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The need to make schools more creative – i.e. innovative and interesting for the pupil – has been much talked about. As researchers, we tend to see the school, its problems and solutions, from an adult’s point of view, claims Stanislav Nemeržitski from the Tallinn University Centre for Innovation in Education.

Quite often we fail to consult the most important target group: how do the pupils themselves envisage a school, which supports their creativity? Such an implicit evaluation would help us give what is needed to those, whose conditions we wish to improve.

It turns out that one of the more important creativity-enhancing factors the pupils see is collaboration between the pupil and the teacher. Surprising, isn’t it? We are constantly told how successful people create new apps and products, generate ideas and bring them to life alone.

Apparently, in a school it is vital that students and teachers find a way to cooperate. It is essential to ensure self-confidence (i.e. the ability to do one’s own thing without worrying about others’ judgement), to create curiosity in students and explain grades as goals (i.e. explaining the demands behind various grades).

In addition to cooperation, the pupils value:

• good terms between the pupils themselves. How the pupils get along in the classroom and the school determines how many novel, original or different ideas they are willing to share. Friendliness and trust create a good basis for sharing and implementing ideas;
• the courage to be different – in the widest sense, starting from the colour of your boots or hair until your predispositions and world views. This is in one way also connected with trust, but also the opportunities to focus on creativity: if I do not have to spend my time on proving my worth, and can instead be different from others, it allows me to contribute to the pool of original ideas.

Therefore, if we talk about a creative environment and better preparedness for the future, we can start with small steps – contribute to developing collaboration, enable the pupils to differ from one another and encourage them to implement their ideas. This all creates a hotbed for emerging new creative individuals.