Creativity in Primary Education

Creativity in Primary Education
Definition of Creativity 
Creativity is defined in many ways, Sharp (2004, p.5) suggests that many theorists have their own opinion on what creativity it, but they all have the same thought that it includes:
·      “Imagination 
·     Originality (coming up with ideas and products that are new and unusual)
·     Productivity (generating a variety of different ideas through divergent thinking
·     Problem Solving (applying knowledge and imagination to a given situation
·     Producing an outcome of value or worth”  

Koesler (1964) defines creativity as:
“the ability to make connections between previously unconnected ideas”, 
whereas NACCCE (1999) defines creativity as:
“imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value”
Many theorists have different definitions on what Creativity actually is, however Sawyer (2012) stresses that if creativity research continues to be divided then we will never be able to define what creativity actually is. 
“Sawyer (2012) as long as the different communities proceed “on separate tracks, we will fail to explain creativity”.
Strategies for Creative Teaching 
There are many ways teachers can incorporate Creativity into their teaching and it can actually benefit both the teacher and the student. One way in which teachers can bring creativity to the classroom is just by simply designing the classroom for creativity, just by making more space or adding color on the walls can add to making a classroom more creative. Additionally,using certain teaching techniques to help with thinking such as six thinking hats, developed by Edward De Bono (1987) and brainstorming technique which was discovered by Osborn (Fryer, 1996), these simple thinking techniques were suggested to help people generate diverse thoughts and solutions (Sternberg, 2003). Another way to encourage creativity is by letting the children design their own learning or their own assessments which is suggested by Kevin (2015), this can help motivate children to learn and encourage them to use their imagination. 

This is the three elements of creative pedagogy by (Lin,2009), this diagram suggests that there is a difference between teaching for creativity and teaching creativity. This diagram is used to help identify children’s creative abilities but also shows that it is used by teachers to help develop creative abilities and qualities and that is done through interaction. (Parr, 2015) 



Benefits of Creative Teaching 
Creative teaching has been shown to have benefited children and their learning, Palaniappan et al (2008)Implied that from research it showed that creative learning actually enhanced learning by making it more “Meaningful” compared to standard learning. Additionally, it has been suggested by Sarsani (2008) that children who are not high achievers dislike the mainstream subjects such as Mathematics and Science, although it was found that if they were taught in a more creative way, then they would enjoy being taught Mathematics and Science, this implies that creativity can make change a child’s negative attitude towards something into a positive. Additionally, creativity in the classroom has been implied that It can enhance achievement in education as it makes the learning experience more fun for the child which increases engagement in the learning (Education Scotland, 2013). It is stated by Frey (2017) “performance can be straightforwardly quantified and evaluated – and when the work task environment is sufficiently simple to enable autonomous control. They will struggle when tasks are highly interpretive, geared at ‘products whose final form is not fully specified in advance’, and when work task environments are complex – a good description of most creative occupations.” This quote implies that teaching creativity can help children who are more practical and it teaches them the skills and opportunities they will need for jobs involving creativity.  
Barriers to Creative Teaching
Although teaching children in a creative way has been proven to show many benefits, it however has got its implications making it difficult to incorporate into everyday teaching for all subjects. Maket (2009) expressed that creativity is somewhat discouraged in teaching and he called this the “Creativity Gap” in education, there are many reasons for why there is a “Creativity gap” in education, one reason suggested by Beghetto et al (2006) was that teachers did not show value to creative behaviors or behaviors seen as “nonconforming”. Kim (2008) backs up this reason from studies which states:
“teachers feel pressured by the system, standards, and unmanageable class size”
Further on, Fleith (2000) implies that another reason for barriers in creativity in the classroom is that teachers lack training in creativity. Another barrier of implementing creativity into everyday teaching is that teachers will often struggle to try and make time for creativity as there is more pressure to teach the subjects which are seen as more important like Mathematics and science.
Creativity may be a difficult part of education to teach every day and to tech within all subjects but it has been shown and proven by many theorists that it is a valuable and essential part of a child’s education and it should be considered as important as other subjects such as Mathematics and Science.






















 Reference list
·      Fleith, D. 2000. Teacher and student perceptions of creativity in the classroom environment. Roeper Review 22 (3): 148–53. 
·      Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?. Technological forecasting and social change, 114, 254-280.

·     Govscot. 2018. Govscot. [Online]. [10 December 2018]. Available from: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf

·      Kim, K. 2008. Underachievement and creativity: Are gifted under- achievers highly creative? Creativity Research Journal 20 (2): 234– 42 
·      Koestler, A. (1964)  The act of creation.  London: Hutchinson & Co

·      Makel, M. 2009. Help us creativity researchers, you’re our only hope. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 3 (1): 38–42. 


·     N.A.C.C.C.E. (1999)  All our futures: creativity, culture and education. London: DfEE 
Open University (2016) Available at: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/creativity-community-and-ict/content-section-2

·     Parr, K., 2015. The Creative Classroom: You Can Make It Happen! The Education Digest, 80(8), pp.50–52.

·      Palaniappan, A. 2008. Influence of intelligence on the relation- ship between creativity and academic achievement: A com- parative study. International Journal of Learning 15 (7): 267– 77. 

·      Sarsani, M. 2008. Do high and low creative children differ in their cognition and motivation? Creativity Research Journal 20 (2): 155–70. 


·      Sawyer, R. K. (2012). Explaining creativity: The science of human 

·     Sharp, C. (2004) Developing young children’s creativity: what can we learn from research? Topic(32) pp.5-12


·      Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Background work on creativity. In R. J. Stern- berg (Ed.), Wisdom, intelligence and creativity synthesized. Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press. 



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