If creativity is central to being, then higher education needs to understand what it means to be creative in the many domains it embraces e.g. historian, biologist, lawyer, engineer or any other disciplinary field of endeavour (Jackson and Shaw 2006). We need to raise awareness of what creativity means in these different contexts and encourage educators to support forms of learning that will enable students to develop the forms of creativity that are most appropriate for their field(s) of study and future careers.
Learning to be creativein a particular field requires people to be enculturated into the field often by legitimate peripheral participation - apprenticeship. John Seely Brown describes the dimensions of learning to be as : a way of seeing; a way of knowing; seeing what constitutes and interesting problem; knowing what consitutes an elegant (in this context perhaps novel) solution; and being able to engage in productive enquiry. These fit the idea of learning to be creative in a field very well.
Creativity and problem working:Creativity is often required in challenging problem working sitiations so what is the relationship between creativity, enquiry and problem working? In May 2006 a small group of people came together to explore this relationship and try to develop a better conceptual understanding.
Creativity as agency connected to and nourished by other things
We need to see creativity not as a stand alone competency but in the context of other abilities and capacities that are developed through a tertiary education. Sternberg and Lubart (1995) argue that we need three different sorts of abilities to be successful: analytical abilities–to analyse, evaluate, judge, compare and contrast; practical abilities – to apply, utilise, implement and activate; and creative abilities – to imagine, explore, synthesise, connect, discover, invent and adapt. To these families of abilities I would add, abilities to reflect to learn from and make sense of experience.
Sir Ken Robinson on creativity in education
Creativity doesn't work by itself.To be successful creativity needs to be integrated into a package of beliefs, mastered skills and understanding, personal agency and dispositions. This video clipby Richard St John contains much wisdom. If we are to be successful in designing experiences for students to practice and exhibit their creativity we need educational designs that require the embodiment of these things.
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