Obtaining necessary learning skills is not an easy task for every student, and it often goes hand in hand with various problems. In order to teach students how to solve these problems, educators must help them to develop creativity. Teachers can provide encouragement of creative problem-solving and recognize potential hindrances to inventive thinking in order to ensure students’ success. Without support and encouragement, roots of creativity are likely to wither and decay.
Creative problem solving among students relies on the support of the teacher. There are various tactics that contribute to the development of innovative thinking. The teacher can encourage students to take their ideas in a different direction by asking for other ways to look at the issue and supporting the final result despite its imperfections (Woolfolk, 2016). The learning environment created in the classroom has to be tolerant of dissent and presented as a safe space for creativity. The students have to know that their unusual ideas are approved, and their judgement is trusted. In addition, the teacher can involve technology in the learning process, for example, provide sites that help create mind maps.
There are various types of factors that might hinder students’ ability to solve problems in new ways. The first factor is the nature of the problem, which means that when encountering the problem, people do not always realize that it calls for a creative solution. The second factor concerns their lack of skill or knowledge necessary for different output. The third factor is the person’s technological and social realm of existence (Mumford et al., 2020). In certain social spheres, creative thinking might not be encouraged, or a person could not have access to technological advancements.
Despite the fact that the importance of creative thinking is widely accepted, the development of creativity is not practiced similarly across every plane of education. Creativity can be seen as an art and as a craft, and it is evaluated based on two criteria: originality and utility (Glăveanu, 2018). Fostering of creativity is based on this divide, targeting either artistic endeavors or scientific research and innovations.
References
Glăveanu, V. P. (2018). Educating which creativity? Thinking Skills and Creativity, 27, 25–32.
Mumford, M. D., Martin, R., Elliott, S., & McIntosh, T. (2020). Creative failure: Why can’t people solve creative problems. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(2), 378–394.
Woolfolk, A. (2016). Educational psychology, 13th ed. Pearson Education.