Encouraging Divergent Thinking

Encouraging Divergent ThinkingAbstract An important aspect of innovative problem solving is ideation. Ideation renders diverseideas to emerge, a combination of which can be used to solve a given problem. It allows studentsto explore multiple solutions, and more importantly to realize that usually there is no “one correctanswer” to a given problem. This paper focuses on team-based, interpersonal, individual hands-on activities aimed atencouraging divergent thinking. The activities allow students to change their point of view, avoidunnecessary assumptions, think outrageously and unexpectedly, and improvise using limitedavailable resources. Students are encouraged to find multiple, imaginative, intuitive (and counterintuitive), as well as common sense solutions. The activities are designed to accommodate multiple teaching/learning scenarios, such asindividual setting where each and every student is challenged with a specific problem; teamsettings that promote group divergent thinking, discussions and competitions; and, collectively,where all students generate ideas for a given challenge. Some activities are designed to be self-paced; others have strict time constraints, leading to ideation under pressure. The instructions forthe activities are very clear and concise allowing participants to be relieved from unnecessaryconstraints or assumptions. Following each activity, a short discussion session is facilitated toreflect on the activity’s goals, challenges and results. Even though some of the activities may notbe new, they are still introduced with different twist and/or with a new set of instructions. This paper describes a collection of different activities and their purpose, as well asmultiple solutions as shared by participants, some of which are unexpected, explorative andunconventional. Benefits acquired by the students are identified. An example for an activity is: Make the following sentence complete and correct: “This sentence has _____ letters.” By not making unnecessary assumptions, and allowing imaginations to run wild, studentshave come up with more than 125 meaningfully different solutions! The activities have been embedded in undergraduate courses, e.g., “Creativityand Innovation,” that were taught at three different universities with participants fromdifferent majors/colleges. A goal of all the related courses is to enhance innovative andcreative thinking abilities of students resulting in skills that can be used in problemsolving. The author shares these activities to allow people who teach creative andinnovative thinking to have “ready to use” class material, avoiding re-inventing andsearching for new activities. This paper lists the “better” activities that “survived”many years of experimentation with continuous improvements.