Creativity and Innovation – The Missing Links in Education

There is no denial of the fact that our education system does not adequately support or nurture creativity and innovation. The current scheme of things including national policies of education deem to desire for a change; however, the processes in place including, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment patterns continue to remain straight jacketed funding mediocrity and rote learning. The game of passing on the buck from the educational policy makers to administrators to pedagogues always runs the complete cycle with no possible game changers.

In finding an answer to this question Dr. Jack Oliver, a geo-physicist in the Irving Porter Church, Professor of Engineering at Cornell University in his book Creative Thinking observes: “There is something mysterious about creativity. We can describe it, admire it, strive for it and experience it, but we can never understand how or why a certain innovative idea springs up at a particular time in the mind of a particular individual. Indeed, most people never expect to understand or master the process.”

Murphy, a well-known educational psychologist observes: “desire to create must be almost universal; and that almost everyone has some measure of originality which stems from his fresh perception of life and experiences, and the uniqueness of his own fantasy when he is free to share it.” This definition while acknowledging the universality of the process of creativity, frames it into select vocabularies of originality, freshness, perception, experiences, uniqueness, fantasy, freedom and ability to share.”

Over the years, the aims and objectives of education have become victims of the industrial model requisites favouring mass production of holders of degrees and certificates. The process of such mass drills though helps to increase the statistical perspectives it has turned a blind eye to the quality of learning or the empowered learning processes. This has resulted in a kind of conditioned mindset among parents and the community, who feel secured in their comfort zones with their tamed understanding of what education is all about. Preparing the learners to pre-conceived job with regulated income has been the longing of many of the parents. Though this aspect of human psyche cannot be underscored, the larger objectives of education as making of empowered human beings with enriched knowledge and skills appears out of focus. Dean Simonton observes: “Most of history’s great creators didn’t just have their hands in one basket. They would have lots of different things going on. If they ran into obstacles in one area, they put aside for a while and moved on to something else. By having multiple projects, you’re more likely to have a breakthrough somewhere… you’re always moving along.”

The United Nations celebrating the International Day for creativity and innovation on 21st April has re-emphasized the need for better focus on inculcating the spirit of creativity and innovation in our educational systems.

Flexibility in curriculum is fundamental to empower creativity and innovation. Acknowledging the fact that no two learners learn the same way and that learning cannot be framed into time, space and the pre-ordained input of information is essential and critical to facilitate empowered learning that leads to creative thinking.

“One size-doesn’t fit all’ advocacy has stayed more in platforms rather than being articulated into curricular processes. The emerging understanding about neurodiversity and neuroplasticity is proof enough to argue a case for diversified learning and providing a buffet approach to learning possibilities. Individualizing curriculum may have an administrative roadblock, but technology can act as an interventional instrument to facilitate freedom of learning interposed with creative thinking.

The conventional pedagogical models have largely supported mass pedagogical drills in the classroom. They have always followed a top-down approach keeping the teacher on an ivory pedestal. Enabling an ownership for learning and empowering a research-methodology to seek the portals of knowledge and unravel the unfathomed oceans of knowledge is important and this can well be achieved with the support of several technological tools. The concepts of multiple intelligence explain the diverse gateways to access and process knowledge, thus catalysing the specific aptitude of the learner which in turn will usher in creative pursuits and innovative traits. It is equally important to note that creative and innovation are not necessarily laboratory or institution driven but are the possibilities that exist even outside the four walls of the classroom.

The post-covid approaches to pedagogical interventions have supported use of blended learning strategies including flipped classrooms. These strategies also support differentiated learning and diversified learning relieving the learners from the stress caused by the straight jacketed models. The multiple sources of learning inputs facilitate the learner for a time and space free learning. These methods could help the learners to examine and understand the convergence and divergence of knowledge through integrated learning and inter-disciplinary learning.

The nature of assessment has always been a roadblock to seek opportunities for diversified learning and deep learning, simply because the learners tend to stay within the parameters of a defined syllabus and the curriculum to prove themselves in the given time frame. Experiential learning that is obtained from to time through observations, interactions, discussions, comments and analytics are not taken note of in the time-nudged examinations. The assessments have been used more to examine what one doesn’t understand and what one is not capable of rather than as a positive vibrant tool to positively position the learners. If education has to support creative and innovative thinking the assessment models and patterns need to be transformed to play more a positive role.

Absence of skill orientation and skill development has been one of the causes to keep the learners suffocate with inadequacy in their knowledge management. The urgency to finish the curriculum in a given timeframe whether the learning objectives have been achieved or not, has put the concurrent skills on a shelf for a later date. Unfortunately, the schools never looked back at those shelves to replenish what has been lost. Lack of coordination between educational institutions and industries/ skill sectors has not been addressed to with the attention it deserves. The convergence of knowledge and skill is possible only when there is a handshake between educational institutions and the industry managers.

There has been a failure on the part of educational institutions to acknowledge and celebrate individual talents and the uniqueness of the learners. Though the schools took a major dividend of the credit of the learners when they brought laurels of one kind or the other, the real contributions of the institutions to the capturing and nurturing of these talents have been extremely minimal. While one cannot blame the institutions totally given their compulsions to discharge their expected duties, this area needs special focus in schools.

The schools need to put in place idea labs for experimentation for the students from the middle school level. This could facilitate creative thinking, experimentation, project-based learning, freedom to think and freedom to experiment. The students could be trained to generate, incubate, process, navigate, experiment with their ideas. It is not necessary that all ideas need to fructify, but the mere ability to navigate with ideas will give them the required confidence for production and enterprise.

Given the above approaches to defining creativity and others, it is important to understand that there exists an opportunity for every individual to be potentially creative either by oneself or in the context of a team or a system. What seems to be more relevant is the appropriacy of attitudes, the commitment to the purpose, the freedom to exercise the faculties of mind and a deep appreciation of the call of the soul.