Einstein said that ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution’.
To create imaginative students we need to allow for playful experimentation and possibility thinking – encourage students to ask ‘what if’.
some ideas:
- ‘5 Whys’ technique: developed by the founder of Toyota, this technique allows for in-depth understanding of a situation. a simple example is when a student did not do the EW (homework). a more advanced example would be ‘Why are there so many migrants without homes?’ ‘Why do people sleep in the streets?’.
- waiting time: meditation has been proven to contribute positively to the classroom. this can be applied by introducing waiting times before answering questions. this will allow all boys to reflect on their answers before the first one shouts the answer.
- connections: following a similar process to the ‘odd one out’, students have to make connections between objects or concepts. this can be applied across a range of subjects and disciplines.
(From Teaching Creative Thinking by Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer, 2017)
