Can You Teach Creativity?

 Methods

Finding a PLN for teaching creativity in classrooms was a little more complicated than I expected.  I have an extensive PLN for different facets of librarianship, but have never extended that to teachers.  I use Twitter, different listservs, professional associations and more in the library.  Since I do not yet have all of those for teaching, I stuck with Twitter and Discovery Education. These communities linked me to different areas, such as YouTube, and various blogs.  The resources I used are linked below.

After being linked to the resources I used, I did some research on the websites hosting them.  Discovery Education I find to be a credible resource as it is used throughout our program and I trust the authority of our instructors.  I was unfamiliar with WAGOLL Teaching and upon further investigation judged them to also be a credible source as a teaching group with a global community.

Can You Teach Creativity?

The topic I wanted to research further was whether creativity can be taught and/or learned.  Defining creativity is a first step to understanding whether it can be taught.  Is it a skill, an innate ability, or something else entirely?  WAGOLL Teaching (2020) defines creativity with four parts: the ability to come up with ideas; building on their idea; thinking outside the box or "breaking rules"; and adapting existing ideas.  

Creativity can be nurtured, promoted, or developed but it's hard to say if it can be taught.  There are a lot of Discovery Education (Prepare students, 2021) actually lists creativity as one of the four "C's", along with critical thinking, collaboration and communication.  Some great methods can be found on Discovery Education for including creativity, as well as the other "C's", in any subject, such as sketchnotes and paper slides. 

References

Prepare students for future: Hot topic: STEM. Discovery Education. (April 4, 2021). https://help.discoveryeducation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057869033-Hot-Topic-STEM 

SOS top ten: 4C's - Encouraging creativity and innovation. Discovery Education. (April 4, 2021). https://studio.discoveryeducation.com/view?id=5f5d26457aaefa66d40f91e3&page_id=6c3df863-4356-46d4-b9d4-0b68658104b1

WAGOLL Teaching. (2020). Weaving creativity into all lessons | Teaching ideas [Video blog]. https://youtu.be/rxIRN2jbCc8