The concept of creativity has existed in education for a while, but it is only now that educators, particularly in international schools are making solid efforts to integrate creativity into everyday classroom practices. Cultivating a climate of curiosity and creativity is something educators can work on from the very beginning of every school year. Doing so gets students into the habit of working in collaboration early on with each other to solve problems and arrive at unique solutions.
Here are some strategies that are employed for creating a community of creative and independent thinkers and that the top international Schools in Bangalore follow:
Encourage voice and choice
This involves allowing students to determine their own strategies to make decisions early on. Teachers usually ease into doing this by starting out with giving students less choice and gradually granting them more creative autonomy. Creating opportunities for students to work in collaboration on an activity, choosing their strategies collectively, and sharing their work is a good way to focus on enabling student agency.
Expand the definition of creativity
Creativity is more than only making new things. It also requires problem-solving, inquiry, ideation, and divergent thinking. When teachers use various creative structures, they expand the meaning of creativity in the minds of students to a broader one while simultaneously taking stock of the creative approaches students have been using so far.
Make room for mistakes
Creativity cannot be cultivated without creative-risk taking and when there is creative risk-taking it is almost always accompanied by revisions and modifications. Allowing for mistakes and failures in the classroom teaches students the skill of ‘failing forward’, as each revision is treated like a chance for learning, improving, and growing.
Involve everyone
Every student brings with them a set of unique strengths and expertise. A community of creative-thinkers flourishes when everyone participates and contributes to create something epic together, which may not have been possible by working independently.
International schools that have put in use these strategies find success in being able to foster a spirit of inquiry and curiosity. This has also influenced a large number of the top CBSE schools in Bangalore to integrate these tools of teaching to develop young minds into creative-thinkers.
