As teachers, how do you define

CREATIVITY
?
EXPLORING CREATIVE TEACHING
Creative teaching is seen to involve
teachers in making learning more
interesting and effective and using
imaginative approaches in the classroom.
Teaching for creativity by contrast is seen
to involve teachers in identifying children’s
creative strengths and fostering their
creativity.
To be creative teacher, you will want to
widen your understanding of your own
creativity, and the imaginative approaches
and repertoire of engaging activities that
you can employ in order to develop the
children’s capacity for original ideas and
action. You will also want to exert your
professional autonomy, learning to be
flexible and responsive to different learners
and diverse learning contexts.
PEDAGOGIC PRACTICE
Creative teachers’ pedagogic practice is
seen to be most effective when they
help children find relevance in their
work either through practical application
or by making emotional and personal
connections.
THE CORE FEATURES OF CREATIVE
TEACHERS' PRACTICE
Curiosity and a Questioning Stance
Making Connections
 Autonomy and Ownership
Fostering Originality
Developing sense of themselves as creative
people and creative educators, educators who
consciously use their own creative capacity in
the classroom context
CURIOSITY AND A
QUESTIONING STANCE
Creative teachers demonstrate curiosity and
genuine desire to learn. They have a wide
range of personal interests and passions and
knowledge of the wider world and are likely to
share their enquiring stance with the learners,
pondering aloud and reflecting on issues in
classroom conversations in a genuinely open
and interested manner.
Pedagogically:
Teachers explicitly encourage children to
identify and share their own questions,
through brainstorms, partner work on
puzzlements and recording questions on
Post-it notes for example, as well as by
providing opportunities for the learners to
take responsibility for undertaking research
based on their own enquiries in small
groups.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Creative teachers are committed to
personalizing teaching and model the
process of sense-making through making
multiple imaginative connections in whole-
class and small-group contexts. Creative
teachers know a great deal about their
children’s interests and passions and see
this as essential knowledge in order to
make connections.
Pedagogically:
Creative teachers seek to avoid the limiting
nature of subject boundaries, and make
frequent references to other subjects and
to the world beyond the school gate. They
provide time to revisit prior knowledge,
make links and offer multiple opportunities
for children to work collaboratively in order
to widen their perspectives.
AUTONOMY AND OWNERSHIP
Creative teachers show a considerable
degree of ownership with regard to
planning, teaching and assessment. They
exert a strong sense of professional
autonomy in the classroom and
demonstrate both flexibility and confidence,
asserting their desire to create a co-
constructed curriculum which builds on the
learners’ interests and their social/ cultural
capital, as well as curriculum requirements.
Pedagogically:
Creative professionals focus explicitly on
the development of children’s autonomy.
They demonstrate considerable trust,
interest and respect for children’s ideas and
set group tasks which the children have to
organize for themselves, engendering both
self- direction and offering scope for
collaborative creativity.
 FOSTERING ORIGINALITY
Creative teachers are prepared to take risks,
and remain open to new ideas, sharing any
particularly inventive practices they trial or
develop. Through involvement in the
creative process of generating and
evaluating ideas, creative teachers seek to
develop their creative dispositions and
enhance their ability to be inventive
educators.
Pedagogically:
Creative teachers model creativity and take
part as learners in the classrooms; they
experiment with resources, engage in
problem-solving, take up different roles,
and generate and critique their ideas.
 Tips for
Developing Creativity
1. Model Creativity
The most powerful way to develop creativity in
your students is to be a role model. Children
develop creativity not when you tell them to, but
when you show them.

2. Build Self-Efficacy
Sometimes teachers and parents unintentionally
limit what students can do by sending messages
that express or imply limits on students' potential
accomplishments. Instead, help students believe
in their own ability to be creative.
3. Question Assumptions
Teachers can be role models for questioning
assumptions. Of course, students shouldn't
question every assumption. Make questioning a
part of the daily classroom exchange. It is more
important for students to learn what questions to
ask-and how to ask them-than to learn the
answers. Help your students evaluate their
questions by discouraging the idea that you ask
questions and they simply answer them.
4. Encourage Idea Generation
The environment for generating ideas must be
relatively free of criticism. Praise your students for
generating many ideas, regardless of whether
some are silly or unrelated, while encouraging
them to identify and develop their best ideas into
high-quality projects. Teaching students the value
of generating numerous ideas enhances their
creative-thinking ability.
5. Allow Time for Creative Thinking

Most creative insights do not happen in a rush

(Gruber, 1986). We need time to understand a
problem and to toss it around. If we are asked to
think creatively, we need time to do it well. If you
stuff questions into your tests or give your
students more homework than they can complete,
then you are not allowing them time to think
creatively.
6. Reward Creative Ideas and Products
Reward creative efforts.
For example, assign a project and remind students that you
are looking for them to demonstrate their knowledge,
analytical and writing skills, and creativity. Let them know
that creativity does not depend on your agreement with what
they write, only that they express ideas that represent a
synthesis between existing ideas and their own thoughts.

Some teachers complain that they cannot grade creative

responses with as much objectivity as they can apply to
multiple-choice or short-answer responses. However,
research shows that evaluators are remarkably consistent
in their assessments of' creativity (Sternberg & Lubart,
1995).
7. Allow Mistakes
Great thinkers made contributions because they
allowed themselves and their collaborators to take
risks and make mistakes. Schools are often
unforgiving of mistakes. Errors on schoolwork are
often marked with a large and pronounced X.

When your students make mistakes, ask them to

analyze and discuss these mistakes. Often,
mistakes or weak ideas contain the germ of
correct answers or good ideas. For the teacher
who wants to make a difference, exploring
mistakes can be a learning and growing
opportunity.
8. Encourage Creative Collaboration
Collaboration can spur creativity. Encourage your
students to collaborate with creative people
because we all learn by example. Students
benefit from seeing the techniques, strategies,
and approaches that others use in the creative
process. So, it is worthwhile to give students the
chance to work collaboratively and to make the
process of collaboration more creative.
9. Find Excitement

To unleash your students' best creative

performances, you must help them find what
excites them. Remember that it may not be what
really excites you.

Certainly, the most creative people are intrinsically

motivated in their work (Amabile, 1996).
In what way do you consider
yourself a
CREATIVE TEACHER
?
CREATIVITY
is one of the key 21st Century
Skills.
We teach people they
way we were taught.
How do YOU teach?
Should the students learn
the same way their
teachers did?
20TH CENTURY EDUCATION MODEL
21ST CENTURY LEARNING
WHERE’S THE CONFLICT?

vs.

Traditional 21st Century

Teacher Learner
Old Learner vs. New Learner
Text Content Visual Content
Passive Hands-On

Formal Personal

Techno-Phobic Techno-Savvy
Old Learner vs. New Learner

Independent Interactive
Competitive Collaborative

Sequential Non-Linear
How do we IMPROVE?
Be aware of how students learn
 Understand the subject matter
 Deliver so that you can be
understood
 As Educators…
Be OUT-standing
Observe
Understand
Teach
What is the main task of a
teacher inside the
classroom?
AN ONION TASK
AN ONION TASK
(4 MINUTES)

•Draw a layered onion.

•On one half of the onion list things that
were of great importance to you when you
started to teach.
•Work from the centre to the outer layers of
the onion in order of importance.
•Do the same on the other half of the
onion but now from your present
perspective.
•Work from the centre to the outer
layers of the onion in order of
importance.
GROUP WORK
(5 MINUTES)

•Discuss with the colleagues in

your group the purpose of the task
and what you learned from it.
WHAT IS FACILITATION?
•Bringing out and focusing the
wisdom of the group, often as the
group creates something new or
solves a problem.
Hogan (2002)
 TEACHING VS. FACILITATING
• A process whereby • Helping/making it
a teacher leads a easy for students
group of students in to learn together in
acquiring new skills, a group, or to
achieve something
knowledge, or together as a
understanding. group.

Mercè Bernaus
[email protected]
 TEACHING VS. FACILITATING
• Most subject area • Involves helping
teaching involves the students to
telling and teaching discover by
the students. themselves.
Measurable
outcome at the end.
Content Expert Facilitator
Presents Guides process
information
Provides the Provides the
right answers right questions
A facilitator manages processes so
that a group can plan, problem-solve,
share information, evaluate, and make
decisions efficiently and effectively.

A facilitator also works to improve

group members’ ability to work
together effectively and helps groups
to improve their processes.
As a facilitator of learning, in
what art should you be good
at?
Teachers should be aware of the
importance of communication
skills in teaching. They must
also realize that all students
have different levels of strengths
and weaknesses.
Communication skills that a teacher
must possess:
Positive Motivation
In a class, students always have different kinds of
taste and preferences over subjects. So it is the job
of the teacher to create enthusiasm and interest in
the minds of the students towards a subject. It is
also a teachers role to remove any fear and
inhibitions that a student may have towards a
subject.
Effective Body Language
This is the most powerful
communication skill that a teacher must
possess. Good presentation skills
include a powerful body language
supported by verbal skills. This can
create a long lasting impression in the
minds of the students.
Sense of Humor
The importance of this factor has been
regularly underestimated. A good sense
of humor keeps the students active and
interested in the teachers class. A
teacher who is dour and lacks humor
doesn't contribute to the overall well
being of the students.
Understanding the Students

Teachers should encourage

students to communicate openly.
There should be emphasis on
cultivating a dialogue rather than a
monologue.
Team Formation
This is a good method where you can
divide the classroom into small teams
and ask them to solve different
problems or complete assignments.
This practice will increase not only the
interaction among the students but also
among the teacher and students.
Technical Skills

It is also important that teachers should

be up to date with all the latest teaching
aids like computers, video conferencing
and especially the use of internet. This
will also help the students to keep up
their interest in the learning process.
“I never teach my pupils, I
only attempt to provide the
conditions in which they
can learn.”
― Albert Einstein