As you investigate use some of the key words in the Durham Commission definitions to guide you:
Creativity: The capacity to imagine, conceive, express, or make something that was not there before.
Creative thinking: A process through which knowledge, intuition and skills are applied to imagine, express or make something novel or individual in its contexts. Creative thinking is present in all areas of life. It may appear spontaneous, but it can be underpinned by perseverance, experimentation, critical thinking and collaboration.
Teaching for creativity: Explicitly using pedagogies and practices that cultivate creativity in young people.
Follow our three-stage process below…
Step 1 – Form a creative team
Gather a few interested colleagues together and undertake a creative brainstorm!
- Start by using post-it notes to write out all the words you associate with creativity, using one per note
- Then on separate post-it notes write down examples of how your school offers this to your pupils for each key word you’ve associated with creativity
- Discuss some of the ways in which your students are already having their creativity developed.
Step2 - Get curious
Take part in a creative walkthrough…
- With a clearer sense of what you are looking for in terms of teaching for creativity, get the agreement of other staff and your headteacher to go on a creativity hunt across your school during different times of the day. Capture in photos and/or words what you see.
- For each example you find note what aspect of creativity you saw and how it was being developed.
- Create a map to document the different kinds of creativity you saw in different lessons.
Step 3 - Share stories and dream on
Ask your headteacher or department leader for 30 minutes in a staff meeting or INSET session.
- Share what you found in step 2.
- Sharing your key words from Step 1, ask other staff to describe moments from their own teaching when they are teaching for creativity.
- Use what you have found to lay the foundations for introducing these kinds of approaches more systematically in your school.