Creativity & Innovation Toolkit

Principles for curriculum design

Some fundamental principles underlie curriculum design for creativity and innovation. These include:

Designing curricula that foster:

• Development of appropriate thinking skills;
• Acquisition of positive attitudes to creativity and creative performance;
• Motivation to be creative;
• Perception of oneself as capable of being creative;
• Reduction of anxiety about creativity; and
• Positive attitude and mood in problem-solving situations.

Clapham, M.M. (1997). Ideational skills training: A key element in creativity training. Creativity Research Journal, 10, pp 33-44.

Making "being creative and innovative" part of learning:

• Encourage students to generate lots of ideas – some of them will be creative and original – in group brainstorming sessions, and individually;
• Get students to see things from different perspectives – take a different approach – ascribe them particular “professional roles” (e.g., an accountant; a lawyer; a project manager; a gallery director; a stage producer) to change their point of view;
• Ask them to build on and expand existing ideas to arrive at new ones;
• Recognise the importance of asking questions and being inquisitive;
• Ask students provocative questions, e.g., “What would happen if…?”;
• Encourage and reward risk-taking by providing genuine support;
• Assure students that they can be creative;
• Allow time for students to think.

Giving students plenty of practice in solving problems creatively:

Finding and framing the problem to be solved is often the most creative part of problem solving. Encourage students to recognise problems when they see them, try out a range of possible solutions, and then evaluate the most effective fit between the problem and its solution.

“An important aspect of problem solving is the distinction between solving by eliminating a difficulty or removing an impediment, and solving in the sense of envisaging, posing or formulating questions that need to be raised in order to deal more effectively or elegantly with an existing situation.”

Cropley, A.J. (2001). Creativity in Education and Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators. London: Kogan Page, p. 48.

Encouraging students to "think like innovators":

• Engage students in group brainstorming sessions;
• Ask students to consider not just one, but two or more alternative problems, and solutions – use the “what if?” approach;
• Suggest they keep a comprehensive journal of their thoughts, ideas and experiences – a Visual Diary is ideal – as some of them might be worth developing;
• Suggest students use a tape-recorder to note down their thoughts and ideas throughout the day;
• Introduce them to concept mapping to make connections between ideas;
• Engage them in word association exercises (for the same reason).

Sharing examples of creative, innovative thinking from inside and outside the classroom, from a range of disciplines:

Below are some of the best-known examples of “serendipitous” creations:

“Nikola Tesla, the technological genius whose list of inventions includes the fluorescent light and the A-C generator, ‘could project before his eyes a picture, complete in every detail, of every part of the machine. These pictures were more vivid than any blueprint.’ Tesla’s inner imagery was so like perceptual imagery that he was able to build his complex inventions without drawings. Further, he claimed to be able to test his devices in his mind’s eye ‘by having them run for weeks – after which time he would examine them thoroughly for wear.”’

McKim, R..H. (1980). Thinking Visually. Belmont, Calif.: Lifetime Learning Publications, p. 10.

“In 1896, he [Becquerel] is said to have left a photographic plate and a container with uranium salts in it in a drawer. On opening the drawer he noticed that the photographic plate had fogged. This unexpected event piqued his curiosity. He eventually concluded that the uranium had emitted some kind of radiation, which was responsible for the fogging. He then showed that this differed from X-rays in being deflected by electromagnetic fields, i.e., it was a previously unknown phenomenon. After initially being called ‘Becquerel rays’ the radiation subsequently became known as ‘radioactivity’ and ultimately led to Becquerel sharing the 1903 Nobel Prize for physics with Marie and Pierre Curie.”

Cropley, A.J. (2001). Creativity in Education and Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators. London: Kogan Page, p. 20.

“One often-cited example of creativity is George de Mestral's observation of how cockleburs attach to clothing, which led him to invent the hook-and-loop fastener known as Velcro®. He transformed a common nuisance to a useful product. When one looks backward in time to analyse how a creative act was made, one often finds that creators made a novel interpretation of a well-known fact or occurrence. Often the interpretation converted a disadvantage into an advantage.”

Creativity in science and engineering
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.rbs0.com/create.htm

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