Those of you who have already explored the Adobe Creative Educator programme will already be aware of the importance of Creativity in Education. Creative skills and attitudes are essential for students who are progressing into careers in the modern world. One way to encourage creativity within students is to provide them with choices in how they learn the content and how they express their learning afterwards. This could be by reading a book, watching a video or collaborating with others to come up with different solutions to their problem. It’s vital to encourage students to use content in new ways in order to keep them engaged throughout. Another way to encourage creativity could be to offer different ways to hand in a summative assessment piece, rather than an essay, suggest to your students that they submit a video, podcast or piece of art to showcase their learning.
This new way of creative learning can be intimidating for students which is why it is important to direct them to examples of how others have incorporated creativity into their work. There are plenty of examples on Pinterest or Adobe Behance which they can use to see what is possible!
How can you build a student’s confidence as a creative thinker?
- Help your students to find problems that drive the three I’s – Inquiry, Insight and Innovation.
- Give students time to generate different ideas by brainstorming and collaborating with other members of their class.
- Help them to bring the content together from different viewpoints and reuse it in original ways. The aim is for your students to produce something completely unique at the end of the session.
- Incorporate regular feedback into the sessions. This will reassure students that they are on the right track with their thinking.
- Give students the autonomy to practice and master their skills, in order for them to learn they need to be fully engaged in the project. It is vital that they understand why they are learning the topic so that they can connect with it on a personal level.
The following link is a helpful, ready to use, resource for students to encourage them to drive their creativity and let their ‘imagination flourish’. To access it, log in with your staff email and password.
https://edex.adobe.com/resource/v240c0b0e/preview
If you need any further support, please contact eLearning@tees.ac.uk