Cultivating "creative" composition classes

Amani Elshimi

In the writing class, creative exercises can help generate ideas for research and can stretch analysis in new and unexpected ways, combining the skills of ‘inquiry, critical and creative thinking,’ – a liberal learning outcome defined by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).

Students in my research classes have used

  • Creative brainstorming techniques to activate inert knowledge and generate research questions
  • Creative problem solving techniques to define, analyze and propose ‘innovative’ solutions to social problems (challenges, opportunities for improvement)
  • Low stakes writing exercises to promote "creative" thinking skills

This presentation will help define ‘creative thinking skills’ pertinent to academic writing, and identify strategies that facilitate the transfer of skills to the disciplines. Challenges to learning and assessment will be discussed.

Creativity in Design

Ahmed Sherif

Creativity is usually perceived as the essence of creative arts, which include music, composition, painting, sculpture and the various forms of two and three dimensional design,. However, creativity and creative thought are not limited to these fields only; they are also applied in science, medicine, philosophy, law, management and many other fields of human endeavor.

Design could be considered as one of the most creative human pursuits. Designers must solve problems and satisfy the needs of others, while creating beautiful and functional end products. This is especially the case for engineers, architects and urban planners, who create objects or places that could significantly impact the quality of life of many others. Unlike science which concentrates on describing how the world is, design is primarily concerned with suggesting how the world might be. The main objective of designers is to create the future, or at least some part of it.

This presentation focuses on the design education of students of architecture, engineering and related fields. This education should not be limited to learning a number of traditional crafts in well established areas of knowledge. It should extend to training them on how to appreciate and exploit new methods, materials and technologies as they develop. In design, there is an indefinite number of different solutions. These solutions are often holistic in nature, where there is rarely a single optimal solution. Thus, students should learn how to adopt both the convergent and divergent thinking approaches equally. Students should learn by tackling problems on their own, where they learn from their own mistakes. This is definitely more powerful than relying solely on experience gained from others.

Creativity in the Arts: a Model

Ann Shafer

In the visual and performing arts, creativity plays an explicit role in what we do. Of course, as leaders in any field know, creativity is not exclusive to the arts. This presentation outlines the keys to creative vision and implementation in any field, especially in education. Students, teachers, and administrators alike can together create meaningful and productive relationships, environments, and visions for the future.

Creativity in Teaching and Learning

Lammert Holdijk

An intriguing definition of creativity which I can resonate with is: “the action of combining previously uncombined elements”.

In my own teaching experience this kind of creativity jostles/shocks/challenges students into a new perspective outside their “comfort zone”. Best illustrated by the above medieval manuscript illustration, I try to give them a new set of tools to try out and enlarge the space in which they are thinking/acting/creating. This can involve:

  • placing the students in heretofore untried positions of encounter or collaboration with each other ranging from one-to-one to 6 or 7 member groups,
  • requiring students to collaborate on presentations and research, and delimiting the parameters of that collaboration so that the process will require a creative effort,
  • introducing familiar ideas in unfamiliar contexts
  • looking at one idea from a number of different, and unusual perspectives, using media, discussion, group work etc.

I think it is more difficult to predict the effect of the creativity of the teacher on the student, since this largely depends on the level of development (mental and emotional) and willingness on the part of the student to engage in the process. Creating an environment in which such creativity can flower will hopefully generate the spark necessary for an ongoing creative endeavour on the part of the student.