Quantifying students’ collective creativity in designing soft matter experiments

Bakker, M.A.E.; Logman, P.S.W.M.

doi:doi:10.1088/1742-6596/3280/1/012039

Creativity is an important higher order cognitive skill in solving physics problems. However, it is notoriously difficult and time-consuming to measure. Nowadays, solving complex physics problems is mostly done by multiple research groups in parallel. In such contexts, it is essential that the research community as a whole generates creative solutions to the problem at hand, motivating the need for collective creativity. We apply various methods to quantify collective creativity to undergraduate students’ open-ended experimental design proposals in the physics subfield of soft matter. We compare and discuss the three most promising of these methods. After comparison, a probability-based metric of the proposal distribution emerged as the most valid and distinctive quantification of collective creativity. It is capable of resolving year-to-year variations in collective creativity that are not readily apparent from qualitative inspection alone. This new metric can inform evidence...Show more Creativity is an important higher order cognitive skill in solving physics problems. However, it is notoriously difficult and time-consuming to measure. Nowadays, solving complex physics problems is mostly done by multiple research groups in parallel. In such contexts, it is essential that the research community as a whole generates creative solutions to the problem at hand, motivating the need for collective creativity. We apply various methods to quantify collective creativity to undergraduate students’ open-ended experimental design proposals in the physics subfield of soft matter. We compare and discuss the three most promising of these methods. After comparison, a probability-based metric of the proposal distribution emerged as the most valid and distinctive quantification of collective creativity. It is capable of resolving year-to-year variations in collective creativity that are not readily apparent from qualitative inspection alone. This new metric can inform evidence-based decisions on how lab courses may be adapted to more effectively stimulate students’ collective creativity.
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Quantifying students’ collective creativity in designing soft matter experiments