Creative thinking resources

Some suggestions and resources for developing students' creative thinking within your courses.

In order to think critically, Victoria University of Wellington’s graduates need to demonstrate ‘creative’ qualities such as innovation, originality, flexibility, openness, lateral thinking, problem-solving and elaboration.

The University of Kent’s Creative Campus provides an ideal to which we can aspire.

Generating creative thinking

• Definitions, Examples & ‘What If?’ scenarios to provoke in-class discussion.
• Creative Thinking kickstarts and obstacles from Creativity Web.
• de Bono’s Thinking Hats, to encourage parallel thinking, creativity and collaboration within group settings.
• brainstorming, and its more focused variant, Brainwriting, also known as “6-3-5 Method” [5 min video presentation].
• A-Z of Creative Thinking Strategies (many of which are remarkably similar to critical thinking strategies).
• Another A-Z from sources such as Open University and Berkeley.

Applying creative thinking

• Peerwise, an online programme from Auckland University, whereby students devise multi-choice questions for others to answer. Log in as ‘Victoria University of Wellington’ to explore the site’s potential for use in your courses.
• Downloadable iPad, Google, Android, and Web 2.0 applications to support all stages of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.

Assessing creative thinking

• Pecha Kucha 1: oral presentations comprising 20 PowerPoint slides, each 20 seconds long.
• Pecha Kucha 2: advantages and challenges (video and transcript from the University of New South Wales].
• Picturing to Learn, as used by Harvard and MIT, involves getting students to draw concepts (for non-specialist audience) as a way of facilitating early identification of misconceptions. Explore the database as a guest for examples and markers' comments.
• Design your own Animal: scaffolded Biology projects from Transylvania University, Kentucky.
• Creativity & Innovation Toolkit, containing activities and assessment guidelines, from Griffith University.
• Creative Assessment Methods, including role plays, portfolios, case studies and group projects, from University of New South Wales.

Discipline-specific discussions

• Case studies from Engineering & Physics: Baillie, C., & Walker, P. (1998). Fostering creative thinking in student engineers. European Journal of Engineering Education, 23(1), 35-44.
• Creative thinking in Law: Weinstein, J., & Morton, L. (2003). Stuck in a rut: The role of creative thinking in problem solving and legal education. Clinical Law Review, 9, 835-878.
• Creativity in Art, Science, Engineering: Baillie, C. (2006). Enhancing students’ creativity through creative thinking techniques. Developing creativity in higher education: An imaginative curriculum, 1, 1-15.