Getting Creative About Teaching Creativty

E. Paul Torrance, the late psychologist who dedicated his life to study of creativity, proposed that you can enhance creativity in children by establishing the right conditions. Like a plant that needs sunlight, water, and the proper soil to thrive, creativity needs the encouragement of healthy-risk taking, opportunities for experimentation, and the chance to break traditional norms. It also takes time (called incubation) for ideas to surface. Think Google’s unwritten policy of 20 percent time. Employees are or were provided one day (news reports question whether the policy is still effective) a week to work on a self-chosen project. The practice resulted in products such as Adsense, g-mail, Google maps and Google talk. Without time to create, there simply is less creativity.

Researchers have found that project learning is one of the best ways to foster creativity. Allowing kids to work on creative projects also seems to be contagious. They want to work on more of them. Based on a study by Dr. Joe Renzulli and Dr. Sally Reis at the University of Connecticut, students who worked on creative projects were more likely to work on these types of projects at school and outside of school than those who did not have the opportunity. When it comes to underachievers, gifted students often report that lack of creative opportunities in school as one of the main culprits. Creative thinking is espoused as one of the great abilities for the 21st century. Books like Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future claim that it is creative thinkers who will have a clear advantage in the workplace.  So why are we not jumping on the creative productive band wagon? Why don’t classrooms focus on inspiring creative thinking?  Reis and Renzulli found that classrooms provided little or no creative opportunities as teachers are faced with an intense focus on standardized test scores, which lead to heavy restrictions and little choice. In other words, strict curriculum followed by lots of testing. Who has time to be creative?

So what’s the solution? First, I don’t believe it’s an easy fix.  Curriculum designers, such as those of the Common Core standards, must take into account opportunities to practice creative thinking and be flexible enough for this to happen. And this can happen. For instance, when English-language arts standards for students call for having them research and present information—with a little creativity—students can have opportunities to create. For instance, teachers can provide choice in what topics to research; students can practice using various technologies, perhaps animation, slideshow makers, etc. -to share their presentations.

Another factor is time. You can’t create it. There’s only 24 hours in a day. You can also use it more effectively. Curriculum compacting, which has been studied by the gifted folks at UCONN, allows students to demonstrate mastery of curriculum in advance. This can free up opportunities for creative productivity projects. Teachers may have to use off-time, such as having students meet during lunch or afterschool to complete creative projects. At the school where I teach, I started an enrichment cluster program. Students came together based on common interests to work on projects before school hours. We had about 40 minutes before homeroom to engage in creating Lego cars, design websites, write news articles, and film yoga instructional videos. Sometimes, that’s what it takes. Summertime also offers chances for teaching creativity. Parents can develop projects that foster original thinking, experimentation, and incubation.

The bottom line is creativity requires a focus on the subject and creating the right conditions for it to blossom.  If you take anything away from this writing, it’s that, with a little creativity, you can help develop creativity in the next generation.

Thanks for reading,

Steve