Context and Objectives
There is longstanding debate about the nature of creativity and innovation in learning and teaching contexts ( Hunter et al ., 2007 , Oldham and Cummings , 1996 , Woodman et al ., 1993 , Kampylis and Valtanen , 2010 , Amabile , 1988 , Daskolia et al ., 2012 , Demir , 2014 , Demir , 2015 , Onyia , 2014 , Tang , 1998 , Tsai , 2012 , Bondarenko and Isaeva , 2016 , Byron , 2017 , Herrera and Mejías , 2017 , Loaiza et al ., 2017 , Sanchez-Martin et al ., 2018 , Richards , 2015 ). As teachers working in a postgraduate context , this raised questions for us about the subsequent impact it might have on students ’ opportunities to recognise and implement creativity and innovation in their assignments .
Such questions are pertinent as students ’ confidence to be creative and innovative is perceived less positively than other questions in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey ( Soilemetzidis et al ., 2014 ), even though developing such skills can enhance students ’ learning gains ( Leman , 2015 ) and enable students to align their skills with Masters-level descriptors ( SEEC , 2010 ). According to Byron ( 2017 ), at Masters-level staff often highlight the need for students to demonstrate critical thinking skills but neglect how these are interlinked with creative thinking .
Furthermore , Virtanen and Tynjala ( 2018 ) found that providing opportunities for students to collaborate and interact using constructivist and integrative pedagogies was more likely to enhance their development of skills , such as decision making , using different forms of creativity and problem solving , when compared to traditional university teaching methods ( Biggs , 1999 , Biggs , 1996 , Biggs and Tang , 2011 , Bonwell and Eison , 1991 , Brown and Race , 2012 , Lage et al ., 2000 , Novroski and Correll , 2018 , Office for Students , Rui et al ., 2017 , Ryan , 2005 , Springer et al ., 1999 , Tusa et al ., 2018 , Virtanen and Tynjälä , 2018 ).
With these issues in mind , we initiated dialogue between a group of interdisciplinary staff , including ourselves , about what creativity and innovation meant to each group member within their own learning and teaching contexts . We reflected on what these concepts mean for our professional practice and also examined case studies including a seminar series for students , a public health skills development game , a careers support workshop , and an autobiographical book on breast cancer . It quickly became apparent that the concepts of creativity and innovation were defined and interpreted in numerous ways and that it would be difficult to embed them in our respective student learning contexts without further insights to help consolidate our understandings about them . Subsequently , we held a follow-up meeting during which we agreed that the interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration with our colleagues had broadened each of our mindsets with respect to the way we understood the concepts . Additionally , our dialogue enabled us to reach consensus about what these ideas and practices meant , which felt reflective , creative and innovative in and of itself . Given this , we decided to develop a research project that could explore these ideas further .
Our research aimed to evaluate how the concepts of creativity and innovation are perceived by staff in a range of disciplinary contexts – seeking the ‘ holy grail ’ as one participant put it ! In the next section , we review the literature on creativity and innovation to show fragmented perceptions associated with these concepts . Following this , we present the study and results . Finally , we conclude with recommendations for embedding creativity and innovation into curricula to improve staff and student knowledge , skills and understandings within our own context of postgraduate education in public and global health offered by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine , alongside offering suggestions for higher education ( HE ) institutions elsewhere to consider .
Literature Review : What is ‘ creativity ’ and what is ‘ innovation ’?
We searched the educational literature through the ERIC database ( in November 2018 ), for definitions of creativity and innovation , limiting the search to articles relating to health or science in higher education ( including synonyms ).
Tsai ( 2012 ) proposes that creativity is an elusive construct which is difficult to define , and also a process that can be used to transform new ideas into useful products , particularly where there is a clear interconnection between the individual and the
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