Creativity & Innovation Toolkit

Checklist for monitoring creativity in your classroom

Use this checklist to evaluate the effect of your teaching and learning strategies and your classroom climate on students’ creativity.

In my classroom, I…
	Rarely	Sometimes	Often
Provide problems that challenge and extend my students.
Ask my students to think of a problem that needs solving and then get them to develop two or more possible solutions.
Encourage “either-or” thinking.
Encourage "what if?" thinking.
Use group brainstorming to generate ideas.
Give students plenty of time to think through problems.
Ask students to evaluate solutions from a range of perspectives.
Include some specific criteria in assessment items that require them to give evidence of their creative, innovative approaches to the problem.
Explain to students what the criteria actually mean and how they link to the learning objectives.
Create a “safe haven” climate in which students feel comfortable to think out loud, and on their feet.
Recognise and reward risk-taking.
Provide regular, formative feedback on their ideas or creative work throughout the course.

Some relevant material is available at:

Creativity: How is your climate for innovation?
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 15 May, 2006:
http://www.thinking.net/Creativity/creativity.html

Creativity Techniques:
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 15 May, 2006:
http://www.mycoted.com/creativity/techniques/index.php

Ten Creativity Kick Starts:
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 4 April, 2005:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Basics/kickstart.htm

Obstacles to Creativity:
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 4 April, 2005:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Basics/obstacles.htm

Nightingale, P., Te Wiata, I., Toohey, S., Ryan, G., Hughes, C., & Magin, D. (1996).
Assessing Learning in Universities. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

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