Learning Styles and Creative Problem-Solving

Christopher Vice, Chairperson, Department of Visual Communication Design, Herron School of Art, Indiana University at IUPUI

Relevant audience: Any undergraduate or graduate faculty member (or student) who is engaged in collaborative work

Learning Outcomes:
Workshop participants will recognize and understand relationships between learning styles and creative solving process preferences. Understanding how and why people respond differently to problem-solving processes, workshop participants can apply their new knowledge to disarm the agendas and conflicts that can arise when people interact.

Activity:
Workshop participants will self-evaluate their own learning styles using the Kolb Learning Style Inventory. Workshop participants will self-evaluate their own Creative Problem Solving Process Preferences using the Basadur Creative Problem Solving Profile (Simplex Applied Creativity). The workshop facilitator will help participants interpret their findings and make connections to ideas that they can use in the design education environment.

Background:
Early in the effort to incorporate team process knowledge and team skills into the curriculum, faculty members at Indiana University Herron School of Art and Design discovered NextDesign Leadership Institute and the NextD initiative. Launched in 2002 by G.K. VanPatter and Elizabeth Pastor, NextD was conceived as an experiment in innovation acceleration for the design education community and “to help raise awareness regarding how the challenges of crossdisciplinary innovation leadership have radically changed at the leading edge of the marketplace and how those changes are impacting designers.” Their work is deeply influenced by the sensemaking focus of Richard Saul Wurman and the advanced strategic problem-solving theories developed by Dr.Min Basadur, author of The Power of Innovation and founder of the Basadur Center for Applied Creativity Research. Emphasizing the importance of preparing people to work in teams, Basadur states: “Teams cannot just be thrown together. To work effectively, they need group skills training before they begin. There may be a learning curve in the beginning but the process is designed to be simple and the impact of mastering such skills is significant.” By recognizing that process skills are intimately connected to interpersonal communication skills, the system acknowledges all the human traits and characteristics that team members bring to collaborative situations. By promoting shared understanding of how and why people respond differently to problem-solving processes, the system seeks to disarm the agendas and conflicts that can arise when people interact.