Creativity & Innovation Toolkit

Some teaching and learning strategies to develop creativity

1. Brainstorming
2. Fishbone Diagram
3. Free Association
4. Mind Mapping
5. Other People's Viewpoint
6. Six Thinking Hats
7. Visual Brainstorming
8. Synectic Strategies

Brainstorming

With students in small groups:

• Write the initial topic or problem on a whiteboard – make it short, clear and focused.
• Check that everyone understands the problem or issue

• Review the ground rules:

1. No criticism or judgement of ideas. All ideas are equally valid.
2. The more ideas generated, the better the solution.
3. Don't censor any ideas; keep the meeting flow going.
4. Listen to ideas, and try to piggy-back on them to other ideas.
5. No discussion of ideas or questions in the brainstorming stage, as this stops the flow of ideas.
6. Choose one student as facilitator to keep the ideas flowing and record them.
• Generate ideas - either in an unstructured way (anyone can voice an idea at any time) or structured (sequentially around the table, allowing people to pass if they have no new ideas).
• Clarify and conclude the session. Combine identical or very similar ideas and keep all the others. It is useful to get consensus on which ideas should be looked at further and where (and when) to go from here.

Adapted from: Creativity Techniques
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.mycoted.com/creativity/techniques/index.php

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