1. An important objective of most academic programs is to get students to be more creative. How can this be done? What specific exercises can you think of that would help? What kinds of things can an instructor do? Any changes to the curriculum or requirements? Try some of the creativity-enhancing techniques that we discussed. For example, you might try any of the following:
a. List fundamental and means objectives that you think would be appropriate for your academic program. Use these objectives as a basis for generating ways to make students more creative.
b. List making, especially morphological forced connections. What are important attributes to list? What are alternatives under those attributes? Can you use Osborn's list? Can you think of extensions to his list?
?. Brainstorming. To do this, you need to find a small group of people to brainstorm with. The exact size of the group is not important, but you need at least one more be- sides yourself, and probably no more than 8 or 10 altogether.
d. Metaphorical thinking. Direct analogy is difficult here. How do other disciplines teach students to be creative? How do animals teach offspring to deal with new situ- ations? Personal analogy is somewhat more straightforward. Imagine that you are the boss. What do you want your employee to be able to do? Imagine that you are a pro- fessor. Would you want your students to be creative? How would you encourage it? Can you imagine that you are a problem that needs to be solved? How would you like to be solved? Try fantasy analogy. Try to imagine the most fantastic and ideal cre- ativity training program. Describe it in detail; exercise your imagination! What kinds of resources would be required? How many people? How much time? What kinds of interactions with others? Would there be instructors and students, or just participants, all on the same level? Think of other questions.
You are not required to use any of these techniques, nor are you limited to them. Your job is to generate some creative ideas any way you can.