In order for me to be able to use teaching strategies that will support creative thinking in the classroom, I need to have a good grasp of the processes of creativity and the creative behaviours that are part of problem solving.
Creative Processes
Creative thinking is the result of the interplay between complex cognitive, emotional and hormonal systems (Khalil, Godde & Karim, 2019, March, 22).
Creative cognition:
- Includes flexibility, fluency, reflective skills, the ability of the working memory to take in divergent information and then screen out irrelevant data so that the important data can be focused on (part of working memory updating) and originality (Khalil, Godde & Karim, 2019, March, 22).
- Creativity requires knowledge and experience in the domain (Cheraghi, et al., 2021).
Emotional influences:
- Includes motivation, mood, regulatory focus (motivation with a promotion or prevention focus) and rewards ( Khalil, Godde & Karim, 2019, March, 22).
Body and sensory knowledge:
- Researchers are beginning to investigate how body and sensory knowledge – embodied simulation – also contributes to creativity (Leschziner & Brett, 2019, August).
Environmental Factors
- A supportive environment (Cheraghi, et al., 2021).
Creative Behaviours
Brewster, Lee, Linnander and Curry (2021, August, 17), identify 3 behaviours that hospital based cardiovascular care teams use to foster the ‘ecological view’ which provides an understanding of the entire patient’s care processes and the environment within which these occur. The researchers note that this view is essential for creative problem solving. These behaviours are (located in Results):
- collecting new and diverse information;
- accepting (rather than dismissing) disruptive information; and,
- employing empathy (ie, to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position).”
My takeaways
Creative processes
- Develop teaching strategies that will engage students with cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt to new situations).
- Develop teaching strategies that will help students ‘connect the dots’ in clinical situations.
- Ensure that the students have enough knowledge and experience to be able to develop creative solutions for problems.
- Provide reflection activities that examine the creative process.
- Create a safe and positive learning environment.
- Support intrinsic motivation by designing assignments that allow for autonomy, encourage mastery and provide purpose.
- Acknowledge that students may be best at finding creative solutions to clinical problems when they are physically in the space that they work (embodied simulation).
Creative Behaviours
- Have students collect diverse and disruptive data (alternative perspectives, nontraditional approaches) in addition to the usual data collection of the standard medical views and approaches for case studies.
- Have students integrate alternative and standard views into case studies.
- Have students imagine taking a stand from an alternative view.
See Part 3 for specific problem solving and teaching strategies that I will try out for supporting creative thinking in the classroom.
References
Brewster, A.L., Lee, Y.S.H., Linnander, E. & Curry, L.A. (2021, August, 17). Creativity in problem solving to improve complex health outcomes: Insights from hospitals seeking to improve cardiovascular care. Learning Health Systems. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lrh2.10283
Chan, Z.C.Y. (2012). A systematic review of creative thinking/creativity in nursing education. Nurse Education Today. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2012.09.0
Cheraghi, M. A., Pashaeypoor, S., Mardanian Dehkordi, L. & Khoshkesht, S. (2021). Creativity in nursing care: A Concept analysis. FNJN Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 29(3), 389-396. https://fnjn.org/Content/files/sayilar/211/389-396.pdf
Davis, J. (2020, June 16). How Creativity Builds Resilience in Times of Crisis. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/tracking-wonder/202006/how-creativity-builds-resilience-in-times-crisis
Khalil, R., Godde, B. & Karim, K.A., (2019, March, 22). The Link Between Creativity, Cognition, and Creative Drives and Underlying Neural Mechanisms. frontiers in Neural Circuits. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2019.00018/full
Leschziner, V. & Brett, G. (2019, August). Beyond Two Minds: Cognitive, Embodied, and Evaluative Processes in Creativity. Social Psychology Quarterly. DOI: 10.1177/0190272519851791
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