Barriers to Fostering Originality and Creativity in Students

Curriculum needs to be changed to foster creativity. Focus is more on obtaining better ATAR

Low regard by society. See recent government decision to raise cost of humanities subjects at universities and lower fees for STEM subjects.

Attention span. Students have trouble focusing which is a barrier to foster creativity.

The curriculum is crowded and it is difficult to spend time on fostering creativity.

In order to be creative people need time and this for some is a luxury. The world moves so quickly and the cost of living is so high that people often feel guilty being idle and letting their minds wander.

The biggest barrier is the perceived lack of time people have – everyone is conditioned to be ‘busy’ all the time.

Imagination cannot be taught, only prompted. It has been said that we analysed too much, and work too much to achieve perfection ( the unachievable), which destroys the ‘what if’ kind of thinking that is the flint that ignites the imagination.

It is up to educators to foster an environment where ‘what ifs’ are explored – and students are given opportunities to explore both the possible and the impossible – imagination.

Creativity is taking the imagined and making it into something -and through that process, learning and innovating as one makes.

Compliance and ‘ticking the boxes’ need to be done but often at the expense of creativity.

One new huge barrier has just been introduced: a $45,000 Bachelor of Arts degree. More than doubling! If you think history, what remains is literature, sculpture, architecture, artefacts,…culture. What will we leave behind – plastic? We’re creating dull minds with our overemphasis on training for the workforce under the guise of education. We need to give them freedom and time to explore before becoming.

I agree with a lot of the comments posted. However, I believe that creativity and originality can still be fostered through good creative teaching strategies, flexibility of thinking and encouragement.

Schooling……”Colour the apple red!” Unfortunately this is still a key component of kindergarten classrooms, we need to allow children to explore the colours that apples really are…let’s stop stifling creativity.

The current curriculum is the biggest barrier to creativity.

That’s a hard one but I might put forward the thought that there often seems like a uniform way to look to be considered beautiful. What about standardised, school testing systems that focus on test results to establish how well the school is doing

A structured view of delivery of materials and of assessment of competence – a one size fits all model. I realise this is often compliance driven but would love to see greater flexibility here !

A right wing conservative government and society that just doesn’t value the arts or creativity because it doesn’t make money. I feel also that art in all its forms represents a level of diversity that society at large doesn’t want to acknowledge.

I see lack of time as a barrier to fostering originality and creativity in our students. There is so much that we have to ‘get through’ that we just don’t have time to let their imaginations ‘run wild’.

The curriculum drives us with out teaching and we often don’t have time to let our learners explore and be creative with their ideas and thinking – we are in fact are stifling their initiatives and innovativeness.

Curriculum and marking systems that reward regurgitation or cut & paste in answers rather than new and creative perspectives

Societal expectations/ education system does not support round peg in a square hole, there is a lack of disregard for the importance of creativity – many a time I have students say but… I Am not creative. This is one I refer to Malaguzzi 100 languages as there as the perception that creativity is just about art/craft.

Was blown away that the adult attention span is now only 8 seconds and I can know clearly see where it is all coming from!

Systemic low regard – seen in underfunding of the arts, increasing fees for arts courses from TAFE to now universities, the high profile of STEM courses, and school curriculum and marking systems that reward regurgitation in answers rather than new and creative perspectives. The distractions of technology and social media may be taking up a lot of our precious thinking time, but equally they are a forum for sharing new and creative ideas and encouraging imagination and innovation. Many new business ideas have found their feet in crowd funding and marketing online. Creativity breeds creativity, and the sharing of ideas… Read more »

The biggest barrier for students is the lack to try to be creative, being to distracted with things happening in their life and their devices

Lack of focus/dedication

The social media and the internet have provided solutions to any problem. This really limits their degree of creativity and originality. They always seem to look for easy solutions which they can easily find on the internet. Before the internet we were forced to think and create solutions and we were quite successful.

I agree that students are not given the chance to be bored or think without distractions. They are so dependent on their devices and the need to be constantly entertained.

I agree social media etc can have a detrimental effect but I do think expectations have changed a lot since when I was a student. Back then there a sense that learning arts, for instance, was fine but now students seem to be much more business orientated. The fact they have to cough up more fees than my generation did perhaps means they don’t believe they can afford the “luxury” to be creative. That that is somehow a bit too frivolous.

I think this is even harder than in previous generations because of the ‘on tap’ nature of social media. Students have a computer in their pockets and instead of allowing their own creativity and originality to develop they log into Pinterest or Instagram or google and find pictures of other peoples creativity.

Quite simply I just don’t think we allow them enough time. And so many haven’t even learnt how to be imaginative. There’s still very much the school of thought that you’re either creative or you’re not. And that creativity and the arts isn’t an overly ‘valid’, well-paying role for the majority.

The prescriptive nature of so much of our syllabuses certainly stifles original thinking and creativity. Lack of financial reward for creative work certainly doesn’t help either.

The ability to copy and paste so easily and crammed syllabus, systems with ticks and balances, pressure to push required information through to get to the next. Even when students have sometimes gone creatively off the prescribed content there is pressure to keep them to where you can assess because that is the indicators that need to be meet.

Evidence to support what we just listened to…Our government proposes that the cost of humanities/arts degrees are going to double while the cost of STEM degrees will halve. Our graduating students are being discouraged from engaging in creative courses.
Further evidence – today’s announcement that the NSW curriculum will be overhauled over the next four years with special emphasis placed on literacy and numeracy. No mention of creativity.
The well being of our students is nourished by creativity.

In teaching some Barriers to Creativity:Uniformity of knowledge, Repetitive teaching,Traditional process of teaching and learning,Lack of creativity and innovation during classes.

Our education system and broader society aren’t really set up to support creativity. Even the term ‘creative genius’ tends to imply that it is either gift – something you either have or don’t – rather than something that can be developed and worked at. Eg. artists, inventors, musicians, innovators. Usually, I think this is taken to mean that it is something that other people have (and is to be admired) – but ‘not me’. I was not surprised by the concept that 3 years olds score far higher on measures of creativity than adults. We as a society essential socialise… Read more »

I think that we try to foster originality and creativity in students where we can- creativity manifests itself in different ways across the various subject areas. I agree with the view that there is a lot of content to ‘get through’ in most courses and a limited time frame to do so.

The system we are in

When the system doesn’t promote creativity as a highly valued attribute teachers and students find it difficult as well. Ingrained practices across the ‘rigorous’ areas rarely promote it and many do not see the value in stepping outside their comfort zones.

The constraints of content and what we need to teach stifles our ability to encourage creativity. something to think about as we look at changing what we are doing in schools.

I think the syllabus id too dense and there is too much assessment. More time should be allowed to teach in a context, i.e. select a local real-life situation and apply student learning to an assignment or project with plenty of scope to be creative.

The biggest barrier is time and the lack there of. Teachers are under pressure to keep up with the areas of learning that are valued and deemed important and often don’t have the time.
Another barrier is the lack of effort- I think sometimes our control and expectations as teachers, over assignments or activities can get in the way of our students imagination and creativity

I feel like one of the reasons we as teachers don’t seem to value imagination so much is the prevalence of standardised testing… It’s very hard to teach children how to be imaginative, especially with so much pressure to reach targets in NAPLAN under the strain of an already crowded curriculum. I know that these skills should go hand in hand… but I wonder if we drop the ball a bit as a result of this pressure… Such a sad outcome!

Conservatism. The belief that what has been done before is what needs to be done again. This should not be mistaken for thinking nothing good comes from the past but more to understand that change is ever present and we best adapt to that change through creativity .

The way some school systems place higher order (left) thinking subject above or regarded as being more important than creative subjects.

The biggest barriers to fostering originality and creativity in students is a lack of time in a busy world with ever increasing pressures. We have so much content to cover that it is difficulty to provide students with the time to ponder a task, be bored or be creative.

The biggest barrier is willingness to try and wanting to be spoon fed.

Where does imagination go after children begin school? Is it the need for conformity, the small group activities led by parents, the race to be the best reader? The never-ending list of outcome boxes to tick?

Time and the crowded curriculum at school with too much to try to complete. Not enough opportunities for undirected creative activities in class. Students need time play and discover in some unstructured situations. Too many activities for children after school because parents feel they have to offer so much to keep their children busy. Busy-ness does not foster originality or creativity it just fills in time.

It will be interesting to see students returning from covid19 lockdown, whether they will be less or more distracted. Will it have a positive affect, and kids will have a greater attention span? Or will it be negative because they will crave their devices that they got to have at home?

I think the biggest barrier is the lack of basic skills in a larger number of students. They need these skills to enable creativity with expression of their thoughts and actions.

Fear of failure and a lack of peer approval.
The inability to try, make mistakes, mess it up and rethink, because it doesn’t fit the social media way of getting acknowledgement.

I have always believed that creativity and imagination are essential for learning and for living an enjoyable life. It is those skills that enable optimism, for without an imagination, how can one possibly perceive your situation improving or how can one solve a problem.

It depends on what you perceive is ‘creative’. I think your creativity is allowed to blossom once you have the basic thinking and skills to allow you to express yourself creatively.