Addressing creativity in higher education from a rhizomatic perspective

Global developments ask for 21(st)-century skills. Creativity is one of those and can be defined as the production of novel ideas by connecting entities that have not been connected before and whose connection is useful in a certain domain. The growth of rhizomes is an example where unconnected entities become connected in an unpredictable way, and by doing so, form a strong network. By taking this rhizomatic concept as leading, a creativity course was developed to support international Engineering university students. We examined to what extent it increased the self-perception of the students regarding their creativity. Around two-thirds of the students had the idea that their creativity improved during the course. Around three-quarters of the students thought they added creativity to their project. Results of this case study suggest that rhizomatic education may positively influence students' perception of their creativity, although more research is needed to confirm these findings.