Fostering creativity in low-engagement students through socratic dialogue: An experiment in an operations class

Abstract

Teaching for creativity is an area of active research in Schools of Business. Currently, the predominant pedagogy involves the incorporation of artistic methods of work into course or program offerings. This study investigates whether Socratic Dialogue can have a significant effect on creativity in Operations Management. In the experiment, students were first classified into high and low creative-engagement groups based on their choice of participation assignments, then randomly assigned to receive feedback on a test in Supply Chain methodology either from the instructor alone, or interactively, through Socratic Dialogue with their classmates. A second set of questions to gauge the difference in creativity between the two groups was then administered. The main result is that Socratic Dialogue has a significant effect on the response originality and flexibility of low-engagement students. This finding offers business schools a targeted way of fostering creativity using an already familiar methodology. Limitations of the study include the possibly confounding effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on student creativity and engagement, as well as the necessary abridgment of the Socratic Dialogue process itself. Future research on the short and long term effects of the method in other areas of business studies as well as on other dimensions of creativity is suggested.