Creativity & Innovation Faculty Learning Community
Profs. Bonnie Cramond and Mark Runco

Various fields such as education, science, industry, economics, and technology are showing an increasing interest in innovation and creativity worldwide. In this global economic crisis, there is a burgeoning interest in the recognition that creativity is linked to prosperity, and that nations are in competition to nurture and retain their most creative talent. In addition, the importance of generating innovative solutions to global challenges inspired the theme of the 2006 meeting of the World Economic Forum: The Creative Imperative. Accordingly, the report from the National Center on Education and the Economy in the same year drew attention to the contrast between the basic skills that we emphasize in our schools and those that individuals will need to be “the workers of 21st century America: creativity and innovation, facility with the use of ideas and abstractions, the self-discipline and organization needed to manage one’s work and drive it through to a successful conclusion, the ability to function well as a member of a team, and so on.”

Scientists and artists have long noted the universality of creativity. The act of creation requires problem solving and using the intuitive “dialects” of thought to make breakthroughs that have no domain boundaries until they are expressed as images, words, or equations. One purpose of this Learning Community is to find individuals with similar interests from various fields who might collaborate on research and implementation projects. Some of the questions this Learning Community might discuss include: How can one begin to define such an ineffable concept, much less study and measure it? How can we recognize and nurture creativity in an educational system, business, or country? How might we study creativity and innovation systematically and from multidisciplinary viewpoints?

This FLC will be co-facilitated by Bonnie Cramond and Mark Runco. Bonnie is a professor of Educational Psychology whose teaching and research have been on creativity in education and Mark Runco is the E. Paul Torrance Professor of Creative Studies & Gifted Education and the Editor of the Creativity Research Journal.

Text-Only Version
The University of Georgia | VP Instruction | CAIT | WebCT | Contact CTL
Website questions or problems, contact webmaster at emailctl@uga.edu
This page last updated on February 23, 2009.