Creativity & Innovation Toolkit

Developing students' creativity at university

Is it possible to teach students “how” to be creative? By providing a learning climate in which creative thinking is encouraged and valued, academic staff can definitely foster creativity and innovation in their students.

“A talent, or gift for creativity can be inherited by some people, and learned or developed by others. It is not true to say that people just are creative, while others aren’t – rather that some people find it easier to recognise their creativity and run with it, while others are more hesitant. Recent thinking shows that the ability to think and act creatively can indeed be fostered in the classroom and transferred or applied in different learning contexts.”

Brainstorming: We Can Teach “Creativity”:
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~aejmcpr/28berger.htm

Some universities have developed specific courses that focus primarily on creative, innovative thinking and problem solving. Academic staff at Harvard University, for example, have formed a centre to help engineers and scientists become more creative and entrepreneurial. The University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom has developed a specific course:

“‘Entrepreneurship: Personal Creativity’ [which] is a credit-bearing elective that undergraduate students from any discipline can volunteer to take at any point in their degree studies. Since its introduction in the academic session 1996/97 approximately 200 students have completed the class.

The class runs over 12 two-hour sessions and aims to:

• nurture capabilities of personal and team creativity;
• promote understanding of the nature and role of creativity within a student’s individual social and economic contexts;
• overcome barriers to the creative process;
• develop frameworks within which to evaluate creative, entrepreneurial opportunities;
• enhance communication and presentation skills; and
• improve team building and working abilities.

Furthermore, although entrepreneurship is selected as an experiential context to which personal creativity is applied, the key objective of this class is broader in that it is designed to nurture those creative processes and skills that have the potential to be effectively applied within their particular academic, work and social worlds. In addition, specific emphasis is placed on the creative and problem-solving skills of both the individual and team.”

Morrison, A., & Johnston, B. (2003). Personal creativity for entrepreneurship: Teaching and learning strategies. Active Learning in Higher Education, 4(2), pp. 145-158.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://alh.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/4/2/145

The Open University, UK, has found that “it is possible to promote students’ creativity and innovation if some key conditions are met, namely:

• The curriculum must integrate different techniques for creativity and innovation (brainstorming, group work, etc.);
• Student feedback must be sought in a variety of ways on a range of issues;
• Students must be encouraged to provide a critique of the curriculum;
• The institutional atmosphere must provide a safe environment for experimentation;
• The institutional culture must stress the engagement of all in the learning process, not only students but also lecturers. That is, lecturers must be seen as learners and as facilitators of learning rather than just as teachers;
• Students are required to develop real solutions to real needs in real time.

Innovation and Creativity in the Curriculum
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.innovations.ac.uk/btg/resources/publications/innovation.pdf

Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, offers a course, 2545QCA: Creative Thinking, that is open to students from all disciplines. One of its learning objectives is for students to develop “an attitude that accepts the unknown.” By enrolling in this course, students embark on an “adventure”, in which there is no clear destination. Students are warned that exercising their creativity is “a painful and frustrating experience. YOUR BRAIN WILL HURT. You’re not here for a nice time, but to extend yourself.” The course is described in this way:

“Creativity is about originality and innovation and not about repeating what has already been done. This means you expose yourself to the possibility of failure. There are risks associated with extending personal boundaries. There is a mindset needed to go beyond personal comfort zones. An understanding of risk – and how to learn from it – along with the mindtools needed to develop creativity, are the components of the course.”

Course Outline: 2545QCA: Creative Thinking
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.griffith.edu.au/courseoutlines/OLD/qca/2006/s1/2545QCA_3061_CO.pdf