Trend 5
Creative Thinking is Key
Creative thinking, not technical ability, will become the future’s most valuable skill. Schools are reevaluating their curriculums to match.
Creative futures
As the nature of work shifts and automation takes on more repetitive tasks (and even crafts like writing and illustration, as outlined in Trend 03), creative thinking will become one of the most valuable skills for both individual expression and the advancement of society. In fact, 86% of employers say they will be looking for evidence of problem-solving skills on the resumes of students they’re recruiting – a 10% increase from last year.25
Traditional logic
Creative Thinking
Thinking outside the box
Creative thinking is the ability to come up with new and unique solutions. It often involves reframing problems, taking indirect approaches, and making original connections.
“The purpose of higher education is to become robot-proof. Our creativity makes us uniquely human.”
— Joseph Aoun, President at Northeastern University
Source: Robot Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Creative schools
School will play a vital role in fostering creative thinking. In a world where AI turns lower-order thinking into a commodity and apps fetch you facts, where schools and educators can be most impactful is in creating new things and advancing knowledge. In order to meet the demands of the market and better prepare students for the future, schools must practice and teach more creative thinking. 87% of teachers and 77% of parents agree that creativity in learning leads to more positive cognitive outcomes.26
of teachers agree that creativity in learning leads to more positive cognitive outcomes.
employers say they will be looking for evidence of problem-solving skills on the resumes.
Neuroscientists are beginning to understand the process that drives creativity; it’s clear that ideas must be stored in the brain to create those new connections that surface as creative thinking. Meaning one way of promoting creative thinking in schools will be to fuel young minds with a wide database of knowledge to generate new ideas.27
What will a learning environment that prioritizes creative thinking look like?
- Interdisciplinary: More opportunities for overlapping connections
- Experiential: Promotes risk-taking and trying things out
- Lots of sleep: So the brain can better form connections
“Taking risks and being open to new ideas is crucial to fostering a creative mindset – as well as challenging assumptions, seeking out diverse perspectives, and encouraging collaboration in order to stimulate creative thinking and generate new ideas.”
— Adam Grant, Author and organizational psychologist
Source: Think Again (Book)
Our view at Sora
We’re particularly excited for new AI capabilities to expand access to creative thinking. No longer will it be a skillset reserved for “creatives”. Just as no-code tools enabled non-technical people to build digital products, new tools will act as a thought partner for developing new solutions and ideas. Mindsets then become the most important thing to teach, along with a wide database of knowledge for creative ideas to incubate.
Kyle Gehringer, STEM Expert at Sora Schools“Our students engage with ‘real world’ problems and grapple with meaningful projects. It’s a process that’s neither linear nor cyclical, and it generally mimics the processes that professionals use to solve problems in their given industry.”
