Is too much freedom hindering the creative process?

Today something happened in my class which made me wonder what children think about the idea of being creative and free to explore.

I have recently read the following article on one of my new favourite websites for personal professional development (MINDSHIFT - http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/)  and it is food for thought - something that has made me thing about my thoughts on creativity. 

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/on-the-edge-of-chaos-where-creativity-flourishes/ 

I know as a child I would have put creativity as one of the most important values for any teacher to have because in my mind that is how learning becomes interesting, new and inventive. Creativity still is a driving force for anything I do...it motivates me!

I have a super creative class but sometime I wonder whether they are too scared to unleash their creative juices and let imagination flow because they are in the mindset that there is a right and a wrong way or answer. Despite always encouraging children to have a go and talking a lot about how making mistakes means we are learning, the message possibly is not getting through to them as there is still resistance.

In class today we were doing mind-mapping to classify and categorise our ideas and prior knowledge and understanding about transport; land, sea and air.  The children have all completed mind maps before so understand how to create one and what should be on it.  Most have the understanding that you are allowed to put anything on it and it is like a 'brain dump of ideas'.

We started the lesson with a large discussion and shared idea of what could be included on a brain dump! I modelled what a possible map could look like and we came up with various ways to organise our ideas into categories.  When asked to complete the task many children seemed to hold back and not put deeper ideas on their maps.  I of course questioned and prompted ideas and children were given the chance and encouraged to look at other mind-maps to spark interest and share ideas.  

The final result was mind-mapping which was very basic and that needs further teaching and questioning to broaden the ideas the children included on the mind map.  I am now asking myself if perhaps the children's creativity is stifled by too much freedom.  In a very open ended task, could it be that year 4/5 years old are given so much freedom of choice that they are stumped on where to start and what to include? Can our preconceived ideas on what children know and how they process their thoughts be misinterpreted by giving them too many options to convey their thoughts and ideas? and how do we embrace and encourage creativity and imaginative thinking without overwhelming children or being so specific with the task that it negates the purpose of the lesson?

Tomorrow I am going to get children to work in groups to brainstorm and share ideas on what creativity means to them.  

- What does it look like, feel like and sound like?
- Who are some examples of creative people?
- What types of creative can people be?
- Is being creative something they value highly in terms of their learning?
- What would a creative teacher look like and it it an important value for a teacher to have?