Sparking Creativity in Science Education

Abstract

World-class science requires inspiration, so how can we spark creativity in the modern university environment? Creativity does not come automatically: in the modern age, factors from electronic devices to time pressure can stifle creative thought. Yet, to solve the major problems of the future, it will be essential to stimulate creativity in scientific research and teaching. Here, we bring together insights from the literature to offer ways to cultivate creativity in universities. We advocate for creativity at all levels of university culture within which students are embedded, from the students themselves, to teachers, to researchers, and to administrators. We found that, for students, creativity can involve accepting creative coursework and understanding failure; for teachers, it can involve being active mentors and designing creative courses; for researchers, it can involve conscious effort to make room for creative thought within pressured workloads, and researching across disciplines; and for administrators, it can involve relaxing restraints, allowing autonomy over courses, and encouraging cross-disciplinary learning and research.

“Two Sides of the Same Coin”: Benefits of Science–Art Collaboration and Field Immersion for Undergraduate Research Experiences

“…By working with an artist, or as an artistic team with other scientists, the students learned the benefits of experimenting WITH the scientific method. They became more creative thinkers, which can lead to scientific innovation, as discussed by Draper and others [3,6,16,22,56]. Additionally, as argued by Mody [56], the messier, more flexible conceptualization of science research that these students developed better prepares them for situations they will encounter in the workforce.…”

“…Indeed, one study of undergraduate students found that most university curricula does not foster creative thinking [14]. Traditional STEM course environments may reinforce the stereotype of many people that scientists lack creativity [15]; however, creativity is a necessary scientific skill to develop novel hypotheses and methodologies [16] and innovative technology [17]. As such, when students do associate science with creativity, they are more likely to learn and demonstrate competence in science and develop an interest in pursuing a STEM career [18].…”

“…Students are generally interested in science, but often demonstrate less enthusiasm for traditional science education [16,21]. The inclusion of science inquiry in the classroom, across all grades and ages, has been demonstrated to increase student interest, motivation and attitudes about science [21,22].…”

“…Traditional undergraduate STEM courses often do not allow students to develop authentic scientific questions and testable hypotheses [16,20,22,[24][25][26]. Students learn valuable science inquiry skills through participation in CUREs, and other hands-on, personally relevant research projects.…”

Team-based learning in online education: the development of students’ creative thinking skills in digital art

“…Chinese painting is one of the outstanding traditional culture elements of the country; it embodies the long history and intellectual wisdom of the Chinese nation (Bian & Shen, 2021 ). In the era of big data information technologies, the task is to find a new universal method suitable for the modern field of art education, changing the original traditional approach to teaching based on teaching previously developed educational materials (Draper et al, 2021 ). With the continuous development of society and information technologies (applications, online platforms, etc.…”