Experts reflect on developing student creativity

A panel of international and local experts came together to reflect on ways to develop creativity among students at the second annual symposium hosted by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) yesterday to mark the third anniversary of Qatar’s education reform effort.

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The relationship between creativity and motivation, integrating creativity into the curriculum, the importance of differentiating instruction according to the needs of learners, and the cultural context of creativity at the regional level were among the aspects discussed.

Developing Creativity in Students

Kicking off the panel discussion on ‘Developing Creativity in Students,’ California State University (San Bernardino) assistant professor Dr James Kaufman dwelt on various aspects of the concept of creativity in his keynote address.

“Creativity is the ability to produce work that is both novel and appropriate,” he stated while citing fluency, flexibility, and originality as components of creativity. Motivation is one of the biggest ways to enhance creativity, and it comes in intrinsic and extrinsic types. People who are intrinsically motivated are those who enjoy what they do, whereas those who are extrinsically motivated are driven by external elements.

“Neither is inherently better. It all depends on the situation and what you want out of it,” observed Dr Kaufman, who is also a founding director of the Learning Research Institute at California State University. People who love what they do tend to be creative and focusing on intrinsic motivation improves creativity, said the expert, who publishes and speaks widely on the subject of creativity.

Some other personal qualities associated with creativity include tolerance for ambiguity, sensible risk-taking, being open to new experiences, and defying the crowd or being untraditional. “Everyone has the same capacity to be creative,” Dr Kaufman maintained while stating that people who are creative achieve more, are successful, more likely to persist in difficult situations, and tend to be happier.

Creativity in Schools: Opportunities and Challenges

The blending of creativity and curriculum, providing concrete and practical strategies for teaching creativity to all students, and integrating creativity within individual cultures and traditions were presented by the next speaker, Anna Craft.

A reader in education and director of the Open Creativity Centre, which she founded in 2001 at The Open University in England, Craft said that everybody is capable of being creative, given the right environment. The speaker, also a senior lecturer at the University and visiting scholar at Harvard University, working with scholars there on aspects of creativity, gave a presentation on ‘Creativity in Schools: Opportunities and Challenges’.

Educational achievement is the result of excellence and creativity, there is an increased pressure on young people to make sense and make choices, and creativity is embedded in all forms of knowledge. “The development of creativity could be accomplished through teaching creatively and teaching for creativity,” Craft said while observing that creative thinking is culturally embedded, and creativity and cultural development should be intertwined.

‘Creativity and Teacher Training’

Dr Gunseli Oral, an assistant professor at Akdeniz University’s School of Education in Antalya, Turkey, spoke about ‘Creativity and Teacher Training’. An author of numerous articles on the topic of creativity, she described originality, usefulness, and flow as the three gates to creativity, and pointed out that creativity exists with openness to new experiences. “Sometimes creative students can be miss-evaluated,” Dr Oral remarked while observing that highly creative children may sometimes exhibit disruptive, attention seeking behavior.

Schools may offer a flexible learning atmosphere where children can express themselves freely and positively. “A good teacher should be an expert in creativity, facilitator of creativity, and a practitioner of creative curriculum,” she said.

What does creativity in schools mean?

Al Bayan Educational Complex (Doha) vice principals Noor al-Mutawa (secondary school) and Noura al-Nesf (studies and professional development) gave a presentation on their pupils’ creativity. The duo elaborated on how their institution is integrating creativity into curriculum, substantiating it with video clips and recorded interviews. Stating that all students are born with a creative mind, al-Mutawa outlined the school policy for creativity and went on to say that creative teachers should encourage students to engage and interact, and to discuss and debate. Watch

“The students ought to be given opportunities to exercise their brain, their curiosity and imagination has to be stimulated, and unusual ideas and responses reinforced. Al-Nesf said that creativity is to look where everyone else is looking and see what no one else can see.

Cultural context of creativity at the GCC level

Qatar-based professional development institute Arab Educational Training Centre for Gulf States director Dr Abdul Aziz al-Horr spoke on the cultural context of creativity and critical thinking at the GCC level. “Creativity is no longer a choice, it is a strategic decision, a must-have and a survival factor, because we live in a world that is changing in an unusual way,” he said. It is often easier to stop people being creative than to enhance their creativity, al-Horr observed referring to the general trend. “Everyone has a lot more creativity in him or her than they generally know and use,” he said while calling for developing a culture of creativity and encouraging it.

An account of how Qatar’s three-year-old education reform is striving to graduate a generation of critical and creative thinkers as well as the accomplishments of the SEC were given at a panel discussion later.

SEC officials Dr Jehan al-Meer (Director, Higher Education Institute), Sabah al-Haidous (Director, Education Institute), and Adel al-Sayed (Director, Evaluation Institute) also spoke on the occasion.