Abstract:

In the fields of Architecture and design educators are often faced with the challenge of teaching creativity and to deal with the actual creative process. This is a multilayered and multidimensional task which involves a process based on many different considerations and approaches in order to respond to various needs of students, of the professional and social community and is generally a response to the needs of a specific time with its specific inhabitants. Guiding students through creative thinking is a process of growth and development.
In order to expedite more personal growth and to explore ways of how to communicate more effectively the idea of innovation and creativity and to induce the design process it is required to engage into students’ thinking structure and mechanism.
In this context the theories of Edward de Bono for more creative and innovative thinking can build the basis for such approach. The basic idea that he advances with his many theories is based upon the conviction that perception is the key element of thinking and that if perception is faulty logic and the rational are not able to solve problems and to give useful answers.
The key elements of Edward de Bono’s theories or those of some other experts working in this field such as Donald Schoen can be applied in order to optimize the educator’s approach to the subject of design as a whole and to implement these methods into more creative purposes, in life or in profession. The suggested methods of de Bono’s Lateral Thinking for example are in accordance with the most important aspect of the idea of education in general, which is based on personal growth gaining a creative approach to a subject matter. In this combination it is obvious that professional success is dependent on the ability of being creative and innovative and that being able of innovative thinking is not an attribute that can be reduced to a professional activity; it is an overall virtue or quality that impacts life in general and has to be trained and has to be conveyed within a system which provides other aspects of personal and professional support to maximize the efficiency of this technique. All skill developments need motivation and the belief of the possibility of doing it; this is one of the tasks of educators to create that.