Introduction
The authors of “The Creativity Crisis” discuss the introduction of creativity tests by Professor Paul Torrance, and the variations that have occurred in the performance of individuals through time. Results from the professor’s tests show that creative children have better capabilities of succeeding in competitive environments than children with high IQ. However, the studies indicate that the creativity of students continues to reduce at an alarming rate. Bronson & Merryman (2010) suggest that poor creativity development in schools is a major contributor to low creativity.
The authors also discuss the importance of creativity development. Ken Robinson – in How schools kill creativity – argues that the education practitioners cannot ignore the importance of creativity in learning. Robinson (2006) points out children are unafraid of experimenting, and the education system should not punish children for making mistakes while experimenting.
Teaching methods and attitudes have suppressed creativity development in students through the ranking of students and subjects, and by influencing students to reason or answer questions using specific approaches. On the other hand, teachers can encourage students to be creative by allowing them to experiment, express their passions, and use think without restrictions. The education system should also discourage the ranking system for students and subjects.
Methods That Discourage Creativity Development
The prosperity of any nation relies on its quality of education. The government and parents invest heavily to ensure that students receive the best education available. However, stakeholders in the education sector argue that the current education system impedes the creativity of students. One of the primary concerns of stakeholders in the education sector is that the current education systems program students’ thinking instead of encouraging them to grow their creativity.
Opponents of the current education system argue that the system makes students grow into individuals who respond to situations in predetermined ways. The appropriate situation is to train students to use creative thinking skills in solving various problems. Learning institutions have played a significant role in influencing the mindsets of individuals by standardizing learning activities and punishing students whose thinking deviates from the norms. For instance, teachers expect students to use specific approaches when answering questions receive low grades or fail in examinations.
The ranking system in the education sector plays a significant role in discouraging the development of creativity among students. As Robinson (2006) points out, the education system gives mathematics and languages more emphasis than humanities and arts. Consequently, students learn to consider humanities and arts as worthless subjects. In high schools, teachers give drama and dance lesser priority than art and music while mathematics and languages remain at the top of the subject hierarchy.
However, the art and music subjects require higher levels of creativity and students need enough freedom to express themselves with minimal interference from their instructors. Robinson (2006) gives the example of Gillian Lynne, who became a multimillionaire by engaging herself in music and dance from an early age. Initially, her parents and teachers thought that Lynne had some learning disorders or psychological problems that prevented her from performing well in school. However, a psychiatrist discovered that Lynne had a passion for dancing and advised her parents to send her to a dancing school where she received many accolades for her performances.
Bronson & Merryman (2010) point out that creativity levels among United States’ students continues to decrease rapidly due to the absence of creativity development in learning institutions. According to the authors, the education system does not offer enough incentives for nurturing children’s creativity. The consequence of such failure is academic inflation where the value of one’s academic papers reduce in the job market at a steady rate. Currently, job seekers require the highest qualifications for jobs due to incessant competition for the number one position. People are no longer creative but seek to become the first in the ranking system regardless of how the achieve this fete.
The current education system does not provide time for creativity classes, and students focus on passing national standardized tests. Parents and teachers monitor young students and pressurize them to perform better than other students. Constant evaluation of students’ performance rather than recognition of their innovativeness also discourages the students from developing their creativity. Teachers and parents who exert excessive control over students and restrict their choices for various activities or subjects prevent the students from developing the inquisitiveness of creative students. Robinson (2006) points out that intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct, and students should have the opportunity to express themselves.
Methods of Encouraging Creativity Development
One of the appropriate methods of teaching that encourages creativity development among students is using problem-based teaching methods. The current education system uses drill-and-kill teaching techniques that yield poor creativity results. According to DeHaan (2009), numerous research studies show that most learning institutions insist on using traditional lecturing methods although results indicate that such methods are ineffective. One of the reasons for the ineffectiveness of traditional teaching methods is that they do not engage students actively and are intellectually boring.
Bronson & Merryman (2010) point out that creativity requires convergent and divergent thinking from the students. Learners need the chance to interpret various data and convert such information into usable forms without interference from their teachers or parents. Brainstorming is a method of solving problems and encourages students to think creatively. Brainstorming involves lateral thinking where learners provide thoughts and ideas that may appear shocking or irrelevant at first before fine-tuning them into useful ideas (IOWA State University, 2015).
Brainstorming allows students to analyze problems from different perspectives and identify possible factors that could prevent the realization of proposed solutions. In brainstorming, the teachers present the students with a problem that requires a solution and encourage the students to focus on the problem. The teachers discourage students from criticizing the ideas from other students even where the solutions appear impractical. In brainstorming, the teachers list all the students’ ideas and encourage the students to new ideas from the listed ones.
Conclusions
Education policy makers should revise the current system because it does not augur well with the future developmental plans. Students can learn to be creative if instructors use the proper teaching methods. Creativity is amorphous and ambiguous because learners may have different interpretations of specific problems. However, teachers should allow the students to allow students to express themselves without any interference and encourage the students to explain their ideas.
The dynamism of creativity allows learners to create ideas that may seem abstract but develop meaning if students have the opportunity to elaborate their perceptions. Parents and teachers should encourage learners to express themselves because it allows the learners to present and explain ideas that could appear irrelevant at first. The United States government should encourage students to be creative because this allows many industries to flourish and prevents academic inflation due to unnecessary competition between learners.
References
Bronson, P. & Merryman A. (2010). The creativity crisis. Web.
DeHaan, R. L. (2009). Teaching creativity and inventive problem solving in science. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 8(3), 172-181.
IOWA State University. (2015). Techniques for creative teaching.
Robinson, K. (2006). How schools kill creativity. Web.