Creative Thinking - Unleashing your students' creative talents


Overview:

To be truly creative, it is important that students go beyond the obvious. Students must be encouraged to try and develop the unexpected in their work and avoid just recycling old ideas. 

However, some students can limit themselves by feeling that they are ‘not very creative’. Everyone is creative. This workshop will explore the principles of creative thinking in creative writing, creative design and creative problem-solving. 

This workshop is suitable for all year levels and most subject areas.

Note: As most creative thinking in mathematics is focused on extrapolation and forecasting, this workshop will have limited application for mathematics teachers. 

Time: 90 minutes - 3 hours


A. Creative Thinking – the principles!

•    Create the unexpected - Divergent and lateral thinking
•    Patience – the refinement process

B. Creative Thinking Tools

•    Word Association – for generating unusual ideas
•    MAS – for redesign 
•    Y – Chart and Split Y-Chart – turning abstract concepts into concrete ideas
•    1:4:Publish:Circle:Refine – a co-operative learning tool for almost any creative task

Supporting research

High Impact Teaching Strategies - Excellence in Teaching and Learning, 2017

  • Metacognition strategies – planning and evaluating progress – effect size: 0.69

Note: An effect size of 1.0 would improve the rate of learning by 50% and would mean that, on average, students receiving that treatment would exceed 84% of students not receiving that treatment.