Promoting Creativity for Innovative Problem Solving

Historically, the sciences have been considered factbased disciplines that discover truths about the world. In contrast, the humanities have traditionally been assigned to the realms of personal interpretation and nuance. In keeping with this, creativity—a manifestation of human interpretation—traditionally has been designated to the realm of the humanities and is often left out of science.

However, in the face of complex and rapidly changing environmental issues, some researchers call for an alteration of our conceptualization of science. The author suggests one way this can be done is by facilitating and fostering creativity in the scientific realm, thus strengthening collaboration across disciplines by incorporating creativity into the curriculum.

The author argues for the importance of students having the ability to respond to complicated problems in a way that addresses the complexity of issues; this would require moving beyond simple programmatic adjustments. To accomplish this, educators must shift their orientation and learning processes to foster and cultivate the creative process. This, in turn, will free students to think beyond conventional paradigms and create innovative solutions.

The author suggests incorporating creativity into higher education programs that focus on environment and resources. As an example, the author examines Australian Education for Sustainability programs, which the author suggests would benefit from incorporating from incorporating current, innovative thinking about sustainability. The author suggests six areas of potential emphasis: systemic and holistic thinking; interdisciplinary skills; critical thinking; working with stakeholders; foresighted thinking; and dealing with complexity and uncertainty.

To illustrate the use of these creative thinking processes, the author uses the example of the world's dependency on cars. The author argues that viewing this issue in terms of the ways that transportation creates value for growing economies would foster thought around interconnections. It would also shift the focus from simply eliminating cars to creating alternative transportation methods. Problem solving regarding this issue would require interdisciplinary voices, including people from car companies, engineers and scientists, government officials in charge of infrastructure, and community support, among others.

Finally, the author says that incorporating creativity into the overall curriculum must start with teachers as facilitators of the process. By incorporating learner-centered approaches, such as independent group problem-solving tasks and in-depth classroom discussions around controversial issues, teachers can help create the next generation of creative problem solvers for sustainability-related issues.