What does creativity mean to you?

Exploring creativity: Influencing the practices of Higher Education in developing graduate

employability skills.

James Wadsworthjwadsworth@lincoln.ac.uk

@JamesEDEU

Personal rationale

• Lecturer of HE for 15 years

• Creative methods of teaching

• Employability skills

Creativity

• Generally considered to be a positive attribute both for the individual (Csikszentmihalyi, 2006) and by a rapidly changing local and global socioeconomic landscape (Craft, 2010).

Novelty

Ingenuity

Invention

Discovery

InnovationOriginal UniqueNew

Imaginative

Individual

Vision

Inspiration

Enterprise

Entrepreneurialism

What does creativity mean to you?

Definition of creativity

‘….if you are expecting answers based upon new empirical research you will

be disappointed.’

(Guilford, 1950, p444).

Creativity frameworks• Wallas (1926) preparation, incubation, illumination,

verification

• Guilford (1950) sensitivity, fluency, novelty, flexibility,

synthesis, reorganisation,

evaluation

• Campbell (1960) blind variation selective retention (BVSR)

• Kaufman and Beghetto (2009) four Cs

• Simonton (2009) domain-regressive

• Besancon et al. (2013) potential, accomplishment, talent

RationaleStudents

Employers Higher Education

Ed Reform Act (1988)F/HE Act (1992)DfES (2003)BIS (2009)BIS (2011)

QAA / DLHEConsumerism

Institute of Directors (2007)Yorke (2006)Rae (2014)Weiss et al. (2014)Ipate et al. (2014)

Morrison (2014)Wilton (2011)Strathdee (2009)

Lit review findings• Creativity is important to the person and society but

not conclusively defined.

• Policy direction/definitions lack depth.

• Employers value creativity but have not defined it (or have not been engaged in defining it) .

• Research in the area is, generally, positivistic in its nature.

• Very little research linking the two subjects.

Research questionsHow does the perception of creativity as an employability skill vary between HE students, academics and employers?

How do the interactions within and between the three parties influence creative development?

Students

Employers Higher Education

• Phenomenographical approach• Symbolic interactionist approach

• Case study of one university– students– “academics”– associated employers

• Photographic analysis• Semi structured interviews

Possible method

ScienceSocial SciencesArts

References• Besancon, M., Lubary, T. and Barbot, B. (2013) Creative giftedness and educational opportunities. The

British Psychological Society, 30 (2) 79-88 • Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (2011a) Students at the heart of the system. BIS/11/994. London:

Crown copyright. [Online]: Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/higher-education-white-paper-students-at-the-heart-of-the-system [Accessed on 11 April 2015].

• Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (2011b) The plan for growth. ISBN: 978-1-84532-842-9. London: Crown copyright. [Online]: Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-growth--5 [Accessed on 11 April 2015].

• Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (2009) Higher ambitions. The future of universities in a knowledge economy. BIS/11/09/0. London: Crown copyright. [Online]: Available at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://web.bis.gov.uk/policies/higher-education/shape-and-structure/higher-ambitions [Accessed on 11 April 2015].

• Campbell, D.T. (1960) Blind variation and selective retention in creative thought as in other knowledge processes. Psychological Review. 67 (6) 380-400

• Craft, A. (2010) Possibility thinking and wise creativity: Educational Futures in England? IN: Beghetto, R.A. and Kaufman, J.C. (eds) (2010) Nurturing creativity in the classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2006) Introduction in Developing creativity in higher education: An imaginative curriculum. Abingdon: Routledge.

• Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2003) The future of higher education. Cm 5735. London: Crown copyright. [Online]: Available at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100611120726/http://dcsf.gov.uk/hegateway/strategy/hestrategy/foreword.shtml [Accessed on 14 April 2015].

• Education Reform Act (1988) Part 2, Chapter 2. [Online]: Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/40/contents. [Accessed on 14 April 2015].

References• Guilford, J.P. (1950) Creativity. The American Psychologist, 5, 444-454.• Institute of Directors (2007) Skills briefing – December 2007 Graduates’ employability skills [Online]:

Available at http://www.iod.com/influencing/policy-papers/education-and-skills/graduates-employability-skills [Accessed on 12 January 2015].

• Ipate, D. M., Mitran, P. C., & Pârvu, I. (2014). Managerial Strategies to Adapt the Academic Curriculum to the Labor Market. Economics, Management, and Financial Markets, (1) 229-236.

• Kaufman, J.C. and Beghetto, R.A. (2009) Beyond big and little: The four c model of creativity. Review of General Psychology, 13 (1) 1.

• Morrison, A. R. (2014). ‘You have to be well spoken’: students’ views on employability within the graduate labour market. Journal of Education and Work, 27 (2) 179-198.

• Rae, D. (2014). Graduate entrepreneurship and career initiation in the 'New Era' economy. Journal of General Management, 40 (1) 79-95

• Simonton, D. K. (2009). Varieties of (Scientific) Creativity A Hierarchical Model of Domain-Specific Disposition, Development, and Achievement. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4 (5) 441-452.

• Strathdee, R. (2009). Reputation in the sociology of education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30 (1) 83-96.

• Wallas, G. (1926) The art of thought. 2nd edition. Tunbridge Wells: Solis Press.• Weiss, F. Klein, M. and Grauenhorst, T. (2014) The effects of work experience during higher education on

labour market entry: learning by doing or an entry ticket?. Work, employment and society. 28 (5) 788-807.• Wilton, N. (2011) Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? The case of

business and management graduates. Work, employment and society, 25 (1) 85-100. • Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education: what it is, what it is not. Learning and employability,

series 1. Learning and teaching support network. York: Higher Education Academy.