Name of the Instructor: Dr. Özge Andiç Çakır, Professor

Name of the Unit: Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Name of the Course: Creative Thinking as an Art

The course Is an elective course from the University of Ege elective courses pool, any grade undergraduate student can select this course.

The aim of the course is to comprehend creative thinking methods in order to develop business ideas suitable for the changing world order. The course Includes a group study with the students to understand and apply one selected creative technique to solve a problem. The selected technique Is generally “The Six Thinking Hats” technique, because It Is easy to show and apply, suitable for group working and can be applied In online courses.

Here want to know things like

I learned about my technique while searching knowledge for the CHET learning platform. The technique can be applied to any kind of problem solving, but I generally ask my students to select the problem to discuss. At the very beginning of the course, I present them the technique, and describe the meaning of the hat colours and then I divide them Into groups randomly.  The problems related to applying the technique In the classroom Is some students are active In the group and some of them does not react. By passing time and with some motivation they start to discuss In the group. When all the groups are ready they select the group leader to present the groups Ideas with the others In the classroom, sometimes selecting the group leader may be a problem. I, As the Instructor take notes while the students talk about their Ideas.

The benefits of using this technique In this classroom Is that It enhances the problem-solving capabilities of the students, help them to solve a specific problem and learn a technique for discussing an Issue while looking from different perspectives.

I use the technique for my higher education classroom, but I think the technique Is suitable for all educational degrees.

For the evaluation of the effectiveness of using this technique In the classroom, I ask an open ended question and tell them to solve this question from different perspectives, putting different hats on.

Here want to know things like

I always ask my students feedbacks after the application of different techniques In the classroom. With regards to learning process, They think that they learn how to solve problems looking from different perspectives and this widens their vision. For their business life, they think that they will use this methods In their company, for problem solving with a small group.

If you have any tips or tricks for other VET trainers/ teachers, please indicate them here. Things we are interested in are:

For classroom setting, the maximum number of students may be a group between up to 30-35 persons. This means that every group will have 5-6 students and the group discussion will be feasible up to this number of persons. It Is also Important that at least 3 persons should be In each group for a feasible discussion. You can also use this technique In online setting, while using the Breakout Rooms.

It Is Important that the teacher only monitors the discussion of the groups, not tries to direct their Ideas, If necessary motivates the silent students only, open and free environment will bring creativity.

In classroom setting It may be Interesting to have some real cartoon hats, but HE education students may feel silly wearing hats In the classroom. So I do not prefer this.

After I make random groups distribution In the classroom before starting the discussion, One of my students came to me and asked If I could change his group. He was In the black group and he said that he was depressed due to some problems In life and he did not want to think about difficulties any more, so I moved him to the yellow group. I can say that It Is Important that the students feel comfortable during Implementation of the technique. I only have a screenshot from my online classroom.

Regards,