Welcome to the Creativity Café: Developing a network of shared creative teaching practice amongst academic staff

To share with the conference delegates findings from the on-going TQEF Project on ‘Creativity and Innovation in Teaching in Higher Education’ being carried out at the University of Huddersfield. This part of the project focuses on communities of practice that have developed to share ideas between academic staff on creativity in teaching and learning.
Content and hoped for impact on practice
One of the purposes of the project is to promote creativity and innovative teaching. Out of initial interviews with numerous staff across the university, most wanted to share their creative teaching with colleagues in other disciplines. Although good practice is occurring, little is known about other staff teaching across the university. Therefore, a Creativity Café was organized to give academic staff the opportunity to work together informally, to collaborate and share best practice in the future.
The Creativity Café was an informal, but structured, workshop around creativity which allowed informal networks between staff to develop. Staff valued the opportunity to collaborate and develop their creative practices, and this has since grown.