Board Undergraduate Certificate in Creativity and Creative Problem Solving

Composition & Rhetoric is an advanced-level English course that focuses on the art of argument and persuasion. Students explore the function and strategies of argument through reading, writing and oral presentations. In this course, students examine different theoretical models for organizing arguments and presenting evidence, employ primary and secondary sources in research, and construct their own arguments.

Students critically examine four aspects of creativity — the creative person, process, product, and press— to increase the degree to which they recognize and nurture their own creative potential. Supported by interdisciplinary research and theory, they also assess the increasing importance and global context of creativity skills in the 21st century. Through interactive lectures, experiential learning activities, written assignments and presentations, students explore foundational concepts in creativity studies and enhance their own creative capacities.

Students appraise the cross-disciplinary theory, research, and evolution of Creative Problem Solving (CPS), an established cognitive methodology that seeks novel and useful solutions to challenges faced in personal and professional life. They engage in problem finding and clarification, metacognition, narrative inquiry, and a range of convergent and divergent creative thinking tools germane to this burgeoning area of study. Further, they examine the Thinking Skills Model (TSM) of CPS, and through a variety of individual and experiential leaning activities and assessments, students integrate TSM and its application to enhance their problem-solving productivity.

Students examine the complex and dynamic relationship between leadership, facilitation and creativity. Through the study of cross-disciplinary theory, they assess conceptions of leadership within a global context and explore processes, methodologies, structures, styles and skills associated with creative leadership and problem solving. Students also examine cultural factors influencing creative leadership and explore the process by which the thinking skills model may be used to develop and enhance creative leadership and facilitation abilities in a cross-cultural, international context. Through interdisciplinary readings, interactive lectures, in-class activities, a leadership project and self-reflections, students nurture their creative leadership and problem solving capacities.

Students examine the nature of group dynamics and creative problem solving facilitation. They explore the behaviours, phases, needs, issues, and goals of a group and its members and engage creative problem solving theory and practices to explore the processes, methodologies and skills associated with effective group facilitation.  In addition to the study of cross-disciplinary theories of group dynamics, students evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and apply various facilitation tools and methods in the examination of the process by which facilitation may be used to assist groups in meeting their needs and achieving their goals. Through interactive lectures, in-class activities, relevant readings, facilitation experiences and self-reflections, students explore the dynamics of group interactions within the context of effective creative problem solving facilitation.

Students appraise how people apply creative processes within a global and creative context to produce innovations. Students examine the life-paths of innovators in different disciplines and different cultural and historical settings, as well as the factors that encourage or inhibit creative outcomes. Further, through readings in interdisciplinary theory and research, students assess the relationship between creativity and innovation and conduct their own research and practice of the attributes, characteristics, and behaviours of ‘innovators’. Through a variety of interactive lectures, written assignments and interactive activities, students develop their own personal innovation plan for engaging in their respective fields.