Teaching creativity and creative thinking in K-12 has always been important, but often difficult to implement. Many standards and curricula do not explicitly mention creativity, and teachers are not trained on how to teach and assess creative thinking. Therefore, many students enter college and enter the workforce without sufficient practice of the core critical thinking skills needed to become innovative problem solvers and effective communicators.
The past two years have seen a notable surge in the use of artificial intelligence within education, with increased investment, deployment, and integration into various educational practices. This surge has sparked increased exploration of AI's potential to more easily bring creativity to the classroom, with the emergence of AI-based tools that can generate text, images, music, and video without coding. But amid these developments, some educators who are new to teaching creative thinking wonder whether creative AI can enable or replace creative thinking in students.
Recent EdSurge webinar host Carl Hooker discussed fostering creativity in the classroom with AI, defining creative thinking beyond traditional artistic pursuits, addressing equity and ethical considerations, reimagining the teacher's role in the AI-enhanced classroom, and Helping students achieve jobs and careers that rely on creative and AI technologies. Webinar panelists Stacie Johnson, professional development leader at Khan Academy, Pat Youngpradit, chief academic officer at Code.org and leader of TeachAI, and Brian Johnsrud, global head of education learning and advocacy at Adobe, each discussed the unique and valuable presented a point of view. The intersection of AI and creativity.
EdSurge: Some people claim to be “not creative” because they think being creative means being artistic. How would you react to that?
Jonsrud: Last year, the World Economic Forum reported that creative thinking is the most needed skill across global industries over the next five years. Just because you think creatively doesn't mean you need to be good at drawing. Instead, creative thinking is the ability to create and innovate something of value. The skill is brainstorming different ideas, evaluating those ideas, designing and iterating, getting feedback, and collaborating and sharing ideas effectively. This end-to-end process is creative thinking.
How can we help educators overcome their fear of the unknown when it comes to AI?
Johnson: This is a new phenomenon and we must acknowledge the emotions and feelings that come from it. [fear]. One thing we can do to support teachers is to make AI practically accessible to educators. [making it as easy as] Ask what's for dinner tonight or how to plan your vacation. This should be done first before applying it to the already overloaded and busy work schedules of educators who need to gain experience and develop comfort with the tool. It is up to us as leaders and professionals to do our best to provide ongoing support and be thought partners with those on the front lines of bringing AI to children.
Young Pradit: I often get to interact with policymakers and education leaders, and I would say the most helpful thing I can do is make sure they're interacting with the tools in an appropriate way and connecting them to what's actually going on. If only policymakers and education leaders knew how valuable the tools were. [achieving] They care about existing goals and are more open to having AI conversations and conveying that support to all the districts and teachers they serve.
Watch the full webinar, “Harnessing the Power of Creativity and AI: Preparing Students for the Workforce of the Future,” on-demand now.
What are the equity and ethical considerations regarding the use of AI?
Johnson: I would like to emphasize that teachers need training to ensure equitable access. AI is not just a new tool. It is a change in pedagogy. These days, training twice a year is not enough for PDs. Teachers need strategies and thought partnerships. They must be empowered and receive ongoing support to introduce AI into their classrooms in developmentally appropriate ways that best suit their students.
AI can provide access in ways we have never experienced before. The challenge we face now is to provide this access to everyone without widening the digital divide. As industry leaders and education leaders, we need to focus on historically underrepresented communities and do everything we can to ensure that reach begins there and empowers all communities.
Young Pradit: Concerns about equity go beyond the idea of a burgeoning AI gap in terms of access to the internet, devices, and even people who can teach students this skill. Michael Trucano of the Brookings Institution said the gap we'll see is where some children are taught by AI alone, while others are taught by both AI and humans. This is obviously much better.
Jonsrud: There are many economic and career opportunities for students that, with the help of AI, could have a very different future than their parents or grandparents. However, this is an equity issue if students have to learn about AI tools on their own because they do not have access to them in the classroom. AI is not up to the task. The idea is that someone using AI might get that job.
How will the role of teachers evolve as AI becomes more prevalent in learning? Or are we overemphasizing the innovative nature of this tool?
Johnson: This would be groundbreaking, but I'd like to ask that question back to the team actually developing this technology. When designing these technologies for schools and teachers, we must focus on solving the challenges facing teachers, learners, classrooms, and schools. We have a responsibility to make the most of it and really explore it. AI cannot replace teachers. Human relationships are lacking. Teachers inspire, mentor and understand the unique individual needs of their students. AI can make a difference by supporting and empowering education, but it cannot replicate the human element that actually impacts the lives of students.
How can educators address concerns about students using AI to cheat?
Young Pradit: A Stanford study found that the overall incidence of fraud remained the same after ChatGPT was introduced. Basically, the scammer is going to cheat. ChatGPT does not force students to cheat. Therefore, we need students to understand: Hey, I'm planning on graduating and getting a job, but if I keep cheating, I won't get any results. You will pay the price at some point.
Jonsrud: We have a history of many technologies that we can learn about in the classroom. When calculators were introduced into math classrooms, the fear wasn't just that students would cheat. The idea was that reliance on calculators would affect the development of conceptual and mathematical thinking skills. By the time you learned calculus, you may not have been able to do conceptual math because you relied on a calculator. It wasn't like that. Using a calculator improves your mathematical thinking skills, but not by itself. There has been a lot of thoughtful training about when and how to introduce calculators.
The concept of authentic evaluation has been debated for decades. This is an effort to go beyond multiple choice with assessments that truly assess what students learn, how they learn, and how they think. If it's really easy for students to cheat and get an A on an assessment, is that really an assessment? Real-world assessments require students to use so much of their abilities that cheating must be difficult to prevent. I know this isn't always easy, but I like how AI is taking the vision of true assessment a little further.
Johnson: We have an obligation to think about transforming traditional tasks into more interactive, problem-solving based ones. We can rarely change how we assess student understanding, and we emphasize fostering critical and creative thinking so that students can engage deeply and work through repetition.
As educators, we also have the opportunity to redefine the line between cheating and effectiveness. If we're waiting for ChatGPT to get back online to write emails or proposals, but we don't want our students to use the same kind of efficiency, we need to challenge our own thinking.