Encouraging students' creativity in the digital age

Abstract

The present article provides the results of a research aiming to discuss the need to foster creativity in the Digital Age. A striking shift towards economic and social innovations of the information society made the schools quickly react to this change, the use of Information and Communication Technologies considered the innovative and de rigueur tool. On the opposite, resent studies prove the fallacy of relying on ICT as a key factor contributing to academic success. To flourish in a new entrepreneurial culture students need creative thinking skills. In this article we investigate the influence of music on creativity. We organized a two series experiment with the purpose to identify the impact of listening to background music while performing academic tasks in the classroom, the first series focusing on students' emotional well-being, the second – on creative thinking and memory capacity and, therefore, learning effectiveness. The experiment was conducted on the basis of Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Russia, the survey involving 153 students. The findings of the first experiment stage demonstrate that negative emotions experienced by 75.8% of students at the beginning of a lesson decreased to 22.2% with the help of soothing background music, creating a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere. The second experiment stage proves that background music can significantly boost memory capacity, increasing the quantity of new information memorized by students in the classroom. Then we follow with the research whether it is possible to inspire students' creativity by comparing students' essays, the first experimental group writing an essay with background music and the second without it. The results show that carefully selected classical compositions, used as a background in the classroom, stimulate the creative environment for the desire to dream and reflect. Finally, based on the results of our experiment, we recommend the list of compositions to be used in the classroom with the purposes to improve emotional and psychological well-being, avoid emotional exhaustion and mental overstrain, concentrate and focus attention, stimulate creative thinking.