Introducing innovative teaching
strategies to enhance creativity
in Hong Kong
Dr. Ming-Fai HUI
Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction
The HK Institute of Education
June 13, 2007
Education Reform
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Nine generic skills
The 3 Cs
The cultivation of creativity becomes one of
the major educational goals in the current
reform
Teachers are encouraged to contribute new
ideas to teaching, infuse thinking skills into
the curriculum and nurture students ability to
think creatively
Creativity in the Classroom
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Teachers are expected to act as:
- a facilitator
- a stimulator
- a mentor
- a model
- a performer
- an idea generator
20 Creative Teaching Strategies
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Put oneself in role 角色想像
Playfulness and humor 幽默趣談
Forced connections 強廹組合
Group dynamics 團體接力
Imitate and re-construct 模仿再造
Analogy 類推比喻
Use all senses 感觀並用
Abstract to concrete / concrete to abstract具體/
抽象化
Construct fictitious plot 虛構情節
Explore the challenge 好奇探索
20 Creative Teaching Strategies
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Idea association through images 圖像聯想
Game interpretation 遊戲演繹
Grasp essence from complexity 設題摘要
Modify and alter for elaboration 修訂變換
Hypothesize and imagine 假設想像
Object probe 實物推想
Problem-solving 問題解決
Tolerance of ambiguity 容忍爭議
Deferred judgment 延遲判斷
Experiment and discover 測試發現
20 Creative Teaching Strategies
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Modified from Williams’ (1970) teaching model
showing18 teaching strategies effective for fostering
students’ creative behaviour
Modified from Lin’s (1997) 18 teaching methods for
creative writing
These proposed strategies have been modified and
adapted to cater for the regular classrooms in HK
Introduced to teachers taking my module, “The
Creative Teacher and Creative Teaching Strategies”
Using the Strategies in HK Schools
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Very few teachers know what they are
Even if they do, they rarely practice them in teaching
their subjects
They blame it on too much emphasis on
examinations – learning hard facts are more
important then generating ideas, especially original
ideas
They do not see the merits and long-term effects
that stimulate active involvement of students
Teachers’ preferences to teaching
strategies for fostering creativity
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A questionnaire survey was conducted to two
classes of the Creativity course in 2005/06
Entire sample (n=40) was stemmed from the inservice primary and secondary school teachers with
subject specialization:
English (n=15)
Chinese (n=8)
Mathematics (n=6)
Home Econ (n=2)
General Studies (n=1)
Physical Ed (n=1)
Music (n=1)
Visual Arts (n=3)
Science (n=1)
Economics & Public Affairs (n=2)
Findings:
Teachers’ preferences on strategies most
effective for fostering creativity
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Teachers were asked to name 3 out of 20
strategies based on their teaching
experiences that they think would best foster
the creative thinking processes or products of
student learning
Construct fictitious plot (32%)
Forced connections (28%)
Idea associations through images (25%)
Findings:
Teachers interested to try in the future for
the 20 teaching strategies
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Teachers were asked to name 3 out of 20
strategies based on their teaching
experiences that they would be interested to
try in the classroom:
Object probe (60%)
Forced connections (55%)
Playfulness and humour (45%)
Findings:
Teachers interested but lack of knowledge and
skills to try from the 20 teaching strategies
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Teachers were asked to name 3 out of 20
strategies based on their teaching
experiences that they would be interested to
try in the classroom, but need training:
Deferred judgment (47.5%)
From abstract to concrete or from concrete to
abstract (45%)
Tolerance for ambiguity (45%)
Findings:
Teachers not interested to try from the 20
teaching strategies
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Teachers were asked to name 3 out of 20
strategies based on their teaching
experiences that they would NOT be
interested to try in the classroom:
Modify and alter for elaboration (12.5%)
Grasp essence from complexity (10%)
Group dynamics (10%)
Discussion on Findings of Study
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To my delight, the 3 most effective teaching strategies
selected by teachers who attended my courses have
very distinctive characteristics of their own.
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Idea associations through images
Forced connections
Constructing fictitious plot
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From there, we need to contemplate on the contexts of
the educational system and school culture of Hong Kong
where these teachers belong.
Teaching Strategy 1:
Idea Association through Images
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This strategy enables students to use their divergent thinking to
think of many different responses in a given situation.
The situation is normally revealed as an image like a picture,
cartoon, drawings or any moving images projected on the screen.
These images are searched and displayed by the teacher as a
point of departure to trigger students’ divergent thinking,
imagination, and transference of learning.
Teachers are devote even a short time for class preparation can
get remarkable results in student learning.
Visuals are thought-provoking because concrete images can
stimulate mental images to facilitate learning.
Guided imagery can enhance students’ memory and stimulate
their writing or other creative expressions
Teaching Strategy 2:
Forced Connections
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This strategy enables students to face two un-related concepts,
ideas, actions or phenomena together. Students learn to define
and redefine problems posing on them.
When two unrelated elements are put together, many possibilities
may occur. Students will think of this problem in a new and useful
way.
Teachers provide unrelated names, incidences, concepts or
situations for students to link up into something meaningful.
Students learn to be flexible, imaginative. This strategy compel
them to think and create new solutions.
This concept of “press” or restrictions in time, space and
conditions tend to be the most convenient way for teachers to
implement in the classroom.
Teaching Strategy 3:
Construct Fictitious Plot
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This strategy enables students to make up a story
that is open for possibilities.
Teachers should cover the basic content materials
before assigning students to open-ended tasks.
Sufficient time to ponder is important.
Teachers may think that there is nothing substantial
to prepare before the lesson. However, experienced
teachers find that to make such a strategy effective,
they have to go through the assignment with a
“fictitious plot” themselves. This is often neglected
by Hong Kong teachers themselves.
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With such findings, teacher educators may
examine their programme and focus more on
introducing and modeling the strategies
indicated by servicing teachers to be most
effective, strategies that they are interested to
try in the future, strategies that they like to try
but lack of knowledge and skills, and find out
why they express no interest in learning
some of the strategies.