Introductory description

This ten-week interdisciplinary module, based in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group at Warwick Business School, explores creativity as a practical and transferable capability.

Responding to employer demand for graduates who can think creatively and work effectively with complexity and uncertainty, the module examines how creativity operates in practice across professional, cultural, and organisational contexts. Students engage with key theories of creativity, past and present, using them as tools to analyse and reflect on creative practice across disciplines.

Learning on the module is interactive and experiential, involving encounters with creative people, places, and practices across the University, including studios, laboratories, and public spaces. Through collaborative activity, experimentation, and reflective practice, students develop creative and analytical thinking, adaptability, and professional skills aligned with the core Warwick Business School graduate outcomes:

creative and analytical thinking;
interdisciplinary and systems thinking;
collaboration and communication;
adaptability and learning agility;
reflective self-awareness; and
professional employability.

Collectively, these outcomes support students’ preparedness for contemporary business, innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurial contexts.

This is an elective module available for WBS and non-WBS students. To find detailed availability and to apply for this module, log in to my.wbs.ac.uk using your normal IT login details and apply via the my.wbs module application system. Once you’ve secured a place on my.wbs you should apply via your home department’s usual process, which usually takes place via eVision.

Note that you do not require the module leader’s permission to study a WBS module, so please do not contact them to request it.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

An outline of the syllabus includes:

Creativity (in theory)
Creative Contexts
Curiosity
Systems Thinking for Creative Practice
Introducing your assessment
Creative Processes
Creativity and Failure
Creative by Design
Creating and Changing Values
Creative Futures

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of key theories and concepts of creativity, including historical and contemporary perspectives, and explain how these theories conceptualise creativity across different disciplines and contexts.
• Explain how creativity operates as a situated and relational process, shaped by cultural, social, organisational, and disciplinary factors, rather than as a fixed or purely individual attribute.
• Evaluate competing assumptions and debates about creativity, including questions of value, power, authorship, and recognition, and assess how these debates influence creative practice in academic, professional, and organisational settings.
• Analyse and synthesise diverse perspectives on creativity, integrating theoretical, disciplinary, and experiential knowledge to develop informed and original interpretations of creative practice.
• Critically evaluate assumptions, frameworks, and claims about creativity, including their limitations and implications across different cultural, organisational, and professional contexts.
• Apply critical and creative reasoning to complex, ambiguous problems, generating and assessing alternative approaches while making reasoned judgements under conditions of uncertainty.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Interdisciplinary

The module is interdisciplinary in nature designed to:

• help students to grasp abstract and complex ideas from a range of disciplines (= transdisciplinary), and to reflect in order to synthesize these (= interdisciplinary) into a rounded intellectual and creative response.
• help students understand the symbiotic potential of traditionally distinct disciplines.
• engage students fully with active learning.
• enhance and consolidate students’ academic and research abilities, while also stimulating participation, teamwork and collaboration, creating a pool of transferable skills that students can acquire and practise.
• stimulate collaboration amongst themselves and across various disciplines through group work and embodied learning
• make connections between their own discipline/s and the object of study
• make productive links between theoretical ideas and creative practical applications

The module examines and illuminates ‘Creativity’ through a variety of approaches from different disciplines and in practice. A rich practical and pluralistic appreciation of ‘Creativity’ will be relevant to all Warwick graduates in their personal and professional lives.

Subject specific skills

1. Apply theories of creativity to analyse and inform creative practice, using appropriate conceptual frameworks to interpret creative processes, practices, and outcomes across different disciplinary and professional contexts.

2. Engage in creative experimentation and inquiry, employing methods such as observation, making, dialogue, and reflection to explore and develop creative ideas in response to open-ended challenges.

3. Document, articulate, and critically reflect on creative processes, demonstrating the ability to make creative thinking visible through appropriate formats and to evaluate how ideas evolve through practice, collaboration, and context.

Transferable skills

1. Communicate creative ideas, processes, and insights effectively, using appropriate modes and formats to address different audiences and professional contexts.

2. Work collaboratively and responsibly with others, contributing to shared creative tasks, negotiating ideas, and engaging constructively with feedback relating to own individual assignment.

3. Demonstrate reflective self-management, including the ability to monitor personal learning, respond to feedback, and adapt approaches in response to challenge, uncertainty, and change.