In cognitive science, creative ideas are defined as original and feasible solutions in response to problems. A common proposal is that creative ideas are generated across dedicated cognitive pathways. Only after creative ideas have emerged, they can be enacted to solve the problem. We present an alternative viewpoint, based upon the dynamic systems approach to perception and action, that creative solutions emerge in the act rather than before. Creative actions, thus, are as much a product of individual constraints as they are of the task and environment constraints. Accordingly, we understand creative motor actions as functional movement patterns that are new to the individual and/or group and adapted to satisfy the constraints on the motor problem at hand. We argue that creative motor actions are promoted by practice interventions that promote exploration by manipulating constraints. Exploration enhances variability of functional movement patterns in terms of either coordination or control solutions. At both levels, creative motor actions can emerge from finding new and degenerate adaptive motor solutions. Generally speaking, we anticipate that in most cases, when exposed to variation in constraints, people are not looking for creative motor actions, but discover them while doing an effort to satisfy constraints. For future research, this paper achieves two important aspects: it delineates how adaptive (movement) variability is at the heart of (motor) creativity, and it sets out methodologies toward stimulating adaptive variability.
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In adult football, small-sided games are associated with increased action variability and suggested to promote more creative actions compared to regular 11v11 formats. This aligns with predictions from an ecological approach to perception and action that creative actions emerge in environments that grant variability in action, instead of being an expression of the individual player's ability to generate ideas. To further evidence for this prediction, the current study aimed to expand this observation to elite youth football players. To this end, the number of different and creative actions in 4v4 small-sided game and a 11v11 regular-sided game among 10- to 12-year-old elite football players were examined. We analyzed a total of 7922 actions, which were categorized for type and creativity. Based on a subset of these actions, a panel of elite football coaches judged action types occurring below 0.5% as significantly more creative than more frequent action types. Hence, we used an occurrence of 0.5% as threshold to distinguish creative actions from non-creative actions. The results showed that the total number of actions, the number of different action types, the number creative actions and the number of different creative action types was significantly higher for the small-sided game format than the regular-sided game. In conclusion, this study confirms that in elite youth football, small-sided games induce a more variable and creative action repertoire. This shows that practitioners can design learning environments that promote the emergence of creative actions.
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This paper presents an approach to organizational research that aims to produce research results that are both relevant and rigorous. The research approach combines the designing of a management tool with the testing of the tool using an action research methodology. The lack of relevance in organizational research is a much debated issue in literature. A design approach has been proposed to help bridge the gap between research and practice. However, in organizational research, there is little empirical evidence how design-based research works in practice and it is unclear how this type of research is best structured. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate what a comprehensive methodology for design-based research can look like and how an action research methodology can be used to test the design in practice.
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