Top Nine Classroom Creativity Killers

Author- Marvin Bartel

These nine creativity killers are things which teachers sometimes do as shortcuts in our classrooms, but which result in diminished creativity in our students. These are taken from the short article by Bartel which appears on the website: http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/creativitykillers.html

1. I Kill Creativity when I encourage Renting (borrowing) instead of Owning ideas.

2. I Kill Creativity when I Assign Grades without providing Informative Feedback.

3. I Kill Creativity when I allow Cliché Symbols to substitute for Original or Observed Representation of Experience.

4. I Kill Creativity when I Demonstrate instead of having students Practice.

5. I Kill Creativity when I Show an Example instead of Defining a Problem.

6. I Kill Creativity when I Praise Neatness and Conformity more than Expressive Original work.

7. I Kill Creativity when I give Freedom without Focus .

8. I Kill Creativity by Making Suggestions instead of asking Open Questions.

9. I Kill Creativity if I Give an Answer instead of teaching Problem Solving methods.