UNR1102 - Creativity and

innovation
Dr. Radwa Ahmed Osman
Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)
e-mail: [email protected]

Room: G201
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 Lecture#3: Nature
of Creative Thinking
Definition of creative Types of Creative
thinking: Concept & Thinking.
Meaning.

the Characteristics of Factors influencing

Creative Thinking. creativity.

Different aspects of The 5 Stages of the

creativity. Creative Process.

Elements of creative The Basic principles

thinking. of creative thinking.
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 Invitation
to think.

There are many different explanation for the

meaning of creativity. What does creative
thinking means from your own perspective?

What is Creativity?
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 Creative thinking: Concept & Meaning

• Creativity is important for all field of

educations.

• Creativity plays an important role in the

development of any country.

• Creativity is a necessary condition for

progress.

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 Creative thinking: Concept & Meaning

 There are different many definition for Creativity. (around 25 definitions)

 "Creative thinking sometimes refers to creative potential, sometimes to
creative production and sometimes to creative productivity ". (Guilford)
 "Creative thinking consists of forming new combinations of associative elements
(Mednik)".

 "Creative thinking involves new forms of thinking away from the traditional
forms. Thus, creativity includes curiosity, imagination, research, novelty and
inventions etc. (Simson)".

 Creative thinking is looking at something in a different and new

way (out-of-side-the-box) thinking.
 Creative people has the ability to solve problems and face challenges in a
new different way.

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 Creative thinking: Concept & Meaning

Some problems needs flexibility, Fluency, Creativity

and innovation to find tangible solution.

A creative person had a dynamic, fluency, flexible,

originality and novel thinking.

Creative thinking is a skill that anyone can acquire

and develop.

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 Characteristics of Creative Thinking

Creativity has been associated with

range of behavioral and mental
characteristics

Rapid generation of Tolerance for ambiguity

multiple and and uncertainty and
Associations between
Application of multiple Curiosity and flexibility Qualitatively different unusual uses of familiar
semantically remote
perspectives. in thought and action. solutions and answers objects.
ideas and contexts.
to problems and
questions.

Creativity is associated with an openness to experience, inspiration, hyperactivity,

impulsivity, rebelliousness, critical thinking, precision and conscientiousness all
working together side by side.
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 Characteristics of Creative Thinking

The are a different steps for starting build the concept of creative thinking.

Imaginative: Creative thinking is imaginative as it brings about something that did not exist or was
not known before, so it had to be imagined first (art and science need imagination).

Purposeful: Creativity always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively, this imaginative activity is
purposeful, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective.

Originality: is the art of uncovering one's own true voice by thinking out of the box. It is related to
divergent thinking. Based on the known facts learning, skills and knowledge originality defines
your own unique ideas.
Flexibility: is the ability to shift thinking to a switch rules or to a new or unexpected situation. It is
referred to mental or cognitive flexibility.

Valuable: adds the element of evaluation into creative thinking to prove that the products or results
are valuable. We need to see how it serves the purposed when we evaluating our creation. Also the
purpose and goal need to be judged.
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 Different aspects of creativity

Creativity is always referring to the mental processes where the novel

and valuable concepts are generated.

The ability and the utilization always affects our mental and thinking
process.

The ability to solve complex problem or creating new ideas and

products will be enhanced when understanding what influence our
thinking.

Four Ps influence our creative thinking: Process, Product, Person,

and Place. “Mel Rhodes”

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 Different aspects of creativity
Process: It is the followed systematic method for generating ideas or
concepts. It can be through divergent or convergent thinking, through a
clear-cut workflow, through intentional incubation, or through more
exploratory methods.

Product: is the central point of our attention for ideation; the problem
context or the source from which ideas can spread.

Person: refers to our innate or habitual habits: our openness to new

experiences, our ability to be self-sufficient, our levels of curiosity.

Place: is self explanatory: the environment in which we are and how

close we are to resources for either evolving ideas or sparking them.

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 Different aspects of creativity

In 2010 “Steven Johnson” had evolved the 4 Ps in his new book

Where Good Ideas Come From. He outlined that the influencers of
creativity as: the adjacent possible, liquid networks, slow hunches,
serendipity, errors, exaptation, and platforms.

Still there are some critical elements from these categories which
influence our ability of thinking such as: confidence, a sense of
observation, humility, mindfulness, resourcefulness, energy, and an
ability to take action.

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 Elements of Creative Thinking

Torrance the Father of creativity mentioned four elements for creativity which are:
-Fluency (numbers of ideas)
-Flexibility (variety of ideas)
-Originality (uniqueness of ideas)
-Elaboration (details of ideas)

When considering creativity, all these influencers and aspects must be taken into consideration
whether it was in or out of control.

The elements of Sensitivity (speed of observation and perception) was added by other
scientists.

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 Elements of creative thinking
Fluency: the ability to generate different new ideas, responses, solutions or
questions, not necessarily different (Brainstorming builds fluency).

Flexibility: is the ability to easily abandon old methods of thinking, adopt new
ones, and produce ideas, responses, questions or solutions in a variety of
categories. Flexibility aims to generate variety of ideas.

Originality: is the ability to generate a novel, or unique ideas. Draw a picture of

your new invention and give it a creative title.

Elaboration: is the ability to add details or "expanding on" an idea or general

scheme.

Sensitivity: is the ability to notice and perceive the problems before the others.

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 Elements of creative thinking

Creativity is composed from:

Creativity = Fluency + Flexibility +

Originality + Elaboration + Sensitivity

Divergent Convergent
thinking thinking
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 Basic Principles of Creative Thinking

Creativity is human mental activity. There is no special

algorithm from creativity.

There are different thinking skills and things that should be

known to enhance people’s creativity.

Three basic principles that underlie creativity should be

understood.

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Principle One: New Ideas are Composed of Old
Elements
Mainly about alternate possibilities.

To be creative we must deviate from the ordinary and the traditions.

Joint different ideas together, replace or delete elements together.

The ingredients for creativity depends on the store of the ideas.

Find solution for problems by consulting other people with different

expertise.
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Principle Two: Not All New Ideas are on a Par
(on the same level)

Creativity is divided into artistic and cognitive creativity

Artistic Cognitive

Artistic: Express the ideas and emotions through various form of arts.

Cognitive: Creating solutions for practical or theoretical problems

The evaluation or modification of new
The generation of new ideas.
ideas, through using critical thinking.

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Principle Three: Creativity is Enhanced by the Ability
to Detect Connections among Ideas

Useful ideas come from unexpected sources.

The ability to explore connections among different areas.

First, a wide knowledge base is needed.

Secondly, ensuring that our learning processes aim to a deep

understanding of the connections between different key concepts.

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 The 5 Stages of Creative process

The theory of creative process has

been outlined by “Graham
Wallas”.

Creators follows 5 stages while

pursuing their creative endeavors.

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 Factors influencing creativity
1-Preperation: The creative process begin with preparation, gathering
data information and materials, identifying sources of inspiration, and
acquiring knowledge about the project or problem.

2-Incubation: In this stage allow your mind wander to let it contemplate

and work the problem through.

3-Illumination: Sometimes called the insight stage, illumination is when

the “aha” moment happens. In this third stage, the answer to your
creative quest strikes you.
4-Evaluation:The validity of your idea and weigh it against alternatives
should be considered. This is also a time of reflection when you look back
at your initial concept or problem to see if your solution aligns with your
initial vision.
5-Verification: It is the stage where creative product become a physical
object, an architectural design, any item or object that you set out to
create, propelled by that initial idea that popped into your head.
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 Factors influencing creativity

Experiences

Fearlessness Desire

There are
Atmosphere several
Space and
and factors
Time
Environment influencing
creativity
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 The 5 Stages of Creative process
1-Experiences: plays an important role in creative thinking the more influence you have, the more
affected you will be. These experiences define your ideas and creativity that are presented through
your work.

2-Fearlessness: is a major factor affecting one's creativity. A person who thinks he is not
creative can never be. Having doubts is a good thing but worrying about the success of an idea
clearly shows that you lack faith in your ideology. Experts say "Don't be afraid to be creative and
you will open more doors to new ideas.

3-Desire: is a factor of creativity which is often overlooked but it is as vital as any other
criterion for growing as a creative individual.

4-Atmosphere and Environment: It's all about the world around us. Atmosphere
and environment both go hand in hand to influence an individual's creativity levels .
Although innovation and creativity can emerge in a variety of settings and situations ,
some environments are more conducive to the creative process.

5-Space and Time: Productivity may increase under stress, but creativity does not
have a positive effect if undisturbed space and the right amount of time are not
provided. Having a start and end time is essential to keeping your creative space open.
it will take time to achieve something truly original and creative.
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 Types of Creativity

There are four types of creative insights based on

different brain activities Arne Dietrich (2004)

• spontaneous or deliberate and cognitive or

emotional

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 1-Deliberate and Cognitive creativity

People who possess deliberate and cognitive characteristics are purposeful. They have a great
amount of knowledge about a particular subject and combine their skills and capabilities to
prepare a course of action to achieve something.

This type of creativity built when people work for a very long time in a particular area.

These types of creative people spend a great deal of time every single day testing to develop new
solutions.

“Thomas Alva Edison” is one prominent example of this type of creative people. He ran experiment
after experiment before inventing electricity, the light bulb, and telecommunication. Hence,
deliberate, and cognitive creativity requires a great deal of time, dedication and abundance of
knowledge about a particular subject.

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 1-Deliberate and Emotional Creativity

People who are categorized as deliberate and emotional let their work influenced by their state of
emotions. These types of creative people are very emotional and sensitive in nature.

These individuals prefer relatively quiet and personal time to reflect, and they usually have a habit
of diary writing.

They are equally logical and rational in decision making.

Suddenly thinks of a solution to some problem or think of some innovative idea. Need quite time.

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 3- Spontaneous and Cognitive creativity

During spontaneous and cognitive creativity, the conscious brain stops working on the problem,
and this gives the unconscious part of the brain a chance to work on it instead.

If a problem requires “out of the box” thinking, then you need to remove it temporarily from
conscious awareness.

These types of creative people spend a great deal of time every single day testing to develop new
solutions.

“Isaac Newton” got the idea about the law of gravity when an apple hit his head while he
was sitting under a tree and relaxing.

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 4- Spontaneous and Emotional creativity

Happened when conscious brain is resting. This type of creativity is mostly found in a creators such
as musicians, painters, designers, scientists and writers etc.

Spontaneous and emotional creativity is responsible for a scientific breakthrough and also
philosophical, scientific discoveries.

Those moments are defined as rare moments when great discoveries take place.

There is no need to have specific knowledge “spontaneous and emotional” for creativity to happen.

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