It is more important than ever in today’s rapidly changing world that we learn to think creatively. But the reality is unfortunately quite another piece of water from traditional education: with a strong emphasis on tests of knowledge at every stage of instruction, we often find our creativity stifled rather than supported by its people.
As educators and policy-makers consider the task of preparing students aged between 7 to 15 for the coming decades, there is a growing sense that our classrooms will need to begin fostering creative talent if we want new thinkers who mix academic prowess with imaginative abilities like those seen in these young scholastic stars.
Although standardized tests have long been an objective method of educational assessment, measuring student learning, these tests often emphasize memorization so that students can recite from memory tables and formulas exactly as they have been called to do for years on end in preparation for standardized assessments. Little time is left them to think laterally or critically. Moreover, teachers are also often under pressure to ‘teach to the test s, ‘ focusing on the test subject to the exclusion of broader and more interesting methods of teaching.
For the gifted students who excel in areas not reached by traditional assessment tests, this can create an oppressive educational atmosphere which in each instance treat and effectively punishes them as inferior members of society.
What’s good about Creativity in Education The notion that creativity is restricted to art or music is simply incorrect. It involves making connections among seemingly ‘out of left field’ things, generating new ideas and finding different ways to solve problems. From an educational standpoint, building creativity delivers enduring qualities like critical thinking skills and adaptability in students.
Creative thinking is in particular needed in the 21st century. The surge of technology and global challenges now impel people to find future-proof solutions.By promoting creativity, educators can assist students in getting the toughness required by them to live in a world suffused with uncertainty and complexity.
Strategies for Nurturing Creativity Right in the Classroom
Project-Based Learning: One effective strategy that schools are finding attractive is project-based learning (PBL). Project-based instruction encourages students to take action on real-world problems and challenges, allowing them also to use their knowledge in new and meaningful ways. As students work on multidisciplinary projects, they can experiment, make mistakes, and learn from them — three necessary conditions for creativity in a student body.
Incorporating Arts into the Curriculum: Another way of cultivating creativity is to introduce the arts into the curriculum. Whether through visual arts, music, drama or creative writing, students’ involvement with the arts gives them opportunities to express themselves, think critically appraise and learn from many different standpoints. The arts can also be used as a means of supplementing other subjects: for example through performance art bringing history lecture to life or the musical principles underlying the old Chinese songs eternal Guangyong memory of days gone by.
Encouraging Divergent Thinking: Divergent thinking refers to the ability to generate many solutions for a single problem. This kind of approach opens the way for teachers to get their students thinking divergently in the classroom by posing open-ended questions, encouraging students to brainstorm and building up an environment for creativity where every idea is good. Thus students not just learn creatively but can also contemplate many possibilities.
Flexible Learning Environments
And while the most important thing is obviously the teaching process itself, there are other factors that can help create a climate for creativity. Learning environments which allow students to move around, work together and carry out hands-on activities are most conducive to creative thought.This could be anything from furniture with greatly flexible shapes (what appears to us to be “modular design”), So as not to put pressure on anyone room; spaces for group work that are completely visible and wide access to materials of every description plus audio-visual help resources all into one building!
To promote a Growth MindsetIn addition to the belief that hard work and persistence can cultivate a growth mindset, creative thinking is facilitated by a growth mindset and its encouragement of challenges and learning from setbacks and reframing failures in terms of positives. Teachers who inspire such thinking will in turn inspire it among all their pupils.
How developing a growth mindset will help studentsExcel-In short, by giving students the determination and resilience needed to solve problems in creative ways and with positive outcomes every time round before they adapt again. Instrument for ChangeHowever much standardized tests may seem permanent fixtures, they really are but symptomatic of these present times.
The present-morning air is blowing in’s a breeze tending toward holistic evaluation systems where creativity and critical thinking help push–are integral to assessment at least for these admissions tests Everyone’s wanted for except class presidents and sports captains… Surely there must be people working otherwise too?
Yes, surely educators need reform-minded leaders in their lives who are willing to stand up for fair, even and comprehensive assessment. Without such leadership, no big money from reform will effect real differenceIn the final point, teachers and policy makers should not only be encouraged to be sensitive towards other forms of assessing students’ abilities; but furthermore we must also push for a world that rewards not only good academic performance but creativity.
This could well mean re-structuring the curriculum so there is more time and room for creative expression, giving teachers a thorough training in creativity and educational reform across the board to rid any vestige of prejudiced systems from learning.
Summary
Empowering creativity within the classroom means not only prepare students to live better lives in tomorrow’s workplace, but also responsible citizens now—people who, if need be, can think critically and solve problems without getting overwhelmed by them. With innovative structures for teaching and learning, and casting off the blank confines of also rigid testing organizations, educators can realize the multiple capacities of every student. The world awaits scholars, reformers, and designers of the morrow.