What is Creative Thinking in Education?
Creative teaching / Teaching for creativity
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Educators may put great creative efforts designing lesson plans with enjoyable activities. Yet those would reflect teaching for creativity only when the tasks ignite students' creative thinking (Starko, 2014). Creative teaching strategies are very much blessed, yet to step up learning so that teaching fosters students' creative thinking, the focus should be student centered, practicing teaching-learning methods that stimulate students' curiosity and intrinsic motivation to explore, ideate and create, building up innovation skills.
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Why is creativity in education needed now?
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Creativity is essential for innovation in any realm, yet is underestimated in education. Every solution and knowledge construction require creative thinking, but creativity education teacher training is in lack (Kaplan, 2019). Indeed, PISA 2022 creative thinking scores signify the need to foster creativity among all students, since girls achieved better than boys, and socio-economically advantaged students' grades were better than those with less advantaged backgrounds. (OECD, 2024).
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Toward the end of the 60s, the response to the launch of the Sputnik, the conclusion that scientific and innovation education lacked, brought about the launch of standards. According to research, since the 90s, pupils' IQ grew higher, yet creative thinking diminished, especially from kindergarten to grade 3 (Kim, 2011). Creative climate and thinking improved only until the 90s, when test-focused learning began, impeding motivation, meaningful learning, and originality (Kim, 2021).
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It is important to improve creativity, adaptability to change, and tolerating ambiguity, toward individuals' productive and psychological health (Vynohradova et al., 2021). Stifling creativity leads to stress and crisis, while nurturing creativity brings well-being (Torrance, 1977).
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Creativity can lead to personal, communal and global creative problem-solving. But around the world organizations strive to get over the loss of creativity, that their workers have experienced in school (Robinson, 2017).
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Creativity education enables pupils from diverse backgrounds to express their individual creative potentials, being directed toward their gifts' fulfillment. Hence, each pupil gets equal opportunity for success. Creativity education is, therefore, an all-important equity educational policy.​​​
3 Aspects of Creativity in Education
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1. Creative learning environment
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The SCALE model (Support for Creativity in a Learning Environment) was developed based on an extensive literature review and observations. Table 1 presents the 3 components of the model (Richardson & Mishra, 2018):​
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2. Creativity skills ​
3. Trans-disciplinarity
Trans-disciplinarity is an approach in which creativity is beyond the disciplines. Creativity is what is learned. This implies a need for knowledge about creativity in addition to mastering a certain discipline (Murdock & Keller-Mathers, 2011). First example is PBL (Project / Problem / Place / Phenomenon Based Learning). Secondly, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math), in which Art is added to STEM as an equal component (Hunter-Doniger & Sydow, 2016). Thirdly, Arts Integration, that uses art to construct knowledge in other disciplines (Blecher & Jaffee, 1998). Additionally, Design Thinking (Henrikson et al., 2017). Finally, Maker Centered Learning (Bressler, 2022).
From 3 Aspects to 1 strategy: The 5 E's
While Michelle Korenfeld has been writing The Raising Creative Thinkers Guidebook (Korenfeld, 2017) five themes kept repeating themselves, and consolidated as creativity education principles: Explore, Experience, Examine, Elevate, Express. The 3 creativity education aspects can be combined by the 5 Es. Training for the 5 Es relates to all the components of aspect 1 of creativity education teacher training: Creative learning environment. Table 3 presents the relation between the 5 Es and aspects 2 and 3.
Further reading:
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​Blecher, S. & Jaffee, K. (1998). Weaving in the Arts: Widening the Learning Circle. Heinemann, Protshmouth, NH.
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​Bressler, D. M. (2022). Solving the Creativity Crisis: The Critical Need for Professional Development in Maker-Centered Teaching. In Research Anthology on Makerspaces and 3D Printing in Education (pp. 641-661). IGI Global.
Burnett, C., & Figliotti, J. (2015). Weaving creativity into every strand of your curriculum.
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Henriksen, D., Richardson, C., & Mehta, R. (2017). Design thinking: A creative approach to educational problems of practice. Thinking skills and Creativity, 26, 140-153.
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Hoerr, T.R., Boggeman, S. & Wallach, C. (2020). Celebrating Every Learner: Activities and Strategies for Creating a Multiple Intelligences Classroom.
Hunter-Doniger, T. & Sydow L. (2016). A Journey from STEM to STEAM: A Middle School Case Study, The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 89:4-5, pp. 159-166.
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Kaplan, D. E. (2019). Creativity in education: Teaching for creativity development. Psychology, 10(2), 140-147.
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Kim, K. H. (2021). Creativity crisis update: America follows Asia in pursuing high test scores over learning. Roeper Review, 43(1), 21-41.
Kim, K. H. (2011). The creativity crisis: The decrease in creative thinking scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Creativity research journal, 23(4), 285-295.
Murdock, M., & Keller-Mathers, S. (2011). Programs and courses in creativity. In: Runco, M. A., & Pritzker, S. R. (Eds.). (2020). Encyclopedia of creativity. Academic press.
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OECD, (2024). New PISA results on creative thinking: can students think outside the box? file:///C:/Users/hadas/Downloads/b3a46696-en%20(1).pdf
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Puccio. J. (2014). The Creative Thinkers Toolkit. The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, Audible.
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Richardson, C. & Mishra, P., (2017). Learning environments that support student creativity: Developing the SCALE, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 27 (pp. 45-54).
Robinson K, (2017). Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative. Capstone. 3rd edition.
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Sisk, D. (2002). Spiritual intelligence: The tenth intelligence that integrates all other intelligences. Gifted Education International, 16(3), 208-213.
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Starko, A. J. (2014). Creativity in the Classroom: Schools of Curious Delight, 5th Edition. Routledge.
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​Torrance, E.P. (1977). Creativity in the Classroom: What Research Says to the Teacher. National Education Association, Washington DC.
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Vynohradova, V., Bila, I., Kostyuchenko, O., Oborska, S., & Dykhnych, L. (2021). Creativity, Readiness for Changes and Tolerance for Ambiguity. BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, 12(3), 44-63.