| 21st Century Skills

CREATIVITY

As a citizen of the 21st century,
you should be able to

Produce something that simultaneously is both original and useful in your personal and work life.
Generate ideas or actions that are new, pertinent and relevant to the problem you are trying to solve.
Create or invent something new, innovate. Elaborate, refine and analyze ideas to maximize creativity and innovation.
Recognize that a musician's creativity is similar to an engineer's and a scientist's creativity.
Use your imagination as a resource to solve problems and be open to experimenting with new things, taking risks and thinking outside the box.
Recognize cultural and other barriers and constraints that affect creativity and innovation.
Being open to new ideas, using divergent thinking and maintaining your flexibility.

Competence
Area

Skills

Ability to find motivation, self-discipline and persevere to achieve your goals and solve problems
Having high level of tolerance for ambiguity
Ability to value yourself (self-esteem) and to feel that you are capable of succeeding (self-efficacy)
Ability to think and work independently
Ability to be open to new experiences and innovation, and to take measured risks
Ability to resist to premature closure of ideas and to think through tinkering*
Ability to solve problems and learn from failure, having insight or vision

Thinking unconventionally or in new ways (divergent thinking)
Ability to move between different mental representations (flexibility)
Having interest in novelty, being information-seeker (curiosity)
Ability to analyze, synthetize, and evaluate your ideas, and persuade others
Ability to feel intensively engaged in an activity
Having the intention to create something
Ability to evaluate possible solution options

Ability to evaluate your environment to identify aspects that foster or inhibit your creativity
Ability to modify your environment to prompt creativity
Ability to determine the strengths and weakness of the workgroup

Ability to connect and organize ideas, thoughts and feelings into unusual bonds and solutions
Ability to produce or design something original, unique, of high quality, novel, useful and appropriate

Sources: Based on a review of existing frameworks
(Kaufman, Plucker, & Baer, 2008; Lai, Yarbro, DiCerbo & de Geest, 2018; OECD, 2019; Said-Metwaly, van den Noortgate, & Kyndt, 2017).

SKILLS FOR LIFE SERIES

Fostering Creativity

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Authors

Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin
Senior Analyst and Deputy Head of Division at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (Directorate for Education and Skills).

Creativity

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Authors

Carolina Cuesta MEd, MSc.
Fulbright Scholar and a Ph.D. student in Learning Design and Technology at Purdue University. .
Brad Hokanson Ph.D
Mertie W Buckman Professor of Design Education at the University of Minnesota. Minnesota. .

SKILLS IN ACTION

Do schools kills creativity

Eres creativo, lo sepas o no

Cómo despertar la creatividad.

Do schools kills creativity

HundrED Spotlight on Creativity with LEGO Foundation

Cómo despertar la creatividad dentro de nosotros

RESOURCES

#SKILLS21

21st century skills help individuals of all ages to reinvent themselves throughout life, adapt to changing and diverse circumstances, and identify opportunities for growth amid differences.