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Are Singaporeans creative? Many would not say so. Hardly surprising when it’s common to find young children in schools being corrected for colouring outside the lines in the coloring book or for using the wrong colour. The result? Children become afraid to think independently, take risks or make mistakes. But an increasingly globalised and technology-driven world has made creativity and innovation critical skills to have in the 21st century. Hence, the ‘Thinking Schools, Learning Nation’ mission of Singapore schools.
What is creativity?
Being creative means finding new ways of thinking and doing things, and producing original rather than conventional ideas. It means looking at the possibilities and the connections between objects that seem unrelated.Creativity - are you born with it?
Some say creativity cannot be taught and is inborn. Yet, when we say someone is being creative, we’re suggesting that they’re making a deliberate attempt to come up with a new, different way of thinking. Studies show that students can become more creative if they’re taught to do so. Â
Five Ways to Teach For Creativity
1. Be a role model
The most powerful way to develop creativity in your students is to be a role model. But you can’t be a role model for creativity unless you think and teach creatively yourself. So, think carefully about your values, goals and ideas.
2. Help them believe in themselves
Researchers have found that students perform better than other students simply because they’re expected to do so. This is called the Pygmalion effect, after George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, in which a professor makes a bet that he can teach a poor flower girl to speak and act like an upper-class lady, and is successful.
Often, young people don’t have confidence in their own creative abilities. Telling them that you believe they can do it makes a huge difference.
3. Question assumptions
Creative people tend to question assumptions that we take for granted because they’re always looking at possibilities.Â
When famous astronomer Copernicus suggested that Earth revolves around the sun, everyone thought his idea was preposterous. They assumed that the sun revolves around Earth. But he turned out to be right.
4. Allow mistakes
Creativity involves possibilities. So, mistakes are more likely. If teachers feel that mistakes should be avoided at all costs and correct their students too aggressively, students will lose confidence in their ability to be creative.
Learn from 3M Corporation, a leading American multinational company that produces innovative products. It advertises the most magnificent failures of its employees within the company and rewards them financially and with time released from normal duties to try new things.
5. Encourage brainstorming
Assign your students to generate as many ideas and solutions that they can for a problem. Praise your students for generating many ideas, regardless of whether some are silly or unrelated. Next, ask them to assess their ideas for originality. Teaching students the value of generating numerous ideas and evaluating them for their quality enhances their creative and thinking skills.
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