Creative Problem Solving: What Is It?
Creative Problem Solving, or CPS, refers to the use of imagination and innovation to find solutions to problems when formulaic or conventional processes have failed.
Despite its rather dry definition – creative problem-solving in its application can be a lot of fun for learners and teachers alike.
Why Are Creative Problem-Solving Skills Important?
By definition, creative problem-solving challenges students to think beyond the conventional and to avoid well-trodden, sterile paths of thinking.
Not only does this motivate student learning, encourage engagement, and inspire deeper learning, but the practical applications of this higher-level thinking skill are virtually inexhaustible.
For example, given the rapidly changing world of work, it is hard to conceive of a skill that will be more valuable than the ability to generate innovative solutions to the unique problems that will arise and that are impossible to predict ahead of time.
Outside the world of work, in our busy daily lives, the endless problems arising from day-to-day living can also be overcome by a creative problem-solving approach.
When students have developed their creative problem-solving abilities effectively, they will have added a powerful tool to attack problems that they will encounter, whether in school, work, or in their personal lives.
Due to its at times nebulous nature, teaching creative problem-solving in the classroom poses its own challenges. However, developing a culture of approaching problem-solving in a creative manner is possible.
In this article, we will take a look at a variety of strategies, tools, and activities that can help students improve their creative problem-solving skills.
The Underlying Principles of CPS
Before we take a look at a process for implementing creative problem solving, it is helpful to examine a few of the underlying principles of CPS. These core principles should be encouraged in the classroom. They are:
● Assume Nothing
Assumptions are the enemy of creativity and original thinking. If students assume they already have the answer, they will not be creative in their approach to solving a problem.
● Problems Are Opportunities
Rather than seeing problems as difficulties to endure, a shift in perspective can instead view problems as challenges that offer new opportunities. Encourage your students to shift their perspectives to see opportunities where they once saw problems.
● Suspend Judgment
Making immediate judgments closes down the creative response and the formation of new ideas. There is a time to make judgments, but making a judgment too early in the process can be very detrimental to finding a creative solution.
Cognitive Approaches: Convergent vs Divergent Thinking
“It is easier to tame a wild idea than it is to push a closer-in idea further out.”
— Alex Osborn
The terms divergent and convergent thinking, coined by psychologist J.P. Guilford in 1956, refer to two contrasting cognitive approaches to problem-solving.
Convergent Thinking can be thought of as linear and systematic in its approach. It attempts to find a solution to a problem by narrowing down multiple ideas into a single solution. If convergent thinking can be thought of as asking a single question, that question would be ‘Why?’
Divergent Thinking focuses more on the generation of multiple ideas and on the connections between those ideas. It sees problems as design opportunities and encourages the use of resources and materials in original ways. Divergent thinking encourages the taking of creative risks and is flexible rather than analytical in its approach. If it was a single question, it’d be ‘Why not?’
While it may appear that these two modes of thinking about a problem have an essentially competitive relationship, in CPS they can work together in a complementary manner.
When students have a problem to solve and they’re looking for innovative solutions, they can employ divergent thinking initially to generate multiple ideas, then convergent thinking to analyze and narrow down those ideas.
Students can repeat this process to continue to filter and refine their ideas and perspectives until they arrive at an innovative and satisfactory solution to the initial problem.
Let’s now take a closer look at the creative problem-solving process.
The Creative Problem-Solving Process
CPS helps students arrive at innovative and novel solutions to the problems that arise in life. Having a process to follow helps to keep students focused and to reach a point where action can be taken to implement creative ideas.
Originally developed by Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes, the CPS process has gone through a number of revisions over the last 50 or so years and, as a result, there are a number of variations of this model in existence.
The version described below is one of the more recent models and is well-suited to the classroom environment.
However, things can sometimes get a little complex for some of the younger students. So, in this case, it may be beneficial to teach the individual parts of the process in isolation first.
1. Clarify:
Before beginning to seek creative solutions to a problem, it is important to clarify the exact nature of that problem. To do this, students should do the following three things:
i. Identify the Problem
The first step in bringing creativity to problem-solving is to identify the problem, challenge, opportunity, or goal and clearly define it.
ii. Gather Data
Gather data and research information and background to ensure a clear understanding.
iii. Formulate Questions
Enhance awareness of the nature of the problem by creating questions that invite solutions.
2. Ideate
Explore new ideas to answer the questions raised. It’s time to get creative here. The more ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a novel and useful idea. At this stage in particular, students should be engaged in divergent thinking as described above.
3. Develop
The focus here shifts from ideas to solutions. Once multiple ideas have been generated, convergent thinking can be used to narrow these down to the most suitable solution. The best idea should be closely analyzed in all its aspects and further ideas generated to make subsequent improvements. This is the stage to refine the initial idea and make it into a really workable solution.
4. Implement
Create a plan to implement the chosen solution. Students need to identify the required resources for the successful implementation of the solution. They need to plan for the actions that need to be taken, when they need to be taken, and who needs to take them.
Summary of Creative Problem Solving Process
In each stage of the CPS Process, students should be encouraged to employ divergent and convergent thinking in turn. Divergent thinking should be used to generate multiple ideas with convergent thinking then used to narrow these ideas down to the most feasible options. We will discuss how students go about this, but let’s first take a quick look at the role of a group facilitator.
The Importance of Group Facilitator
CPS is best undertaken in groups and, for larger and more complex projects, it’s even more effective when a facilitator can be appointed for the group.
The facilitator performs a number of useful purposes and helps the group to:
- Stay focused on the task at hand
- Move through the various stages efficiently
- Select appropriate tools and strategies
A good facilitator does not generate ideas themselves but instead keeps the group focused on each step of the process.
Facilitators should be objective and possess a good understanding of the process outlined above, as well as the other tools and strategies that we will look at below.
The Creative Problem-Solving Process: Tools and Strategies
There are several activities available to help students move through each stage. These will help students to stay on track, remove barriers and blocks, be creative, and reach a consensus as they progress through the CPS process.
The following tools and strategies can help provide groups with some structure and can be applied at various stages of the problem-solving process. For convenience, they have been categorized according to whether they make demands on divergent or convergent thinking as discussed earlier.
Divergent Thinking Tools:
● Brainstorming
Defined by Alex Osborn as “a group’s attempt to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing ideas”, this is perhaps the best-known tool in the arsenal of the creative problem solver.
To promote a creative collaboration in a group setting, simply share the challenge with everyone and challenge them to come up with as many ideas as possible. Ideas should be concise and specific. For this reason, it may be worth setting a word limit for recording each idea e.g. express in headline form in no more than 5 words. Post-it notes are perfect for this.
You may also set a quota on the number of ideas to generate or introduce a time limit to further encourage focus. When completed, members of the group can share and compare all the ideas in search of the most suitable.
● 5 W’s and an H
The 5 W’s and an H are Who, What, Where, Why, and How. This strategy is useful to effectively gather data. Students brainstorm questions to ask that begin with each of the question words above in turn. They then seek to gather the necessary information to answer these questions through research and discussion.
● Reverse Assumptions
This activity is a great way to explore new ideas. Have the students begin by generating a list of up to 10 basic assumptions about the idea or concept. For each of these, students then explore the reverse of the assumption listing new insights and perspectives in the process.
The students can then use these insights and perspectives to generate fresh ideas. For example, an assumption about the concept of a restaurant might be that the food is cooked for you. The reverse of that assumption could be a restaurant where you cook the food yourself. So, how about a restaurant where patrons select their own recipes and cook their own food aided by a trained chef?
Convergent Thinking Tools
● How-How Diagram
This is the perfect activity to use when figuring out the steps required to implement a solution.
Students write the solution on the left-hand side of a page turned landscape. Working together, they identify the individual steps required to achieve this solution and write these to the right of the solution.
When they have written these steps, they go through each step one-by-one identifying in detail each stage of achieving that step. These are written branching to the right of each step.
Students repeat this process until they have exhausted the process and ended up with a comprehensive branch diagram detailing each step necessary for the implementation of the solution.
● The Evaluation Matrix
Making an evaluation matrix creates a systematic way of analyzing and comparing multiple solutions. It allows for a group to evaluate options against various criteria to help build consensus.
An evaluation matrix begins with the listing of criteria to evaluate potential solutions against. These can then be turned into the form of a positive question that allows for a Yes or No answer. For example, if the budget is the criteria, the evaluation question could be ‘Is it within budget?’
Make a matrix grid with a separate column for each of the key criteria. Write the positive question form of these criteria as headings for these columns. The different options can then be detailed and listed down the left-most column.
Students then work through each of the criteria for each option and record whether it fulfills, or doesn’t fulfill, each criteria. For more complex solutions, students could record their responses to each of the criteria on a scale from 0 to 5.
For example:
Using the example matrix above, it becomes very clear that Option 1 is the superior solution given that it completely fulfills all the criteria, whereas Option 2 and Option 3 fulfill only 2 out of the 3 criteria each.
● Pair & Share
This activity is suitable to help develop promising ideas. After making a list of possible solutions or questions to pursue, each individual student writes down their top 3 ideas.
Once each student has their list of their 3 best ideas, organize students into pairs. In their pairs, students discuss their combined 6 ideas to decide on the top 3 out of the 6. Once they have agreed on these, they write the new top 3 ideas on a piece of paper.
Now, direct the pairs of students to join up with another pair to make groups of 4. In these groups of 4, students discuss their collective 6 ideas to come up with a new list of the top 3 ideas.
Repeat this process until the whole class comes together as one big group to agree on the top 3 ideas overall.
Establish a Culture of Creative Problem Solving in the Classroom
Approaching problems creatively is about establishing a classroom culture that welcomes innovation and the trial and error that innovation demands. Too often our students are so focused on finding the ‘right‘ answer that they miss opportunities to explore new ideas.
It is up to us as teachers to help create a classroom culture that encourages experimentation and creative playfulness.
To do this we need to ensure our students understand the benefits of a creative approach to problem-solving.
We must ensure too that they are aware of the personal, social, and organizational benefits of CPS.
CPS should become an integral part of their approach to solving problems whether at school, work, or in their personal lives.
Using the example matrix above, it becomes very clear that Option 1 is the superior solution given that it completely fulfills all the criteria, whereas Option 2 and Option 3 fulfill only 2 out of the 3 criteria each.
● Pair & Share
This activity is suitable to help develop promising ideas. After making a list of possible solutions or questions to pursue, each individual student writes down their top 3 ideas.
Once each student has their list of their 3 best ideas, organize students into pairs. In their pairs, students discuss their combined 6 ideas to decide on the top 3 out of the 6. Once they have agreed on these, they write the new top 3 ideas on a piece of paper.
Now, direct the pairs of students to join up with another pair to make groups of 4. In these groups of 4, students discuss their collective 6 ideas to come up with a new list of the top 3 ideas.
Repeat this process until the whole class comes together as one big group to agree on the top 3 ideas overall.
Establish a Culture of Creative Problem Solving in the Classroom
Approaching problems creatively is about establishing a classroom culture that welcomes innovation and the trial and error that innovation demands. Too often our students are so focused on finding the ‘right‘ answer that they miss opportunities to explore new ideas.
As teachers, it is up to us to help create a classroom culture that encourages experimentation and creative playfulness.
To do this, we must ensure our students understand the benefits of a creative approach to problem-solving.
We must ensure too that they are aware of the personal, social, and organizational benefits of CPS.
CPS should become an integral part of their approach to solving problems, whether at school, work or in their personal lives.
Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders: The Crucial Role of Computational and Systems Thinking in Education
the importance of systems thinking and computational thinking strategies for students cannot be overstated, as these skills are integral to navigating the complexities of our rapidly evolving digital landscape. Computational thinking, characterized by algorithmic problem-solving and logical reasoning, equips students with the ability to approach challenges systematically. In an era dominated by technology, these skills are not limited to coding but extend to critical thinking, enabling students to dissect problems, identify patterns, and devise efficient solutions. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected and data-driven, computational thinking provides a foundational framework for students to make sense of information, fostering a generation adept at leveraging technology for innovation.
Simultaneously, systems thinking is indispensable in comprehending the intricate web of relationships within various contexts. It encourages students to view issues holistically, understanding the interdependence of components and the ripple effects of decisions. In an era marked by global challenges, such as climate change and socio-economic disparities, systems thinking instills a proactive mindset. Students equipped with these skills are better prepared to analyze multifaceted problems, appreciate diverse perspectives, and collaborate on sustainable solutions.
Together, computational and systems thinking empower students to navigate an ever-changing world with confidence, adaptability, and a profound understanding of the interconnected systems that shape our future. These skills are not just academic; they are the building blocks of a resilient, innovative, and forward-thinking society.
be sure to check out our great video guides to teaching systems thinking and computational thinking below.
