Creativity Step 3

Creativity: The use of imagination and the generation of new ideas.

Step 3: I generate ideas when I've been given a clear brief

Outcomes

To achieve Step 3, learners will show that they are able to generate ideas when given a clear brief to work to.

Earlier steps focused on the use of and expressing an individual's imagination but this shifts now to think about idea generation.

Learners need to be able to:

Understand what a creative brief is
Know how to generate ideas for a brief

Introduction

A brief is a problem or challenge that we have to come up with ideas for. The brief might be short or long, it might be in a written or spoken form.
A brief will normally have success criteria attached to it. The success criteria will tell you what your idea needs to be able to do or answer to be judged successful. For example, the success criteria for a sports bag might be that it needs to big enough to hold boots and clothes, waterproof, and not too heavy.
It also tells us what we are working towards and what needs to be included. We can use it to focus our imagination.

Skill Starter

How will you create your animal?

Learners have to work in a group to form a given animal. Their animal must meet the following success criteria:

They have to discuss it as a group first
They cannot use any equipment
The animal must be recognisable
They only have a minute to come up with it

Repeat with a few different animals. Once finished discuss how the groups ensured they met that success criteria and created a recognisable animal.

10 mins

Group activity

Discussion

Teach & Apply

When you are creating ideas, the most important thing is to try to create as many as possible at the beginning. If you only come up with one idea, then it is very unlikely to be your best idea.
You can then think about which of those ideas fulfil the success criteria that you have been set. This might get rid of quite a few of the ideas.
Of the ideas that are left, you might combine different elements of those ideas to create the best idea that you can to fulfil the set brief.
It is always better to start off more widely, then narrow down your ideas to identify the best one.

Optional Activity

Creative Inventors

Give each small group 3 items of equipment, and read out/display the following instruction: “Invent a new game: it must use three items of equipment, be played by a maximum of four players and it needs to have a name and a method of scoring.”

Check learners have identified and implemented at least three criteria.

Develop the activity above by asking learners to work together to create and play their new game (15 minutes).

Ask them to explain to a different group how to play their game.

25 mins

Group activity

Discussion

Active

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

In other areas of teaching and coaching, ask learners to identify the success criteria you have provided, or challenge them to produce their own.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

Ask learners to create challenges for one another by setting their own success criteria.
Ask learners these key reflection questions:
- What is meant by a brief?
- How can a brief be helpful?
- What briefs have you been given today and how did you meet them?