Developing creative problem solvers

Abstract

This qualitative case study sought to describe a single organization and examined how their learning experience affected students' creativity as they developed a solution to a challenging social problem. Creative problem solving and the investment theory of creativity acted as theoretical frameworks. Three research questions guided this study: (1) What does social innovation mean to students? (2) How do students develop a creative solution to a challenging social problem? (3) How do students persuade others that their creative solution is valuable? Purposeful sampling recruited eleven participants to provide insight to all aspects of the case. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, site observations, field notes, and document review. Data was analyzed using direct interpretation, multiple coding strategies, categorical aggregation, inductive and comparative analysis. Nine themes emerged to describe: (1) the meaning of social innovation to students; (2) how they developed creative solutions; and (3) how they persuaded others their idea had value. Findings led to five conclusions: (1) social innovation means designing new solutions to make the world a better place; (2) intentionally designing empathy into all phases of social innovation improves the creative process and its outcome; (3) social innovation is not a solo endeavor; (4) experiential learning using design thinking enhances creative thinking and problem solving; and (5) impactful storytelling animates a social problem and its potential solution to capture emotion and create meaning and excitement for social innovation. Intentional empathy and impactful storytelling were defined by this researcher based on findings. This study concluded that Changemakers' high-impact learning model stimulates creative thinking and nurtures problem solving skills.