Killing Ideas Softly? the Promise and Perils of Creativity in the Classroom

Creativity is a hot topic in education. As such, there is no shortage of insights or suggestions
for how teachers might incorporate creativity into their curriculum. Wading
through these suggestions can, however, be quite daunting. This is because many of
these suggestions imply that teachers need to somehow radically change their approach
to teaching, adopt a new curriculum, or add-on to their existing curriculum. Consequently,
many teachers feel that such changes are not feasible and may even come at the
cost of supporting students' academic learning.
This book provides an alternative. Teachers need not adopt a new curriculum, radically
change what they are already doing, or attempt to add more to their already overflowing
plate of curricular responsibilities. Rather, teaching for and with creativity is often more about doing what one is already
doing, only slightly better.
The aim of this book is to help teachers understand how they can make slight changes to their own teaching, which can substantially
support the development of students' creative potential and result in a more creative approach to teaching. The
insights and practical suggestions presented in this book represent some of the newest and most promising work being done
in the field of creativity studies. This book is unique in that it presents teachers with concrete ideas for how to simultaneously
support creativity and learning. A particularly novel feature of this book is that it offers a blend of theoretical insights
and vivid classroom examples to illustrate the kinds of opportunities and challenges
that teachers face when they attempt to teach for and with creativity. As such, this
book will provide teachers, scholars, researchers, and anyone interested in classroom
creativity with new directions for future research and educational practice.