to other uses'' identifies the possible scenarios and situations where this topic can be used. * ''Eliminate'' removes ideas or elements from the topic that are not valuable. * ''Reverse, rearrange'' evolves a new concept from the original concept. Hence, SCAMPER as a teaching strategy helps the students to analyze the knowledge in its creative form and helps the teacher to make teaching creative and interesting.

References

Acronyms Creativity Problem solving {{Edu-stub