Developing Creativity in Indonesian Elementary Schools

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Following the high unemployment rate of Indonesian youths, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia urgently launched Character and Creativity Initiative (CCI) (Indonesia Launches GPF ‘Character and Creativity Initiative’ Education Initiative, 2013). The initiative, announced during 9 - 12 December 2013 educators training, recognises the lack of creativity development in Indonesian school system and the need of it. As creativity development begins in early age, Indonesian elementary schools should reform their current educational system in order to develop children’s creativity.
Starko (2013, p.12) defines creativity as novelty or originality and appropriateness. Not only does something need to be new and different, it must also fit in the cultural context to be recognised as creative (Starko, 2013). She also mentions the importance of creativity for learning, motivation and joy (Starko, 2013). Starko (2013) believes that without creativity, students will memorise without learning or understanding the content, they will aim for external approvals instead of mastering the content and finally, there will be no joy as creativity equals to joy.
The current education system in Indonesia is outdated and undermine creativity. It was introduced during Dutch colonialism era as part of the Dutch Ethical Policy (Benjamin, 2007). According to Sir Ken Robinson, an English educator, the current education system was developed during the industrialisation period and is modelled on the interest of it (TED, 2007). In a video by The RSA (2008), Robinson also explained that schools are organised on factory lines where subjects that are beneficial for works place higher in hierarchy. Learning is also separated into subjects and students are ...

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