Are we teaching novice instructional designers to be creative? A qualitative case study

Abstract

Creativity is a valuable skill for instructional designers. However, few studies have researched creativity in instructional design (ID) graduate courses. Future professionals' creative thinking is necessary to address societal, technological, and economic challenges. Developing creative thinking in novice instructional designers could allow them to generate creative solutions to ill-structured problems in real-world contexts. This multiple case study investigated the extent to which the nine core courses in an online instructional design master’s program encouraged creativity. We conducted a document analysis of course materials for each course, to analyze whether creativity indicators derived from creativity literature were present. Subsequently, a cross-case synthesis was used to identify patterns across the cases. Semi-structured interviews of the lead course instructors were conducted to evaluate the extent to which they deliberately included creativity concepts into the course design process. Results indicated core courses include learning activities and instructional strategies with the potential to foster creativity. However, explicit references mentioning creativity or being creative were only found in three courses. Lead instructors considered creativity an important aspect of teaching and learning and a concept that needs to be further developed and discussed in ID education. Implications for instructional design education are discussed.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Categories for creativity	Creativity related skills	Description	Literature
Cognitive skills—thinking abilities	Analogical thinking	Analogy is a process of establishing correspondence between concepts from different fields of knowledge. Analogical thinking involves mapping two domains or situations and bringing across inferences from the more familiar domain to the less familiar domain	Kao (2014)
	Analytical thinking	Analytical thinking involves abilities to (1) take apart a problem and understand its parts, (2) explain the functioning of a system, the reasons why something happens, or the procedures of solving a problem, (3) compare and contrast two or more things, or (4) evaluate and critique the characteristics of something	Sternberg (2002)
	Synthesis and Evaluation	Gather, shift, select, organize, and synthesize (arrange better) large quantities of evidence doing a reflective judgment of the resources used, the logic, value, and worth of the work done	Combs et al. (2009), Jackson and Shaw (2006)
	Open-ended problem solving	Open-ended problem-solving ability is used to formulate questions and provide answers using valid and relevant evidence and arguments	Amabile (1983), Jackson and Shaw (2006)
	Lateral thinking	Lateral thinking is used when people think in unconventional or unfamiliar ways	De Bono (2014)
	Divergent thinking	Divergent thinking is used when people solve problems or topics from multiple angles and perspectives and/or consider several possible solutions/ideas	Guilford (1968), Jackson and Shaw (2006)
	Remembering accurately	Those who can code, retain, and recall large amounts of detailed information probably have an advantage in creative performance	Amabile (1996), Campbell (1960)
	Breaking perceptual set	A perceptual set refers to a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way, so breaking perceptual set is breaking out of a set way of viewing a problem	Amabile (1983, 1996), Elam and Mead (1990)
	Breaking cognitive set	Exploring new cognitive pathways. Breaking out of a set way of solving a problem	Amabile (1983, 1996), Elam and Mead (1990)
Ideas	Generation of ideas	The production of original mental images and thoughts that respond to important challenges	Puccio and Cabra (2011)
	Reflecting on ideas	Reflection focuses on uncovering assumptions, the conceptual glue that holds our perspectives, meaning schemes, and habits of mind in place	Brookfield (2009)
	Evaluation of ideas	When engaging in idea evaluation, individuals and teams turn their attention away from the production of novel ideas to the selection and development of new insight into a workable solution	Puccio and Cabra (2011)
Activities that promote creativity	Reflect critically on the nature of their discipline	The core to being a creative educator and fostering creativity in learners is a willingness to reflect critically on practice and to adapt plans and practice as appropriate	Craft (1997)
	Breaking out of performance “scripts”	Domain-relevant skills include performance scripts or algorithms and set sequences of steps for performing tasks or solving problems in a given domain. It may be important for creativity to be able to break out of well used scripts occasionally or at least to be able to examine them instead of proceeding through them uncritically	Amabile (2013)
	Operating in complex and ambiguous settings	Interpretation of complex, ambiguous, conflicting, and incomplete material. Capacity to consider and solve complex problems	Amabile (2013)
	Transfer and application of learning in new contexts	Experts are able to draw on their knowledge to come up with new strategies for solving unique or novel problems within a knowledge domain and between domains. This knowledge application results in inventive or creative solutions to problems	Amabile (1983), DeHaan (2009)
	Taking risks and coping with failure	Willingness to take risks with a particular task	Amabile (1983)
	Keeping response options open as long as possible	In a study of student artists, Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1976) found that those who approached their canvas without a definite plan produced more creative paintings than those who knew in advance what they were going to do	Amabile (2018), Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1976)
	Suspending judgment	Judgment or criticism can severely disrupt the free flow of ideas, thus reducing the number of unique and novel ideas generated	Amabile (2013), McFadzean (2001)
	Use “wide’’ categories	Individuals who categorize information in “wide” as opposed to “narrow” categories, who see relations between apparently diverse bits of information, may be more likely to produce creative works and responses	Amabile (2018)

Instructional strategies with the potential to promote students’ creativity	Description	Literature
Negotiated learning	Negotiation informs curriculum development by involving and including student’s interests, needs, and voices. It promotes greater freedom, control, and ownership of the learning process by increasing self-direction and learner motivation	Breen and Littlejohn (2000), Brown (2012), Knowles et al. (2014)
Experiential learning	Is learning that occurs when the dimensions of content, incentive, and interaction are balanced, such that learners are connected to each other and able to make sense of new information or relate ideas with or without the direct pedagogical instruction of an instructor	Hondzel and Hansen (2015)
Project-based learning	Project-based learning is a comprehensive perspective focused on teaching by engaging students in investigation. Within this framework, students pursue solutions to nontrivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts	Blumenfeld et al. (1991), Seechaliao (2017)
Problem-based learning	PBL is an instructional (and curricular) learner-centered approach that empowers learners to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop a viable solution to ill-structured problems (often interdisciplinary)	Savery (2015), Seechaliao (2017)
Creative Learning	Creative learning requires that students create their own knowledge, a constructivist process that involves emergence. Guided by teacher practices, curricular structures, and learning goals that guide and aid students in their own process of creative learning	Sawyer (2019)
Cognitive Apprenticeship	Cognitive apprenticeship learning is situated within social constructivist approaches to instruction. It prioritizes the use of authentic tasks and situations and the role of interactions between more and less skilled individuals in order to foster the development of metacognitive strategies and domain-specific problem-solving skills	Garner (2012)
Case based learning	Case-based instruction is a teaching method that requires students to actively participate in real or hypothetical problem situations, reflecting the kind of experiences naturally encountered in the discipline under stud	Ertmer and Russell (1995), Seechaliao (2017)
Situated learning	Situated learning occurs when students work on “authentic tasks” whose execution takes place in a “real-world” setting. It does not occur when students are taught decontextualized knowledge and skills	Winn (1993)

Learning techniques that promote creative thinking	Description	Literature
Brainstorming	Group brainstorming is a process during which members build upon previous ideas, not criticize any ideas, and generate many ideas, additionally participants feel free to contribute wild ideas to the exercise	Putman and Paulus (2009), Seechaliao (2017)
Self-assessment	Self-assessment is a formative assessment process during which students self-evaluate the quality of their work, judge the degree to which it reflects certain goals or criteria, and change their behaviors, attitudes, or cognitive thoughts accordingly	Andrade and Valtcheva (2009)
Peer assessment	Peer assessment is a process of learners to learners considering the level, value, or quality of other equal-status learners’ performances or products	Boud et al. (1999), Topping (2009)
Negotiated assessment	Negotiated assessment is a process of different stakeholders in a group discussing and making an agreement on the criteria and mechanism of assessment for different individuals involved based on their own considerations	Costley and Armsby (2007), Jackson and Shaw (2006)
Teamwork	Teamwork is a goal-oriented process during which a group of people decide to achieve a goal together, with a single agent of beliefs, goals, and intentions of its own, over and above the individual ones	Cohen and Levesque (1991)
Analytical thinking	Analytical thinking is the ability to scrutinize and break down facts and thoughts to solve problems, analyze data, and utilize information	Amer (2005)
Synthesizing	Synthesizing is a summarizing process during which learners elaborate an integrating idea from different propositions and make decisions on how to integrate the information from different resources into a new structure of knowledge	Mateos et al. (2008)
Scaffolding	Scaffolding is an instructional process during which teachers provide temporary supporting structures to assist learners in developing new understandings, new concepts, and new abilities. Teachers withdraw the support as the learner acquires these skills	Gibbons (2002)
Collaboration	Collaboration is a process during which a group of autonomous stakeholders use shared rules, norms, and structures to act or solve a related problem	Wood and Gray (1991)

Appendix 2

Semi-structured interview sample items

• 1. How do you define creativity?

• 2. What do you think creativity means to an instructional designer?

• 3. If you were to evaluate if an instructional designer is being creative in their practice, what would you look for?

  If they response is some artifact (for example: design documents, new ideas etc), refer to that artifact and ask:

  What skills and knowledge do you think that an instructional designer needs to evidence that? Can you give an example?

• 4. Ask what courses they teach/have designed. For example: “I believe you are the lead instructor for [Course(s)], is that correct?” Did you design it?

  Ask for each of their courses:

  Now, I would like to talk about your course [Course name/number]

  • a. Is creativity built into learning objectives, course activities, assignments or materials?

  • b. If not, why not? Do you think that it could be built in other ways?

  • c. If so, can you give an example?

• 5. Do you consider helping students develop creative skills as a major or minor objective in this course?

  • a. If so, how do you teach that objective?

  • b. If not, what are some of the reasons to exclude this objective from your course? Why?

• 6. Do you think what we need to address creativity more explicitly in ID education?

  • a. If so, how? Can you give an example?

  • b. If not, why not?

• 7. Is there anything else you would like to share?

Appendix 3

Sample interview excerpts

Theme 1: creativity development has not yet been built into ID core course design

Sample interview excerpts:

• 1. So as a word, and honestly, at this point, um, know, that course, I don’t think creativity is built into any point, we talk about problem solving and working within constraints.

• 2. And had we not had this conversation, I’m guessing that I would not have put creativity into it. I mean, I think that’s just not realistic. But by talking about it, I mean, it will, it’ll prompt me to think Well, does it make sense? Can I put this in here, so that it, it makes sense so that it can be something that they’re thinking about that we can measure in an adequate way? That sort of thing?

Theme 2: creativity was implicitly integrated into the courses’ minor objectives, activities, and assignments

Sample interview excerpts:

• 1. So I think there is a lot of underlying creativity that’s been like considered in this course, but it’s just not maybe called that. So let me give an example. In every case analysis that students are required to complete, they’re asked to share how their previous experiences help them to come up with the solutions. And this seems really hard for students. It’s like sometimes, well, I’ve never designed a kiosk before, so I didn’t have any experience. Okay, yeah, that’s true. But you have had all these other experiences, how can you pull on, you know, pull from those to make these connections that aren’t obvious? So, I mean, that’s something that I think they’re, if I can help them do better, but that I yeah, so that’s something and then the other one is, they’re asked to come up with two solutions, and to the problems that they identified. And this is really hard for students, because they see one way of doing something. And that’s it. But if, you know, I think creativity goes along with this, because back to like the definition, another component of creativity, from my perspective, is that you can look at things and see if multiple ways of completing it right.

• 2. I think it’s through my feedback. We have in that class. We have status reports. We have the digital plan, and then an initial proposal and the plan. And then we have status reports as they go through. And basically, they say, this is what’s going on. And this is how I’m doing. These are the problems that I’ve run into. And so at that point, I’m able to give them some encouragement, and help them to think through how would you do this? And I asked him, you know, how would you think that would hopefully help them to come to their best solution?

Theme 3: creativity can be learned without intentional training

Sample interview excerpts:

• 1. And I don’t think that I intentionally did this, at least I didn’t think let’s make them be creative. But I, I think they come from real world things that they really experienced. So, you know, maybe in that way, it’s not exactly creative. But as they have to write up the situation, and they come up with new things, and then if they have to respond to the situation, I think that’s where it becomes creative. Right? So they’re writing up something that usually something that really happened to them occasionally, it’s something happened to somebody, you know, some problem somebody else has, usually it’s something in the past that an organization they were in where things were not going well, or they are instructional designers.

• 2. People are turning into me some very creative ways of creating instructional materials for the audiences. And almost everybody across the board, it’s brand new for them, they did it, they picked an area that they’ve never worked in before, even if, even if it’s within their own school, and within their own subject matter. It’s a subject matter they haven’t dealt with in in great depth. And so they’re developing it now. So I think they’re trying as hard as they can to come across that way. But I’ve got I’ve got like four teachers in my practicum right now. And in all cases, they’re developing instructional materials in a situation that they’ve never been in before because it all is COVID impact impacted and so they’re, they’re showing real creativity and how they’re doing it because there’s there hasn’t been any books for them to follow.

Theme 4: challenges of explicitly integrating creativity in core ID courses

Sample interview excerpts:

• 1. I would think that if you ask most people, oh, would you like to be more creative? They’re not going to tell you? No, I think most people are going to say, Yeah, right. But how do you get there? Right? I mean, some people are naturally creative. But does that mean that we, we can’t develop this skill? I don’t want to think that I think we can help people be more creative. And so it’s a matter of what does that look like? What would that look like if we were trying to target that skill if we were trying to do this across the program?

• 2. I think there’s a lot of, I don’t know, I don’t want to say stigma, but it’s like, there are some sort of perception about creativity, I feel like that is considered is the kind of like attitudes, right. So, no, it’s considered so subjective, that I don’t think it’s thrown out a lot in education had other cognitive or cognitive based knowledge or skill acquisition. So I feel like a lot of times, you know, when we say the word creativity or attitude, you know, people tend to use it as a take it as, Oh, it’s something that can’t be objectively measured, you know, because it’s so subjective. And then it’s not, not considered as easy to measure. It’s not as easy to teach.