James Williams in “Creativity is all in the mind” (Resources, 15 February) misses the point about scientific creativity. Science education has never implemented effective strategies for addressing creativity, in part because educators in the discipline have struggled to define it formally. As a result, teaching “scientific creativity” is inevitably confused with “good” teaching practices, such as using “extended project work”. Any revision of the science curriculum should develop pupils’ scientific creativity: that is, creativity linked to being able to make scientific discoveries, which is a skill in its own right. There is, however, no evidence that project work, factual teaching about scientific discoveries or making film clips help to develop this.
Vanessa Kind, senior lecturer in education, Durham University.