In my research, I found two creative process models that appealed to me. One is from the global organizational development firm New and Improved, and the other is from a Visual Arts educator’s blog site. The New and Improved (2018) framework was clear to read, and featured keywords on the diagram with a more in-depth analysis when you scrolled down the page. This was a format I chose to keep in my own creative process model. As this was a framework designed for what seemed like a start-up business or project-plan, I agreed with most of the steps but found that “stage 5, prototype and strengthen” did not quite fit with my music classroom process. In its place, I put my “Revise and Practice” stage which I found to be more suitable for my teaching context.
In the Crowe (2022) example, I enjoyed that the framework was in the style of the fibonacci sequence. Each section was broken down into subsections and colour-coded which I found to be very helpful. This example was geared towards teaching high school Visual Arts, and many of the steps were similar to what I wanted to include in my own framework. I liked that it included specific terminology when describing each stage. Crowe (2022) posed guiding questions for each of the four main sections: the idea, planning, creating, and presenting. Having these guiding questions is beneficial to anyone using the model as it promotes critical thinking throughout the creative process. One thing I did not enjoy as much about the model was that towards the center, the text got quite small and blurry. Also because the design of the framework was on a curve, the text had to follow this, which made some boxes harder to read.
In both models, I enjoyed the visual design and found that the steps were similar to my professional context. I re-ordered some of the steps in the first New and Improved (2018) framework and used the Crowe (2022) example as a guideline for organizing my ideas. I decided to keep a simple-looking graphic like the first example and put my analysis on a separate page to make it clearer to read. If I were to make revisions to my model, I might consider incorporating space for an alternative task or a “mental exercise that is different from creative tasks at hand” (Starko, 2018), in order to best stimulate creativity. Furthermore, I would like to add in more guiding questions and prompts into each of my steps.
References
Creative Process. New and Improved. (2018). https://newandimproved.com/universal-creative-process/
Crowe, M. (2022). The creative process. HA VISUAL ARTS. https://havisualarts.weebly.com/the-creative-process.html
Starko, A. J., (2018). Creativity in the classroom, 6th edition. Routledge. (Ch. 2: Models of the Creative Process)
Herstmonceux Castle, United Kingston, August 2019
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