Collaborative Creativity and the Development of Ideas
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Alqahtani, Mona A
- Graduate Program:
- Learning, Design, and Technology (PHD)
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 14, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Marcela Borge, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Heather Zimmerman, Major Field Member
Tyler Hollett, Major Field Member
Susan Mohammed, Outside Unit & Field Member
Heather Toomey Zimmerman, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Collaboration
creativity
design education
collaborative learning
socioemotional
sociocognitive
learning design
CSCL
idea development - Abstract:
- For a long time, creativity has been conceptualized and analyzed as the result of processes taking place in the individual mind. It leads to a gap in literature as we still do not know how groups develop ideas collaboratively. With the aim of reaching a better understanding of creative idea development in groups, I adopt an ecological framework to understand the nature of the creative processes in groups holistically. I pose the overarching question: How do different micro-ecological elements impact idea development in collaborative contexts? The study took place in an informal learning environment in a local elementary school. For the after-school program, I designed and implemented a theoretically informed instructional model with the aim of supporting creative dispositions. I followed Design Based Research as a methodological approach to challenge the choices I made as a learning designer, a facilitator, and a researcher. I adopted video-based interaction analysis as an overarching analytical procedure along with specific analytical processes to understand individual and group practices, cultural manifestation in the creative community, and the role of learning objects in context. Findings from the analysis of two cases reflect the complex nature of creativity in groups and capture the value of examining collaborative creativity in an authentic setting. In relation to individual and group practices, the findings indicate that socioemotional skills, along with the group's understanding of design processes, could influence the development of ideas across time. In relation to the cultural manifestation, findings are presented around the microcultural alignment between learners’ language and habits of thinking and the collaborative aim of the community. Finally, the findings reflect the critical role of learning objects, specifically through the ways in which learners utilized them to support their interaction as they worked in groups and the influence of that on the development of ideas. These findings reflect the complex reality of designing and facilitating collaborative creativity. The gaps between how the design of the creative microecology was intended and the ways in which it was utilized by facilitators and received by learners in context, suggest the need for progressive learning models.