2 On Creativity: Rambling Thoughts

Early in spring quarter, it felt as though my creativity had vanished. Beyond all the daily job responsibilities, I had no compelling ideas for new Canva graphics, engaging Canvas pages, or enticing class assignments. Outside of work, I was reveling in all glorious colors, shapes, and scents of spring on my walks—that is, I was appreciating the remarkable “creativity” of spring. But less than zero was occurring in my personal creative life, which, depending on the day, mood, and planetary alignment might include anything from fiction writing to theremin playing.

Was exhaustion, spring allergies, end-of-the-academic year burnout, frustration with aging, or all of the above impacting my creativity? Yes. And more I won’t even go into.

Ironically, I was also part of a college-specific professional development team that had planned to deliver a two-part workshop for faculty about creativity, with a pedagogical twist. Yet I was having difficulty brainstorming workshop ideas. The only way I could see out of this personal and professional rut, whilst still feeling productive (i.e. because capitalism), was to engage in one of my own favorite creative acts: research.

Creative Research

I didn’t want a deep dive into the topic of “creativity” because I’ve learned that if I lose my way down the research rabbit hole, not much will be accomplished other than a long page of links, some random sentences, and an occasional string of expletives. So I imposed a few limits on my research:

• Short bursts of searching over a two-week period
• Articles, essays, or book chapters I could find using the search phrase “creativity and pedagogy” (as well as a few synonyms)
• Open web searching on Google, use of Google Scholar, and use of Academic Search Complete and Wiley Online Library
• No AI of any kind

It didn’t take long to find one of a new favorite articles about creativity: “Integrating Creative Thinking Skills Pedagogies into a Higher Education Visual Arts Course” (2023) by Cheung On Tam. The author begins with a helpful definition: “Creativity is a widely sought attribute and is highly related to thinking skills enabling humans to generate new ideas, solve problems from different perspectives, and remain flexible in a rapidly changing society” (Tam, 2023, p. 17). Tam then discusses the Community of Practice he participated in during 2021-2022 which sought “to develop and implement pedagogies that aim to enhance students’ creativity” (Tam, 2023, p. 17). In particular, the author’s discussion of “eight key skills and characteristics” the Community of Practice identified became my own brainstorming guidepost: “fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, sensitivity, connecting and synthesizing, resistance to premature closure and creative character (Tam et al., 2022)” (Tam, 2023, p. 18).^[1]

Takeaways

What I took away from Tam’s article was quite a bit. To begin, there was the reminder that while I often view creativity as “artistic” (writing, video creation, graphic design, etc), problem-solving—which many of us do quite a lot of—is a creative act. So it wasn’t exactly my “creativity” had petered out. Rather, my creativity was taking different forms that were harder for me to discern, such as collaboratively unraveling a Canvas tech issue or writing up a grocery list that was attentive to household schedules, budget, and seasonable vegetables.

An additional takeaway was musing on “originality,” and what this concept means in 2025 when so much has already been said, done, and thought. “Original,” I had to remind myself, doesn’t always mean “new” or “novel,” though it can be. A spin on, a remix of, or a different perspective can be “original,” and even the problematic term “new” is always contextual. I engage with Open Education Resources (OER) and Open Pedagogy, so one might think that I’d always have this gloss on originality at the forefront of my mind. Yet one of those “exciting” discoveries about aging and an increasingly distracted brain is that ferrying an idea from one part of my work/life to another, just isn’t as seamless as it used to be.

A penultimate takeaway from Tam’s article that speaks volumes to the point I just raised was connections: connecting similar and disparate concepts or ideas, connecting different disciplinary practices, connecting to and with people, etc. The more I thought about it, it seemed there was an abundance of mileage our sense of creativity and the various creative acts we engage in can get from just playing with connections. Lerzan Aras’ study, “Between Real and Phantasy: Encouraging Creativity in the First Year Architectural Education Through Fairy Tales,” provides one of my new favorite extended examples on the creativity, learning, and joy connections can engender.

Finally, there’s time. Tam’s article implies so much about how much intentional time we need (and so often don’t have) to generate creative ideas, much less put them into practice in the form of a formal course activity, assignment, or longer project. (Three cheers for Communities of Practice!). Undoubtedly, that was where some of my own creativity rut felt like it derived from. But depending on at least three hundred factors, lack of time or time limitations can also generate creative acts, ideas, and engagement. For instance, as a former teacher of college composition and research paper writing, I’ve witnessed a great deal of creativity in 5-7 minute freewrites, 10 minute think-pair-shares, and other activities where students switched tasks or partners within a limited time.

Aside from these rambling reflections, other takeaways from this creative exploration into creativity include:

• Ideas to contribute to that collaboratively designed professional development workshop.
• A slowly growing list of articles, essays, or book chapters about creativity to read or re-read.
• A slowly growing list of creative activities, assignments, and ideas.

Please feel welcome to move to the next chapter of this Pressbook to read more about the workshop. The articles and activities lists will likely appear in this space later in the summer.