Teaching and learning creativity

Creativity is not an easy phenomenon to define and hence understand. Perhaps this is partly the reason why there seems to be ‘issues’ in creativity and design and technology education. Some approaches to understanding creativity have focused on one area, for example the cognitive approach. There are however, a number of researchers who suggest that there are many interrelated factors that seem to contribute towards understanding creativity. These have become known as multidisciplinary approaches. This paper outlines one such approach to creativity, Csickszentmihalyi’s ‘Systems Perspective’ for studying creativity. A number of implications and issues will be explored with respect to the teaching and learning of creativity in design and technology (D&T). The teacher it is argued, has a significant role in increasing the likelihood of creativity in the D&T classroom. This paper is limited to a small case study, but seeks to generate a debate in order to help demystify the phenomenon of creativity, how it may inform practice in the D&T classroom, and ultimately increase the likelihood of creativity for pupils studying D&T.