Noel Studio to Offer Minor in Applied Creative Thinking

Beginning fall 2012, EKU students will be able to minor in Applied Creative Thinking (ACT) through the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity. The program will require students to take an introductory course (CRE 101) that will be taught in the Noel Studio's Discovery Classroom and a project-based course (CRE 400) in addition to courses of the student's choosing that complement their disciplinary interests and goals.

EKU joins the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University in offering credit-bearing courses focused on creative thinking. With the Noel Studio, however, ACT students will have the advantage of honing skills in an innovative space.

A pilot section of CRE 101 will be offered in fall 2012. Students will be able to pursue the minor beginning that semester. Interested students should contact Dr. Russell Carpenter for more information.

A Rationale and Summary

A 2010 survey by IBM of over 3000 CEOs revealed that the number one skill that they needed to see from college graduates is creative thinking.  Interestingly, a similar survey in 2007 found teamwork at the top of the list with critical thinking in second place.  In A Whole New Mind (2005) Daniel Pink posits “the `right-brain’ qualities of invention, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning—increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders” (3).  In The Creative Workforce (2008) Erica McWilliam argues that all institutions of learning must teach this creative capacity, for it “will be a core capacity for productive 21^st-century workers” (29).

One response from postsecondary institutions to this growing consensus as to the high priority placed on creative thinking is called the creative-campus initiative.  For too long creativity has been thought of as the province of the humanities—art, music, English—and design.  The Chronicle of Higher Education emphasizes that in this initiative creativity “applies not only to the arts, leading programs focus on the creative process that threads through not only art and design, but also engineering, medicine, and the arts and sciences” (10 October 2010).  The article cites research that suggests “creativity is not simply a product of personality or individual psychology, but is rooted in a set of teachable competencies.”  In a creative campus these specific skills are introduced and reinforced throughout the multiple disciplines.

Eastern Kentucky University is actually an embryonic creative campus.  We already offer courses across the campus in creative thinking, and we have several offices/programs promoting it (e.g., Noel Studio for Academic Creativity, the Office of the QEP, the Teaching & Learning Center, the LEAF Incubator Classroom), but Eastern needs to take a few major steps in order to make its graduates into creative thinkers.  Those steps necessitate:

• An awareness of what programs related to creative thinking we already possess.
• A more intentional focus on creative thinking
• A coherent and coordinated plan for creative thinking instruction.

Specifically, what we are proposing is that EKU begin its maturation process by offering a minor in Creative Thinking.  That program would be housed in the Noel Studio, which is part of University Programs.  In addition, the Noel Studio would offer two new courses, which would become the pre- and post- keystone courses in the minor:

• CRE 101           Introduction to Creative Thinking (3 hrs.)
• CRE 400           The Creativity Capstone (3 hrs.)

The additional twelve hours of the minor would be selected from extant courses and divided up into categories in order to ensure the breadth of student learning.  In addition, departments would be encouraged to create new courses to be used for the minor. 

Suggested Courses

ART 100, ART 152, ART 153, ART 164, ART 376, BEM 353W, ENG 350, ENG 351, ENG 352, ENG 358, ENG 410, ENG 490, FSE 200, FSE 300, HLS 201, JOU 305, JOU 480, MUS  171, MUS 271, MUS 272, MUS 273, PUB 415