Creativity

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Creativity

HomeSchool resourcesCreativity

Topic summary

While creativity is typically associated with curriculum areas such as the visual and performing arts, it has a place in every school subject.

Creativity is the interaction between the learning environment, both physical and social, the attitudes and attributes of both teachers and students, and a clear problem-solving process which produces an outcome. Creativity is highly dependent upon subject specific knowledge and skills, and being creative involves using an existing set of knowledge or skills in a particular subject or context to experiment with new possibilities in the pursuit of valued outcomes. It develops over time, and there is a strong link between motivation and creativity.

Creativity is central to policy and curriculum documents in education systems around the world. 

Creativity is now regarded as a science by academic researchers and there is broad consensus in the field about both the components of creativity and the conditions needed to support and promote it. 

Teachers can support and promote creativity in their classrooms by teaching with creativity, which involves demonstrating a range of approaches to teaching and learning academic content and modelling the creative process themselves. They can also teach about creativity, by explicitly teaching their students about the components of creativity and the creative problem-solving process, and teach for creativity, by attending to the physical and social factors that support students to be creative. 

  • How can I create an appropriate physical and social environment to support creativity?
  • How can I can support students to develop the attitudes and attributes required for creativity?
  • What might creativity look like in my subject area  or year level?
  • What are the outcomes of creativity that we will strive for and how can we measure them fairly and appropriately?

Research reviews

What is creativity in education?

An overview of the key components of creativity and how to support it in schools

How to support and promote creativity in primary schools

A closer look at how to support and develop students’ creativity in primary school classrooms

Creativity at secondary school

What creativity looks like across subjects and how to promote it in secondary schools

Webinars

Supporting the development of computational thinking in makerspaces

LIVE EVENT: 7.30PM WEDNESDAY JUNE 4, 2025
Exploring ideas and practices that enhance experiences of computational thinking and resonate with the latest insights from the Science of Learning

Infographics

Creativity infographic

Creativity in education and how teachers can support it

Snapshots

Creativity and teaching, by Tim Patston

Teacher and creativity researcher Dr Tim Patston shares his insights on teaching with, about, and for creativity
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