How to Teach Students to Think Creatively

By Dorit Sasson
eHow Contributing Writer

Students by nature are creative in their thoughts, but the school system is not always a place for encouraging and nurturing creative thinking. Many new teachers also feel that creativity is equated with havoc in the classroom. Creative thinking as an approach can also be implemented and structured.

1. Prepare your lesson plan as you normally would for a particular class. Ask yourself if there is any aspect of the lesson that would appeal to your class. For example: Is the lesson on a theme that is especially interesting to students?

2. Question students on their interests and learn what motivates them.

3. Incorporate this newly found information as you redesign some of the activities. You don't need to restructure your lesson plan; you simply need to redesign elements of the activities to reflect more open-ended thinking.

4. Include at least one open-ended activity. An open-ended activity is one in which there is more than one correct response. Open-ended activities do not restrict the scope of students' vision and thinking.

5. Model more specific thinking processes before expecting your students to do a specific open-ended activity. Tell students that there is more than one way of thinking through a process and arriving at one answer.

6. Cater to at least one or more learning styles. A few learning styles are: audio, visual, kinesthetic. Different learning styles offer more opportunties for students to also become more engaged in their learning.