Mokinių kūrybingumo išlaisvinimo galimybės dirbant grupėmis
Possibilities for enabling students' creativity in group work

Summary/Abstract: In the middle of the 20th century scientistsvbegan to focus on creativity which was claimed not necessarily being an in-born capability but rather a developed one. Scientists emphasize the importance of different methods for the development of creativity, especially in schools. A number of research has indicated that social environment and collaboration has a high impact on fostering creativity. In researchers’ opinion, group activities are the ones that can enhance not only group but individual creativity as well. In Lithuania, educators emphasize the importance of creativity development in schools as well. However, some researchers note that teachers might lack sufficient skills for effective creativity development. The aim of this study was to highlight the possibilities of enabling students‘ creativity through group work. For the development of creativity it is important to emphasize the overall process of its development. Researchers distinguish several phases of creativity development, namely, exploration of challenge, generation of ideas and preparation for action. As group work is proved to stimulate creativity, the research was carried out to find out the peculiarities of using group work as a teaching method following the phases mentioned above. The results of this study indicated that teachers who use group work as a teaching method follow the phases of creativity development. However, in their practice least attention is paid to the phase of the exploration of challenge. Researchers note that for effective creativity development to occur, all phases have to be addressed proportionally. When applying group work method teachers might not purposefully plan it for students’ creativity development. Since creativity development through group activities can be highly effective, teachers’ professional development opportunities might lie in learning to plan, observe and assess group work accordingly to the criteria of creativity development.

• Details
• Contents