Can Teaching Creativity Through Collaboratives Close the Gap for Tomorrow's Innovators?This is the last in the series of four articles on creativity in education in which we shall look at initiatives to introduce creativity into the curriculum and have a peek at what a creative school might look like, using some real-life examples.CREATIVITY IS REGARDED AS AN ESSENTIAL SKILL ACROSS A WIDE VARIETY OF DOMAINSEvidence shows that teaching creativity confers personal, economic and social advantage . For future generations, success will be dependent on making an impact in a way that robots and AI can’t. The demand for creative thinkers is on the rise in the ‘professional world of adults ’, but there are concerns over the lack of growth in creative thinking in children who are students at school today, which has resulted in a ‘ creativity gap’ . So, in the future of education, creativity must be a core capability.Although AI has been considered to be a threat, it can also be a catalyst for innovative artistic expression as conventional notions of creativity and arts are being challenged.So, in this article we ask the question: Can creative thinking be taught?“TEACHERS ARE THE PROBLEM” – BUT THEY CAN ALSO BE THE SOLUTIONMany studies show that, overall, teachers do value creativity in education, they feel that creativity can be developed and enhanced and recognise the positive impact on their students. They also perceive the positive qualities which creativity can contribute to the classroom environment. Although many teachers understand the need for creativity in education, they also recognise that there are limitations on specific lessons on creativity, such as time constraints and the rigidity of the curriculum .Historically, past research has suggested that teachers found creative behaviour undesirable in the classroom as typical characteristics of creative children include independence, impulsiveness, curiosity and nonconformity , attitudes which could be deemed to be disruptive and not beneficial for exam preparation.This struggle to accommodate creativity isn’t just limited to the classroom but is a societal issue, as encapsulated in this quote from The Art Of Creative Rebellion :“ We live in a society that penalises highly creative individuals for their nonconformist autonomy. That makes the teaching of problem-solving discouraging and difficult .There are lots of misconceptions about creativity in and out of the school, such as ‘some children are born creative’ and that creativity ‘can’t be assessed’, ‘is only for the gifted’, ‘cannot be taught’ amongst others. There are also lingering doubts that it is ‘synonymous with the arts ’. Generally, from the research it seems that pedagogues don’t feel confident teaching a subject they have had little exposure to and feel it is stressful , suggesting that there are issues with training and accountability, which ‘drive instruction and curriculum ’.Barriers to teaching creativity are:Also, generally, teachers are rewarded on performance in standardised testing . This is borne out by research which found that, when teachers were asked to rank a range of educational objectives, number one was ‘mastering content knowledge’ and the least important was ‘ creative thinking ’.Traditional classroom environments have been criticised as not being ‘ creativity-fostering places ’, with pressure on the curriculum and lack of support from senior leadership . Academics Bergetto and Plucker sum it up in their belief that these issues ‘ systematically eliminate ’ creativity in the classroom.HOW TO MAKE CREATIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTSFor the teaching of creativity to be effective, it seems that there must be a deliberate emphasis on the value of creativity in educational objectives. Teachers should be encouraged to prioritise and integrate creative thinking explicitly alongside traditional content knowledge and it is essential that schools are provided with amp...