M. Belén Calavia Ferrández

Belén Calavia graduated in Engineering in Industrial Design and Product Development from the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA) of the University of Zaragoza (UZ) in 2015 and obtained the Master’s Degree in Product Design Engineering from that same school in 2017. During her training, she got different awards related to innovation and design.

Her research interests are focused on design, creativity and technology fields, especially User-Centred Design and Design Thinking. These interests led her to join HOWLab in April 2017, where she completed her Master’s Final Project: “Contributions from Design and Technology to Foster Creativity in Schools”, with which she obtained the “Extraordinary award”.

This line of research led her to begin her doctoral thesis in Design and Manufacturing Engineering at HOWLab. To conduct her studies, she is affiliated to a pre-doctoral scholarship from the Government of Aragon. This thesis is focused on the design and development of tools to apply design thinking in educational environments and promote creativity.

During her research, she has developed several methodologies and she publishes scientific papers, including both conference and journal’s indexed papers. Likewise, she teaches in the University of Zaragoza, where she continues her training with courses related to creativity, design and education.

CV Universidad de Zaragoza

2021

Calavia, Belén; Blanco, Teresa; Casas, Roberto

Fostering creativity as a problem-solving competence through design: Think-Create-Learn, a tool for teachers Journal Article

In: Thinking Skills and Creativity, vol. 39, pp. 100761, 2021, ISSN: 1871-1871.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{CALAVIA2021100761,

title = {Fostering creativity as a problem-solving competence through design: Think-Create-Learn, a tool for teachers},

author = {Belén Calavia and Teresa Blanco and Roberto Casas},

url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871187120302352},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100761},

issn = {1871-1871},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-01},

journal = {Thinking Skills and Creativity},

volume = {39},

pages = {100761},

abstract = {Although there is no doubt about the relevance of creativity within education, theory has not been always translated into the practical level, for many reasons. In this paper we analyse the state of art, studying the methods through which creativity is understood and applied by teachers, and identifying problems and opportunities. Accordingly, we conducted a literature review to identify what should be considered to foster creativity in classrooms; from this review, we define fifteen key indicators of creativity in education: incorporation, practicality, novel, atmosphere, stimulation, analysis, cooperation, intrinsic motivation, participation, flexibility, uncertainty, time, divergence, self-evaluation, and redefinition. Based on these indicators, we provide a methodological proposal and a set of practical resources to help the teacher to encourage creativity in any classroom. ‘Think-Create-Learn’ relies on open, accessible, and intuitive design-based tools, facing challenges through a creative, problem-solving approach; connecting the contents with the student’s interests and reality; and generating new competency learning possibilities. The assessment of the methodology, with teachers and students, demonstrates its positive integration into the lines of current teaching curriculums, its validity to support mentioned factors, and its ability to aid teachers to produce more creative people. In short, this paper evidences how design discipline and the methodology proposed could have a relevant role in the creativity development inside educational centres.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}