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Teachers Must Encourage Student Creativity


Creativity is human nature and it is vital feature of persona of any person. Every child is born with the some creative mind. Creative mind helps to appraise things in diverse and exceptional way. Many intellectuals have asserted that Creativity does not happen in normal way instead it must be cultivated, and the farming of creativity in every child starts from the classroom. Creativity can be encouraged or educated.

There are numerous strategies that can help teachers to promote creativity in the classroom. They should be encouraged to explore and experiment with new things or thoughts. Students should be taught to ask questions and examine when things do not make sense. The need to learn to view faults as an opportunity for leaning instead of something that was ineffective.

In early education system, creativity was seen as a sphere of the arts. This concept was changed and now educators considered it as a core aspect of all education. There was a propensity to only do creative activities within the arts, but due to the restraints of the National Curriculum, music, drama and art have all been severely neglected, and this has appeared to impact negatively on creativity.

With the emphasis on the core subjects and SAT's testing, the focus has been on educating children to pass tests rather than educating children who are talented of being original, creative and inventive. Abundant of studies have indicated that developing creativity is good for enhancing the personality of the individual as well as for education and eventually build good society. In this millennium, creativity is now seen more as generative problem-identification and problem-solving across life (Craft et al, 2001) and visualised as a life skill which will be indispensable for survival.

For creative teaching, it is suggested to teachers to use more imaginative approaches in the classroom to make learning more interesting and effective. Teaching for creativity is seen as recognizing children's creative powers and nurturing them.

According to NACCCE (1999), teaching for creativity is to encourage young people to believe in their creative potential, to engage their sense of possibility and to give them confidence to try. Creative teachers are aware of and value creativity and seek to nurture it in others (Cremin, 2009). Another educators, Craft (2000) considered creativity as dispositional and not a matter of ability. It is more about a 'mind-set' or outlooks, and an inclination to do so.

Teachers cannot develop the creative aptitudes of their scholars if their own creative abilities are repressed. There are risks of de-skilling teachers and of boosting conformity and passivity in some. Ofsted (2003) said that teachers who motivate creativity must have thorough understanding of creative mind and can model this process, take risks and acknowledge when the risks have not quite paid off. Teachers can recognise creativity in pupils.

There are creative results that are new to the beginner, even though they may have existed previously or outcomes that are exceptional. Teachers must have to identify the creativity of the learner within the broader educational experience.

Creativity is about investigation. Though in theoretical framework, creativity is being exhilarated within the school environment, the standards driven approach is seen as highly compelling for schools, (Lucas, 2001). In fact, in school, there is tight curriculum and do not allow students to develop creativity. Reports of the NACCCE report signified that there is now in education unusually high levels of prescription in relation to content and teaching methods.

Teaching creatively is a high risk approach which requires self-confidence and an investment of time and energy from not only the teacher, but the school environment as well. Craft (2003) recognizes several constraints and potential obstacles that may affect a teacher's imagination such as a lack of understanding about the concept of creativity in an educational context, conflicts in policy and practice, and restrictions of the curriculum and current educational practice.

Many researches have shown that creativity can be refined best through emotional contacts. For example, if teachers give project to the students related to community problems like domestic violence. It can help in developing creativity because of the human touch and hence emotional connection in it.

Teachers adopt various models to promote creativity in the students.

A perfect model can help in

  1. Establishing connection among the students' real lives and classroom.
  2. Encourage innovation and create chances to resolve novel issues.
  3. Explore ways to spread learning prospects at classroom and home.

Risk-taking thinking or ability automatically stimulates creativity. Therefore, teachers must inspire risk-taking approach in the students.

Some of the strategies that teacher can follow to augment risk-taking ability in their students are as under :

  1. Offer safe environment that allows risk-taking.
  2. Provoke enthusiasm in the students to try new ideas.
  3. Accept the errors made by students while trying new things.
  4. Talk to other teachers and discuss what worked and what not.

Active learning includes use of creative things such as games, concepts, maps and study materials. Active learning can only be stimulated when student enjoys the learning environment.

Some ideas through which teachers can nurture creative thought through active learning are as follows :

  1. Create interactions that provide students a lot problem-solving opportunity
  2. Offer students numerous opportunities for hands-on field work
  3. Organize round-table discussion time to time on interesting topics
  4. Allow students to create some of the question for their upcoming exam

Teachers who encourage creativity in the schoolroom should make sure they are offering many choices and different options when it comes to assignments and projects. According to Denise de Sonza Fleith, teachers boost creativity by, not imposing too many assignments and rules on students, giving students choices, providing students opportunities to become aware of their creativity, and accepting students as they are. All students can be imaginative in some way, and it is teacher's difficult task to provide opportunities for students to develop their own creative thinking.


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