Creativity

Code:

MIET0002

Acronym:

CRI

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Innovation Management

Instance: 2009/2010 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIET	28	Syllabus since 2008/09	1	-	6	42	160

Teaching language

English

Objectives

Provide the students with the abilities to
- understand the complexity of the creative capacity of a system,
- identify the cognitive abilities and behavior that enable the development of innovative proposals.
- understand the mechanisms and the different phases of the creative process.
- use the systematic heuristic tools with consciousness and flexibility : techniques for problem exploration, methods for idea generation and evaluation techniques.
- participate actively in a creative group.

Program

1. The concept of creativity
• The notion of 'creativity': about terminology and myths.
• Creativity in the perspective of humanistic epistemology: Theories about creative thinking; Parameter of measure of creative thinking; Mental blocks and the importance of perception.
• Creativity in the perspective of Natural Science: creativity as a systemic capacity; the concept of 'self-organisation' and the importance of chance.
2. The creative process
• Basic mechanisms and phases.
• Individual process versus team work
• The CPS model - Creative Problem Solving
• The creative process in the systemic perspective
3. The systematic heuristic of the creative process
• Rules that promote creativity.
• Methods and techniques that stimulate creative thinking: The principals; An overview.
• Techniques of problem exploration: The 'Redefinition of the Problem'; The 'Mind Map'; The 'Functional Analysis'; The 'Morphological Box'.
• Methods of Idea Generation: 'Brainstorming' and the derivatives; 'Synectics' and Analogies; 'Forced Relationship'.
• Evaluation techniques: Intuitive techniques; Matrixes.

Mandatory literature

Alexander Manu; The Imagination Challenge. Strategic Foresight and Innovation in the Global Economy, New Riders, 2007. ISBN: 0-321-41365-2
Juan Rodrigo & Katja Tschimmel; Sistemas creativos: que hace que tengamos mas o menos ideas?, in: Angélica Sátiro (Coord.);Pasión por crear, Placer de admirar, Necesidad de transformar, MACUF , 2009. ISBN: ISBN: 978-84-613-0412-7

Complementary Bibliography

Praveen Gupta; Inovação Empresarial no Século XXI, Vida Económica, 2008. ISBN: 978-972-788-287-8
Robert Sternberg (Coord.); Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge University Press, 2004

Teaching methods and learning activities

With the objectives of internalised learning and rich experiences, the privileged methods of the discipline, include the self-exploration of knowledge by the students and diverse didactical actions such as bibliographical research, oral and audiovisual displays, exercises of observation and creation, collective discussions, etc. The applied methods vary between the realisation of short exercises that exemplify and elaborate the subject matter (participative method), the application of the heuristic tools in teamwork (active and experimental method), and the reflection about the working of the methods and about the group dynamic in each exercise (meta-cognitive method).

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	39,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

As it is a theoretical-practical unit, a continual participation is obrigatory.

Calculation formula of final grade

Assiduity and participation in discussions [10 %]
Exercise A: Glossary [20 %]
Exercise B: Case Study [20 %]
Aplication of heuristic techniques [20%]
Final dossier with results from exercises (A+B), reflection texts about the aplication of the heuristic techniques and a reflective text about the learning process [30%]

Examinations or Special Assignments

Exercise A: research about the concepts of creativity and conception of a glossary
Exercise B: presentation of a case study of a creative organisation

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Also for working students, the participation of 70 % of the classes is obrigatory.

Classification improvement

Complementary reflection text about the contents of the discipline.

Observations

The classes are given in a part in English and in a part in Portuguese, dependent of the necessity of students.