Enhancing creativity through a problem-based design thinking project in higher education

Abstract

The study explored the impacts of the two-day Living LAB urban regeneration idea camp, which enhanced college students’ divergent thinking skills and creative self-efficacy. Quantitative and qualitative empirical data were obtained from 35 camp participants from three universities in Korea. The quantitative results of the study revealed that camp participants’ ideational fluency and creative self-efficacy significantly increased after the idea camp. Furthermore, camp participants’ creative processes through group interactions were closely observed and examined. Experiencing creative process through group interactions implied the significance in problem finding and problem solving. Our findings suggest that experiential learning though a problem-based design thinking project enhances college students’ creativity. Practical implications and future research are discussed.

Keywords

• Divergent thinking
• creative self-efficacy
• creative process
• experiential learning
• design thinking
• Stephen Darwin, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile