Nurturing curiosity and creativity in primary school classrooms

Abstract

Creativity and curiosity are recognised as vital skills to prepare students to engage with the significant challenges and opportunities of the future. To address the research question “What practices do teachers enact with the aim of encouraging creativity and curiosity in primary classrooms?”, 21 teachers were interviewed about their teaching practices; this data was triangulated with self-captured classroom videos from 19 classrooms in nine countries. Results of the analysis demonstrated a variety of promising classroom practices. These findings and implications for practice are discussed in terms of diverse feedback pathways, nurturing inquisitive minds, supporting self-regulatory learning and self-expression.