and teaching practice ( taking care to acknowledge any differences in the definitions of creativity and innovation and the relationship between them ):
• Develop learning resources to better support staff and students to recognise when they are being creative or innovative , and to develop these skills further so that they can use them more frequently across a wider range of learning . Resources could include various definitions , more tangible related verbs ( e . g . synthesise , extend , adapt , generalise , solve , etc . ( Churches , 2008 , Munzenmaier and Rubin , 2013 )) and a list of examples of when students commonly display skills in creativity or innovation such as
- in problem solving within a data analysis where the data is non-ideal ,
- in planning and iteratively re-planning their MSc research project ,
- in composing and producing an essay , or
- in designing and delivering a Pecha Kucha presentation .
• Introduce staff development opportunities for discussion of the learning resources outlined in the previous bullet point to generate critical dialogue between staff about the concepts of creativity and innovation , and to raise awareness of what they look like in practice .
• Use the terms creativity and innovation more explicitly in module- and programme-level intended learning outcomes to indicate the need for these skills in order to demonstrate other skills already present in the intended learning outcomes such as those relating to critical thinking .
• Use the terms creativity and innovation more explicitly in assessment guidelines for students to help them to see the importance of using these skills as an expectation of postgraduate-level work and as transferable skills for employability .
• Invite staff who are thought by their colleagues to be creative in their teaching practice to showcase examples of best practice for embedding creativity and innovation into learning and teaching strategies as routine practice , to support staff peer-to-peer learning and confidence in this regard .
• Encourage staff to act as role models and ambassadors of creativity and innovation through their claiming of these labels in relation to their own work and that of colleagues .
• Guide staff to help students to recognise when they are being creative or innovative by applying these labels , as appropriate , with justified explanation .
• Revise staff guidelines to ask them to use the terms creativity and innovation in formative and summative feedback to students .
• During annual performance development reviews for each staff member , and periodic reviews of programmes , encourage staff to reflect on how well they have communicated information about the concepts of creativity and innovation on taught programmes .
Conclusions
By studying the relationship between creativity and innovation for staff who teach in UK HE settings , we have shown that these concepts have been defined as both products and processes , which involve the utilisation of cognitive and analytical skills . They have also been associated with the identities of individuals relative to the contexts they are working in . These particular findings concur with the broader research on these topics across different international settings and disciplines . Additionally , it is notable that , by engaging in dialogue about the concepts , delegates in both conferences recognised that they had not previously acknowledged their own creativity or innovation , implying that our workshops had raised their awareness .
The specific benefits for staff and students at LSHTM are that the findings can be used in a practical way by engaging more staff in such discussions and by developing learning resources and methods that can be applied in practice . This also requires recognition of additional factors such as the need to build awareness and confidence , to develop intellectual skills and to talk about the emotional impact relating
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