Singapore University of Social Sciences

‘But what ... is it good for?’: This is what an engineer at IBM was purported to have said in 1968 about the microchip. Today, we can look back and rejoice in the creativity and innovativeness of the microchip, which has made possible the moon landing, the drafting of a TMA on a computer, and everything in between. The unity human beings experienced in witnessing the moon landing is similarly expressed today in our universal fascination with creativity. In this course, we talk about this favourite topic of ours. We ask questions like “Can rewarding someone make them more creative?” and “is there such a thing as a creative personality?” We examine the environment for antecedents of creativity. We critically analyse ways of measuring creativity. Finally, we work out how we can foster creativity in the classroom and in the workplace.