I am currently enrolled in a masters program at the University of Massachusetts at Boston called Critical and Creative Thinking offered through the Graduate College of Education. As a matter of course, one of the required offerings is an Introduction to Creative Thought. Each week, I’m required to write a free-response journal entry that has been informed by the reading and class discussion for that week. I’ve used the journal as an opportunity to come up with a framework for creative problem solving of my own. To indulge my own narcissistic leanings, I’ve decided to provide them for general consumption.

Some weeks were more rushed than others. I bet you can tell which are which.

Journal 1: History of Creativity—Untapped Potential
Journal 2: Promoting and Inhibiting Creativity—Search, Practice, Build
Class Discussion: Social Inhibitors to Creativity
Journal 3: Socio-cultural Influences—Communities and Filters
(Chickens and Cows Solution)

Journal 4: Methods of Study—A Systems Approach
Journal 5: Thinking Styles and Strategies—Seven Intelligences
Journal 6: The Creative Process: Experimental Studies and Theories—Insight and Fixation