Why Creativity Matters in Education

Can you think out of the box?

This question often comes up in corporate meetings, where managers ask for fresh and innovative ideas from their employees, compelling them to show some creativity. Today, almost every industry, whether fashion and design, advertising and marketing, entertainment and media, values creative and artistic people. But what exactly is creativity, Let's discuss it more here-

What is Creativity?

Creativity is the ability to generate new and original ideas, solutions, or works that are both novel and useful. It is about thinking beyond traditional boundaries and making connections between evidently unrelated concepts. It defines how we look at real-world problems from our point of view not enforced by others. Creative expression can be reflected in many forms not limited to arts only. Students can show their creativity while pursuing subjects like Science and Maths too, it is a form of innovation, imagination, and originality that enables students to approach a common problem uniquely.

How Children's Innate Creativity Drives Their Understanding of the World?

Children have an innate ability to think creatively, but how it arises, originates from their boundless curiosity. If you ever meet a 5-year-old child they will continuously ask you ample questions and can tell you hundreds of imaginative stories.

Why is the sky blue? 
How do birds fly? 
Who colored the wings of butterflies?.....

Thousands of thoughts come daily into a child’s brain. Harvard child psychologist Paul Harris mentioned in his studies that between ages 2 to 5, a child asks 40,000 questions, which is almost 100 -150 questions per day.

This insatiable desire to understand the world around them better leads them to question everything and keep searching for the solution to every problem. They never get tired and will always be energetic to know more about the world. Akio Morita aptly stated that “Curiosity is the key to creativity” and so these curious kids are born creative artists. Their relentless pursuit of solutions to their problems develops new perspectives and deep insights in them, to see unique solutions to a common problem.

Children like to learn in their creative way:

Children love playing and by continuously indulging in the act they learn many things and form a unique perspective to explore and see the world innovatively.

Let's unpack some ways the children learn new things.

1. Play-Based Learning: Children use games as a way to learn things, for instance, simple blocks give them an idea of shapes, colors, and balance.

2. Imaginative Exploration: By indulging in role-play they form an understanding of the world around them, social dynamics, and cultivate problem-solving skills.

3. Storytelling and Narrative Skills: Children love telling and watching different stories. It gives their imaginary world a reality, stories allow children to share their experiences and see the world through a different perspectives, by incorporating real-life challenges in an imaginative story they develop critical thinking skills.

4. Artistic Expression: Drawing, painting, speech, drama, and other creative expressions provide children an insight into their emotional and social development.

5. Experimentation and Innovation: We all have made paper planes and flown them in the classroom, unknowingly exploring the concepts of aerodynamics. Children's natural inclination towards experiments leads to innovative thinking.

6. Collaboration and Social Learning: Playing always makes children learn by sharing, solving problems, and analyzing different behavioral aspects.

Children try to simplify everything. By playing with their friends, they explore the outer world and solve complicated problems in simple, creative ways. But our education system often overlooks this natural approach, since it focuses mainly on rote learning and standardized testing over hands-on, exploratory methods. This shift can stifle their innate creativity and problem-solving abilities, leading to a more rigid and less engaging learning experience.

Sir Ken Robinson emphasized in his TED Talk that Children have a remarkable capacity for imagination and creativity, but the education system generally focuses on grades and positions, and under this race, creativity is left somewhere.

Imagine if a young Albert Einstein would have been discouraged by society, teachers, and parents from conducting experiments and showing curiosity toward gravitational theory, we would have never come to know about the complications of gravitational theory and relativity concepts.

How Does the Current Educational Approach Impede creativity?

Historically, before the 19th century schools were designed to instill punctuality, obedience, and basic literacy to fulfill the needs of factories rather than working on individual creativity and critical thinking. The primary goal of education was to acquire a degree and get a job, which remains largely unchanged today. Schools are in a race to produce degree holders who are trained to acquire jobs.

But how long they will stay in the job market, as all the industries nowadays seek creative and innovative thinkers is something that should be thought about.

The basic education system around the world includes these standardized scenarios:

1. Emphasis on Standardized Testing: Every school around the world focuses mainly on fixed testing systems; the U.S. conducts SAT and ACT exams, the UK conducts GCSEs, Canada uses Provincial assessments and India different boards conducts their examination system which prioritizes rote learning over creative thinking, and problem-solving skills.

2. Rigid Curriculum: Indian education has roots in the colonial Era which was mainly used for creating a workforce that is more or less following similar patterns. The school curriculum generally focuses on core subjects such as Science, Maths, History, Geography, and Languages which leaves no space for visual arts and performing arts, they are trained to be academically sound only which leaves less time to pursue their interests and creativity. 

3. Lack of Flexibility in Learning Methods: Due to a lack of professional training and advanced skills, teachers do not involve diverse learning styles in their teaching methods. One-size-fits-all approaches are used in framing curriculum and evaluation systems which overshadow the creativity and individuality of students.

4. Minimal Focus on Arts and Creativity: Students during their school hours read and learn a maximum of 6 to 7 subjects daily while creative subjects classes are conducted once a week, reducing opportunities for students' creative expressions and soon they lose interest in these subjects.

5. Stress on Academic Achievement: According to a study 87% of students feel classroom pressure and 47% face parental expectations to achieve good grades in exams. This has led to a lot of stress in students and has negatively impacted their performance. They are left with no time for their creative work and juggle between exams, tests, and assignments.  

6. Limited Opportunities for Hands-On Learning: It is a fact that students always make things through practical experiences, teachers skip the practical importance and focus mainly on theory, which can hinder students' ability to learn by creative way of doing things.

7. Suppressive Classroom Environment: Ken Robinson mentioned in his Ted Talk that if we do not make mistakes it means we are not learning something new, but traditional school environments discourage risk-taking, and making mistakes is generally not allowed by students, which demotivates them to explore new things.

8. Parental and Societal Expectations: Most parents want their children to become doctors, engineers, and IAS which leads students to prioritize memorizing the facts over exploring new ideas. Almost 2/3rd of parents pressure their children and undervalue their artistic nature.

It's time to change the perspective and need to think again. Students who possess creativity are more likely to be innovative and can solve complex problems effectively as they have a unique view to see the world. By balancing creativity with literacy we can nurture well-rounded individuals who are knowledgeable, creative, and adaptive to the rapidly changing world. Theatre, visual arts, music, creative writing, and drama are a few areas that are often sidelined in favor of subjects such as Science, Maths, and Languages which are core due to fewer available resources and financial restraints.

Sir Ken Robinson points out that today’s education system follows a hierarchical curriculum where artistic subjects are relegated to the bottom and core subjects are prioritized, why these subjects are not included in daily practices as others, and the public education system throughout the world focusing on producing university professors rather than cultivating individual talents.

To make the current education system more adaptable to creativity-based learning, several changes are needed:

1. Integrate Creative Subjects: Including creative subjects like art, music, dancing, and drama into the curriculum regularly as generally these classes are conducted once a week can improve academic achievements also, for instance, Finland adopted a personalized learning plan and teacher autonomy concepts which contributed to high ranking in international education assessments. A study on high-school art-based programs concluded that participation in art-based workshops increases overall GPA by 0.55 sd.

2. Promote Project-Based Learning: The projects that encourage students to learn by engaging in real-world problems, interdisciplinary projects, and meaningful work can enhance their thinking skills and improve their academic performance also, for instance building a sustainable ecosystem, creating a model on ancient civilizations and organizing community service event gives students to explore and learn different aspects of the real world.

3. Encourage Hands-On Experiments: Students learn the complexities of any topic more effectively only when they grasp it through practical work, which provides them with a vivid picture that enhances the information they get from reading. For instance, the complexities of acid-base reactions would be clearer if they experimented on this in the lab.

4. Allow for Flexible Curriculum: Around the world, many countries nowadays use flexible curricula. The US uses a Project and Explanationary learning style while Finland uses Phenomena-based learning. The Indian education system needs to adopt a flexible curriculum for individual interests and allow for exploration beyond standardized topics.

5. Support Interdisciplinary Learning: Sogo Gakushu means integrated studies concept used in Japanese schools where students learn themes and projects beyond the traditional subjects concepts. For example, a project on the City of 21st Century Project might help to learn concepts of Science, geography, History, and environmental science.

6. Reduce Focus on Standardized Testing: Schools need to shift away from the standardized testing system, which is often considered the only indicator of success, in place flexible assessments should be used in the form of presentations, portfolios, and peer-based evaluations to get the complete picture of a student's abilities. Schools need to work on Multiple assessment formats such as essays, projects, and practical demonstrations. Flexible Testing Windows and more emphasis on Formative assessments help students balance their creative nature with academic performance.

7. Involve Students in Curriculum Design: Schools have to include students' involvement by creating a panel in which students, teachers, and principals are involved, as per CBSE a child can better relate to a curriculum that is more closely related to their life outside the school, therefore a multiplicity of the curriculum is required with a core common element.

8. Provide Professional Development for Teachers: Teachers should be trained to adapt creative teaching skills and prepare materials that can integrate creativity into their instructions.

By implementing these changes, the education system can better nurture and develop students' creativity, preparing them for a rapidly evolving world. Numerous studies have presented evidence that participation in artistic activities is directly proportional to better grades, higher creativity thoughts, and richer peer relationships. Using technology-rich environments and utilizing digital tools can help teachers foster creative thinking in students (Henriksen et al., 2016; Yalcinalp & Avci, 2019).

The importance of creativity as evaluated by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) in which four main factors of creativity need to be focused on, fluency (the number of relevant responses), flexibility (the variety of different relevant responses), elaboration (the level of detail in the responses), and originality (the uniqueness of the responses) (Mokaram et al., 2011; Torrance, 1977). If the educators work on these key areas surely they will see positive outcomes.

In conclusion, Sir Ken Robinson provided us an insight to rethink and rebuild our educational system to make it better adapted for the children’s creativity. The question of whether schools kill creativity is a complex and multifaceted one. The current education system which may pose challenges to creative development, has equal potential to nurture innovation. Schools need to rethink the fundamental principles which we are pressing for children. It is necessary to reconstitute our conception of human capacity. Cultivating one's imagination with goal and purpose is essential to making good use of this talent. By doing this, we can unleash its revolutionary potential and build a more caring, inventive, and better world.