That teachable skill, creativity, has been defined in many ways. It has been called

• A "mental activity performed in situations where there is no prior correct solution or answer" (Encyclopedia of Creativity, vol. 2, "Teaching Creativity")
  
• A "process of developing new, uncommon, or unique ideas"
  
• The "generation of novel, useful ideas"
  

No one idea of creativity fits all fields of endeavor. Creativity calls on cognitive and non-cognitive skills, curiosity, intuition, and doggedness. Creative solutions can be created or discovered, in a flash or over a period of decades.

At one time creativity was thought of as a culture-changing product of a genius like Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, or Steve Jobs. Over the past several years, however, emphasis on such phenomena, sometimes called "Big-C" creativity, has given way to an interest in what is called "little-c" or everyday creativity, a process in which many can and do participate.

Creativity does not arise in a vacuum; it requires a certain degree of both general knowledge and field-specific knowledge. This is clearly true if we think of creativity as a form of innovation - we cannot know what is novel without a sense of what is already known in any area.