Developing creativity across cultures

This article concerns the development and evaluation of a strategy employed in an Australian university to transition Thai university graduates, products of predominantly rote learning pedagogy, to the critical-creative dynamic of the Master of Creative Enterprise undertaken in Australia. The strategy is premised on the principles and practices of Sir Ken Robinson’s thesis of strategic creativity and on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s contention that it is better to enhance creativity by changing the environment than by changing the individual. The rationale for the strategy is premised on the significance of creativity in navigating an increasingly complex world and on the dual role of creative and critical thinking required for the academic study of creative enterprise. The nature of creative enterprise is defined and a six-step strategy is posited involving creative space, action learning, critical-creative assessments, contextualized application, real-time participation, and transdisciplinarity. Each step is related to Robinson’s thesis.