Teaching creativity by change of mind-set : From goal-oriented to open and curious
(2018) 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, E and PDE 2018- Abstract
Creativity is a wildly debated topic among scholars and practitioners, but one that lacks consensus. Many have tried to define, describe and explain creativity, its purpose, effect and use. Is creativity a personality trait you are born with, or can you learn to become creative? As a design teacher with a teaching practice focused on the skills of creativity, this is a relevant question, because if creativity cannot be learned, then it cannot be taught. The results of observations during a design methodology course for undergraduate design engineering students suggest that there are important common conditions in a learning situation that aims to enhance creativity through practice. In this case, it aims to implement a design thinking... (More)
Creativity is a wildly debated topic among scholars and practitioners, but one that lacks consensus. Many have tried to define, describe and explain creativity, its purpose, effect and use. Is creativity a personality trait you are born with, or can you learn to become creative? As a design teacher with a teaching practice focused on the skills of creativity, this is a relevant question, because if creativity cannot be learned, then it cannot be taught. The results of observations during a design methodology course for undergraduate design engineering students suggest that there are important common conditions in a learning situation that aims to enhance creativity through practice. In this case, it aims to implement a design thinking mind-set in a product development process. From a teacher perspective, this paper discusses the need to break students’ goal-oriented mind-set, learned from the first day of primary school, to enable them to adopt a creative mind-set. In this context, students with a goal-oriented mind-set will immediately start working on finalising the first idea/solution that comes to mind without considering alternatives. Breaking this mind-set can be done by letting the students’ practical experiences intertwine with self-reflection under teacher guidance. The focus is to identify each students’ motivation to change mind-set by teaching the underlying reasons why creating ideas is hard work, not something that happens by chance. Hence, the teacher’s focus is on generating student awareness those mind-set rules over method so they can embrace a different/new road to finding design solutions.
(Less)
- author
- Olander, Elin LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Brainstorming, Change of mind-set/attitude, Creativity, Design pedagogy, Problem solving strategies, Synectics
- host publication
- Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, E and PDE 2018
- editor
- Green, Stephen ; Buck, Lyndon ; Dasan, Aran ; Bohemia, Erik ; Kovacevic, Ahmed ; Childs, Peter and Hall, Ashley
- publisher
- Institution of Engineering Designers, The Design Society
- conference name
- 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, E and PDE 2018
- conference location
- London, United Kingdom
- conference dates
- 2018-09-06 - 2018-09-07
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85057737249
- ISBN
- 9781912254026
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 56c19c13-6c3d-4214-8012-01df18f8dd93
- date added to LUP
- 2018-12-21 11:26:44
- date last changed
- 2022-04-25 20:07:00
@inproceedings{56c19c13-6c3d-4214-8012-01df18f8dd93,
abstract = {{<p>Creativity is a wildly debated topic among scholars and practitioners, but one that lacks consensus. Many have tried to define, describe and explain creativity, its purpose, effect and use. Is creativity a personality trait you are born with, or can you learn to become creative? As a design teacher with a teaching practice focused on the skills of creativity, this is a relevant question, because if creativity cannot be learned, then it cannot be taught. The results of observations during a design methodology course for undergraduate design engineering students suggest that there are important common conditions in a learning situation that aims to enhance creativity through practice. In this case, it aims to implement a design thinking mind-set in a product development process. From a teacher perspective, this paper discusses the need to break students’ goal-oriented mind-set, learned from the first day of primary school, to enable them to adopt a creative mind-set. In this context, students with a goal-oriented mind-set will immediately start working on finalising the first idea/solution that comes to mind without considering alternatives. Breaking this mind-set can be done by letting the students’ practical experiences intertwine with self-reflection under teacher guidance. The focus is to identify each students’ motivation to change mind-set by teaching the underlying reasons why creating ideas is hard work, not something that happens by chance. Hence, the teacher’s focus is on generating student awareness those mind-set rules over method so they can embrace a different/new road to finding design solutions.</p>}},
author = {{Olander, Elin}},
booktitle = {{Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, E and PDE 2018}},
editor = {{Green, Stephen and Buck, Lyndon and Dasan, Aran and Bohemia, Erik and Kovacevic, Ahmed and Childs, Peter and Hall, Ashley}},
isbn = {{9781912254026}},
keywords = {{Brainstorming; Change of mind-set/attitude; Creativity; Design pedagogy; Problem solving strategies; Synectics}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Institution of Engineering Designers, The Design Society}},
title = {{Teaching creativity by change of mind-set : From goal-oriented to open and curious}},
year = {{2018}},
}