The Importance of Teachers in Fostering Students’ Creativity Essay Example for Free

The Importance of Teachers in Fostering Students’ Creativity Essay The Importance of Teachers in Fostering Students’ Creativity Teacher attitudes, beliefs and classroom practices are deemed to be of crucial influence in the development of students’ creativity; however the importance of promoting creativity in schools is a controversial topic. There’s no doubt about it. Creativity is as natural and necessary for children as fresh air! By exposing our young learners to creative experiences, we give them the gift of a rich and memorable school experience while laying the foundation for a lifetime of creative expression and important learning skills that are essential at the individual, social, and global levels of society. Creativity is found in the obvious subjects such as art and music, but can also be found in science and play. We automatically associate creative thinking with art, music, dance, and drama. However, we must recognize that creative thinking can be found in all aspects of a child? life and can be learned and used daily. Creativity is important at so many levels of our society, including both the individual and the social levels. For example, at the individual level creativity is relevant to solving real life problems. At the social level, creative individuals pioneer progress in science and technology and the beauty in arts. Furthermore, creativity is important at the global level. Creative accomplishments help to build a more interactive world that fortifies human civilization. In fact, Starko argues that humans would have no advancement in art, literature, science or invention if human creativity did not exist. Ironically educators frequently teach students about creative and eminent people, but ignore teaching methods that foster students’ creative thinking in the classroom. The importance of the school’s role in the development of students’ creativity has been highlighted in many studies regarding creativity. The classroom is construed to open new pathways in children’s creativity (Cropley, 1994; Sternbeg, 1999; Starko, 1995). Therefore, teachers must play important roles to enhance the components of student’s creativity. Unfortunately, often times we are faced with a significant problem: What happens if this teacher is not a real leader? In education, as in so many other areas of society, new kinds of organizations and models of leadership are needed. Organization and leadership are symbiotic; meaning one cannot thrive without the other. The work of new leaders is precisely to help create such new organizational models through new models of leadership. But what constitutes leadership in education? The word education comes from the Latin word educare meaning, â€Å"To lead out of†. Therefore, we could argue that to study education is to study leadership and educators must be leaders by definition. There are many reasons as to why teachers have not assumed the appropriate leadership roles necessary in schools and education. First of all, there has been confusion between the meaning of leadership and that of management supervision and administration. Historically, â€Å"professional† teachers were not only expected to obey their superiors and restrain from questioning authority, but also were expected to view their calling as a vocation – not primarily a career. A â€Å"good† teacher was expected to stay in the classroom and teach the students, motivate them, and encourage their creativity no less than a â€Å"good woman† was expected to stay at home and take care of the children. Teachers themselves need to become agents of change in order to fulfill the necessary role of leader in the classroom. For example, engaging in collaborative activities and personal reflection could help them be a good leader. The behavior of the teacher and whether or not they have assumed the role of leader has a significant influence on students’ creative thinking in the classroom. It is incredibly important that a teacher is aware of one’s own behavior and the environment they create in the classroom. For example, the teacher must act as a positive role model, since the behaviors that the teacher displays shape the behaviors students develop. Also, the teacher must build a classroom atmosphere that allows for creativity to flourish. This could be an atmosphere that is constructively responsive to unusual ideas. Finally, the teacher must put forward an effort to reward and foster students’ creativity through instructional activities. These three aspects of the teacher’s role in the classroom reflect personality (e. g. openness), intellectual (e. g. creativity), and knowledge prerequisites (e. g. instructional knowledge) that a teacher needs to foster creativity in their students. Unfortunately, many teachers are not prepared to foster creativity or simply do not value creativity in the classroom, which leads to problems among creative children. Some behavioral and personality traits that are common among creative children include, impulsiveness, nonconformist, disorganized, adventurous and imaginative. In general, teachers have a negative view of the characteristics associated with creativity, and therefore could be the root of teachers’ unwillingness to foster creativity in the classroom. If a teacher is a real leader and has sufficient knowledge about â€Å"creativity†, one can modify his/her relationship with these students. There are many ways to modify content, process, learning environment, and products that are challenging for creative students; nonetheless, teachers are slow to integrate modifications into their teaching learning practices because of administration problems. Regarding content and process modifications, if we consider all learning activities valuable for fostering the creativity of children; we can perceive the importance of independent learning and collaboration for creativity. Starko states that a classroom environment that supports universal ideas provides freedom of thought and freedom of choice and is conclusive to creative achievement. In conclusion, we can see that teachers who respect children’s ideas succeed in helping them learn to think and solve problems for themselves. Children who feel free to make mistakes, explore, and experiment, will also feel free to invent, create, and find new ways to do things. The side benefit is that fostering creativity in our classroom makes teaching more rewarding and fun and gives children a zest for imagining and learning that could last a lifetime.