The Creative Teacher - Learning From Psychology and Art Education to Develop Our Creative Processes in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Oct 15, 2026

The Creative Teacher explores teaching English to speakers of other languages as both an art and a creative pedagogy practice. Drawing on psychologists, art educators, and creative pedagogy research, it presents four stages of the creative process and eight practical habits that teachers can apply to identify, evaluate, and strengthen their own creativity. An ESL grammar lesson for graduate art and design students illustrates how educators can foster more meaningful, effective language learning through creative facilitation and risk-taking.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time37 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

ESL Teaching Is an Art

Four Stages of the Creative Process

Eight Studio Habits for Teachers

Challenges to Creative Teaching

The Creative Teacher: Learning From Psychology and Art Education to Develop Our Creative Processes in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages This article explores the teaching of English to speakers of other languages as an art, and as such, how teachers can engage in the creative process to develop their own teaching and encourage students to gain more meaningful and effective language skills. Drawing on the work of psychologists, art educators, and creative pedagogy, the writer details four stages in the creative process (Wallas, 1926/2014) and eight habits (Hetland, Winner, Veenema, & Sheridan, 2013) to practice within those stages to help all teachers identify, evaluate, and develop their creativity. A grammar lesson from the writer’s work as an ESL instructor in reading/writing for graduate students in art and design is used to exemplify how we can all become more creative and successful facilitators of language learning. Introduction Before starting my current position as an ESL instructor at an art and design university in San Francisco, California, I enjoyed looking at art, had taken literature and art history courses in college, and had written some fiction for fun. I never considered myself especially creative, nor did I intentionally seek out a job in which I would be surrounded by artistic people. I saw myself as a normal ESL teacher who loved my job, was passionate about cross-cultural understanding and travel, kind of a grammar nerd, and interested, like most teachers, in continuing to develop my own teaching skills. I began my first semester with my art and design students by saying,“I am not an artist. My specialty is not art, but language and language learning.” I The CATESOL Journal 28.2 • 2016 • 37 would show them ways to use language for academic and art-related contexts and strategies for how to continue developing their skills in and out of the classroom. In addition, I told them that I could be an informant for how native speakers use language, giving them an ear and eye for what sounded and looked “right” in their speaking and writing. It was in their art classes where their creative work would happen. Clearly, my understanding of creativity was limited, but luckily, teaching that first group of students was a crash course in creativity for me, as one of the first assignments in the curriculum was an essay about the students’ creative process. That first semester, I had to teach them how to write an essay about their own creative processes, and I did not really know what a creative process was. In learning about “the creative process,” I very soon came to see that not only could creativity happen anywhere, anytime, and for anyone, but that I, as an ESL teacher, participated in my own creative process in preparing for and teaching my classes. And certainly my students did use their creativity in my class, and they needed to continue improving their use of creative thinking for learning and using English, even for the most academic tasks, such as writing the five-paragraph essay. As I began to understand what creativity was and how to encourage it in myself and my students, I started to say to them,“I am not a visual artist. My artis teaching, which really means helping you learn. And you students, in addition to being a painter, or a fashion designer, or 3D animator, you are English language artists.” Seeing ourselves as creative ESL teachers and students has allowed my students and me to engage in the messy creative process of language education, to take risks and try new things and make mistakes and keep trying, and to bring our passion for what we can create to our work together. Using the framework of language education as a creative process has also allowed me to gain confidence and expertise as a teacher, and beyond the walls of an art school, I believe all ESL teachers can benefit from viewing education in this way, each class asa “work of art,” a kind of socially engaged,

FAQs

What is the central idea of the article The Creative Teacher?

It frames ESL teaching as an art grounded in creative processes, arguing that teachers can apply creativity to design more meaningful and effective language learning.

Which frameworks does the article use to guide the creative process in teaching?

It draws on four stages of the creative process and eight habits from research to help teachers practice creativity within those stages.

How does the author demonstrate the approach in practice?

The article uses a grammar lesson from the author’s ESL work with graduate students in reading/writing in art and design to exemplify creative facilitation in language learning.

Oct 15, 2026

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