The schumpeter

Why?

The Schumpeter fosters the students’ innovation skills in creative problem solving. It builds on the ideas of the economist, Joseph Schumpeter (1934), who believed that innovation was driven by new combinations of existing knowledge.

How?

The teacher asks the students to choose a random, but concrete object or subject that is far removed from the problem at hand. The students write and draw the specific characteristics of the chosen object or subject on a sheet of paper. Now, by combining the chosen object or subject with the problem, the students are challenged to sketch new solutions.

Tips

The students can use mind mapping as a technique to connect the problem with the chosen object. The word or image associations created through a mind map can lead to interesting new designs and solutions to the problem at hand. Thus, the teacher asks the students to draw or write the problem at one end of a large sheet of paper and the chosen object at the other end. Now the teacher challenges the students to merge the two ends into new solutions or designs for the problem. The students write or draw these in the middle of the paper.

Literature

Buzan, T., & Buzan, B. (1995). The Mind Map Book BBC Books. London, UK

Schumpeter, J. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.