Creative Thinking and Innovation for Educators

Creativity is not a talent reserved for artists and entrepreneurs — it is a capacity that can be cultivated in every learner, in every context, at every age. And like any capacity, it requires a teacher who has first cultivated it in themselves. This course invites educators and youth practitioners to rediscover their own creative potential and then develop the facilitation skills and classroom structures to unlock it in the people they work with.

We draw on a rich set of frameworks and methods: design thinking, lateral thinking, improv-based learning, visual thinking, and the creative problem-solving (CPS) model. Participants will experience each approach as learners before examining its pedagogical foundations and exploring how to adapt it for different educational contexts. The emphasis throughout is on learning by doing — by the end of day one, participants will have generated, prototyped, and shared something they made.

Storytelling and arts integration feature prominently in the second half of the course. Narrative is one of the most powerful vehicles for learning and meaning-making available to educators, and we explore how it can be woven into subjects far beyond language arts — from mathematics and science to civic education and vocational training. Participants will develop a short storytelling-based learning sequence to take home and teach.

The final day focuses on culture and sustainability: how to build an environment in which creative risk-taking is normal, where failure is information rather than shame, and where both teachers and students feel genuinely free to explore, experiment, and surprise themselves. Participants will leave with a personal creativity manifesto, a portfolio of practical activities, and a renewed sense of professional joy.