Developing Creativity in Advanced Undergraduates: A Design-Based Research Approach

Abstract

Based on my 5 years' experience that spanned the period 2002–2007 as an academic developer responsible for students and staff development, I realised that creativity was generally marginalised in undergraduate studies. In 2008, I enrolled for my PhD with the purpose of finding out whether advanced undergraduate classrooms supported students' creativity. The research project that is reported here draws from that work which focused on better understanding current advanced undergraduate teaching and learning conditions and their relationship to fostering students' creativity. In addition, the project elicited the views of a purposively selected teacher and his students on the meaning and value of creativity which were juxtaposed and contrasted with dominant conceptions of creativity in the literature. Finally, the project designed and tested alternative learning conditions that were likely to develop students' creativity. The challenge I faced was to find a research methodology and methods that could assist with collecting data in each of the stages of the project without altering the naturalistic conditions of the classroom. The relatively new, interdisciplinary research methodology called design-based research methodology offered better prospects of providing data without altering the naturalistic settings of the classroom.

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