Want to develop students’ creativity? Give them complex problems to solve

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” – Pablo Picasso

Creativity – in the past decade it has become one of the most important qualities for success in the modern world. We want our children to be creative, to think outside the box, to be trailblazers, etc. but how do we develop creativity in our students?

Over the years I have met many creative people. In this article, I will attempt to trace the journey they have gone through and to suggest an educational process which we can implement in school from an understanding of the processes which these creative people have undergone in their lives and which developed their capacity for creativity.

The Even-Sapir Dictionary defines creativity as the ability to produce ideas and face problems in a way that is new and different than the norm. The core root of creativity is the ability to solve any problem in an original way. Creative people have a proactive approach. They are open to new information, are very curious, and aspire to new challenges. They enjoy learning and trying without fear of failure while using unexpected solutions.

There is a large degree of variation in students’ creative thinking abilities. That said, in my view this is an ability which can be nurtured and strengthened. Considering the above definition, it is easy to understand that the use of puzzles and problems is the basis for learning and practicing creative thinking. If we were to describe it in a simple schematic diagram, it would look like this:

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Natural Curiosity

According to the diagram, curiosity is the basis for creativity. We all come into the world full of curiosity. This is based on our natural urge to know more. From birth, babies’ senses are all directed at exploring and learning and they experiment with everything they come across. The moment children start talking they begin asking questions. Great and creative minds continue asking difficult questions at that same level of intensity throughout their lives.

Natural curiosity therefor is the basis, but what happens to it over time? In many schools, students still learn that the answers are more important than the questions. Reward is given to those who identify the “correct answer” – the answer in the hands of the person of authority, the teacher. In most cases, this way of learning does not develop curiosity, question presentation skills, and the ability to relish ambiguity and vagueness. This educational approach, which fosters the desire to please authority, suppresses doubt, and encourages obedience to the rules, is an approach that was right for a company that needed production workers and officials, but is irrelevant to today's reality.

Creating Motivation – Finding the Student’s Area of Interest

Curiosity is, in my opinion, the fuel for motivation for learning. The degree of motivation is important to us in order to know whether the student is doing the learning task well and with significant cognitive and emotional involvement, or working to finish as quickly as possible and satisfy the other. This is also connected to the student's psychological experience: their feelings about the activities they are engaged in, their feelings about learning and about the school in general, and their self-esteem.

In order to promote students' motivation, several steps must be taken:

• Changing the role of the teacher from "judge" and "teaching the learning material" to an ally who promotes growth.

• Creating a curriculum that enables students to develop an internal interest and a sense of competence in the field they have chosen.

• Developing a basic understanding among the school staff and students that the answers are not all with the teacher, and that one of the school's goals is to encourage students to ask questions, to think and to challenge existing perceptions.

•  The teacher must find their students’ areas of interest, and through them to understand the areas to which the student will be drawn and in which we can base learning which develops creativity. Teachers who strive to preserve the natural curiosity of their students must explore the topics that interest them and build the classroom learning based on them. This is a fundamental process which requires a number of actions:

o  Exposure to many interests

o  Identifying the areas of interest and strength of each student

o  Harnessing the interests in order to motivate students to learn

These points can be made in a metaphor of the teacher as curator of an endless exhibition at the museum. The curator is responsible for organizing exhibitions, with a line connecting all the works and transforming the experience of viewing the works into a narrative. The importance of the curator derives from their extensive knowledge and their ability to assist visitors in the exhibition to create a narrative. They are the link between the intuitive experience of the creator and the viewer. In accordance with this metaphor, as teachers, it is important that you expose the students in your class to a wide range of subjects in a variety of ways and let them experience things freely, while trying to help them create a narrative and an understanding. However, be careful not to overburden students, avoid forcing students to "move through rooms" when they are already overloaded with what they have experienced before, and they cannot contain any more. Focus in this step on looking at the inner attraction of each child.

Stimulating and Developing Creativity

When you allow each child to be exposed to and to discover his or her own area of interest, it is possible to take the next step, which is to present a challenge in the area of interest by solving a problem that the student has chosen. Complex problem solving is related and leads to the development of creativity, in my opinion. A person who faces a challenge in their field is faced with a long and unknown obstacle course in which they will have to take the initiative, be exposed to new information, gather and learn new content, work under the burden of information and time pressure, be quick and flexible, and discover new and varied ways to find solutions. Of course, the size of the challenge is a derivative of the student's ability, so that in view of the student's progress, limitations can be placed - time, sources of information, and competition in solving a given problem.

It is important that the challenge be from the student's area of interest, since a challenge that does not interest the child will not lead to any internal motivation for learning. But if it is a challenge that the student has a real interest in solving, then motivation will come from that and learning will take place. The role of the teacher is to find the right challenge or the right problem to be solved by the specific student or the specific group of students.

After choosing the problem the student chose, the teacher should accompany the student in finding or learning the tools for studying and solving problems, such as learning from history, learning from a book of rules, searching for reliable information on the web, learning programming language, learning carpentry, or learning fiscal rules.

By being occupied with solving complex problems over time, we will strengthen within the student a structure of thinking that becomes a different way of looking at the world. Students who deal with problems of increasing complexity and difficulty over their school years, in areas of interest which they choose, will experience: coping with failure, self-learning, developing a sense of responsibility, entrepreneurship, investigation - finding new connections, thinking differently, and ultimately feeling capable. All these are essential elements and skills in their ability to think creatively.

Here are some recommendations for the right way, in my view, of accompanying learning through solving complex problems:

- Trial and error - One of the most important qualities of a teacher is the ability to help the student learn on his or her own. Experience is the wellspring of wisdom. Develop your students’ commitment to knowledge through experience, perseverance, and willingness to learn from mistakes.

- Direct the students to a meaningful challenge - this will increase motivation and the product will be more of higher quality. Because of the importance of the journey, in this context when choosing a challenge with the student, it is less important to distinguish between a riddle - a question with an unequivocal answer to a puzzle - a question with a multitude of possibilities and solutions. However, it is recommended to use both types.

- Instruct and guide the student in finding tools for a solution - the way is more important than the product. Accompany and guide the students' way of solving problems by enriching them with a variety of tools from different worlds of knowledge. Encourage them to invent their own tools.

- Strengthen students' self-confidence and self-efficacy - the student's self-efficacy perception for performing a particular task is influenced by previous experiences of success and failure in similar tasks, and by watching other people who are similar to them who succeed or fail in the task. The perception of self-efficacy is also influenced by other people's perception of the student's ability, for example, what parents or teachers think about their ability to perform the task. Therefore, we must strengthen students' self-efficacy by creating an increased difficulty level of problem solving, so that the student will initially experience success. We must also examine ourselves and make sure that we believe and transmit to the student a belief in their success.

- Turn the achievement into a final product - solving a problem in the work world usually leads to the new product. It is therefore worthwhile to aim that the solutions which the students have found will become products of real world value. Show your students the breakthrough and innovation in their solution.

In conclusion, creativity is a feature that can be learned and refined, and can be developed in many ways. In this article, I have chosen to focus on the effect of solving complex problems on the development of creativity. The creative person acts in a complex reality, which creates a need to create and improvise. Therefore, the student within whom we want to develop creativity must face a difficult problem to solve, which they perceive as a possible challenge and in their area of interest, so that they will be directed to try to solve it creatively. We, as educators, have the responsibility of helping the student find the area of interest that stimulates natural curiosity and in this area to challenge them, with the understanding that practice is important for the development of creativity in order to make it easier and more abundant. In a world where creativity is required of students, no less creativity is required of teachers and principals.

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