With automation replacing many routine jobs around the world, roles centered on soft skills like creativity will continue to see growth, as it becomes the second most in-demand skill by employers. The desirability of creative, innovative thinkers in all careers has made incorporating such abilities into the classroom not only a nice addition to the educational experience but a necessity.
Imagining the First Computer Program
In 1800s England, Augusta Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace, became the world’s first computer programmer a century before what we know today as computers came to exist. She accomplished this by combining her knowledge of mathematics and logic with her interest in her father, Lord Byron’s, career as a poet. Ada described her approach to her work as “poetical science,” which led to her development of the first computer program.
As a young adult, Ada partnered with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage in his efforts to create the “Analytical Engine.” Their proposed machine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow, and integrated memory, making it the first Turing-complete machine in present-day terms. In other words, the development of the Analytical Engine helped inform the inventions and innovations in the decades to follow which brought forth the computers we use now. During her time with Charles, Ada envisioned complex future versions of his engine that would respond to coded input. Based off this imagined machine, she wrote the first ever programming language for a device not yet invented. And thus began the roots of what is currently one of the most sought-after fields in the world: Computer programming.
Beyond simply presenting us with a fun and interesting history lesson, Ada’s story is important for many reasons, including its demonstration of what imagination, creativity, and innovation look like in action. Ada not only created something valuable, but she did so from her own imagination and ended up leading one of the biggest efforts in innovation to date. With the invention of computers and growth of technology over the decades since her first programming language, Ada’s contribution has remained paramount in the evolution of coding. In recent years, society has come to recognize these types of imaginative moments throughout history from top creative minds as essential pieces of humanity’s progression, and all fields from technology to education have started working to incorporate similar attributes.
The Benefits of Creativity in the Classroom
As we consider the importance of these concepts within the classroom, we must first understand them in a general sense. Imagination, for one, is the act of forming new ideas, images, or concepts within our minds without any immediate input to our senses from the external environment. Creativity, meanwhile, involves the use of such imagination to generate possibilities for problem-solving, communicating, and entertaining. Finally, innovation includes the practical implementation of ideas to introduce a new or adapted entity. In summary, imagination forms new ideas, which creativity in turn morphs into valuable solutions then innovation implements those solutions to positively transform reality.
But is creativity truly a need for students as they go through school or merely a nice addition when possible? To answer this question, let’s consider a few of the top benefits of encouraging creativity in education settings:
- Motivating kids to learn – Decades of research link creativity with an intrinsic motivation to learn because when students focus on creative goals, they retain more of their learning and become more driven to acquire a range of new skills to assist in the process.
- Improving multidisciplinary skills – Creativity helps students form higher-order cognitive abilities, such as problem solving and critical thinking, as well as making connections between subjects that allow for improved performance in a variety of disciplines.
- Developing emotional strength – The creative process revolves around risk-taking and iteration, which builds resilience through struggle and tolerance for productive failure, leading to stronger individuals in all areas of life.
- Engaging hard-to-reach students – Oftentimes academically disinclined students need a different outlet for learning than the typical structure of a classroom, which is why permitting them to explore their creativity and choose topics of personal interest can lead to a truly transformative increase in their engagement.
- Opening students up to self-discovery and expression – Encouraging creative thinking and assigning projects that enhance a student’s imaginative exploration can provide them with the means to express themselves and an avenue for discovering more about themselves.
- Reducing feels of stress and anxiety – Whether people find more enjoyment out of the creative process or the final outcome, the act of creating often inspires an overall sense of contentment, which can improve mental health.
- Improving focus and purpose – The type of dedication and commitment required of creating builds habits of focus that can extend into the rest of one’s life, which is part of why whether people make money at the art they make or not, they often identify with it (Ex: writer, musician, etc.).
- Building lifelong learners – Creativity requires the humbleness and resilience to fail sometimes through a process of trial and error, and this commitment to constant improvement leads to continued growth and learning.
- Learning the prerequisite for innovation – As with our story about Ada King, every advancement through history started as simply an idea inspired by imagination and creativity, therefore working to improve these areas of our mind is an essential step toward innovating.
- Gaining an important job skill – While automation continues to replace routine jobs, roles centered on soft skills like creativity will start to see the most growth, as revealed in an analysis of LinkedIn data, which found “creativity” as the second most in-demand skill.
How to Foster Creativity & Innovation
With all these great reasons to instill creative thinking into students, the next question is how? What does it look like to foster creativity, imagination, and innovation in the classroom? Below are examples and tips to inspire higher inclusion of such soft skills in educational settings everywhere.
Start by considering a group of fourth grade students who just received a sample of rocks. They are then asked to devise a series of tests to determine what kind of rocks they have. By using the definitions learned in class, they will build their own processes for figuring it out based on the hardness, color, and shape of each rock. Whether working alone or collaborating with peers, they will use their creative problem-solving skills to make connections between notes taken inside the classroom and a real-life experiment.
Meanwhile, across the hall, a third-grade class studies polygons. After reviewing the various shapes, they go outside with sidewalk chalk to draw one of their choosing. Then they are asked to transform their shape into something they love and share it with the rest of class. By doing this, they put their in-class learning to use by practicing drawing the shapes properly, imagining what else they could be, and communicating their creative decisions with others, all while spending time outside.
These are merely two examples of how typical class units, such as rock identification and polygons, can be made more fun and interesting for students, while improving their creative abilities. When it comes to incorporating these skills into additional class projects, keep in mind the following tips for fostering creative and innovative thinking:
- Imagine – Teach students to visualize by showing them how to move past the most apparent answers and give them space to ask the question “What if…?”
- Play – Kids need time to play, especially unstructured, independent periods where they can learn to pretend play, build things, go outside, or make up their own games.
- Struggle – Sometimes our inclination is to jump in and help, but it’s important for people of all ages, especially kids, to struggle and figure it out on their own to build creative problem-solving skills and perseverance.
- Write It Down – Give students idea journals and encourage them to write, draw, or even make audio recordings to provide them space to jot down creative thoughts whenever and wherever it may strike.
- Discover – Help students find what interests them by allowing them to explore a variety of creative means (music, drama, art, etc.) and incorporating these creative pursuits in all their academic studies.
- Study – Look to the great creatives around you or throughout history to expose students to role models with great talents or who have overcome great obstacles.
- Meditate – Mindfulness benefits the brain in many ways by improving mental wellbeing and contentment, which in turn boosts people’s ability to explore imagination and come up with creative solutions.
- Collaborate – Working in groups encourages students to feed off each other and find inspiration from peers.
- Make It Personal – With such a diversity of preferred learning methods and personalities in the classroom, it’s important to build flexibility into the teaching process and the structure of projects.
- Get Excited – Set the tone of the classroom environment by getting excited about the subject matter and passionate about a variety of ways to deliver the content to reach and engage a range of students.
- Find Problems – Go beyond problem-solving by also teaching problem discovery, encouraging students to seek out what around them may be missing or in need of improvement, which requires an intellectual and imaginative vision to find the best problems to solve.
- Make It Real – Teach the importance of creative skills in the world by providing students with relevant, interesting, worthwhile projects to give them concrete motivation.
Whether implementing the above ways of bringing creativity into the classroom or finding new methods, this incorporation is becoming more and more essential. According to education leader Ryan Imbraile, “We can’t exist without the creative thinker. It’s the idea generation and the opportunity to collaborate with others that moves work.” A sentiment shared with a recent Adobe study of college-educated professionals, which found 95% of respondents named creative thinking as critical to problem solving in their careers. With employers everywhere starting to list soft skills, such as creativity, as a prerequisite for most jobs, teaching and encouraging these abilities among younger generations has become not only a nice addition to education, but now a necessity.
Sources:
https://stanfield.com/9-ways-develop-creativity/
https://edutopia.org/article/4-ways-to-develop-creativity-students
https://www.iste.org/explore/classroom/5-reasons-why-it-more-important-ever-teach-creativity
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/innovation-imagination-12-benefits-creativity/
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