Creativity in school: what it is, what research says and what you can do

Creativity is the ability to create something that is new and that also works for its purpose. At school, it means you get to use your own ideas to solve a task, not just repeat what the teacher has said.

What is creativity in school?

Creativity is often reduced to drawing, music and drama. That is too narrow. You can be creative in maths when you find an unusual way of proving something, in Norwegian when you build a text in a new way, and in science when you set up an experiment nobody asked you to do.

A common definition has two requirements: the result must be original, and it must have value in its context. An idea that is merely odd is not creative. An idea that is merely useful, but completely ordinary, is not creative either.

EstablishedResearchers largely agree that creativity builds on subject knowledge: the more you know about a field, the more ideas you can combine in new ways.

How does creativity work in the classroom?

Creative work does not happen by itself. It needs a few things in place:

• Time. Good ideas rarely arrive in the first two minutes.
• Safety. You have to dare to suggest something that may turn out to be wrong.
• Open tasks. If there is only one right answer, there is little to be creative with.
• Feedback along the way. You need to know what works, not just get a grade at the end.

OpinionMany teachers feel that time pressure and a long list of competence aims make it hard to give students time for open tasks. That is an experience, not a measured link.

The curriculum does not say that creativity is a subject. It is part of what school is meant to give you in every subject. Check the current curricula at Udir for the exact wording.

What is established, disputed and opinion?

There are plenty of claims about creativity and school. The table separates the three categories.

Claim	Category	Comment
Creativity requires subject knowledge	Established	Broad agreement in research on how expertise and ideas are connected
Children become less creative by going to school	Disputed	Hard to measure, and the measurements point in different directions
School should give creative subjects the same status as maths	Opinion	A question of values, not a research finding
You can train creative thinking	Established	Practising generating many ideas and assessing them helps, but the effect is often tied to the type of task

You may have heard that almost all children are geniuses and that school ruins it. We do not use figures like that as facts here. Instead, read what Robinson actually said in Sir Ken Robinson: what did he actually say?.

What can you do as a student?

You do not have to wait for school to change. Try this:

1. Ask whether you can solve a task in a different way from the example, as long as you meet the requirements.
2. Write down at least three possible solutions before you choose one.
3. Ask for feedback on a draft before you hand it in.
4. Suggest an open task in class time or through the student council.

Short on time at home? Read Creativity and homework (in Norwegian) for how open homework can work.

What can parents do?

You do not need to buy anything. Ask open questions: “What could you have done differently?” works better than “Are you finished?”. Let your child be bored now and then. And ask the school how it works with open tasks, for instance at the parents’ meeting.

How the articles fit together

Creativity is also about how you learn. For the youngest children, play is a learning form of its own, which you can read about in Play-based learning (in Norwegian). For the big question of whether school holds creativity back, see Does school kill creativity? (in Norwegian) and What is creativity in school?. The concept is also explained in the glossary: creativity.

Checklist: is the task open enough?

• Is there more than one good answer?
• Do you get to choose something yourself, such as topic, form or tools?
• Is there time to try, fail and try again?
• Do you know what is being assessed, and can you influence it?
• Do you get feedback before the final hand-in?

If you answer no to most of these, the task is closed. Then you can suggest small changes to your teacher, not just complain.