Description of impact
This (CreativeMIND) project presents research using a new framework for creative education that purposes design as a catalyst for developing new ecologies of knowledge. This process utilises creativity to underpin transferable skillsets that enhance pedagogical strategies and foster an enriched learning experience. Drawing on twenty creative learning and behaviours, this research investigates how learned creative behaviours contribute to an interconnected system of knowledge transmission that is simultaneously participatory, sustainable, and culturally embedded.
This new research integrates a framework of five core categories of creative learning (and behaviours): cognitive (questioning assumptions, making unexpected connections, embracing ambiguity, thinking in metaphors, and reversing perspectives); exploratory (seeking diverse experiences, cross-pollinating fields, experimenting with ideas, following curiosity, and collecting inspiration); risk-taking (experimenting freely, breaking rules intentionally, sharing unfinished work, and embracing failure); reflective (practicing solitude, keeping reflective journal, reflecting on process, and mindful observation); and collaborative (supporting others ideas and creating psychological safety). These learned skills and practices are used to underpin design knowledge further and enrich a new co-creative knowledge strategy that promotes soft knowledge behaviours within other disciplinary contexts.
Central to this framework is embedding a developmental progression methodology that aligns creative learning stages within incremental cognitive and pedagogical developmental priorities. This includes investigating early adolescence (ages 12-14), which focuses on building a foundation and confidence through curiosity-fostering and failure-accepting practices. Mid-adolescence (14-16) expands thinking and social skills by channelling questions and explorations through creative work. Late adolescence (16-18) emphasises complex thinking and independence through unexpected connection-making and perspective-reversing exercises. Early adulthood (18-20) cultivates sophisticated analysis and leadership through psychological safety and metacognitive reflection. This learning-responsive approach has demonstrated how design creativity is agile and can serve as an organising principle and dissemination mechanism for the development of new knowledge-driven ecologies. By moving from concrete, accessible behaviours toward increasingly abstract and socially complex practices, the framework ensures cultural embedding while maintaining global relevance. The framework illustrates how creative education transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, functioning as a bridge between geographic contexts and the universality of design knowledge.
The implications of this research extend beyond individual skill development to encompass systemic transformation of educational environments that co-create new forms of interdisciplinary knowledge. This research pedagogically prioritises design education traits and behaviours to improve the impact and transmission of creative knowledge. It underpins the critical nature of creative skillsets and sets out how human creativity can be utilised to form a new and transferable creative knowledge ecology.
| Category of impact | Creativity, culture and society |
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