Teaching Creative Thinking

Tips, Tools and Ideas for Encouraging Creativity in the Classroom

Feb 26, 2007

Many new teachers find it hard to teach creativity, but it can be a part of the entire curriculum.

Creative thinking affects every niche and field of education from pre-school, to after school to K-12, college and university and after school activities. Experts agree that early education is a ripe time for introducing creative ways and models of thinking. The earlier a child is stimulated to think more creatively, the more s/he will enjoy originality and will develop more tolerance for the ambiguous and unusual. While much of the professional literature leans towards creative thinking is a genetic issue, there are tips and tools available for teachers - both new and seasoned to encourage more creative thinking.

Can We all be Mozarts?

An individual’s creative output should not be compared to the creative results of another. Many people like the students were teach believe they are not creative due to the fact they compare their output to creative output by people such as Mozart or Picasso and therefore believe they are not creative. This concept is referred to as Salieri’s syndrome because Salieri compared his creative output to that of Mozart’s and believe he was not a creative person.

What is Creative Thinking Really?

Creative thinking is distinguished by an individual’s thinking patterns, attitudes and thinking tools which enable and encourage the creative thinking process.

Creative thinking and Other Dimensions of Thinking

Marzano (1988) conceptualized a model of thinking which has five dimensions: metacognition, criticial thinking, thinking processes, basic thinking skills and field-dependent knowledge.

Metacognition – It relates to what a student knows about his/her learning and thinking. For example: most people know when they remember best.

Critical Thinking – Critical thinking aims at evaluating things, beliefs and processes while creative thinking aims at creative results.

Thinking process – This area includes a number of dimensions: perception of design, principles of design, understanding, problem solving, decision making, research, composition and verbal discourse.

Field Dependent Knowledge – an individual who is creative in one field tends to be creative in another.

Can Teachers Teach Creative Thinking?

Yes! Creative thinking can be taught. Explicit explanations about processes regarding creative thinking involve also encouragement for different skills of thinking.

In order to encourage creative thinking, teacher must reformalize the theory behind pedagogical instruction. More open ended questions, varied student responses should be encouraged and explicit skills should be taught. Creative thinking should not ruin intrinsic motivation by restricting certain types of thinking processes.

Teachers should teach strategies of flexible thinking through:

Brainstorming
A search for alternatives
Incidental associations
Provocation – the method of showing another way of looking at something.

Over to You – Encouraging Student Creativity

The truth is creative thinking needs to be developed. How can you as a teacher nurture creativity in your students?

One of the ways to encourage student creativity is through understand what motivates your students. What do they enjoy learning?

Final Words

If a student enjoys originality, he or she will make an effort to find and / or create it. They also enjoy identifying originality in their studies. Therefore, lessons should embody a variety of learning and thinking styles in order to bring out the best of a student's creative skills and abilities.