Definition:
- Both the capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
- True creative thinking stems from a strong foundation in one or more disciplines as a basis for pushing boundaries in new, unique, or atypical recombinations, uncovering or critically perceiving new syntheses and using or recognizing creative risk-taking to achieve a solution.
Source: AAC&U
Questions to Consider:
Domain-specific (eg, the arts, the sciences)
Can you give an example of a time when you had to solve a problem that required that you apply something you learned while in college? Was this application based on something you learned in the course of your major? Another class? As a result of other experiences you had?
Give an example of when you took a different direction or approach to an assignment or problem. In what way was your direction risky, controversial, or innovative? Why did you choose this approach, and how did you defend it to others?
Interdisciplinary
Can you name an idea you had that required that you synthesize different academic domains or interdisciplinary experiences? In what way was your direction risky, controversial, or innovative? Why did you choose this approach, and how did you defend it to others?