Teaching Creativity across the Curriculum through Design Education?

Volume 14 Issue 1 April - June 2017

Research Paper

Teaching Creativity across the Curriculum through Design Education?

Tom Page*, Gisli Thorsteinsson**

* Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University, England.

** Professor, Department of Design and Craft Education, Iceland University of Education, Iceland

Page.T.,and Thorsteinsson.G. (2017). Teaching Creativity across the Curriculum through Design Education? i-manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, 14(1), 7-19. https://doi.org/10.26634/jet.14.1.13583

Abstract

This article examines the effectiveness of design as a subject fulfilling its role of developing creativity within students by allowing and supporting the behaviour and its expression. Creativity in education has been a pressing issue for many countries throughout recent history, once again resurfacing as a key topic for discussion, yet the term is still surrounded by mystery and discrepancies. This study attempts to establish teachers' understandings and definitions of creativity, outlining their methods for nurturance, through a triangulation of research. Evidence returned inconclusive of exact definition held by a majority, however multiple themes arose throughout, demystifying and adding to areas of the current body of knowledge. Implications for greater acknowledgment to the creative process rather than exclusively to product that abides by restrictive criteria, were highlighted as steps in the right direction for effective development of creativity within design as a subject, in educational institutions.