Antecedents of creativity: Statistical discourse analysis of university student teams' interactions

Background: Many societal problems (climate crisis, war, etc.) are too complex for individuals to solve and require team creativity. Therefore, many university teachers help their students collaborate to cultivate their creativity. As scholars have not determined teams' antecedent talk processes that aid or hinder the emergence of creative ideas, we examined how types of talk (e.g., agreement, disagreement, invitational question) and their sequences (e.g., consecutive invitational questions) affect the likelihood of ideas that are original, feasible, or creative. Methods: We examined 4,047 utterances by 12 students in 4 triads working on an open-ended, lifestyle problem in their classroom. Results: Statistical discourse analysis showed that utterances with an invitational question or thinking marker were more likely to yield original, feasible, and creative ideas. By contrast, consecutive invitational questions, irrelevant talk, or process talk were less likely to yield original, feasible, and creative ideas. Conclusions: Together, these findings imply that teachers should encourage invitational questions within team brainstorms, monitor for consecutive invitational questions, give students time and space for contemplation, and discourage off-task discussions.