Browsing by Subject "creativity"
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Item Conceptual constraints on creativity: A case study of an undergraduate visual artist(2024-04) Karras, EmmaConstraints are often viewed as potential inhibitors on creative thinking and making. However, current research suggests that there may be enhancing impacts of constraints on creativity. The current paper presents a case study of one undergraduate mixed media artist (the author) across a series of eight artist trials where for four trials the completed artworks were conceptually constrained (that is, based on a topic specified by an external source) and four trials were unconstrained (that is, based on a topic autonomously generated by the artist). Ratings anonymously provided by peers, blinded to the research question, revealed that certain aspects of creativity tied to novelty are heightened in conceptually constrained visual arts outputs (e.g., surprise and playfulness) when compared to unconstrained, which, instead, tended to show heightened harmoniousness and other qualities. This suggests that conceptual constraints on visual artist outputs can increase peer rated creativity defined by novelty and originalityItem Creative Contributions to Sustainable Fashion Through Racial and Geographic Diversity(2022-06) Tomfohrde, PaigeThe fashion industry is one of the world’s largest environmental polluters (Ellen MacArthur, 2017). With the climate crisis looming, creative solutions are needed to address this pollution. The industry continues to ideate creative solutions within the same insular, homogenous group (von Busch, 2018; Barber, 2021), but this does not reflect the findings of creativity literature. Homogeneity is the enemy of creativity. Diverse groups bring varied “toolboxes” of experiences and ideas that result in the most creative solutions (Page, 2007). Unfortunately, diversity in the fashion industry is an ongoing problem, with 50% of racial minorities in the fashion industry feeling the industry is not accessible to everyone equally (Council of Fashion Designers of America & PVH, 2021). Racial diversity remains an ongoing issue (Johnson, 2020; Hoskins, 2014), especially in sustainable fashion where the creative impact of diverse lived experiences is most needed. Simultaneously, racial minorities face the brunt of the consequences of the climate crisis globally (Mohai, 2018). Within the United States, harmful practices like redling have geographically segregated minorities into specific zones with poor environmental conditions (Bay & Fabian, 2015). While this causes significant harm to these communities, it also makes these individuals more personally acquainted with the climate crisis. In conjunction with Environmental Deprivation Theory, this may help these individuals produce knowledge and creative solutions that differ from non-minorities or individuals in better environmental conditions. The aim of this thesis is to address this issue head on by understanding how racially and geographically diverse voices creatively contribute to the sustainable fashion conversation. This research uses Amabile’s Componential Theory of Creativity (1983; 2012) and Butler and Francis’s Socially Responsible Consumption Behavior model (1997) to address this aim through mixed methods. The four components of Amabile’s theory are: Creativity Relevant Processes, Task Motivation, Domain Relevant Skills, and Social Environment (2012). These four elements were paired with the four elements of Butler and Francis’s model: Exogenous Stimuli, Environmental Attitude, Apparel Environmental Attitude, and Behavior. Crossover was found between Task Motivation and Apparel Environmental Attitude that allowed the two models to be merged with the hypothesized resulting behavior being Apparel Environmental Creativity.This joint model resulted in four research objectives and three hypotheses. The research objectives were: 1. To understand how racially and geographically diverse voices creatively contribute to the sustainable fashion conversation.2. To determine if behaviors that do not relate to purchase or consumption can be correlated with apparel environmental attitudes. 3. To develop a tentative model for the incorporation of Socially Responsible Consumption Behavior and the Componential Theory of Creativity. 4. To challenge existing siloed research paradigms in order to center and uplift geographically and racially marginalized voices, in keeping with the advocacy and participatory research worldview. Three hypotheses were developed as a quantitative extension of these research objectives: H1: Exogenous stimuli, as measured by a) the Environmental Condition of the ZIP code of an individual’s residence and b) the individuals’s minority race identification, will positively influence that individual’s general Environmental Attitude.H2: Environmental Attitude, as measured by Environmental Stewardship and Environmental Dominion (r), will positively influence Task Motivation, as measured by Apparel Environmental Attitude. H3: Creativity score on a Sustainable Fashion Creativity test will be positively influenced by a) Creativity Relevant Processes, as measured by DAT score, b), Task Motivation as measured by Apparel Environmental Attitude, and c) Domain Relevant Skills as measured by Apparel Eco Knowledge. Two studies were designed and conducted to address these objectives and hypotheses. In the first 118 participants were recruited from Prolific, an online survey platform, to develop creative solutions to two of four fashion sustainability case studies. In Study 2, 93 professional or academic experts were recruited to judge these solutions in conjunction with the Consensual Assessment Technique (Amabile, 1982). Data was analyzed through path modeling using PLS-SEM and thematic and inductive qualitative analyses. H2 and H3b were validated and partially validated, respectively. Quantitative results indicated that scores for creative ideation for fashion sustainability were statistically similar regardless of any identity factor, including race or geographic location. Qualitative results showed that while there was some minor evidence of the significance of geography to an individual's solution generation, it was racial diversity that mattered more. Participants created solutions that often respected or utilized elements of their racial culture. Limitations include the use of race as a social construct within a siloed research paradigm and the current imperfect state of environmental condition reporting by government agencies. Future research should look at smaller subsections of this research and test developing theories in the areas of creativity and environmental justice.Item Creative Minds Abroad: How Design Students Make Meaning of Their International Education Experiences(2016-05) Johnson, RachelThe purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which students majoring in a design discipline make meaning of their study abroad experiences in relation to their creativity and creative design work. Students and recent alumni from the College of Design (CDes) at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMTC) who had studied abroad formed the population of interest. Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning theory is at the center of this epistemologically constructionist study’s theoretical framework, and is combined with the intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 1998), the systems perspective on creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988), and motivated cultural cognition (Chiu et al., 2000; Chiu & Hong, 2005) to form an integrated conceptual model. The model proposes a rationale for how study abroad is meaningful for design student sojourners. A variant of Brinkerhoff’s (2006) success case method (SCM) was used to select study participants. A recruitment survey was sent to the entire population of interest, and then, based on the survey responses, information-rich interview participants were selected; therefore, the majority of the study data is qualitative. Both the survey instrument and the interview protocol were independently developed by the researcher. Blogs and designs created by the interview participants were used to triangulate information from the survey and interviews. The findings are organized by research question, and focus on four distinct yet related lines of inquiry: students’ expectations for the study abroad experience; the ways they describe the learning they experienced; the ways they make meaning of the experience in relation to their creativity; and the ways it influenced their future aspirations or plans. The key findings of the study relate to the process of making meaning of the learning experience, and include: the value of engaging with a culture mentor who has deep knowledge of both the host culture and design; the importance of experiencing, firsthand, the reciprocal relationship between culture and design; and the ability to borrow and apply concepts and processes from the study abroad host culture into new and creative designs.Item Design Thinking: Using Creativity and Collaboration to Transform Public Relations(2018-12) Hayes, NoraPublic relations practitioners, like designers, toggle back and forth between seemingly different modes of operation: logic and creativity, specific and universal, human and non-human, time-bound and timeless. Both professions are driven by curiosity and the need to shape and change our worlds. Yet the processes at the heart of public relations have focused too narrowly on business imperatives and lost sight of the broader human dimension that fuels stories and provides meaning. Design thinking can provide a tool to help public relations reframe its role as a strategic creative driver.Item Digital Storytelling: An Integration of Participatory Culture, Education and Narrative(2013-05-31) Liesinger, BrianEngaging students who depend more than ever on digital technology and the Internet is an increasing burden for higher education in the 21st century. What rules today is a highly participatory culture relying on being “plugged-in” constantly. This project proposes Digital Storytelling (DST) as a cross-disciplinary activity to harness digital technology for educating media literate citizens able to put technology to use productively and meaningfully. In short, digital stories are brief narratives constructed digitally that combine the power of storytelling with still and moving imagery and a soundtrack to and convey meaning creatively.Item Does Bilingualism Confer Cognitive Benefits? A Tale of Three Probes(2015-12) Wang, LilyEarly reported findings pointed to a wide range of cognitive benefits of bilingualism. Recent meta-analytic and experimental results, however, cast serious doubts on whether these reported bilingual advantages in cognitive tasks were real, especially so in young adults. This dissertation uses a multi-measure, multi-method approach to comprehensively evaluate monolingual and bilingual differences among college-aged participants. It examines the core cognitive domains of executive function (Chapter 2), conflict monitoring in cognitive control (Chapter 3), and creativity (Chapter 4). Results showed that monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ on any of five dimensions of executive function, or in conflict monitoring, as assessed by both easier and more difficult tasks and task conditions. As hypothesized, bilinguals, however, outperformed monolinguals on measures of nonverbal creativity, whereas the reverse was true for verbal creativity. Additional analyses examined the possible contributors to this difference, focusing on objectively-assessed measures of English proficiency (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), visual-spatial reasoning ability, and the creativity-related personality characteristic of Openness/Intellect. English proficiency was significantly correlated with visual-spatial reasoning in bilinguals but not in monolinguals. Mediation analyses revealed that the Intellect aspect of the Openness/Intellect subscale (but not the Openness aspect) mediated the relationship between visual-spatial reasoning and English proficiency. These findings suggest that there are complex interrelations among language use and higher-order problem-solving abilities, including enduring personality traits revolving around cognitive exploration. We conclude, that, at least for young adults, there is no uniform overall cognitive advantage conferred by bilingualism, but facility in two or more languages can beneficially influence measures of nonverbal creativity.Item Exploring Instructors’ Creativity Fostering Behaviors in Design Education(2021-08) Kabli, TasneemIn education fostering students’ creativity is an important aspect of teaching (Soh, 2017). Teachers are still challenged to know which methods can foster student’s creativity in the classroom, and how design students can become more creative. Understanding the nature of creativity could affect teachers' attitudes and teaching practices towards their students’ development and learning. To increase teaching effectiveness, teachers must know and identify the tools that foster students' creativity. This research result reveals that design instructors’ values and beliefs of creativity. Three research questions were proposed and investigated: 1. What are the beliefs, practices, and creative behaviors that design instructors demonstrate in their teaching that foster students’ creativity in the classroom? 2. How do design studio instructors differ in their approaches for teaching creativity, depending on teaching studio vs. non-studio courses? 3. What are the creative behaviors that design instructors demonstrate in their teaching in the classroom that align with and go beyond their CFTIndex results? The mixed-method approach was implemented in two phases. In the first phase, creative instructors were selected by using Soh’s (2000) Creativity Fostering Teacher Behavior Index (CFTIndex). A total of 41 participants participated in this study; however, only 38 participants completed the survey. In the second phase, interviews were conducted to investigate design instructors’ creativity beliefs and practices. Invitations were sent to 34 participants, and 11 agreed to be interviewed. Six of those participants were teaching studio classes, three teach lecture classes, and two teach both studio and lecture classes. The knowledge that emerged from interviewing the instructors about creative teaching and practices resulted in five major findings. First, design instructors define creativity as a multifaceted phenomenon, and creative instructors share the attributes of being motivated, enthusiastic, and flexible, as well as having an open mind and empathy for students. Second, design instructors believe creativity is required in the design field, and enhancing students’ creativity is important in the classroom. Third, there are several activities and practices that design instructors apply in their classroom teaching to foster students’ creativity, and these practices can be evaluated and assessed in multiple ways. Fourth, there is several factors that influence creativity in classroom practices, most notably related to educational institutions, classroom environments, student experiences, and other factors beyond school. Fifth, when instructors gain more years of teaching experience, they see themselves as more likely to motivate students and demonstrate more creative behaviors to enhance creativity.Item Feedback and Creativity in Interior Design Studio: A Case study-mixed methods of a Junior Level Light Fixture Project(2021-08) Vo, Khanh HoaFeedback plays a critical role in nurturing creativity. Current literature, however, indicates that feedback can enhance or impede students’ creativity depending on its practices. Furthermore, theoretical framework and empirical evidence for effective feedback practices in interior design studios are insufficient. The present study, thus, built upon intensive reviews from the field of educational psychology on the relationship between feedback and creativity plus mediators such as feedback preferences and levels of interest. Via a case study-mixed methods approach, the study then explored effective feedback practices for students’ creativity in an interior design studio at the University of Minnesota in fall 2020. Data were collected from junior students (n=30) in a five-week light fixture design project in a studio. Feedback sources included the studio instructor and the CEO of a lighting design organization. Two independent judges rated students’ creativity using the Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS). Paired t-tests of CPSS ratings during the design process detected significant increases in Novelty of students. Pre-and post-surveys showed that students perceived the instructor’s feedback as positive while they expected more from the CEO’s feedback. No change was detected in students’ levels of interest. Follow-up interviews with students of high creativity (n=10) revealed that effective feedback practices came (a) in abundant quantity, (b) at the right timing, and (c) met students’ expectations. Future research needs to explore the correlation between feedback experiences and students’ creativity in multiple studio years, especially in terms of Resolution and Style, two other criteria of CPSS.Item How does creativity take shape in an arts classroom? A Post-intentional and Arts-based study on the creation of artwork(2019-05) Gamble, ShelaghHow does creativity take shape in an arts classroom? This study explores art creation through the lens of students participating in an active painting, drawing and clay studio class. As an artist, a teacher and a researcher I am influenced by the constructs that surround me, and I myself am an influencer on my students as they create artwork. In recognizing these constructs, this exploration of an active arts room documents the embodiment of creativity in a selection of students. Utilizing Post-intentional phenomenological methods (Vagle, 2018) to photograph, interview and explore the students’ process provides access into their world of creation. Using Arts-based research (Leavy, 2015) to respond and reflect on their creative processes allows me to produce artworks that embody my own responses to the phenomenon at play. Using ques from Deleuze and Guattari ’s (1987) lines of flight, each student artist is represented in the form of a vignette, weaving together all forms of data from their experience, matched with my artistic creations. While the phenomenon of how creativity takes shape in an arts classroom may never be fully captured, this rhizomatic rendering of a fleeting manifestation can provide preservice educators a glimpse into the world of student art creation.Item I'M New Here, Let'S Work Together: Proactive Collaboration and Creative Performance During Organizational Entry(2016-06) Dossinger, KarynEmployee creativity is arguably the foundation upon which successful organizational innovation rests. Little is known, however, about how the creative process begins in organizations and how new employees’ socialization influences their creative development. Using two studies, I developed and tested a social process model of new employee creativity in which proactive collaboration – taking initiative to engage with others in collective work – plays a key role in the creative process. In Study 1, I developed and validated a measure of proactive collaboration. In Study 2, I tested the proposed model using a time-lagged, survey-based field study of new employees and their supervisors over the first six months of employment. I found that newcomer proactive collaboration was positively associated with engagement in creative process behaviors (e.g., problem identification, information search, and idea generation); however, creative process engagement was not related to supervisors’ evaluations of newcomer creative performance. I also found that newcomers’ proactive collaboration was contingent upon both personal characteristics and the organizational socialization context. On average, newcomer curiosity was positively associated with proactive collaboration. Newcomers’ creative identities, formed from prior work experiences, interacted with the organizational socialization context to predict proactive collaboration: Newcomers with strong creative identities from prior jobs were more likely to proactively collaborate when the organization used divestiture, rather than investiture, socialization tactics. Due to ongoing data collection, please contact the author before citing this work.Item Igniting the Inbetween: A Creative Design Process from Discovery to Celebration(2014-06-06) Penfield, LucyDuring times of change, we float between the known and unknown, comfort and discomfort, certainty and uncertainty. This transformative time represents a gray area—an inbetween—that we must navigate through in order to jump start our imagination and creative discovery. For my final project I installed an exhibition of photographs, objects, and a “Discovery Room” to illustrate a 6-Step Creative Design Process—a fusion of Systems Thinking, Integrative Thinking, and Design Thinking—useful to designers, artists and anybody solving a problem or facing a design challenge. Design your creative journey and change your story.Item Leadership Styles and Physical Environments that Support and Advance Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace(2014-12) Kober, ErinIn order to support the shift from the service economy to the experience economy, organizations must innovate. To create an innovative environment, organizations must motivate, lead and create a space that supports individuals based on organizational goals and the function of work. This customized approach to leadership and office design will encourage collaboration among employees and increase innovation.Item Madness and the Muse: Understanding the Link Between Creativity in Today's Artists and Musicians(2014-06-06) Johnson, HayleyHistory has repeatedly alluded to a direct correlation between creativity and madness, drawing upon both perceived and actual ties between mental afflictions and the great artists, writers, and poets of our time. This perception has continued to evolve over generations of artists, and now recent landmark research has drawn even further attention to the interrelatedness between creative output and mental illnesses, both singular and co-occurring. However, the relationship is by no means definitive, and many questions still remain. When determining the causation and consequences of mental illnesses in creative individuals, is the artistic community left with the proverbial chicken and egg scenario, wherein it is virtually impossible to determine which came first and where the cycle ends? Does today’s society place a higher value on an artist’s health or on their creative output, and how do we respond when those two things become mutually exclusive? What resources currently exist, on a local or national scale, for artists of any discipline who are struggling with mental illness or substance abuse? How has the conversation changed around supporting those individuals, and how does it need to continue to change? In what follows, I will present findings based on these questions and posit what resources and solutions would be best suited for creative individuals who are struggling with mental illnesses, including a model for a proposed self-sustaining mental health resource and recovery program.Item The Perceived Attributes and Role of Environment to Creative Instruction(2018-04) Nyboer, JodyCreativity is an exciting area of research in education because it is increasingly understood to benefit learners. Creative teaching is effective teaching that enhances learning (Sawyer, 2011; Reilly et al., 2011; Rinkevich, 2011) and promotes creativity among learners (Nickerson, 2010; Horng et al., 2005). Understanding the effect of context on teachers is essential. Contemporary research makes it difficult to determine how important the environment is to creative instruction. The environmental contexts concerning instructional creativity are not entirely understood. This dissertation asks: What aspects of the environment relate to instructional creativity? This study approached answering this question in three ways. First, by analyzing related literature. Second, by conducting an investigation that defines the key attributes of the environment. And third, by conducting an investigation that delineates the role of those attributes in mediating instructional creativity. The constructs of the Four-P Model of Creativity (Rhodes, 1987) were used as an exploratory beginning to answer the research questions, namely in guiding the review of literature. Rhode’s model was selected because it is widely used to understand creativity in non-educational work environments where creative performance and outcomes are desired. While the Four-P Model is popular in creativity research, it has not been extensively utilized to delineate the contexts of creative instruction. Rhode’s model defines four creative dimensions known as the Four-Ps: person, process, product, and press (environment, place). This study used these dimensions to systematically review available literature related to creative instruction, and as a method to reveal and confirm the gaps in knowledge. The literature review established that the Four-Ps of instructional creativity have not been fully investigated. The attributes and role of the environment to creativity in instruction are the least understood and defined. The results of the systematic review were compiled as a conceptual framework based on the existing knowledge. The systematic review and resulting conceptual framework guided a design for discovery that is unique to this domain of research. The uniqueness of the research design is three- fold. First, it puts teachers at the center to learn about instructional creativity: measurably creative teachers are the unit of study. Second, it embraces the existing knowledge that creative teaching benefits the learners. Thus, learners are not included in this investigation. Third, it accepts the assumption that pupils and professionals have a different relationship with the educational environment. The mixed-method approach was implemented in two phases to enhance discovery. For the first phase, creative instructors were selected by using the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults to determine their Creative Index or CI (Goff, 2002). Nine participants with a “high” or “substantial” CI (> 5 CI on a scale of 1 to 7) were identified among the 18 phase-one participants. Three were selected for a pre- dissertation pilot study to test the qualitative methodology for phase two. Six were selected to participate in the second phase of the formal study. The mixed-method approach was implemented in two phases to enhance discovery. For the first phase, creative instructors were selected by using the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults to determine their Creative Index or CI (Goff, 2002). Nine participants with a “high” or “substantial” CI (> 5 CI on a scale of 1 to 7) were identified among the 18 phase-one participants. Three were selected for a pre- dissertation pilot study to test the qualitative methodology for phase two. Six were selected to participate in the second phase of the formal study. Two semi-structured, responsive interviewing techniques were implemented. Participants were first interviewed in their teaching space, followed immediately by a participant-led, walking interview through the building. The walking interview was designed to utilize the environment as a rich data gathering method. This encouraged participants to share experiences and perceptions about the environment, and to promote the generation of descriptive data. The data was interpreted, coded and analyzed to identify aspects of the environment that they perceive as important to creative instruction. The knowledge that emerged from this study represents the insight of creative teachers who shared personal experiences of feeling creatively enabled or limited. The discoveries are organized within three major findings. The first is multifaceted; defining the attributes and role of the environment that emerge as important to creative instruction. The second demonstrates that the attributes of the environment that relate to creative instruction are interrelated. The third indicates that the organizational environment is dominant and negotiates instructionally creative behavior. This investigation did not evaluate a causal relationship between the environment and instructional creativity. It was not an exploration of educational or developmental psychology. Rather, this work synthesizes the experiences of creative instructions to broaden knowledge about instructional creativity as a system in which the environment plays a distinct role. This work makes important contributions of knowledge to creativity as a field, to education where creative praxis is essential, and defines entry points for future investigations. The longitudinal goal of this work is to gain knowledge about how environment enables instructional creativity for all teachers. This information is relevant to anyone invested in optimizing the place and practice of creative instruction.Item Perceptions of Creativity(2017-08) Rowles, ChelseaThis study examines the perceptions of how creative various activities are believed to be. Forty-eight survey items were created modeling Kaufman and Beghetto’s four C model of creativity. Principal factor analysis was conducted to identify factors within each of the four groups. The data analysis indicates that the four C categories are not unifactor and that there may be a number of different influences that affect perceptions of creativity.Item A phenomenological research of world music creativity: a TCTF study of international music teachers' conceptions of creativity(2020-01) KIM, KANGWONThis phenomenological study was an investigation of four U.S. international music teachers’ experiences in music teaching, performing, creating, as well as their conceptions of musical creativity. A music educational conceptual model, Twelve Continuum Transmission Framework (TCTF), provided the theoretical framework for identifying culturally diverse aspects of participants’ music teaching and cultural features in their perspectives on creativity. Research questions included: What does the participants’ music teaching consist of in terms of cultural aspects, How do the participants conceive of creativity in regards to cultural aspects, and What are the implications of these participants’ conception of creativity, within their culturally diverse musical realities, on the music education profession? Four international music teachers who participated in this study experienced in teaching their ethnic music, responded to changes in cultural context, and music teaching adaptation. They represented different musical practices and cultural backgrounds. Data were collected from in-depth individual interviews, observations, artifacts, and researcher memos relating to their music teaching, performing, and creating practices. The analysis included thick descriptions of the international music teachers’ cultural realities and essays on their common conceptions of creativity that emerged from the variation of music tradition and teaching practices. Findings suggest that the international music teachers’ encounter with another cultural context, the U.S., recontextualized their teaching methods and expanded their conception of creativity. In this study, shifting ownership was considered an overall disposition in which various aspects can play key roles. A disposition or attitude of shifting musical ownership was evident in the international music teachers’ conception of creativity. This shift in musical ownership seemed to be related to their personalization of music through performing and creating, flexible approach to authenticity, freedom of students’ musical expression, and approach to other cultures’ music.Item Thinking Inside the Box: Data from an Online Alternative Uses Task with Visual Manipulation of the Survey Response Box(2016-09-29) Hofelich Mohr, Alicia; Sell, Andrew; Lindsay, Thomas; hofelich@umn.edu; Hofelich Mohr, AliciaThis study was designed to test whether responses to a divergent thinking task (the Alternative Uses Task, AUT; Guildford, 1967) could be influenced by visual design characteristics of the survey response box. We manipulated the type of response box (whether participants saw one large, essay style box - unsegmented - or whether they saw several small, list-style boxes - segmented; see variable "Segmented") and the size/number of boxes seen (5, 10, or 15 lines or boxes; see variable "Lines"). Participants were recruited from the United States between February and early May, 2014 from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and completed the task online. They were given two minutes to list as many uses for either a brick or a paperclip (randomized across participants; see variable "Item"), and then were automatically advanced to answer questions about their personality (the 44 item Big Five Inventory; John & Srivastava, 1991) and demographic information (Age, Sex, Education). Judges scored their responses for elaboration, flexibility, and originality.