Creativity in the Curriculum: potential issues and possible solutions Andy Penaluna

Do the maths? Business, Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship minus Innovation and Creativity = ?

10 November 2014 Britain must start preparing now to deal with the coming changes… the skills employers most want from staff are digital know-how, management, creativity, entrepreneurship and problem-solving – all abilities unlikely to be replaced by developments in technology… (place) a premium on workers’ ability to adapt to new challenges Angus Knowles-Cutler, London senior partner at Deloitte - Following research project with Oxford University’s Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne ( 56f70aRCRD.htm)

Problems? Business, Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship minus problems to solve = ? minus being able to spot problems = ?

Lets think creatively, then innovate through the application of this thinking… …and we need to spot opportunities for action in our own contexts

Can students in all disciplines be creative? How can we encourage students to be creative? How can we assess student creativity in Higher Education?

…the application of creative ideas and innovations to practical situations. This is a generic concept that can be applied across all areas of education. It combines creativity, ideas development and problem solving with expression, communication and practical action. (QAA, 2012, 8) UK definitions - Enterprise

Essential basic premises 1+1 = 2, but 1+?+1 = ? (Abduction) Think of something creative or innovative… …then ask, how predictable was that? The more creative something is, the harder it is to communicate to those who don’t understand

Essential basic premises An idea is acknowledged to be creative if it is novel, or surprising and adaptive, functional or effective (Simonton, 2000). Do you expect your students to develop enhanced capacities as they learn? …so do you map the increased enhancement of creative capacity?

Evaluate the learning through context and engagement, not merely norms? Which is simpler? Assessing students against clear goals or… Assessing students against their ability to surprise you?

How is knowledge constructed? To what purpose can we put constructed knowledge? How do we operate when knowledge is incomplete? How do we operate when knowledge changes rapidly? HE quality enhancement and the development of fit for purpose students asks

Please hold up your phone in the air Just to start thinking… Only keep your hand up if it is a Nokia 7 years ago Nokia owned 50% of the handset market. Apple owned 0%. Today—Apple is the most profitable Smartphone company in the world and in Spain Android (Also 7 yrs old) commands a market share of more than 90%. Nokia? Its worldwide market share of Smartphones has dwindled to 5%. Steve Blank 2014

Take a moment to think Image Courtesy of Google Campus Logical Clear Manageable Sequentially valid (Reductionist - to make sense of complexity) Unclear Complex (until patterns emerge and links are made)

Seek out freshly identified problems / solutions Deadline = solution proposal Reflect and analyze – use time thoughtfully Look for inspiration, contextual materials and links Discard irrelevant or non beneficial information Divergent - Convergent thinking Penaluna & Penaluna 2006 Bridging the thinking styles (how?)

Investment Search – Select – Implement - Capture Ideas assessment gate Development gate Test gate Launch Innovation gates (based on Toyota) Capture and profit Idea Cost Pyramid Investment increases significantly Investment in ideas generation is often cheap

Creativity Avalanche? Research indicates a significant drop in creative thinking scores in US schools. According to Kim there is a creativity crisis. Using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and a sample of 272,599 pupils (kindergarten to fourth grade), Kim evidences ‘Decreased Creative Thinking in the Past 20 Years’, noting that ‘the decline is steady and persistent’. Kim, K. H. (2011), ‘The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Score on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking’ Creativity Research Journal, 23 (4),

We have to question - is recalled knowledge enough? Advances in cognitive neurology informs us that the decision-making process is emotionally-driven first and then logically-driven It also illustrates how differently individual brain cells may grow - according to the type of teaching and learning experienced Research into HE Quality and Enhancement

Gestalt - what do you really ‘know’? Limens, Soma, Dendrites and connections

Penaluna & Penaluna 2009 Left Cortex dominance Right Cortex dominance Detail of Pyramid neuron from the amygdala / hippocampus Micro molecular structure images courtesy of Mark Jung Beeman and John Kounios, Mid Western and Drexel Universities Brain functionality / cortexes Key point – Developing synapse potential through learning

Do we need knowledge retainers or ‘knowledge harvesters’ (people who collate up to date information as and when required)? Do we need people who can ‘talk about’ innovation or do we need people who can ‘do’? "FUTURE PRIORITIES OF THE ET 2020 STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING AND SYNERGIES WITH YOUTH POLICY” Round 1: Promoting excellence and innovation 9/10/2014

Yes but how can you evaluate these skills? Psychologists, brain injury specialists and informed design educators use tools such as: Ideational Fluency (number of ideas generated) Expressional Fluency (How many connections and links can you make through reflective processes) and Divergent Production (How disparate are the connections made that lead to creative solutions).

If detailed and predefined learning outcomes are used they test one ‘I’ – the ability to ‘Implement’… what is is needed to evaluate the other ‘I’ – Innovation? ‘I’ in assessment is for? "FUTURE PRIORITIES OF THE ET 2020 STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING AND SYNERGIES WITH YOUTH POLICY” Round 1: Promoting excellence and innovation 9/10/2014

Evaluate the learning through context and engagement, not merely norms Implementation – doing things that are determined by others and matching against their expectations Innovation – producing multiple and varied solutions that respond to change and often surprise

‘I’ in innovation assessment Build a suspension set up (removed at outset)

Evaluate the learning through context and engagement, not merely norms The car has its front suspension removed and the aim is to design the arms from scratch. Students define problems Students find a range of solutions Students create alternative prototypes Students decide selection process Students create timescales

Evaluate the learning through context and engagement, not merely norms Assessment separates divergent and convergent thinking processes and accepts ‘glorious failures’. Initial Oral examination Viva 1 (10%) Initial Report (20%) Final Oral examination Viva 2 (20%) Final Report (50%)

Evaluate the learning through context and engagement, not merely norms The Primary aim of this module is to aid the student groups to work effectively to generate ideas through a general knowledge and understanding of the concepts of creativity and innovation whilst working to a tight schedule.

Evaluate the learning through context and engagement, not merely norms The students utilise live test data, computer aided simulation and analytical techniques to establish the limitations… and then redesign a specific component within the model to satisfy their new design criteria…. ultimately to bring reality into the classroom, to assimilate the true aspect that industry has to relate to on a daily basis. Andrew Gibson - BSc Motorsport /Automotive Engineering

Technical skills and subject expertise Business acumen and strategy Enterprising mind With personal motivation there is energy, with energy there is resilience, with resilience, success is likely... Creativity, innovation and opportunity recognition are key intrinsic motivational drivers, they are central to the enterprising mindset All Party Parliamentary Group for Micro Business (2014) An Education System fit for an Entrepreneur

Application (where?) Enterprising Angels © A Penaluna, 2010 Intrapreneur The ‘cornerstone employee’ Portfolio career ‘multiple jobs = multiple opportunities’ Enterprising mind Entrepreneur The ‘business developer and enhancer’ Social entrepreneur ‘The society developer and enhancer’ Overall aim - learning to learn; they use harvested knowledge to societal and economic advantage

Key researcher / educator thinking “Ability to challenge assumptions, recognise patterns, see in new ways, make connections, take risks and seize upon chance” Vidal, R.V.V. (2004), ‘Creativity for operational researchers, informatics and mathematical modelling’, Technical University of Denmark.

QAA’s Guidance Students should be able to: Be flexible and adaptable, seeing alternative perspectives and offering a choice of solutions review and evaluate multiple solutions in contexts that anticipate and accommodate change and contain elements of ambiguity, uncertainty and risk. Think speculatively, employing both convergent and divergent approaches to arrive at appropriate solutions. (QAA, 2012,18)

To achieve world leadership in university-business collaboration, all domains in the landscape must attain excellence; the strength of the supply chain is defined by its weakest link. Effective joined-up policy in this field, therefore, has to be informed by knowledge of the entire landscape. /32383/ wilson-review-business-university-collaboration.pdf Wilson Review of University Business Collaboration (February 2012)

Now more than ever we need innovation, new solutions, creative approaches and new ways of operating. We are in uncharted territory and need people in all sectors and at all ages who can “think out of the box” to identify and pursue opportunities in new and paradigm-changing ways. wave-entrepreneurs The bigger context

The University will do this by providing challenging contextualised learning opportunities that require creative, innovative and risk-taking approaches in their solutions. Enterprise Education Mission, Vision and Strategy Point 6.1.i: Meeting aspirations

? Creativity in the Curriculum: potential issues and possible solutions Andy Penaluna