Developing Creativity Through Education

Creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. It is not the ability to create something out of nothing, but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing or reapplying existing ideas. These ideas are sometime very simple and sometime brilliant.
Creativity is also an attitude, willingness to play with ideas, attitudes and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying good, while looking for the ways to improve it.
Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with a new idea. It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before. Brainstorming is one form of creative thinking: it works by merging someone else’s ideas with your own to create a new one. You are using the ideas of others as a stimulus for your own.
We are all creative because we are constantly changing the ideas which we hold about the world around us. This behavior is very common among children as compared to adults. It is thought that creativity has been suppressed in adults through education. The teachers are not aware of the techniques which are required for developing creative thinking in the students. In order to teach creativity, one must teach creatively; that is, it will take a great deal of creative effort to bring out the most creative thinking in your classes.
A variety of techniques have been suggested by educationists for teaching creative thinking. Some the most common are; brainstorming, assumption busting, reverse brain storming, random input, concept mapping etc. teacher are familiar with some of these methods like brainstorming, but do not used them effectively for creative thinking .
The teaching of Creative thinking is not limited to any one subject; rather it is essential component of each and every discipline. Teacher can stimulate creative ideas in any subject by asking some questions which are grouped under the mnemonic CREATE.

C ombine : Can you add something else to it? Can you combine purposes, ideas?

R earrange: Can parts of it be moved or changed?

E liminate : What could you remove or replace – in part or whole? Can it be simplified?

A dapt: Can it be adapted? What else is this like? What ideas does it suggest?

T ry another use: Can it be put to other uses – or given a new use if you changed one part?

E xtend: What could be added – words, pictures, symbols, functions, decoration, logos?

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