This chapter suggests how to facilitate group learning by creative thinking techniques in PBL. Techniques of brainstorming, checklist, and mind mapping are usually used among students in daily group experience. Using techniques can be reflected by the knowledge conversation model introduced in Chapter 5. Then a case will be discussed on a 5-day creativity training program carried out in Medialogy education at Aalborg University in Denmark. The case brings implications for Chinese universities: ‘fun' as a key to creativity training, mediation between individual and collective work, increasing creativity as an identity, and inquires of a long-term effort.
TopCreative Thinking Techniques In Pbl Environment
There are very many publications concerned with creative thinking techniques. For example, in the early 1980s, Geschka (1986) identified 50 and expanded on 23 creativity and ideas generation techniques. However, according to Thompson and Lordan (1999), many are variations of core techniques and therefore stem from the same basic principles. As Jackson and Sinclair (2006) suggest, the goal of many techniques is to achieve a shift in the perspectives associated a problem or situation. Creative thinking techniques utilize a variety of tools and strategies to encourage this change in perspective and generate lots of ideas through divergent thinking processes. In PBL environments, there are three core groups of techniques: brainstorming, check-lists, and mind mapping (Zhou, 2016).
Brainstorming developed by Osborn (1953) in the late 1930’s is one of the best-known ideas-generating tools. It made a breakthrough in applying the psychology of creativity to the problem-solving activities of the real world and has been recommended as probably being of best use in some combination of individual and group practice (Paulus, 2003). Normally, four important basic rules were given (Osborn, 1953; Zhou, 2012):
- 1)
Criticism is ruled out (to uphold the principles of deferred judgement),
- 2)
Free Wheeling is welcomed (variety of ideas to stimulate originality),
- 3)
Quantity is wanted (quantity leads to quality), and
- 4)
Combinations and improvements are sought (listen to others’ ideas and improve by additional insights or combination of ideas).