Award Date

12-2010

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Learning and Technology

Department

Educational Psychology

First Committee Member

LeAnn Putney, Chair

Second Committee Member

Gwen Marchand

Third Committee Member

Kendall Hartley

Graduate Faculty Representative

James Crawford

Number of Pages

154

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of creativity in
problem solving situations. Previous research suggested that both
background knowledge and the inability to transfer knowledge across
contexts are important factors in how a problem is ultimately resolved.
Given these findings, the researcher undertook a study on the role
creativity might play when individuals lacking sufficient background
knowledge are faced with a novel real world problem. A question raised
by the researcher whether an absence of background knowledge might
encourage novices to be more creative than their more experienced
counterparts in novel problem solving situations.


Findings of the study demonstrated that the role creativity plays is
influenced more by support from the environment and understanding the
regularities of the environment than background knowledge of a specific
problem. More experienced others in the study were as creative, but used
creativity differently than novices. It was found both novices and more
experienced others faced a system of eroding goals that placed pressure
to lower goals concurrently with taking creative actions to resolve the
problem.

Keywords

Creative thinking; Creativity; Decision making; Problem solving; Systems

Disciplines

Education | Psychology

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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