Some the of the phrases we can use as Teachers to encourage creative thinking are:
Imagine if …..?
Why not ………?
What would you do if ………?
What can we do?
There are some great tools out there to spark creativity in students. One of these is:
School Retool http://schoolretool.org/
Share your ideas and resources here including any valuable links to resources.
Something I have found works well to allow for creativity is to provide students with a number of resources and challenge them to design something. A project I have done in the past, at the end of the science topic on forces, is to challenge the students to use their knowledge of forces (friction, gravity etc.) to make the slowest marble run possible without having the marble stop. It is really good to see students apply their knowledge of forces to the design of the marble run. It is always interesting to see their designs.
Being involved in and experiencing the process along the way. Love it. Using the connected knowledge from their own experiences and putting them into practice to problem solve and maybe come up with a solution that hasn’t be seen before.
I like this challenge. A great way for students to apply what they know into a problem solving situation.
One of the main resources I use to spark creativity would be Pinterest. You can look up any genre of information and see approaches that others have used to make things work. It’s great for generating further ideas, as well as a chance to check out for a short time to give the brain a break, before checking back in again. I find students themselves are a great resource for coming up with ideas. Giving them flexibility to choose their own problems to solve, which automatically gives them vested interest in solving the problem – engagement then isn’t a battle, it’s already done.
I also find Pinterest a great resource that sparks an idea and creativity in many KLAs
Pobble 365 is great for writing.
I agree Pinterest is a great platform to find resources to inform learning experiences.
I agree, Pinterest is an amazing resource. I often find a lot of great ideas on there myself that other teachers have posted to help foster creativity in students.
I also like to use Pinterest to spark creative thinking for myself and for my students. Its great to have visual stimulation to spark off the process.
To spark creativity in some areas their has to be a lot of ground work or learning of some basics before students see that ‘if they try this then …..’ Students also need to see you can be creative and imaginative in the Sciences and for example there is no reason why they can’t role play a concept or build models etc.
So true Kathy and one of the reasons that this can be harder to use in younger grades. That being said often the younger students are amazing with their imaginations.
I believe in using these questions day to day to support the inquiry based learning approach. I often have student reflect on their past learning and past feedback before starting to think creatively. I also instruct students to use their own life experiences to be in a creative way, that way their content is in relation to them and they can use past experiences as examples.
There are some great digital resources out there that spark creativity. Some that come to mind are Pobble365, Edmodo & Popplet. However, creativity does not also need to involve technology. Asking the right questions to enhance critical thinking is also important.
Pobble is a great resource for sparking creativity. A visual allows for thinkers to each interpret, reflect, be inspired in their own varying individual ways.
I agree, Pobble is great and you can have so much discussion based on open ended questions. You could go into writing and art and many different avenues with a stimulus like this.
I agree Imogen, these are great resources for the classroom. Visual learning is so important.
Thanks for sharing these resources! I haven’t heard of them, but will look into them and see how much creativity I can spark in my own classroom.
To spark creativity in students you definitely do need to pose these creativity starter questions that encourage higher order thinking. Incorporate such questions in assessment and classwork items to broaden the thinking of students in your classroom. Important to start in Year 7 in some way and build up each year until Year 12.
I agree that the importance of questioning is so powerful in sparking creativity.
I do this kind of thing all the time and I am amazed at how creative some students can be.
Getting a student’s attention from the start of the unit is so important. Posing key inquiry questions, open ended problems and breaking into small groups to share ideas and hypotheses is all valuable. It is also good to revisit at the end of a unit.
I agree that you need to start with earlier years and build up to the levels you want with older students. It also links to the relationship between students and teacher that allows the questions to occur.
The need to change the way creativity is even discussed in schools is important. We need to do the big picture stuff, to dream and imagine outside the box. Ask the questions of staff and students, how do you want to learn? How can we change the way we teach? What do we need to make change?
I like these questions Warren. They have inspired me and made me think of more enjoyable and productive methods of teaching which in turn would make learning more engaging, memorable and better for all – mentally and physically.
I believe to be a successful teacher you need to be inherently creative everyday, as a way to engage students and maintain their focus. As a school leader my greatest tool is my teachers. They never fail to impress me when I challenge them to think outside the box. Over the last few weeks with COVID-19, teachers have really had to change their thoughts regarding programming delivery and utilise a completely different process to what they already knew. As expected, they have stepped up and as a result we have many happy students and parents who have also developed a new found respect for all the hard work teachers do every single day in a classroom. They have asked the challenging questions above of themselves, and have done a magnificent job.
It has been a great movement forward into a different form of delivery for all teachers that will change the way classrooms are run. The new skills adapted by all will filter through to a more rapid change than without COVID19 I feel.
As a Creative Arts teacher, I see drama as a great area for sparking creativity. Using role play and a variety of scenarios, teachers could address the questions and see what students came up with. Could lead to some wonderful “out of the box’ thinking!
Role plays in classroom activities are a great idea! Helps encourage more participation and a lot of thinking involved enabling more ideas to flow.
I agree that drama is fantastic for sparking creativity. I enjoyed drama at school and I think it also helped build my confidence.
Drama can be implemented across a range of KLAs and can be useful for students to develop a sense of identity and self esteem. I do often find it challenging to involve the students who have anxiety and feel nervous performing infront of an audience.
I agree with you Jenny. I also use puppets in my teaching to help students feel safe. they also get students to think differently about various topics.
For Special Ed students, I think it is a great example to give suggestions via scenarios that might prompt creative and imaginative thoughts. For a major section of the kids, they don’t understand a wider world that gives them experiences. Questions need to be specific and direct.
Good points Diana. Direction definitely still required but scenarios are effective at allowing creatively for sure.
Hi Diana, you have raised a valid point. I don’t think this would only benefit Special Ed students, but students from low socio-economic areas who haven’t had much experience of the world and who need some guidance in imagining and opening up their minds to the possibilities that the world has to offer.
Visual arts is an excellent way of sparking creativity. It allows students to make mistakes, yet learn to love these mistakes as it allows them to explore their creativity. As teachers we must encourage students to take risks, and the best way of doing that is throughout Visual Arts lessons as you as the teacher and your class can explore things together. You may pose questions throughout the process like “What would happen if I did this?” or “Let’s do this together, let’s try it”. Modelling the idea of making mistakes throughout Visual Arts lessons is important as a teacher as it allows students to be at ease and enables them to understand that making mistakes actually allows us to further explore our creativity and we learn to love those little mistakes. In saying this, as teachers we should improve on our creations and not be afraid to admit that we have made a mistake.
A website that I found helps students be creative and also links to other KLA’s is: https://www.literacyshed.com/home.html
Students love this website as it is a creative way of portraying certain things, therefor encouraging more creativeness.
I don’t have suggestions of websites as resources and tools but changing things up by changing the environment or the subject or by you role playing a character can create an atmosphere of wonder, sparking creativity.
Good thought. Changing environment is an excellent way of sparking fresh ideas.
This whole remote learning situation actually sparked a little side-creative project for myself. So, I am about to release my first podcast series called, “Daily Acts of Creativity for Students”. Keep any eye out for that resource!
This will be great to see Fiona. It is an area where I struggle – being creative.
You have been busy, congratulations, looking forward to it, for an injection of ideas for myself & students.
This happened on day @ my school where my boss came to me and said can you spend $50000 by the end of the week. Of course my response was yes. We spent the money tooling up for the F1 in schools program which is a great PBL world wide competition. Has worked wonders for the students at our school.
As a music/drama teacher I feel strongly that these subjects themselves can be a fabulous vessel for sparking student creativity( eg collaborating to design/perform scripts/dances). My initial background in early childhood education has exposed me to Reggio Emilia style & project based learning which fosters huge levels of meaningful engagement- through collaboration, questioning and practical. hands on experiences and written research/recording- an amazing tool for sparking creativity.
Even for Senior Design students, working on School Musicals props, has been great. Students were given script and had to come up with various prop. designs usually out of recycled materials – a good sense of community too when they are a part of something for a greater good.
My educational background is Graduate Diploma in Middle School Teaching. The program emphasised group, project based learning, with a focus on big ideas – solving problems and exploring real world themes. This model of learning inspires creativity and enthusiasm in students, they also gain valuable social skills. I think that as all four key paradigms shifts, creativity will naturally flourish.
Equity and access can cause limitations of things you would like to achieve in your classroom/school. Creative ideas, do not have to be technology based. By finding creative ways to ask questions, creative lessons, and then letting a student be creative in how they present a task, can be a great start to sparking creativity. I do not have any websites to share, but i have found creative ways to engage students in a class. For one lesson on WWI i brought in a tape measure. While this sounds silly, we used to to see and compare height of soldiers to heights of students now. We also used it to measure the distance between trenches. Something simple, changed the way students approached that lesson.
Agree Rochelle – I always tell kids and parents that if we think creatively we can create amazing school productions on a ‘shoe-string budget’ !
One shool I worked at managed to forster collaboration between faculties for various student-based projects. For instance if a “job” needed a manual arts component and a maths component or an artistic component each respective teacher would design a task iin order to achieve the fiinal output, e.g. build stairs down bank to oval a design and material and processes components (manual arts) and some mathematics (ratios, volumes, Pythagoras’ theorum, etc.). The two teachers locked heads and came up with the assignment sheet and the students built the school some stairs!
Wow what an innovative school!
Amazing! Now that’s the sort of thing that this is talking about.
At one of the schools I had a placement at they didn’t have separate staff rooms. Rather they had 1 large room with all staff in it. It was interesting to see how the staff collaborated just as a result of overhearing what a different faculty was doing.
Modelling failure is so important. From replying ‘I’m not sure’ to a student questions and then exploring as a class strategies to answer that student’s question. Improving on your own creations with the kids and not being afraid to say ‘that lesson didn’t work well’.
I agree Jess as if we model this behaviour & “failure” is part of the normal culture within a school students would be motivated to take more risks & develop & express their creativity.
I agree
100% agree. It’s so important these days…
Yes. We can be afraid to admit when something does not work, but that modelling of being willing to admit you don’t know or of making a mistake can be powerful for the students to see and then they may be more willing to ask those important questions like “What can we do?”
The concept of discovery learning is the fundamental way we all learn. Students should feel safe to try things and modify their outcomes to achieve success
You’re right, being humble and admitting that you’ve made a mistake too not only demonstrates that it’s ok to make mistakes, but builds the relationship with your students by giving trust which encourages them to trust you in return.
I agree. To often students only see teachers have the right answer and not the process of how that teacher came to have that answer.
i have modelled failure during demonstrations for practical lessons. One of our rooms has a mirror so students can see the progress of the food being prepared. Students ask what is that for. My reply is so you can see my mistakes.
I think Visual Arts is a great way to spark creativity when we foster the notion of turning mistakes into masterpieces. Allowing students to see how things we did not anticipate or considered possible can often turn out to marvellous.
An online resource to spark creativity in writing has been https://www.pobble365.com/
I agree Lily, especially if students are not required to produce a “replica” of a particular artwork & are allowed the time & space to make mistakes & experiment in VA. Pobble 365 is an amazing tool for creative writing & the students can interpret the picture safely in any way they want to, to construct a unique story.
That is exactly right Lily. I totally agree with you. It allows students to understand that making mistakes can lead to excellent things. As well as allow students to grow and develop in ways they would have never imagined.
Great resource and agree Lily – mistakes into masterpieces! VIsual Arts can really help students (and teachers) access their creative sides.
Totally agree Lily. I love what you said “turning mistakes into masterpieces. ”
So true
This is such a great resource the promotes different responses from children.
One thing I have noticed is that creativity tends to thrive with a careful balance of control and leniency. Some of my favourite science lessons have been where the students were allowed to have at materials and do their own thing, but you do need to make sure you guide them toward some goal. Many students require a model to begin as well, I know that I do. I think I am advocating for allowing time to express ideas freely, and having the resources to do so.
An overcrowded curriculum means things can definitely seem rushed. Being time poor in the classroom definitely restricts the creative process as there isn’t that time for true exploration of topics/skills. There seems to be that level of ‘uncomfortable when an answer is not known and that rush to answer quickly. It needs to be okay, not to know an answer, take a breath and research to try again.
Totally agree Jess. Especially when some subjects have difficulty meeting the minimal mandated hours, these are usually the creative and design subjects which are increasing in importance as society is making technological advancements.
J agree Chris. Some students find it very difficult to create without specific instructions.
When sport is cancelled allow your students to move into their group for ‘genius 1.5 hours’.
Interest topic/projects to work through and then implement if able to. eg: design a skate park needed in your area. Contact council and submit your design/thoughts. (working with ‘what we can do!’) STEM
Always try and take learning outside I believe (all areas). Always relate and bring back to the real world. Constantly telling students what the do in these 4 walls, can it be taking/transferred outside??
NATURE has it all.
This is a great way for students to be creative in that time and share their creative ideas with the community. Students do enjoy leaving the classroom and working with nature when they are allowed and able.
Interest groups would be a great learning environment and in fact models what we do as adults. We choose our interests.
When teachers are able to key into students interests, it is an excellent opportunity to see students creative flairs demonstrated.
What a fabulous idea….much better than watching a film with no meaning or discussion…Like the idea a lot Kerrie.
I think it would be very interesting to shadow a student for a day/week and see exactly what they go through. I would be curious to see if it is more/less/same as when I was in school 10 years ago.
As for interesting websites that inspire creativity I quite like: https://www.gapminder.org/tools/
It is a data analysis site but it allows a lot of exploration of real data and students often enjoy just playing around and changing the data and comparing various statistics.
Agree. It never hurts to have the client perspective. We too often get caught up in the demands of curriculum and assessment tasks and can loose sight of our audience. It’s like the old joke: A guy tells another guy “I taught my dog to whistle”. The other guy says “well then let ‘s hear it”, but the dog does nothing. The first guy says “I said I taught the dog to whistle, I didn’t say it could whistle.”
I don’t have any websites to share but I believe one of the most beneficial tools in fostering creativity and creative thinking is allowing students to practice theory outside of the classroom, whether through observation, data collection, primary research etc… I’ve also noticed that role play can be really beneficial as well… asking “What would you do if…” or “imagine if…” about a certain situation and providing context, and then allowing students the opportunity to role play their thoughts/ understandings really helps them understand situations on a deeper level, and also allows for deep creative thinking to take place.
These are definitely great ways for students to get creative. For those students who do not like to join in, you can find an active role for them to assist with the role play. Ask them which they liked more to watch and why.
Real science is a constant journey of creativity. It begins with an observation that sparks a hypothesis and leads to a test. Whilst students in our classrooms get the chance on micro levels to experience this creativity, the time/ content demands make it quite a lot harder to do on the macro scale.
Agreed, time is always a constraint in the science classroom. You also need to consider preconceived attitudes and ideas about what creativity entails for students and what they think of science. For some, if it doesn’t result in an artwork, then it’s not creativity. It can be hard to see or care for the beauty within elegant experimental design, or succinct, clear and concise writing or coding, if you don’t know what it looks like, or don’t understand what can make these things difficult.
Our Year 5 students have been undertaking the Big History program this year, from Macquarie University. Based upon Science and History, it looks at how our planet evolved from the Big Bang. Many of the tasks involve group work and ultimately students are asked to work together to create a new ‘plantarium’ on Mars. The results last year were amazing, hence why we repeated it again this year. I agree, the biggest difficulty is time, but sometimes what should be decided upon is not time allowed, but actually prioritising what is important for our select cohort.
Very good point Jacob, sometimes the “long game” in creativity and problem solving has to bulldozed due to the other constraints. Sadly.
Group work to problem solve is a good way of allowing students to explore ideas and engage. Appropriate delivery by the teacher is essential for the success of the lesson. Reassurance that mistakes are fine is key to engagement.
It’s interesting the way that the mathematics syllabus is structured. Mathematics at higher levels is incredibly creative. Like Science it often seems like there is so much groundwork that needs to be covered first before one can begin to use it creatively.
yes Paul. Group work is so good for the creativity. I like to groups the students myself for certain tasks then allow for friendship groups for others. Mistakes a great!
Group work is a fantastic tool for fostering creativity. Especially if we guide our students to ask questions such as ‘imagine if…, why not?’ etc.
yes they are beneficial in many ways
Group work is a good method to encourage problem solving but there is a need to cater for the reticent group members, those students who just don’t want to engage.
I agree that group work can help with sparking creativity and give students a change to express their feelings with people who may also have something similar to share. This is a great way for students who are nervous to share, feel accepted and supported alongside their peers.
Group work is fantastic. Especially allowing students to share ideas and making suggestions on how something can be improved and problem solving. It is even better when you ask the questions… Why not….? or What CAN we do?
A mistake is only an error if you fail to learn from it.
Not sure of any websites. However, I feel that taking the time to read and explore others ideas and thoughts instils a range of perspectives that enhance a persons ability to think creatively.
As a teacher I find being well read provides the opportunity to place anecdotes within my teaching that provide a range of perspectives. This in turn enhances students’ ability to think creatively. Following up with discussion and reflective writing is beneficial.
Other resources that are useful are podcasts and selected online media resources that provide a view, or a range of views that reinforce a new, or variety of perspectives. It is very important to follow up with reflection and creative thought through discussion or diary entries.
Yes. I’m finding I am using podcasts and Youtube a lot more since teaching online and some students have gained from this. Students learn differently and the visual ones benefit from watching a WuTube or a Khan Academy clip. Others like to text back and forth. Ultimately the end result of different approaches is greater student understanding. I haven’t been brave enought to atttempt a Minecraft lesson though.
Yes reading causes the imagination to stir which is something that is so needed today.
100% agree Fiona
I see not only students fearful of being creative but also teachers as there is a common fear of failure on both sides – which is linked to the constant need to teach and learn in a specific manner and meet explicit outcomes . To introduce the phrases mentioned in this session is a great starting point but to further develop an environment in your classroom and a culture within the school for kids to feel safe/free to be creative, ask questions and be confident to fail in order to succeed should be the goal of all teachers and schools. One simple tool to spark creativity in students, that has been mentioned but is sometimes forgotten, is to give students choice.
I agree Chris that both teachers and students can be fearful of failure. With a curriculum that is so dense, at times it seems like the easiest option to stick to traditional methods of teaching, rather than trying something creative and more innovative. I like the idea of providing students with choice, this has worked well in the PODS in terms of allowing students flexibility to create something meaningful to them.
I agree
I am a firm believer that some of the most meaningful and beneficial lessons we can provide for our students exist outside of the classroom. Sparking creativity, certainly in terms of geography, can come from things such as field-trips and data collection. It is such learning experiences that tend to be more conducive to student engagement and getting them to explore questions such as imagine if…? and what can we do….?
Hi Jade
Love the idea of excursions that directly link theory to practice. So closely linked to jobs, life and human impact.
I agree Jade that getting outside of the classroom and actually practicing theory is something extremely beneficial to our leaners. It is the same for Society and Culture, I aim to have students make observations as much as possible so that they can truly understand and comprehend new content.
I think that this goes back to the discussion of asking the right questions from section 3.
What can we ask to help understanding? What can we ask to make creativity flow?
I loved that Michael said that we are all creative. This opens the gates to a positive mindset about being creative, and all creativity is good.
I don’t have any resource links, but I need to say that this lesson will be so powerful to help realise the possibilities that we all have inside of us.
Attitudes and preconceptions about creativity are what stifle this idea. It can be hard to see creativity in science, maths, engineering for some, it may be harder to see creativity in cooking or in making clothes for others. I know I’ve taken a long time to understand that my creativity needs a nudge, and thrives with a small amount of collaboration. Helping our students understand this will help them to answer these questions.
I do not have any websites to share but I do believe getting the students to relate more to their learning helps them more to be able to connect to the activities. It gives them a chance to express and develop creativity thinking. Things like getting to know the students and relating the topic towards the things you know is going to help them understand. Sometimes just getting the students up and out of their sets and get them to move around can help with them to focus in class.
Visual Arts is an excellent subject to get students to explore and make mistakes and be creative with things. I often makes mistakes when using materials with students which then makes them feel at ease to try themselves. Or you pose questions such as what do you think would happen if we did this? Well lets try! Some things work and some things don’t. Have fun as a teacher yourself and the students will follow!
I agree Michelle, is the students can see that we make mistakes then it will make them more comfortable to give it a go. So many students have that fair of being judged and failing.
I love the way you are thinking about this Michelle. I too try to promote that making mistakes can sometimes create the most amazing artworks, and by experiencing things that one thinks are failures, one can get a better perspective on what they want to achieve.
I agree with this and the opportunity Visual Arts presents us to model making mistakes work.
I couldn’t agree with you more Michelle. Great points. I believe that Visual Arts is a fantastic way to explore each child’s creativity, leading them to creating mistakes but learning to love these mistakes. Along with that, as teachers we must model making these mistakes and model the idea of learning to love these mistakes as it allows us to explore our creativity.
I don’t have any websites to share.
I am really hopeless when it comes to drawing and I have found that most students are also reluctant to draw (except in art classes). I realised years ago that if I told the class that I couldn’t draw, then drew a stict figure for a person and very simple landscapes etc that the students would initally laugh at my drawings but then they would have the confidence to do their own. Funny thing is the worse my drawings were the better their’s were.
Yes showing the students that no one is perfect and that we are all different. Just because one person is good at something does not mean they have to be good at it as well.
I have the same thing, I often show student how interesting doing “math” drawings can be … You can create quite impressive drawings using patterns and/or fractals
During science experiments students are asked to write a prediction (hypothesis) on what they think will happen. Often experiments do not go to plan or student predictions can be wrong (which is perfectly okay), this just provides additional learning opportunities and enables them to find out why, and sometimes reiterate.
Even though I am primary trained, science was my favorite teaching subject. We tried things, and even though it was mostly pretested, sometimes it didn’t go to plan and I let the kids know that this was a lesson of curiosity. Why didn’t it work? What could we have done to make it work? What do we have on hand that could make this experiment work so much better?
Asking those questions creates the culture of curiosity and creativity.
Imagine if….? Why not….? etc
I have done the what if…? and Imagine if…? with my students before as conversation starters which is a great way to initiate literacy skills such as writing personal opinion texts. I also think that students become very engaged in riddles and lateral thinking questions. They end up working as a team to solve these riddles and provide justifications for their answers based on the information provided. When it comes to artmaking, blind contour drawing is a great icebreaker to loosening students rigid idea of drawing and aesthetics. I always model and provide working examples to show humility and an openness to make mistakes in front of them (and mistakes are frequent!). I use a great deal of humour, energy and story telling to harbour a safe, creative space.
One resource we would all have at our school’s disposal is the special teams within each school’s regional office. We have worked closely with these teams in our assessment design and their clarity, authenticity to actually assess what is intended. Individual faculty staff have worked with these teams either travelling to them or them coming to us. The impact to date has not quantitative data around it as yet. The idea came about through curriculum health checks and external audits, it is a supportive mechanism which allows staff to feel safe in making suggestions or mistakes for the betterment of themselves and their students.
Similarly, linking with ‘expert’ teachers in respective KLA areas would be (and has been) a valuable experience to expose staff to ways of doing things differently. Building regional resource banks and idea sharing in this age of technology would also be a valuable resource for all.
It’s such a simple idea that you need to fail before you succeed, yet students shy away from any situation that may cause them ‘shame’ because they may be interpreted as getting something wrong. In maths it is critical to be able to see a step that was incorrect and the ‘why’ for the student that they saw it this way. Unfortunately the stigma of being inadequate often stifles the need for students to present their steps in the working they do.
Jayson, this comes back to the idea of a safe environment. What about putting yourself out there and making an obvious mistake in front of students, allowing them to pick it up. It may then lead to them venturing beyond their realms of safety if they see yourself making errors and accepting feedback from them. They may see through it too having the greatest BS radars around.
Spot on, they try once perhaps but if it doesn’t work they assume they can’t do it rather than trying another approach. Especially at high levels of mathematics there are often many ways to solve a particular problem.
I often feel that teachers too have this pressure to know the correct answer. The keeper of the knowledge, if you will. When modelling, we should try to model failure and problem solving.
I think it is challenge for any teacher to establish an environment where all students have the confidence to take risks and make mistakes in front of their peers when we live in a society where everyone is constantly seeking the approval of others. Their are an abundance of strategies we could use that can benefit from reflecting on: Imagine if …..? Why not ………? What would you do if ………? What can we do? However, I have found that some students will still be reluctant to engage in front of their peers in fear of making a mistake which supports the importance of creating an environment that promotes confidence to do so. One idea that I use is simply making the student the teacher for particular activities. The students know how the activity operates and what the associated rules are regarding the task through prior modelling. The outcome of this has been positive as students seem to take pride in the task, find it amusing when they make mistakes and consequently, they learn to accept the mistake and find it amusing when they do so.
Nice strategy. The use of role reversals is obviously beneficial in a learning environment.
A great teaching strategy Benn. I also agree with everything you have mentioned and feel that by simply giving a student choice in their learning and field of interest can unlock their creativity. This way, students don’t feel restricted by a single instruction, question and/or activity and can build and express their strengths.
Great idea. If students feel comfortable, giving students choice is excellent. enabling them to be the teacher or instructor can be very rewarding and you often see them blossom in these situations.
We have been trying to do this in the pods Already trying to give the learners an overall question that Encourages creative thinking.
Project Based Learning has been a good introduction into the POD system (middle school) at the school. Allowing students to be self-motivated, as well as giving them the freedom of choice, has allowed them to utilise and showcase their strengths and interests – resulting in highly creative pieces of work.
I have seen in another school where I previously worked at where we the teachers made a significant change to student attitudes by utilizing some of the time at the start of the day for DEAR and make it a mentoring / connecting and problem discussion session. The overall concept became teaming where the roll call teachers, assigned head teachers and a deputy as well as year advisers and counselors became a team to assist that particular year group in their journey. It was introduced year by year over a 4 year period by getting volunteers, those that were keen and passionate starting with year 7 and following forward with the involved teachers following that particular year group right through their junior schooling. Diaries to help with organisation coupled with a parental feedback system and personal student issues were dealt with on the spot, it was a fair bit of extra work especially at the start but the changes in the classroom were worth the effort. The system worked because the change was gradual as opposed to being forced upon the non believers to have to be done. A direct comparison was able to be made between the two feeder schools to the senior college, and there was a glaring difference between the two feeder groups, so we who instigated the change had real evidence to support the change. Even to this day the other school has not and will not instigate the program that we used.
That sounds like a fantastic program!
I can see that being able to retool ideas can really work.Some teachers are more inventive and creative and can be happy to share their ideas.Other teachers at other schools are are good place to start and who in our community do our pupils admire or aspire to .see if they are willing to come in and communicate with pupils.
Indeed, using the skills and knowledge of colleagues is very advantageous in a workplace that has a wide variety of characters at our disposal.
I think sparking and encouraging creativity in schools in extremely important. I don’t have any resources in terms of websites however i do believe frameworks like the 8 ways of learning and connecting to country for all students in that it can help express and develop their creativity. Giving students opportunities to experience the “real world” – outdoor education excursions, team building and communication activities, participating in dance and cultural activities.
Hi Jamie
Giving opportunities for students to be creative is very important. I know that it can be difficult at times to do this as there are restrictions on time and other litations that we face as teachers.
Yes Jay. Love teaching using the 8 Ways and the outdoors. So important and really does promote creativity in some.
Don’t have any special ideas or resources to share. The challenge is to get students to take the chance.
I think your subject area is probably one that is more difficult to work with. Empathy tasks etc are creative but not quite what the lecturer is getting at. Having said that the multiple interpretations that historians have made for any set of artefacts is of course creative.
I find a dialogical learning setting often simplifies the creative process and quashes the fear of risk and failure. Also, physically ‘mark-making’ with paper and pencil during invention and exploration demystifies and makes tangible the idea generation for learners.
I don’t have suggestions of websites as resources tools but I have observed that students when taken out of their ordinary learning environment (i.e. camping, bush walks, excursions) have a greater hunger for knowledge and tend to ask more inquiry based questions. This creates opportunity to ask them questions in response and develop a deeper though process.
Creative questioning is a skill I would like to become more competent at, adjust my thought process.
I agree, I have experienced earning outside the classroom to improve student outcomes greatly.
Hi I agree with you.I see students after excursions,sporting opportunities always excited about what they saw,experienced and what others are doing.They are keen to contribute.Creative question a great skill for us to develop.
Agree! I believe that creativity can be explored through a range of activities – including exploring the outdoors, learning and from people within our communities.
Good point, Toby. School is a structured and predictive process and the students live within this framework. It is almost automaticity on their behalf to become walking predictive and structured beings reflecting their workspace. Providing a change in environment for them provides a whole new sensory experience where they are able to see new options and possibilities. Camping and bushwalks are so rewarding for students and great relationship building between students and teacher.
I agree, can’t beat outdoor activities, barriers come down and learning thrives.
Some of the most valuable learning experiences I have created for students have been outside the four walls of the classroom – making learning relevant.
I agree Toby, some of the best learning experiences I have ever had were most definitely not in the confines of the four walls of a classroom.
I think creativity can come from anything – we just need to question and research what the students are interested in and use this as a tool for learning in each area.
So many of our students are using tiktok – so why not get them to create a interesting way to explore a concept we are focusing on in class.
Why not…?
Imagine if…?
We need to ask ourselves these questions before we implement our teaching practices.
Yes, possibly manage to use this amazing technology to our mutual benefit within the learning space.
Agree! Technology is huge and it is continually changing. Trying to relate to the students interests can help create that rapport between teachers and students. It can also be used as a means of engagement and foster creativity for students focusing on their interests.
In the current climate, the use of technology to allow students to explore ideas and express them through the same means would minimise reluctance to engage and potentially not achieve. Again though, equity may become the issue which would need to be dealt with. Perhaps education departments need to provide schools with their own versions which can be utilised by all students regardless of platform/interface etc.
Your suggestion is a fantastic starting point in which to engage and assist students with their engagement.
Yes, capitalise on their lust for social media use, but disguise it as a learning experience!
The way a question is worded can have a huge impact on creativity and depth of knowledge that students display. Presenting students with problems to overcome or solve can work well with group activities and foster cooperation and leadership qualities.
I totally agree, Students really seem to engage in those out the box activities and learning opportunities.
Yep, if they don’t understand the question how can they solve the problem.
Provided that the time is available for the students to thoroughly explore the issue and come up with their own solutions it is great.
I completely agree with this Rohan and it is an area that I have been trying to work on in my own teaching. The instruction needs to be explicit enough so that the student knows what is being asked of them but delivered in a way that does not squash their creativity in answering it.
I agree Rohan, group are activities great, they help to make students feel ‘safe’ and so they are more willing to take risks.
Using these questions in class for students is a great way to get them thinking about what we are learning. Many already know a lot and are reluctant to share but will participate when in smaller groups. Some great ideas for presentation of work or assessments have been generated from asking Why not..?
Absolutely, Jenny! Students are far more likely to engage in smaller groups. I also anticipate that students may engage more with the questions ‘Imagine if…’ and ‘what would you do if..’
Many students are more comfortable contributing in small groups as opposed to voicing ideas in front of the whole class in a discussion type setting.
Great tool to use for any aspect I reckon.
If the culture of ridiculing people who speak up or ask questions could be changed, then students would be more likely to speak up. If a student asks a question in my class and someone else makes fun of them, I answer the first question or see if one of their peers can answer it. I then go back to the person making fun and ask them a question about their response, ask them to explain why they think that way, to reflect on their own response to the original question. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but we need to encourage students to support their opinions with reason.
The smaller the group the less people know about what has really taken place and thus the less scary the idea of failure becomes.
An excellent way to improve engagement.
These are fantastic questions for sparking creative thinking – good for use in class with students too, not just to ask them of us as teachers and how we can make the shift. And they could be used in every subject area.
In English, for creative writing I like using free-writing activities. Set a timer and have students write freely, whatever comes into their mind for the specified time. Can be done with or without a prompt.
I agree, where we have time and leeway to investigate. Sadly often not the case. It is inspiring to be asked to try!
I agree, every subject can use these questions – including maths
Yes to start you lesson with a question to spark ideas may be a interesting way for us as teachers to lead a discussion .Or show an interesting clip relating to your topic and ask “imagine if?”.
I think this is fantastic! I believe we need to provide more opportunities for students to express their creativity freely.
A great idea that could be initiated in other subject areas.
One activity that I have used that has great potential to engage students and get them thinking creatively is to group the students into small groups and give them a problem to solve. This teaches them many skills; leadership, teamwork, communication, how to think and learn to solve a problem. The other great benefit is this is a fun way to learn and so they are very engaged.
This is great – I like doing something similar with classes and creative writing – one sentence story has students take turns to add one sentence at a time. You never know where the story will go!
Sounds like a great idea.
I agree. Small enough groups so everyone participates and has the confidence to contribute. Amazing who often takes a lead in these situations yet in large group says nothing.
This is a great idea. I have also done a similar thing – where with each new question the roles of the students changed (CEO, Employee, Manager, contractors or investors) makes students change their perspectives.
I agree, smaller groups will help build confidence.
Group work teaches so many skills, as well as fostering the idea of creative thinking. I use group work alot.
Such a great idea. Students tend to work far better in small groups as they are more likely to share thoughts, ideas and opinions as opposed to sharing in front of the whole class. Working collaboratively has many benefits.