What is creative thinking? (AI in Education: Part 1)
Last week, while going for a beach walk in a brief reprieve of the Wollongong rain, I was listening to an episode of The Great Cause, a podcast by Barker College. My former headmaster, Phillip Heath, and 3 other staff members spent the episode discussing the place of AI in education. Naturally, this sent my brain off in a thousand directions… how are AI tools actually impacting young learners? Beyond asking if they’re actually writing their own essays, how are these tools affecting their creativity, critical thinking, and time management skills? So, dear reader, welcome to the first in a series wondering aloud how Artificial Intelligence is both helping and hindering the development of young minds?
Before we go full sci-fi and ponder the future of student ingenuity, today is about setting the stage of the link between AI and creative thinking: what actually is creative thinking, really? And why should we care where the robots fit in?
Let’s Bust the ‘Creatives vs Everyone Else’ Myth
If you’re anything like me before diving into a procrastination-powered rabbit hole into every definition the internet (and the UOW Alumni Bookshop) has of creativity, the word probably conjures up images of wild-haired artists, jazz musicians, or maybe the odd start-up founder brainstorming in a room full of sticky notes, red thread and half-empty coffee cups. What I have come to learn, however, is that creativity isn’t exclusively their domain. Spoiler: most of us don't own (or at least, don’t regularly wear) a turtleneck, and we still use creative thinking every. Single. Day.
We’ve all done that thing where we put so-called ‘creative people’ in their own box (sometimes literally – they’re called liberal arts students!). The rest of us, apparently, are fated to a life of grey routines while they get to have all the fun. Stepping into the real world, however, brings the quick realisation that everyone needs creative thinking, especially when life gets weird. And let's face it… Life loves getting weird.
Creative Thinking: More Than Just Pretty Paintings
To understand the impact of AI, and particularly these LLMs, on creative thinking, we first need to have a more complete picture of what we actually use creative thinking to do. What does that include? Short answer: pretty much everything that makes life interesting, bearable, or occasionally just a little bit less topsy-turvy. Let’s break it down.
1. Conflict resolution and negotiation: whether you’re brokering world peace (if you’ve cracked that one, please let someone know. I’m sure there’s a prize for it) or trying to get siblings to agree on which movie to watch, creative thinking is your best negotiator.
2. Personal relationships: from birthday surprises to navigating awkward family dinners, creativity helps us connect, tell stories, empathise, and sometimes even escape on short notice.
3. Storytelling: whether you’re writing the next great novel, making TikToks about your pet lizard, or spinning yet another ‘I know we had homework but I couldn’t do it because…’ tale, your ability to link one event to the next in a way that is plausible and interesting is creative thinking at its finest.
4. Everyday Problem solving: Can’t find your keys? Ran out of milk for your morning coffee? Welcome to the ultimate escape room… your past self. Seriously, I ran out of milk this morning and had to figure out how to have cereal without milk… my solution? Toast. Seems simple, I know, but these mundane moments are creative thinking skills at work in the background.
5. Civic engagement: Voting? Volunteering? Convincing the council to extend the no-stopping zone at that really annoying T intersection? You’ll need creative communication and solutions to community challenges.
6. Mental health: turning setbacks into comebacks, inventing stress-busting hacks, or finding a new perspective on a particularly rough day? All prime examples of daily creativity, often garnished with a little self-care!
7. Learning and teaching: from thinking up analogies for algebra to mnemonics for biology to stories to help learn dates in history, both teachers and students are flexing those creative muscles constantly to navigate the learning environment.
8. Resource management: making a meal out of next to nothing, budgeting for a school trip, or time-juggling three assignments and two soccer practices… necessity is the mother of reinventing the wheel.
9. Ethical decision making: navigating tricky situations where there seems to be little black and white, and a whole lot of grey. Creative thinking allows us to think outside the box and, sometimes more consequentially, to imagine the outcomes and impacts of our actions and reactions.
10. Adapting to change: creative thinking helps us to adapt, bounce back, and make lemonade from lemons when life mixes things up on us!
There are so many more uses (and specific cases) of creative thinking that the 10 I’ve just listed, but if I described them all, I would literally be here all day… and so would you. I do hope, though, that this list paints a detailed picture of the breadth of creative thinking, and how it crops up in many situations beyond those we typically think it belongs in!
Originality Meets Usefulness
Ultimately, whatever definition of creativity you choose to take (and there are sooo many to choose from), they all converge on two core attributes: originality and usefulness. Creative thinking is critical for problem-solving across fields, whether that be in maths, science, business, engineering, languages, or any of the other subjects taught in our classrooms. It's about making unconventional connections, seeing problems from multiple perspectives, persisting through uncertainty and failure, and even being able to visualise the problem you’re trying to tackle.
In schools, this means creativity isn’t just about art or music or drama (although all are wonderful!). It's also about solving quadratic equations, designing science experiments, creating business pitches, or choosing quotes for English essays. It’s about being able to manage time, persist through mistakes, and find new approaches to studying. This makes creative thinking a central ‘21st century skill’, necessary for adapting to rapid technological and social change. Fostering creativity is not just about learning to think differently for the sake of it, but rather is vital for personal fulfilment, economic progress, social empathy, and society’s collective capacity to address its most pressing issues.
Up Next: When AI Gets Creative
Now that we’ve established the true scope of creative thinking, it’s time for the juicy stuff: What happens when AI joins the party? Is it a creative sidekick, a spoiler, a danger, or something else entirely?
In the next post, we’ll dig deep into how tools like AI and large language models are affecting creativity for young learners. Stay tuned… you might just rethink what it means to be creative in the age of smart machines!
P.S. Here's the link to that podcast episode, if you're interested!
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