The 2024 Creativity in Education Summit on “Empowering Creativity in Education via Practical Resources” was co-organised in Paris (France) on October 17-18, 2024, by the Global Institute of Creative Thinking (GIoCT), the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education and the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The event aimed to inspire and equip educators and policymakers with the necessary tools and strategies to integrate creative resources across various educational settings. The Summit served as a platform for thought leaders, educators and innovators to share insights and forge partnerships to enhance rope of creativity in education through practical and impactful resources.
The event brought together more than 200 education stakeholders from different countries all over the world, including senior officials from the ministries of education, representatives of UNESCO HQs and Category 1 Institutes, scholars, industry professionals and enterprises.
The summit participants explored the intersection of innovation, technology and pedagogy using a unique opportunity to engage directly with the latest advancements and research in educational creativity. Participants were introduced to a diverse range of tools that have demonstrated significant potential in enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes.
The Summit agenda was structured into the following sessions:
- Three plenary sessions with keynote speeches.
- Two rounds of three parallel sessions:
- “Can AI truly enhance creativity in the classroom, or does it stifle original thought”
- “Hands-on learning: practical resources for experiential and arts education”
- “Case studies demonstrating practical resources for empowering learners”
- “Pathways: supercharging creativity with immersive experience”
- “Resources to support system-wide creative thinking: lessons from countries with strong performance in the PISA Creative Thinking Assessment”
- “The rope of technology in fostering innovation in education”
- “Global to local implementation of a creativity framework”
- “Useful creativity software for educators across the globe”
- Two keynote discussions.
The Summit participants were provided the unique opportunity to visit Central Paris schools promoting creative thinking education and implementing innovative teaching and learning practices.
UNESCO IITE was deeply involved into the Summit preparatory process and held the session on the role of digital technologies. The keynote speech “Supporting Teachers to Foster Creative Thinking and Sustainable Development” was delivered by Ms. Asha Kanwar, Chair of the UNESCO IITE Governing Board. Mr. Tao Zhan, Director of UNESCO IITE, presented a keynote speech on creativity development in the context of the digital transformation of education and moderated several sessions during the Summit. Ms. Tatiana Murovana, a programme specialist at the Institute, made the presentation on fostering creative thinking through UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers, where she introduced recently released UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Teachers and showed the potential of the Framework in enhancing creativity and innovation in AI-enriched pedagogical practice.
The Summit was held in the framework of the project “Promoting Creativity in Education through the Use of Digital Technologies” jointly implemented by UNESCO IITE and GIoCT.
