Promoting creativity
My research has investigated the effect of teaching empathy on the social and emotional skills of creativity in design and technology classes in the UK.
Pupils in year nine aged 13 to 14 years from two schools were assessed for their creativity levels both at the start and at the end of the academic school year. We did this using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking which measures drawn and written responses to drawn and written prompts.
After the students first took the test, one school carried on as normal with its usual design and technology lessons. At the other school, the usual lessons were replaced with a series of lessons that focused on empathy, called Designing our Tomorrow.
The students were asked to create a product for children with asthma and their families: a pack that contained the information and equipment needed to treat asthma in young children. They were prompted to be empathetic - for instance, by not being judgmental of their own designs and those of others. The students were encouraged to empathise with the people they were designing the product for.
Results showed that only the school where we ran the lessons focused on empathy increased its levels of creative responses. These findings suggest that creativity can be taught - particularly with instructions that advocate the importance of empathising with the subject matter.
Teaching empathy at school would help young people retain it in their repertoire of social skills,enhancing their learning and equipping them for the adult world.
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