Rethinking the creativity training in design education: a study of creative-thinking tools for facilitating creativity development of design students

A deliberate design and arrangement of creative learning activities in tertiary design education is crucial in helping design students to release their creative potential. Unfortunately, a systematic and deliberate design of creativity training has not yet been implemented in any higher design education institutes in Hong Kong. This article aims to classify various creative-thinking techniques in order to provide design educators with the chance to rethink the arrangement of creativity training in higher design education. Although this article is unable to provide a pedagogical framework for design educators, the five categories, namely (1) identifying and mapping attributes; (2) making possibilities; (3) changing and shifting perspectives; (4) making associations and analogical thinking; and (5) probing emotion and the subconscious, have been classified and introduced to support the importance of arranging appropriate creative-thinking techniques to learning and teaching of creativity in design education.