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Creativity, good written and verbal communication skills and in-depth knowledge of the subject are essential for successful completion of research work. Figure 1.1 shows important ingredients of research. A researcher should have sound fundamental knowledge of the domain to be undertaken. A querying attitude is one of the important factors. Anything and everything is questionable; this questioning attitude is essence of research and invention.
A creative person does things that have never been done before. Prof. Robert Sternberg has listed some “must have” characteristics in order to be creative. These skills are a combination of synthetic intelligence and practical intelligence. Practical intelligence is the ability to adopt day-to-day requirements. Persistent, tenacious, uncompromising, and stubborn are some of the characteristics of creative people. One should always challenge conventional solutions to a problem. Velcro and Post-it Notes, for example, are outcomes of creative thinking.
FIGURE 1.1
Ingredients for a good researcher
Some examples of creativity include:
Apple iPhone, which convinced people for the value of replacing the keyboard with a touchpad, and touchscreen operations controlled by fingers as a replacement for a stylus. The invention of laptops, the Internet, supercomputers, and so on are some examples in the computer science and engineering domains
Newton’s law of motion and the universal law of gravity are some examples of creative inventions in physics
Composing beautiful music and creative writing are examples of creativity in art
Analyzing a situation in a different way is also creativity
Analyzing history with a different angle and solving and analyzing cases in law with different perspectives are also creativity
Putting philosophy differently is also creativity. For example, Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution by natural selection is contradiction to the previous biological theories. However, Darwin’s theory is base for many modern biological inventions
Creativity is a combination of generating ideas and validating it, including research, development, production, and marketing. Creativity is also considered to be a preinnovation process; it is a prerequisite for scientific and technological innovation. Creativity is an inevitable component of any impressive action. Creativity is a quality that adds essence to the expected outcomes.
Important instances of creativity are to provide a novel work process through a valuable innovation. Scientific creativity is a source of innovation that is subdivided into four types, listed here:
Set a new idea for formulation, which opens up a new cognitive frame to a new level of basic assumptions
A new empirical formula should be discovered, which stimulates a new theory (forexample, Darwin’s theory of evolution)
A new methodology should be developed to solve a theoretical problem that can be tested empirically
A novel technique/instrument should be designed, which can propose a new technique with new possibilities
Componential Theory of Individual Creativity
The componential theory of individual creativity has three essential components of individual creativity:
Expertise
Creative thinking skills
Intrinsic task motivation
Expertise comprises actually occurring knowledge, which consists of technical expertise with a special skill that can be rooted to distinct personality in the working group.Creative-thinking skill is “working with an unknown data with a greater extent thanusual,” found in people who work with an original idea to emphasize that there should be a separation between generating ideas and validating those ideas. Intrinsic motivation determines what a researcher should actually do and is influenced by environmental factors.
Creative process can be determined in a sequential way depending on preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. Incubation is a period during which a problem is banned from conscious thought, and solutions are generated in an unconscious way.
Triggering subconscious thinking during the incubation period is an effective approach of grooming creativity. Verification is a stage where the work is been tested for the validity of novelty and usefulness of the idea.
Workgroup Creativity
Research and development mainly generates scientific and technological information, which transforms the work into novel ideas and products through a process. Creativity in a group includes working in a laboratory with respect to organisational settings, which helps most scientific and artistic innovation through joint conversations as well as thinking that emphasizes the importance of the social dimension of creativity.
Knowledge is another very important ingredient. After getting an idea, one has to decide on the design and implementation. To improve on communication skills a researcher can take courses and listen to talks given by inventors and other researchers to understand how they communicate their ideas. Oral and written communication is integral part of research and it helps to convince people about your ideas, methodologies, and results.
Researchers should be focused on their own problem definition; however, they should always investigate whether the solution proposed fits in a global scenario. An advisor plays a very important role in research, specifically when pursuing a Ph.D.. An advisor guides the right path at different junctions and are torch bearers.
There is always scope for improvement in everything and one should always strive for excellence. Researchers should not neglect any of the skills required for research and continuously improve and strengthen those skills. In addition, researchers require qualities such as hard work, consistency, and patience. A researcher needs to be extremely committed to the research work to enjoy the fulfillment and rewarding moments.
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