Creative Knowledge Work and the Impact of Instruction

Creativity and creative knowledge work are considered to be amongst the mostimportant skills in the 21st century. Creativity has been advocated as a core elementof human and economic capital. Hence, various education systems strive to fostercreative students. Complex workplaces that are constantly evolving need creativeemployees to perform knowledge work.Drawing on different perspectives on the role of instruction in creativity,knowledge development and learning, this chapter reveals how instructions canfoster creativity. This chapter’s contribution to existing knowledge is founded ona metaphorical phenomenological-ecological approach to learning as wayfinding.Learning, when understood as wayfinding, addresses the environmental, social,and relational elements in knowledge creation. The question addressed is howinstructions in undergraduate teacher education influence students’ creativity andknowledge creation.The empirical findings presented draw on data from a longitudinal case study ofone class of student teachers within a blended learning environment at UniversityCollege North, Denmark. Empirical data were retrieved from four observationstudies and eight focus group interviews during the period 2012–2015. The focusof the interviews and observations was students’ knowledge creation in a blendedlearning environment.Overall, the findings of the empirical study reveal how the students experiencedlearning as wayfinding. Furthermore, it was found that the teacher’s instructionshighly influenced the students’ creative knowledge creation. One significantimplication of this study was that instructions must facilitate students’ self-directedengagement, social relationships, and autonomy if creative thinking and knowledgecreation are to take place. The findings from the empirical study form the basis forthe discussion of creative knowledge work and the impact of instruction