ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on research and practice in Dutch schools and mirrors best practices that teachers in England are developing and undertaking. It discusses five key strategies to enhance creative thinking in design for pupils in the primary age phase. The strategies include open problem formulation and time to experience it with all the senses, shifting between divergent thinking and convergent thinking, using energisers and divergent-thinking techniques, embracing 'failure' through iteration, and integrating formative assessment. To develop creativity, it is important that pupils become aware of problems that are part of their living environment and are allowed to work on them. For educational purposes, a number of cyclic models of design processes with primary school pupils have been developed. A design process can start with a problem or a wish, thinking about user and purpose. When the prototype does not work as intended, pupils may even develop a new concept (elaborating the idea) or redefine the problem.
