As educators and parents, we’re often told to be creative and innovative with our students and children. But how do we start? Who teaches us about creativity and innovation? How can we embody creativity and teach it to our students, when we may not have developed this ability?

Just as we plant the seeds of creativity within our students, we need to sow seeds of creativity within ourselves. Creativity has to be nurtured in order to grow, strengthen, and renew. It starts with nurturing a creative mindset within ourselves. Here are a few tips that require few or no resources to implement in your classroom. For educators and parents alike, it is essential to help children develop the skills they need to adapt and thrive in the face of challenge and uncertainty. Known as an innovative mindset, this way of thinking has been proven to help students navigate situations that lack simple solutions.

Learning is a dynamic and scintillating process, where the learners acquire knowledge about diverse fields and concepts. The students attend school, receive a formal set of education, and move up to the next academic grade after taking and passing the final exam. Now, the question is how would you create an innovative learning environment that contributes to the overall development of the student and engages them in a more unique classroom space? Innovative classroom space can be a solution!

By innovative classroom space, we need not mean high-quality 2023 digital tools and techniques. We mean creating a learning space that helps candidates derive knowledge from a creative segment, engage better with their teachers and peers and get the chance to showcase their uniqueness.

1. Create your own “Three Ifs” 

Let’s be clear about this – there are no universal recipes for innovation, and each person should develop her or his own approach depending on specialty, interest, type of thinking, or even the type of team s/he is participating in.

We should try to build creative thinking around three “ifs”:

(a) What would happen if I change it (the object/ system/ social relationship, (etc.)? 
(b) What would I change or improve about this object if I wanted to use it in 10 years?
(c) What would I do if I had a one-million-dollar investment to improve it?

These questions can become powerful tools that can help you to think differently. It is important to exercise these skills by repeatedly using the “three ifs” formula (or designing your own set of questions) about all sorts of things. And many new ideas will pop up.

2. Practice Dreaming 

The greatest paradox is that creative thinking is not necessarily the product of IQ or enlightenment via the proverbial apple falling on your head. It is a matter of regularly training your imagination, practicing your powers of observation and dreaming, big or small. It sounds so simple, and yet in this era of information overload and highly charged urban life, this important element is often missing from our everyday lives. All too often we stay focused on the main task at hand, devoting our mental powers to routine actions so that at the end of the day the most creative idea we can come up with is just to finally take a break in front of the TV or computer screen.

3. Let Students Ask Questions

Let students ask questions – but don’t rush to give them the answers! Yes, this will go against your instinct as a teacher. However, it is important for students to feel brave enough to ask questions and then have the courage to find the answers themselves as often as possible because when they will ask questions, they will use their thinking capacity and while trying to answer those questions they will discover more innovation within themselves.

4. Make Hands-On Learning a Regular Event

Students thrive in hands-on learning environments. When they are given the opportunity to learn through experience rather than just a textbook, they will be more innovative because the practical sessions put a greater and graver impression on the students than merely learning in the things written in textbooks.

5. Reward Students

No matter how small, reward the students whenever they present their creative ideas—it encourages them to think creatively. Verbal praise in front of the class is a good way of rewarding a student. More ways of rewarding a student include distributing candies/chocolates, giving fancy stationery items like colored pens, etc. Rewarding a student boosts their motivation and helps in developing creative thinking.

6. Be a good listener

Listening to students’ creative ideas can be very helpful for motivating them. One can be a good listener by concentrating on the speaker, being comfortable with silence, asking good questions, and not interrupting the speaker. Being a good listener as a teacher can make a student more responsible. They know someone is keeping a check on them and is expecting more from them; hence more input can be seen from the students’ side, which would result in developing creativity among students.

We have always tried our best to provide the students with the best ways to inculcate innovation within themselves so that they can give shape to their imagination. SFS Guwahati, being one of the best schools in Guwahati is dedicated to enriching the students and cultivating innovative mindsets within them.