Recently, I attended the Creativity in Education Summit at the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning and OECD headquarters in Paris, organized by the Global Institute of Creative Thinking.
It brought together a global and diverse group of education leaders, policymakers, researchers, and innovators to discuss the critical role of creativity in shaping the future of education. With a focus on reimagining traditional learning environments, the summit addressed the challenges and opportunities for integrating creativity into global education systems and presented projects from different countries that are already adapting education to foster innovation, problem-solving, and critical thinking in the face of rapid social and technological changes.
During the event, I had some insights that I considered key to rethinking Creativity in Education. I’d like to share them here with you in the hope that they can be food for thought and lead to new reflections and inquiry.
1 – Creativity “toolkits” and assessments will not make a difference to already overloaded teachers and overcrowded curricula
If you talk with any teacher, chances are that they will tell you that they are burdened with heavy workloads. In the rush to address all the demands of packed curricula, the introduction of creativity tools, techniques, methodologies, frameworks, and assessments can easily be seen just as another task to the long to-do pile. Also, if students’ fate depends on their standardized test scores, teaching creativity is ludicrous.
In other words, if we do not address the root causes for the absence of creativity in the classroom, such as lack of time, support, and space for flexibility, it won’t change much. For creativity to flourish in classrooms, systemic changes are necessary. Creativity should not be an add-on but integral to the curriculum and embedded in a way that reduces teachers’ burden rather than increasing it.
So, how can creativity be integrated in a practical way in the classroom without overburdening teachers?
2 – Schools have little incentive to change since education is mandatory
Be honest: would you change the way you do things if, despite the quality of your product or service, clients keep coming in by the thousands?
In most countries, if not all, education is mandatory (thankfully!). However, it creates another problem: schools may not face the same competitive pressures that businesses do, where poor service may lead to losing customers, resulting in schools’ resistance to innovation or improvement because their “clients” do not have another option if not accept it as it is. If we want real change, it may need an external push—whether through policy, community demands, or creating more avenues for student, parent, and teacher feedback.
What mechanisms can be introduced to incentivize schools to innovate and improve the quality of education?
3 – Students do not have many options for learning formats besides traditional schooling
You probably met some colleague that was “not made for school”. But this same colleague may have thrived if another learning format were available for choosing (or at least experimenting).
Henry Ford famously said that “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” In the same sense, most formal education still follows the 19th-century model: a teacher lectures, students take notes, and exams measure success. This old structure may have been powerful in the past, but it does not address today’s needs anymore. As pointed out in the insight above, schools’ “clients” such as students and parents have few learning options available, if any. The same goes for teachers. We should expand educational choices to include various formats, such as project-based learning, collaborative problem-solving, or hands-on experimentation, giving students and teachers more control over how they engage with learning.
How can schools diversify learning formats to offer students alternative pathways to traditional schooling that better support individual learning styles?
4 – Learning is (mainly) social, so incorporating creativity in education doesn’t need to be that complex
Creativity doesn’t always need fancy tools, exquisite frameworks, or fancy lesson plans. In a recent research conducted by my colleagues and I, we observed that fostering a positive and supportive learning environment where students feel free to explore, experiment, and learn at their own pace is essential for creative behavior.
As a professor once told me, doing the simple is the hardest thing, and achieving the simple without being simplistic needs extra effort. So, in order to incorporate creativity in education, it requires a simple shift in mindset: from viewing education as a rigid process of knowledge transmission to seeing it as a dynamic, collaborative, and social activity, where the role of the teacher becomes that of a facilitator instead of the holder of knowledge.
So, how can schools create simple yet effective environments that nurture creativity through social interactions and self-paced learning?
5 – Creativity is an abstract concept, so the focus should be on the skills that potentialize it
If you think about it, creativity is an abstract concept—or an ideology, as Prof. Michael Hanchett Hanson likes to say—and as an abstract concept (like freedom, justice, or beauty), people may adapt it to different situations or contexts.
When it comes to Education, rather than focusing solely on creativity as an abstract end goal (creative to whom?), which can be tricky to control or even measure its full spectrum, educators should focus on fostering the skills that potentialize it—such as critical thinking, risk-taking, perseverance in the face of setbacks, flexibility, and tolerance for ambiguity, to cite a few. When students are encouraged to inquire, challenge assumptions, and push through difficulties, creativity becomes a natural byproduct of the educational process. In other words, creativity shouldn’t be an adjective for specific tasks or lessons, but a collateral of good education.
How can educators shift the focus from creativity as an abstract goal to fostering essential skills like critical thinking, perseverance, and flexibility, which naturally support creativity in the learning process?
6 – Focusing on idea generation and divergent thinking is not enough to promote creative behavior
Idea generation and divergent thinking may be seen as crucial aspects of creativity, but it’s not the whole picture. If we want to promote creative behavior in our students, we need to give them time to think and space to sit with ideas, reflect, experiment, and figure things out on their own.
Education systems often prioritize efficiency and quick solutions, but creative thinking requires a deep engagement that only comes with time. Instead of rushing students through assignments and jumping from one “creative solution” to another, we should allow them to explore different paths, make mistakes, and learn through trial and error. Therefore, the focus should shift from immediate “visible” outcomes to long-term cognitive and socioemotional development.
How can education systems allow students more time to reflect and experiment, promoting deeper creative engagement and evaluating long-term achievements?
7 – Problem-solving is a great way to develop creativity, but the type of problem matters
Problem-solving and creativity often walk side by side. However, it concerns me which kind of problems we are giving our students to solve, since we may be giving only the ones we think are important. While societal problems like climate change, hunger, and poverty are “everyone’s problem”, students must also have the space to work on problems they think are important, ensuring that they have a voice in the problems they are solving.
If we only present them with predefined problems, we may end up with students incapable of thinking critically about their contexts. They need the opportunity to identify and work on problems that resonate with them. Ownership over the problem construction process is key to creative work.
How can educators balance guiding students toward societal issues while ensuring students have the autonomy to solve problems they identify personally as important?
8 – There is an art bias in creativity, but it should be about “thinking like an artist” and not just “making art”
Creativity is often mistakenly equated with artistic expression. However, what it needs is not just “making art” but rather thinking like an artist. Quite often, artists follow a hunch, without really knowing where it will lead them. Artists experiment and try things out to see what happens, embracing uncertainty.
Traditional Education prioritizes knowing the answer over the process of discovery, and not knowing where you are going is not a desirable situation. But this could be exactly what we might be missing: let ourselves follow a hunch (or even have one) wherever it leads us. This artistic mindset—one of curiosity, exploration, and risk-taking—can be applied across all disciplines and potentialize creative behavior.
Cultivating an environment where students feel comfortable with not knowing where their exploration will lead them can do wonders in the learning process. This embrace of uncertainty is where creativity takes root, and artistic thinking may aid us in this process better than any other thinking style can.
How can we shift the narrative around creativity to focus on the process of “thinking like an artist” rather than confining creativity to artistic disciplines?
9 – The OECD Summit may have missed key voices in education
While this Creativity in Education Summit brought together policy-makers, researchers, and heads of educational institutions, it may have missed the perspectives of other key pieces of this educational puzzle that were not in the room: students, parents, and teachers.
To make meaningful changes in education, we need to hear from a wider range of voices and understand how they participate in our learning ecosystems. Including students in these conversations would provide insight into what works and what doesn’t from the learner’s perspective. Parents could bring valuable insights about the home-learning environment and the skills students need to thrive in the real world. Finally, teachers can make vital contributions to educational reforms by sharing their hands-on classroom experience, offering insights into effective strategies for diverse learners, and shaping practical, realistic policy recommendations that reflect classroom dynamics.
How can we include more voices from students, parents, and teachers to drive more holistic reforms in education?
The insights from the Creativity in Education Summit offered valuable directions for rethinking how creativity is approached in education. However, to foster meaningful change, we need broader participation from all those who make the education system happen.
Therefore, I would like to invite you to join this conversation. How do you see creativity evolving in education, and what steps should we take to make it an integral part of the learning process?