How do we go from everyday creative thinking to ground-breaking?

People were shocked by Singapore's Pisa toppers in an area we don't feel confident about. Process-focused "design thinking" can help change this.

- Dawn Lim

When Singapore 15-year-olds topped a test on creative thinking conducted in 2022 as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), many at home were stunned.

Despite our success as a nation, we often do not see ourselves as creative people.

Only 64 per cent of Singaporean students feel confident in their creativity, compared to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 73 per cent. Even more striking is that less than half believe they can craft compelling stories or invent new things.

Why is there this gap between perception and reality? Our youth excel in standardised tests on creativity, but feel inadequate to tackle unstructured tasks that require the same skill.

At the heart of this is our lack of confidence, specifically creative confidence - and the answer involves nurturing what is termed a "design mindset".

BENDING RULES TO BREAK AND BUILD

The design mindset is a way of solving problems - understanding users' needs and exploring a wide range of ideas, even at the risk of failure. It is about falling in love with the problem, not the solution.

Ambiguity and chaos are embraced because situations are not always predictable or controllable. This differs from critical thinking, which prioritises objective evaluation and logical reasoning.

More importantly, design thinking's framework and codified processes can enable participants to learn creativity and become confident in applying it. In a design thinking workshop, a student from Jurong Pioneer Junior College expressed doubt he could ever be creative. The facilitator introduced techniques to bend the rules, question established norms and break current patterns, such as doing routine tasks differently to gain a new perspective.