5 Ways to Improve Your Creative Thinking

Develop your students’ creativity in the classroom

1. Create a compassionate, accepting environment.
2. Be present with students’ ideas.
3. Encourage autonomy.
4. Re-word assignments to promote creative thinking.
5. Give students direct feedback on their creativity.
6. Help students know when it’s appropriate to be creative.

Instead, here are five ways you can help students maintain (and increase) their natural creativity.

• Foster a Question-Friendly Environment.
• Practice Generating More Ideas.
• Encourage New Skills.
• Model Creativity in the Classroom.
• Use the Jigsaw Classroom Method.

A few other techniques to encourage critical thinking are:

• Use analogies.
• Promote interaction among students.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Allow reflection time.
• Use real-life problems.
• Allow for thinking practice.

Use active learning techniques to engage students, and encourage innovation and creativity. Some faculty create games and use concept maps, songs, study guides. As one faculty member stated, “learning happens when you trap a student in an environment where they can’t escape without thinking.”

1. Create your own “Three Ifs” Many good innovators take an existing object and ask clever questions to twist the very concept of it and make it new.
2. Practice dreaming.
3. Make time for cohesive creative thinking.
4. Learn to pitch your ideas (in an elevator)
5. Bounce ideas off others.

Innovative Teaching Strategies that Improve Student Engagement

• Inquiry-Based Learning.
• QR Codes.
• Project-Based Learning.
• Wisely Managed Classroom Technology.
• Jigsaws.

There are three main cognitive learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Which of These 4 Instructional Strategies Do You Use in Your…

• Direct Instruction. This is what some refer to as the traditional method.
• Interactive Instruction.
• Experiential learning.
• Independent Study.

7 Effective Teaching Strategies For The Classroom

• Visualization.
• Cooperative learning.
• Inquiry-based instruction.
• Differentiation.
• Technology in the classroom.
• Behaviour management.
• Professional development.

Student-focused teaching strategies

• Gamification. Classroom gamification is an effective way to take a child’s love for play and turn it into a love of learning.
• Convergent and divergent thinking.
• Project-based learning.
• Experiential learning.
• Peer teaching.
• Inquiry-based learning.
• Problem-based learning.
• Reciprocal teaching.

Consider the five categories of instructional strategies (direct, indirect, experiential, independent and interactive).

Strategy instruction is a teaching practice that shows students how to learn the content or skills they need to acquire. It provides students with clear strategies (such as note-taking or thinking aloud) to help them process, remember, and express the information they learn.

• Strategy 1: Setting goals. Lessons have clear learning intentions with goals that clarify what success looks like.
• Strategy 2: Structuring lessons.
• Strategy 3: Explicit teaching.
• Strategy 4: Worked examples.
• Strategy 5: Collaborative learning.
• Strategy 6: Multiple exposures.
• Strategy 7: Questioning.
• Strategy 8: Feedback.

Strategies can be thought of as goals that you can use to prioritize and focus your efforts in creating and implementing your design. Techniques are concrete ways of accomplishing those goals.

10 Instructional Strategies Examples

• Microlearning.
• Spaced Repetition.
• Interactivity.
• Gamification.
• Leaderboards.
• Peer Learning.
• Mobile Learning.
• Just in Time training (JITT)

Getting Acquainted with the Essential Nine

• Identifying similarities and differences.
• Summarizing and note taking.
• Reinforcing effort and providing recognition.
• Homework and practice.
• Nonlinguistic representations.
• Cooperative learning.
• Setting objectives and providing feedback.
• Generating and testing hypotheses.

Student-Centered Teaching Strategies

• Choice Boards. Choice boards allow students to select activities they will complete to practice a skill or demonstrate understanding.
• Jigsaw/Stations/Centers.
• Inquiry-Based Learning.
• Project-Based Learning and Problem-Based Learning.
• Flipped Classrooms.

6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning

• Differentiate Through Teams.
• Reflection and Goal Setting.
• Mini-Lessons, Centers, and Resources.
• Voice and Choice in Products.
• Differentiate Through Formative Assessments.
• Balance Teamwork and Individual Work.

Five components of instruction can be differentiated: (1) content—what a student needs to learn or how the student will gain access to the knowledge, ideas, and skills; (2) process—how the student will come to master and “own” the knowledge, ideas, and skills; (3) product—how the student will summatively show what he …

Differentiation strategy allows a company to compete in the market with something other than lower prices. For example, a candy company may differentiate their candy by improving the taste or using healthier ingredients.

“Differentiated instruction is a proactively planned, interdependent system marked by a positive community of learners, focused high-quality curriculum, ongoing assessment, flexible instructional arrangements, [and] respectful tasks.” learning experiences to learners.

The Role of the Teacher in a Differentiated Classroom The teacher is the organizer of learning opportunities in a classroom, and must capture the attention of the students. This leads to increased engagement and student understanding. In a differentiated classroom, students’ differences and needs are highlighted.

Examples of differentiating products at the elementary level include the following:

1. Giving students options of how to express required learning (e.g., create a puppet show, write a letter, or develop a mural with labels);
2. Using rubrics that match and extend students’ varied skills levels;

Teachers who practice differentiation in the classroom may:

• Design lessons based on students’ learning styles.
• Group students by shared interest, topic, or ability for assignments.
• Assess students’ learning using formative assessment.
• Manage the classroom to create a safe and supportive environment.

Tips for Accommodating

1. Engage the student in conversation about the subject matter.
2. Question students about the material.
3. Ask for oral summaries of material.
4. Have them tape lectures and review them with you.
5. Have them tape themselves reviewing material and listen to it together.
6. Read material aloud to them.

Don’t worry about planning a “perfect” lesson; just do the best you can.

1. Use strategic seating.
2. Provide multiple levels of each activity.
3. Teach the same concept several ways.
4. Play games.
5. Give personal attention.

Differentiated classrooms operate on the premise that learning experiences are most effective when they are engaging, relevant, and interesting to students. Teachers who differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms seek to provide appropriately challenging learning experiences for all their students.

• 1 Class Size. It is hard to implement differentiated instruction in a classroom of over 20 students.
• 2 Professional Staff. One teacher cannot differentiate alone.
• 3 Resources.
• 4 Administrative Support.
• 5 Parental Support.

Great teachers design learning experiences that respond to their students’ needs/readiness, interests, and learning preferences….Why Teachers Need to Differentiate Instruction

• Unique Brains.
• Brain Preferences.
• Curious Brains.
• Use It or Lose It.
• The Best Intervention Is Prevention.

UDL aims to ensure all students have full access to everything in the classroom, regardless of their needs and abilities. Student’s supported to self-direct learning and monitor progress. Differentiation is a strategy aimed at addressing each student’s individual levels of readiness, interest, and learning profiles.