Ways to Develop Creativity in Students

Creativity is an essential aspect of learning that helps students gain a positive impact on learning and makes it fun. Creativity allows individuals to solve daily life problems and become more productive. Creativity helps improve skills in practical thinking, which is one of the significant outcomes of a good education. 

The sense of desire and imagination are essential words of creativity, as creativity is the desire of an individual to find creative solutions to any kind of problem through vision. Schools are the most suitable area for developing creative thinking and imagination as humans tend to learn more quickly at a younger age. Hence, developing a creative mindset in students can be very crucial.

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Students tend to learn new things quickly as it is their growing age; hence learning new things is comparatively more straightforward. Moreover, seeing other students doing creative stuff can boost the motivation of students to be more creative.

Curiosity often leads to more creative thinking; curious minds are most creative. Creativity helps in the overall development of any individual, and hence students need to develop an innovative and curious mind. The different ways to develop creativity in students are listed below:

1. Creating learning activities

The administration can arrange various learning activities for the students to improve creative thinking, for example, providing colors and sheets and asking students to paint anything that comes to mind or closing the eyes and just observing what thoughts are coming, and many more. Such activities can increase creativity among students on their own and by learning from other students. These activities make the student more mindful, becoming more aware of the environment. Creative writing is a great activity that teachers can give to their students, and many schools already host such creative writing contests to improve students’ creativity.

2. Teaching various skills that can help them increase creativity

Teaching different skills like teaching how to use new software or knit or many more skills can boost a student’s creativity; hence, gaining new skills apart from academic teaching can help develop creativity. Exploring new skills aware a student of various opportunities lying in front of the student, and such skills help develop a student’s curiosity. More of the creative thinking skills include-

  • Communication Skills

  • Open-mindedness

  • Writing

  • Problem-solving

  • Visual art

  • 3D Painting

  • Photoshop

  • Video editing

  • Journaling

  • Exploring ourselves

  • Meditating

  • Reading

3. Be a good listener

Listening to students’ creative ideas can be very helpful for motivating them. One can be a good listener by concentrating on the speaker, being comfortable with silence, asking good questions, and not interrupting the speaker. Being a good listener as a teacher can make a student more responsible. They know someone is keeping a check on them and is expecting more from them; hence more input can be seen from students’ side, which would result in developing creativity among students.

4. Reward students

No matter how small, reward the students whenever they present their creative ideas—it encourages them to think creatively. Verbal praise in front of the class is a good way of rewarding a student. More ways of rewarding a student include distributing candies/chocolates, giving fancy stationery items like colored pens, etc. Rewarding a student boosts their motivation and helps in developing creative thinking.

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5- Giving feedback

Giving feedback to students can boost motivation, whether it is about them doing good or something they should improve upon; hence, feedback is a powerful way to develop creativity in students. Feedback may include better approaches for the problem, giving critical remarks regarding what to do and what not to do, and so on. Good feedback consists of these four questions:

-What can the student do?

-What can’t the student do?

-How can the student do better?

-How does the student’s work compare with that of others?

6- Giving different angles on their creative work

Expanding a student’s creative idea by giving them your ideas to improve their creativity can be very effective while developing creativity in students. Students find it challenging to approach the same problem in different ways; hence, it may hinder developing a creative mindset. Therefore giving different angles for solving the same problems can help build their creativity and curiosity.

7- Sharing everyone’s ideas to everyone

Sharing creative ideas with the whole classroom can be helpful as it increases different perspectives on the same topic. This method can help improve the productivity of the entire classroom simultaneously, and this method is frequently applied to many institutions already. When a teacher explains the approaches of all students, the student waits for his turn, which makes them more enthusiastic and curious as it develops competitive feelings among students. It results in getting more input from the student developing their creativity.

8. Different approaches for the same real-life problem

Asking the students to use creativity to solve a real-life situation in different ways can help improve their creativity. Teachers can also provide various methods to solve problems and creative ideas to open up students’ minds.

Contributed by:
Edmund Hinkel