What Is Creativity?

Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining. Creativity is found in the obvious art and music, but can also be found in science and play.

Because we think of art, music, dance, and drama as examples of creative ideas, we may have forgotten that creative thought is found in all aspects of a growing child’s life and can be learned from daily. Just look at how creativity shows itself when a scientist discovers a cure for a disease, how a business owner decides to increase sales, how the grocery clerk bags the groceries, or how a parent finds a way to entice a reluctant child to head off to bed.

Getting Started: Inviting Creativity

Providing the opportunity for creativity is as easy as allowing children to draw with crayons on blank paper, to bang a pot with a wooden spoon in time to music, to build an inviting reading area with blankets and cushions, or to hop and bop to a favorite children’s recordings. Something as easy as drawing on a blank surface is surprisingly important. Research shows that children who draw frequently do better in reading and math and will shine at focusing on learning tasks. Choosing their own drawing materials empowers children and opens their eyes to the world around them.

What can we do as teachers to help creativity take hold? When a child presents you with a drawing and says, “Look at what I made!”, respond by saying, “Tell me about your drawing,” or ask, “What do you like about your  drawing?” These open-ended responses let the child evaluate his own creativity while initiating conversation about the work at hand. Try not to guess what that gooey green glob of paint is supposed to be because it may only be a gooey green glob of paint. By not assuming anything about the child’s work of art, the door to self-evaluation and communication opens.

How Can Teachers Encourage Creativity?

Encouraging creativity in young children is a process where teachers must open their own channels of allowing, accepting, and turning over some control to the children themselves. James D. Moran III, Dean of the College of Human Ecology at the University of Tennessee, suggests that teachers:

• Emphasize process rather than product.
• Provide a classroom environment that allows children to explore and play without undue restraints.
• Adapt to children’s ideas rather than trying to structure the children’s ideas to fit the adult’s.
• Accept unusual ideas from children by suspending judgement of children’s divergent problem solving.
• Use creative problem solving in all parts of the curriculum. Use the problems that naturally occur in everyday life.
• Allow time for children to explore all possibilities, moving from popular to more original ideas.

Sparking creativity is enjoyable and easy through common classroom activities. For example, go for a slow walk with your children outdoors and notice the world at hand. Talk about the many colors and precious details of nature. Come back to the classroom and give the children crayons, chalk, or paints to express what they remember seeing. On another day, take drawing materials along with you to a park or out into the schoolyard. Encourage the children to notice something that they might have overlooked before. Drawing is an excellent way for children to see in detail. The creative benefits are immense, and you will have fun, too.