Creative metacognition in design thinking: exploring theories, educational practices, and their implications for measurement.

Design thinking is a well-established practical and educational approach to fostering high-level creativity and innovation, which has been refined since the 1950s with the participation of experts like Joy Paul Guilford and Abraham Maslow. Through real-world projects, trainees learn to optimize their creative outcomes by developing and practicing creative cognition and metacognition. This paper provides a holistic perspective on creativity, enabling the formulation of a comprehensive theoretical framework of creative metacognition. It focuses on the design thinking approach to creativity and explores the role of metacognition in four areas of creativity expertise: Products, Processes, People, and Places. The analysis includes task-outcome relationships (product metacognition), the monitoring of strategy effectiveness (process metacognition), an understanding of individual or group strengths and weaknesses (people metacognition), and an examination of the mutual impact between environments and creativity (place metacognition). It also reviews measures taken in design thinking education, including a distribution of cognition and metacognition, to support students in their development of creative mastery. On these grounds, we propose extended methods for measuring creative metacognition with the goal of enhancing comprehensive assessments of the phenomenon. Proposed methodological advancements include accuracy sub-scales, experimental tasks where examinees explore problem and solution spaces, combinations of naturalistic observations with capability testing, as well as physiological assessments as indirect measures of creative metacognition.

Establishing Therapeutic Alliance in Mental Health Care via Cooperative Documentation.

In talk-based mental health interventions, treatment outcomes can be decisively improved by enhancing the relationship between patient and therapist. We developed the interactive documentation system Tele-Board MED (TBM) with the goal of supporting patients and doctors in their cooperative task of patient care. The system offers a whiteboard-inspired graphical user interface which allows them to take notes jointly during the treatment session. Two proxy studies were conducted whereby TBM was introduced in a role play that showcased the dialogue in a therapy session. The patient role was played by a volunteer. The audience of human-centered design as well as eHealth experts rated the therapist-patient relationship in a session with and without TBM. The data collected via questionnaires shows that TBM consistently receives a positive rating from study participants (N = 36) in the areas of collaboration, communication, patient-doctor relationship, as well as patient empowerment.

Supporting talk-based mental health interventions with digital whiteboards.

The potential of mental health interventions supported by computers has rarely been explored to date, and the use of technology has hence been limited. There is a need for finding new ways of providing engaging psychotherapy services. We introduce the digital whiteboard system Tele-Board MED (TBM) as a new approach of promoting patient-therapist interaction and joint documentation. Based on observations of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) sessions and a text material review we identified possibly useful features. We conducted a qualitative and quantitative feedback study with 34 therapists in the form of a questionnaire based on a video showing the system's fundamental concept and features. This allowed us to evaluate the therapists' attitudes and the ability of a system like TBM to meet user needs. We encountered willingness to use the system primarily driven by practical interest in fulfilling administrative and legal requirements. Skepticism regarding patient file transparency and technology use was also found. The main insight is that reestablishing the nature of CBT sessions towards higher patient engagement can more successfully be pursued if technology provides incentives for therapists, such as features that speed up administrative tasks.