Creativity in Education

                    Let me start with a real life incident. Teachers in a school found a seven-year-old boy quite odd. Though he was well mannered and never got into fights, his answers were often seen as “different”. So the teachers tried their best to “educate” him.
Teacher: What does the cow give us?
Boy: The cow gives us cow dung.
Teacher: That’s not a good answer. You should say “the cow gives us milk”.
Boy: But why, Miss? Does the cow not give us dung?
Teacher: Stop acting over-smart! Why can’t you be like a normal child? I will send a note to your parents! You are the fellow who drew an amoeba in art class, right?
Boy: Yes, Miss. We were asked to draw an animal. I picked an amoeba that my big sister told me about! You see, I liked it because it has no fixed shape! And it moves about using pretend feet…
Teacher: Enough! Why do I get these oddballs in my class!?
                     After this incident one question comes in my mind – “Is “creativity” in opposition to “education”? Education is commonly treated as a standardized and sequential activity — like training, providing identical skills and transmitting predetermined information. First standard followed by second, third…tenth board exams, plus-two and then preparing for college admissions…
                     But I believe that if the moral purpose of education is to make a positive difference to students’ lives and the purpose of higher education is to help students develop their potential as fully as possible, then enabling students to be creative must be an explicit part of their higher education experience. Higher education needs to see and understand that creativity plays an important role in preparing pupil for an uncertain and ever more complex world of work; a world that requires people to utilize their creative as well as their analytical capacities. The world needs people who can combine their knowledge, skills and capabilities in creative and adventurous ways to find and solve complex problems.
                     There is a saying that if you can define the problem you are well on the way to solving it. So the problem is ‘creativity in education’, and now we need to see it as a challenge and an opportunity to change the world of education in a way that will make a positive difference to students’ lives. I think in the classroom following steps can be follow to increase the creativity in the students:-

1. 
   
   More questions and challenges should give to the students, and these question and challenges don’t necessarily follow the rules.


2. 
   
   Make connections and see relationships.


3. 
   
   Imagine, see possibilities, ask ‘what if?’ picture alternatives, and look at things from different view points.


4. 
   
   Explore ideas and options.


5. 
   
   Reflect critically on ideas, actions and outcomes.


6. 
   
   Review progress, invite and use feedback, criticize constructively and make perceptive observations.


7. 
   
   Build confidence among students to speculate, to experiment, to think differently, however unorthodox it may seem.
   

                     Now at the end I would like to repeat my earlier line that – “if the moral purpose of education is to make a positive difference to students’ lives and the purpose of higher education is to help students develop their potential as fully as possible, then enabling students to be creative must be an explicit part of their higher education experience.”