What do You Really Teach When You Teach Creativity to Adults?

Abstract

As there are obviously numerous understandings of what a “creativity training” is and what it entails in terms of applied curricula and methodologies, it seems worth to consider what type of creativity teaching would be best adjusted and most beneficial for different groups of recipients. Specifically, the paper is devoted to my personal experiences with running open “creativity workshops” (or semester-long “courses”) for a few groups of adults throughout the period of twelve months. The question is posed about the needs and motivations of people searching for such additional classes, which do not constitute any part of their job duties or recommended career-related trainings. Conclusions indicate that more than “teaching creativity,” the main task of an educator of adults, wanting to boost their creativity, would be to support the recipients with transforming their existing creative skills and potential into practice. The role of a trainer is figured out to be more of a “facilitator” or “coach” than a “teacher” identified with formal education and perceived in the classical sense of the term. The primary aim of the described project was not scientific, but because it was a mixture of original exercises with activities proposed in acclaimed creativity textbooks, as a researcher I consider it worthy to share my experience to a wider audience with hope and encouragement that some of the presented solutions or techniques might be applied further.