The Mind Creative
for our children. The money invested into the education system
should not be spent on making more of the same thing; we need
to focus on decreasing drop out rates and increasing attention
rates by customising curriculums.
Eight methods by which schools, educators and parents can
include creativity in the learning environment:
1.
Start to think of creativity as a skill and embrace it as a part
of learning: showcase different methods of solving a problem
and allow students to think of solutions to real-world problems
2.
Use global programs to bring children together around the
world to solve challenges and practical problems
3.
Connect creativity to emotions; provide students with problems that society is facing such as homeless youth and allow
them to come up with creative solutions
4.
Test both convergent AND divergent thinking. We currently
test convergent thinking by providing exams for numeracy,
comprehension and general analytical thinking. We should
now be designing exams that measure how a student can
utilise different methods to solve a practical problem
5.
Provide discussion based learning and engage and address
those who regularly ask “out-of-the-box” questions
6.
Allow room for mistakes. Students find it difficult to create
solutions when they are scared of making mistakes. As Sir
Ken Robinson said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll
never come up with anything original.”
7.
Integrate art, culture and music into the learning environment. It has been proven that including another stimulus into
the classroom, such as music, promotes information retention and higher developed learning. Learning about other
cultures is critical in understanding the world we live in. An
46