Tips for teachers: Developing creative thinking

Jul 12, 2026 | Blogs

Tips for teachers: Developing creative thinking

Jul 12, 2026 | Blogs

‘There is growing consensus internationally that creative thinking needs to be cultivated to help learners succeed. Beyond identifying the importance of the skill, however, there is little guidance on how to develop and teach it, due in part to a lack of understanding or even agreement about the nature of creative thinking as a skill, including what constitutes its fundamental building blocks, and how it develops and changes in a learner.’ (https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/teaching-creative-thinking-6-considerations-for-practice)

Developing creative thinking in the classroom involves designing a psychologically safe environment where students take intellectual risks, alongside implementing structured routines like divergent brainstorming and project-based learning.

Cultivate the 5 Creative Habits of Mind

According to the CRL Five-Dimensional Model, genuine student creativity consists of five core habits that teachers should intentionally build into their lesson objectives:

• Inquisitive: Wondering, questioning assumptions, and challenging the status quo.

• Imaginative: Generating novel ideas and making unusual connections between concepts.

• Persistent: Sticking with difficulty and viewing mistakes as a natural part of finding solutions.

• Collaborative: Cooperating with others to spark new perspectives and refine ideas.

• Disciplined: Practicing, evaluating, and crafting work to achieve high-quality outcomes.

Try “Split-Screen” Teaching

Don’t change what you teach; change how you frame it. When you design a lesson, give it two goals: one for the subject and one for a creative habit.

• The Content: Teaching a specific science experiment or history event.

• The Habit: Intentionally practicing curiosity or persistence.

Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT)

Teach students cognitive tools to manipulate existing ideas or objects to create something novel.

• Subtraction: Take a core element away. (e.g., “Write a poem with no full stops” or “Design a table with no legs”).

• Multiplication: Duplicate a component and alter its function. (e.g., “What is the benefit of a kitchen knife sharp on both edges?”).

• Task Unification: Assign a new role to an existing element. (e.g., “How can we add a dishwasher function into an oven?”)

Upgrade Your Brainstorming

We’ve all done brainstorming sessions where kids just shout out the first ten obvious answers. To break past that, use the “Category Shift”:

• Let them write down all the easy, predictable answers first.

• Group those answers into categories on the board.

• Then say: “Great, now these categories are officially banned. What else have we got?”

Optimise the classroom environment

• Psychological Safety: Never grade the first attempt at a creative project.

• Strategic Constraints: Limit materials or word counts (e.g., creating a “six-word story”).

• Physical Spaces: Reconfigure standard rows into flexible group clusters or design “thinking tables”.

This blog was written by Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Education Consultant and Trainer.

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