Leading Change in STEM Education to Encourage Creativity and Innovation
Creative risk-taking and productive failure in education emphasize uncertainty, experimentation with unintended outcomes, and reflection on unsuccessful ideas, solutions, or products (Creely et al., 2021). While success often garners attention, failure serves as a powerful teaching tool by revealing design flaws and prompting new ways of thinking, acting, creating, and learning. To foster 21st-century skills like creative thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, learners need space within their curricula to practice creative risk-taking and productive failure. These competencies are more effectively developed through experiential learning rather than the rigid, standardized evaluation methods of traditional education systems. This article explores the gap between the rhetoric of leadership’s role in facilitating creative change and the practical realities faced by teachers in fostering creative risk-taking and productive failure in classrooms (Creely et al., 2021).
A teacher’s traits, such as curiosity, flexibility, adaptability, and creativity, can significantly influence students’ creativity. Moreover, teaching practices, including evaluation styles, competition, and reward systems, can either hinder or support students’ innate creative abilities. Therefore, education leaders need to support and nurture teachers’ creativity by fostering environments where students can freely experiment, explore ideas, and take risks. However, in contexts where the emphasis remains on academic success tied to standardized assessments, the fear of failure can deter creativity. To address these challenges, education leaders must adopt a systemic approach that integrates creative teaching practices throughout the entire school culture. By doing so, they can gradually improve outcomes, including standardized measures, by encouraging innovation and flexibility in teaching. “Clearly, change in an institutional setting cannot be systemic without being led and supported” (Creely et al., 2021, p. 5).
The authors applied Kurt Lewin’s change model, grounded in social field theory, to explore how teachers' social and personal processes in implementing risk-taking and productive failure align with leadership vision within their school environments (Creely et al., 2021). Lewin’s model outlines the progression from unfreezing (motivating the need for change) to freezing (reinforcing the change), offering valuable insight into the mechanisms driving organizational transformation. Through this model, education leaders are encouraged to consider how their leadership can facilitate systemic changes by applying Lewin’s three-phase process:
In conclusion, to effectively integrate creative risk-taking and productive failure, leaders must address the foundational systems and structures within their schools or organizations. This is particularly crucial in K-12 STEM education, where developing creativity and problem-solving skills is key to preparing students for high-demand careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM education flourishes when students are encouraged to experiment, fail, and iterate, rather than simply focus on finding the correct answers. By creating an environment where risk-taking is supported and failure is viewed as an opportunity for growth, system leaders can nurture the next generation of innovators and critical thinkers. The article challenges system leaders to reflect on how they can shape and support a culture that fosters creativity in STEM education while navigating the pressures of standardized assessments and college-readiness expectations.
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References
Creely, E., Henderson, M., Henriksen, D., & Crawford, R. (2021). Leading change for creativity in schools: Mobilizing creative risk-taking and productive failure.?International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1-24.?https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1969040