on how they might be obscuring creativity in the classroom due to not having previously recognised its embeddedness in their routine practical activities . One participant proposed that maybe it is not so much about ‘ getting students to be creative , but rather , teaching them that they are being creative already ’ ( L1-2 ). Another reflected on their group ’ s discussion and remarked the following during the LSHTM plenary :
" Where we were sort of saying ‘ you ’ ve been creative ’, people were saying ‘ no I haven ’ t , that wasn ’ t creative ’! So , interestingly , we might be doing things and none of us are prepared to claim that they are creative or imaginative . So maybe that ’ s the same with the students " ( LP-L3-1 ).
In addition to the issue with labelling work as creative because of how it might be perceived , participants considered whether staff and students had the requisite skills to be creative or innovative .
3 . A practical skills deficit
One participant stated that ‘ A lot of people , especially the less privileged people do […] find it quite an intimidating word …[ so we should ] put it in front of people to kick around and get confident ’ ( S2-4 ). In this quote , the participant implicitly invokes a contrastive social class categorisation by inferring that more privileged students might have less of a problem understanding what creativity is . However , they then go on to suggest how this problem might be addressed in practice by entering into dialogue about it in order to familiarise less privileged students so that they can gain confidence .
It was also proposed that there might be ‘ a huge gap between the external label and the inner processes ’ ( S2-4 ), which pointed to the relationship between the label and the cognitive skills required to be creative . While this judgement was less pronounced than the previous one , it nonetheless suggests that using the label and the creative / critical thinking skills that Byron ( 2017 ) highlights , are intertwined . This point was also implied in the LSHTM workshop :
" They [ students ] all seem very focused on an assessment […] and what we really want them to do is to go through this creative process […] and it ’ s by putting that bit of themselves into it which means they then have done the critical thinking which is what we want them to do and then they get a very good grade . I think a lot of them tend to forget that . They just think ‘ oh I ’ ve got to get that out of the way ’ because I ’ m focusing on this exam at the end of the year " ( L1-2 ).
Moreover , the underlying inference is that teaching practice may need to be changed in order to close the skills gap and address the stifling of creativity in the classroom ‘ to enact […] a certain amount of freedom that as much as possible goes to the student ’ ( S3-3 ). This could be achieved by being more explicit about when students are being creative . In the SEDA plenary , some questioned how we make explicit ‘ some of the things that students are doing around their creative practice … and helping them to articulate it ’ ( SP-S1-2 ). This was also brought out at the LSHTM discussions , as one participant asserted , ‘ Sometimes I think we don ’ t sell the students the idea of their assignment as being a creative act ’ ( L1-1 ).
So , the way to make progress in working with students appears to warrant being more explicit and helping them to discuss their creativity . However , there are other challenges that need to be addressed to resolve our central concerns , which relate to our final theme about how creativity and innovation are perceived in different teaching contexts .
4 . A nuanced relationship between their meanings and uses in different disciplinary contexts
As with the skills deficit , there was some debate relating to disciplinarity and the application of ideas . For example , one participant questioned whether using a new context to deliver information would constitute creativity ( L3-4 ), while the participant whose work was being discussed suggested that this was not being creative but involved ‘ just stealing other people ’ s ideas and slotting them into my own context ’ ( L4-1 ). This was challenged on the grounds that , ‘ It doesn ’ t matter whether anyone else has done it or not before , it can still be creative in terms of your sphere ' ( S2 ).
One participant discussed her background as a palliative nurse and explained :
" So it might be about being creative in enabling someone to do the stuff they really want to do before they die when lots of people say you can ’ t
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