Can Creativity be Taught?

It might seem to some of us answering this question without any thought that the answer should be “No!” Creativity comes with the person when he/she born. However, if we want to answer this question, we need to think about it more deeply. We need to ask ourselves that what creative means? And how can we create a creative design? We have to answer the questions in order to be able to answer whether or not creativity can be taught.

Firstly, creativity is where you have the ability to create a productive thing that comes from the expressiveness of your imagination. In reality, creative works come from your imagination and are based on many things, such as inspirations, insights, observations, prototypes, etc. Secondly, by understanding what creative means, now, we can assume how to create a creative design. Well, here we need to think about methodology as a tool kit to achieve the creative design that we are looking to have. For example, creating a prototype for your design as a part of your design thinking will lead it to be at a higher level of creativity. This methodology will make design more productive with the user and telling the story in more interesting way. This also applies for many other methodologies. By doing this, you will achieve a creative design.

Now, we can go back to the question, “Can Creativity be taught?” Since there are processes that are the same as what I mentioned, then we need to study the processes that lead to creative work. In order to be more creative, you need to understand methodologies that will achieve your design. Thus, we need to study these tools so we can characterize the ideas we have in our imaginations. Thus, you are not teaching creativity, but you are teaching the tools that lead you to become a creative person. However, if you are teaching creativity, then that is not creative anymore. Creative is the thing that you will do it by yourself, not the things that you will get from your teacher. So, you learn the tools that lead you to become a creative designer.