Problem solving and creativity: Insights from students’ individual composing pathways

Music educators are particularly keen to offer learning opportunities that enhance creativity. How this happens remains something of a mystery. Within an international context, this article reports on a study that used a cross-cultural perspective on creative thinking with a particular focus on examining the link between problem-solving and composing. The study compares the individual composing pathways of a sample of students drawn from a range of data sets that tracked students ’ thinking as they composed, in terms of the ways in which problems were perceived, framed and solved. Several common themes were identified across students ’ musical backgrounds, age and cultures from Australia, Canada and the UK. One such theme with educational implications was that perceiving a compositional problem and seeking solutions utilize different types of thinking. Key words creativity, cross-cultural, individual compositional decision-making, problem-solvin