Creative Education
2013. Vol.4, No.8A, 25-30
Published Online August 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.48A006
The Teaching Method of Creative Education
Yong Gil Lee1,2
1Kunjang University College, Gunsan, Republic o f Korea
2Creative Education Society, Gunsan, Republic of Korea
Received June 18th, 2013; re vise d July 18th, 2013; accepted July 25th, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Yong Gil Lee. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attri-
bution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
This paper is the study on the meaning of 5 stages of teaching in creative education. The five-stage teach-
ing of creative education is one of the teaching methods set up as educational methodology for the educa-
tion purpose of human creativity cultivation. Creativity is understood as universal and holistic aspect of
human in creative education, and the spheres of creativity can be classified into physical-physiological
sphere, social sphere, rational sphere, moral sphere, artistic sphere, and religious sphere in human life and
the properties of value ability in each sphere are presented. Vividness in physical-physiological sphere,
cooperation in social sphere, quest in rational sphere, virtue in moral sphere, beauty in artistic sphere, and
belief in religious sphere are defined as the properties of value ability and presented the educational pur-
pose. Such spheres of creativity distinguish universal human life and the cultivation of creativity are es-
tablished as the educational purpose. Teaching method in creative education consists of the five stages of
teaching as integrated teaching-studying to cultivate the properties of value ability in each sphere of crea-
tivity, which is the stage of idea-discovery-digging-manifestation-development to encourage learner’s
freedom and willingness with teacher’s love and guide. Learner is the subject in the study course in the
five-stage teaching and it is the teaching-studying theory to cultivate value ability through the learner’s
thinking and experience, connecting the ideal type of thinking for value creation to the ideal type of
teaching-studying. Freedom and willingness as the ideal type of thinking for value creation are explained
in theoretical level and the actual measure for education is tried in the teaching theory by the five-stage
teaching of idea-discovery-digging-manifestation-development as the ideal type of teaching-studying. In
other words, creative education is to build the ideal type of thinking for value creation in advance and
then present the corresponding teaching-studying. The five-stage of teaching in creative education is to
build theoretical system of education to allow students to make creative value by themselves through the
cultivation of human ability, changing logical order to time series in thinking and then applying it to edu-
cation. The five-stage of teaching in creative education is the formulization of thinking for value educa-
tion applied to studying. It is theoretical composition of the stages to develop thinking for value creation
through the experiences of the activity spheres, placing the study course to the learners. The five-stage of
teaching can present the educational course as creative ability cultivation as well as the teaching for reali-
zation of educational self.
Keywords: Creative; Creative Education; Teaching Method; Educational Love; Educational Self; The
Five-Stage Teaching; Idea; Discovery; Digging; Manifestation; Development
Introduction
Creative education in this study for the teaching method of
creative education means the education to make students build
up their character and create value though the cultivation of
human ability. In other words, the nature of education is to
develop creativity in diverse human capabilities, as the purpose
of education is the cultivation of human capability comprehen-
sively. The nature of education, therefore, is creativity and the
creative education is to develop human creativity.
Thus, to realize creativity is the realization of character that
is based on love. Love, is presented as educational love in crea-
tive education. The educational love is the common denomina-
tor of education whether education maintains certain position or
not. Educational love can be achieved through the realization of
educational self, and the educational self allows human’s self
activity. Human’s self activity can be developed from heter-
onomous activity to autonomous activity and then from auto-
nomous activity to value activity. Value activity is the activity
orientated by education heteronomously, and autonomous ac-
tivity is the process activity to create value activity (Lee
Jong-Rok, 1996). Such process activity emerges by educational
self.
Educational self is every subjective and conscious activity to
be conducted educationally for the purposes of value discovery,
value orientation, and value realization. Humans can pursue
value activity, create personal character, and newly create soci-
ety and culture through such educational self. Thus, educational
self makes creativity that is inherent in human to be shown by
individual originality and absoluteness. Creative value can be
achieved through the activity and experience by educational
self (Lee Yong-Gil, 2001).

Y. G. LEE
The theory for the teaching method of creative education is
derived from the above context. Considering that the basis of
creativity realization is love from the viewpoint of the realiza-
tion of character, the action of love can excite interest and de-
sire in every human area by making educational self be acted in
education. Interest and desire produce idea, and the idea sets
conception and hypothesis for the subject, a new thing is dis-
covered and dug, and the elements of value are manifested and
then the stage of development is built to produce value; it is the
five stages in teaching such as idea-discovery-digging-mani-
festation-development.
For such theory for the teaching method of creative educa-
tion, it is necessary to discuss the educational purpose of crea-
tive education, the educational methodology that is the ground
of the teaching theory, and the meaning of the five stages of the
leaching since theological foundation of the relationship be-
tween creativity and education can be found as an essential
approach to understand the nature of creativity and be devel-
oped effectively from the aspect that creativity is human nature.
Educational Purpose of Creative Education
Creative education defines human nature as creativity, and
the educational purpose in creative education is explained as
“the development of human creativity”. Creativity in the crea-
tive education is sought not from special human field but from
human generality. Accordingly, creativity is the essence of
personality in the sense of the whole person having diverse
physical, psychological, emotional, and social properties and
fundamental human nature (Lee Jong-Rok, 2001). Creativity is
understood as universal and holistic aspect of human, and the
spheres of creativity can be classified into physical-physio-
logical sphere, social sphere, rational sphere, moral sphere,
artistic sphere, and religious sphere in human life and the prop-
erties of value ability in each sphere are presented. In other
words, the properties of value ability are vividness in physi-
cal-physiological sphere, cooperation in social sphere, quest in
rational sphere, virtue in moral sphere, beauty in artistic sphere,
and belief in religious sphere.
Such value abilities in the spheres are set to the purpose of
education in creative education, and the five-stage teaching
method is formed as the education method to allow students to
cultivate human creative ability in the establishment of the
objectives in the curriculum and subjects education by catego-
rizing the educational objectives of creativity into the related
curriculum in creative education .
What are the properties of value ability in the spheres of
creativity to cultivate human creative ability as the educational
objectives set in creative education?
The property of value ability in physical-physiological
sphere of creativity can be express as vividness. Human body is
totality of human spirit and constitution, and physiological
health to maintain the vitality and health consists in biological
process. Thus, creative health is to build up physical strength
from biological process, and vividness is a generic term of the
basis of creative health (Lee Jong-Rok, 2001). Vividness is the
basis of physical-physiological property as the case of biologi-
cal environment of creativity and creative behavior and health
can be shown by vividness. Vividness shall be development by
health study. Vividness has to be shown as the driving force of
health by not only developing the teaching-learning method to
build up physical strength through the area of physical educa-
tion but also researching physiological sphere of humans to
understand and use its property well.
The property of value ability in social sphere of creativity is
cooperation.
Creative thinking, method, and behavioral mode are formed
when creative individuals with originality build cooperative
relationship with community or group and it will be expressed
as social activities and acts and then culture can be formed
based on them, according to creative education. In other words,
humans are to build cooperative relationship to satisfy their
desires and develop creativity to maintain the cooperation (Lee
Jong-Rok, 2001).
Creative education seeks the grounds of the establishment of
such cooperative relation from the individuals as social beings
living with relationship each other. From the viewpoint of crea-
tive education, it is considered that humans lead social life by
cooperation as relational being and social-cultural value are
created through social life with cooperative relationship. Coop-
eration ability shall be developed through encouraged group
study.
Group study can make students to build cooperation by rela-
tional being each other and allow them to understand that co-
operation is the driving force of social development. According
to creative education, original value of creativity can be ac-
quired when cooperation is shown in cooperative and competi-
tive relationship of social and relational beings. Thus, the de-
velopment of cooperation ability to cultivate and encourage
sociality should be achieved through teaching-studying of
common study areas (Lee Jong-Rok, 2005).
The property of value ability in rational sphere of creativity
is quest.
Quest ability can be shown by rationality and intellect, ac-
cording to creative education. Quest is potential disposition that
can be improved by education including training and exercise
(Lee Jong-Rok, 2005). Quest is transferable thought as a func-
tion of advanced thinking. Accordingly, the degree of showing
quest will be a measure to estimate the effect of education for
creativity realization. So, the key subject is to set up and seek
educational conditions of quest in teaching-studying.
To cultivate the property of value ability in quest is core
teaching theory in creative education since the five stages of
teaching, which are the basis of teaching method in creative
education, is are based on imagination and thinking on the pre-
mise of quest. Creative thinking with originality can be shown
by imagining a scene with rational thinking added with intel-
lectual imagination and then producing the whole concep- tion
by quest ability to select (Lee Yong-Gil, 2005).
To cultivate quest ability, therefore, teaching-studying shall
be made by applying the five-stage teaching method. New idea
should be given to learner and creative environmental atmos-
phere be built so that students can get knowledge voluntarily in
wide range of areas (Lee Jong-Rok, 2005).
The property of value ability in moral sphere is virtue.
Subject of creativity in creative education is human being,
and virtue is the realization of creativity in moral sphere, which
can be practiced under moral judgment as human morality is
the subject of character (Lee Jong-Rok, 2005).
Creative consciousness of virtue that is the origin of moral
judgment is the freedom of conscience. As the nature of con-
science is the whole and integrated action of moral conscious-
ness, leading action prior to act, mental desire for judging ac-
tion after act, inhibition to vice, righteous factors to invoke
26

Y. G. LEE
virtue are integrated. The foundation of moral life is considered
as a creative activity in creative education as moral judgment
determines its value by the act of conscience. Virtue ability to
follow virtue or avoid vice can be shown based on such creative
activity (Lee Jong-Rok, 2005). In other words, the ability to
decide value of good and evil is shown by the ability to conduct
virtue in moral judgment and practice. Virtue shall be encour-
aged through moral learning. Creative activity as a free will
based on conscience can be conducted by cultivating the ability
to conduct virtue and avoid vice based on moral learning.
The property of value ability in artistic sphere is beauty.
Aesthetic faculties are ability to sense the beauty of arts.
Aesthetic faculties are innate elements in every human being.
Such aesthetic faculties are creative ability to allow people to
have artistic conception or art impulse or will that will evoke
creative action to have creative mentality for art (Lee Jong-Rok,
2001). Aesthetic faculties are not limited to artistic areas. Crea-
tive value of aesthetic faculties creates diverse intellectual,
moral, religious, and social values besides original value of art.
Diverse values are formed in artistic creation in accordance
with human emotions in addition to the beauty in it. Aesthetic
faculties can create other values having the artistic meaning in
many areas (Lee Jong-Rok, 2001).
Form the above content, it can be found that the properties of
creativity that are suggested in creative education does not exist
independently but relate each other in parallel structure of the
value abilities. Thus, the properties of value ability as the edu-
cational objectives to be suggested in each sphere have the
feature to be converged and integrated to the educational goal
of creativity.
Aesthetic faculties shall be cultivated through creative study-
ing. To cultivate aesthetic faculties is one of the works to build
up an unified body of human life ultimately, and furthermore to
enhance creative cultural value.
The property of value ability in religious sphere is belief.
Humans are the beings of dependence on something from the
religious aspect. Dependence on something is to have the mind
to depend on the absolute or the transcendent through belief or
religion due to fear of unpredictable future by finding out their
inability in human abilities
Religious dependence makes people build up the self having
unlimited confidence and mental power. The self is belief and
love. Human can seek creative self, build creative culture, and
create value based on unlimited confidence, power, and pa-
tience. Belief and love can create the self by belief or religion
and realize value creation by practicing the love to human bel-
ings (Lee Jong-Rok, 2001).
To cultivate the ability to believe and love, it needs to allow
people to have belief and feel love through the belief. It will
make people have altruistic love to serve and dedicate to others.
Belief and love shall be encouraged through volunteer study, so
the teaching-studying for loving country, people, and human
race shall be achieved.
It can be found that the purpose of creative education is to
cultivate of human beings from the above discussion. Creative
education allows students to be the subject of value creation by
the accomplishment of character through the cultivation of
human capabilities. In short, creative education takes human
creativity as the basis of educational purpose and sets up the
development of creativity as educational purpose in the whole
personality aspect by classifying the spheres of creativity into
physical-physiological sphere, social sphere, rational sphere,
moral sphere, artistic sphere, and religious sphere as universal
activities of life and the presenting the development of value
ability as educational goal.
Teaching Method of Creative Education
Teaching method of creative education is established by the
five-stage teaching. The five-stage teaching has the stages of
idea, discovery, digging, manifestation, and development as a
teaching method for cultivating creative abilities of humans.
The common premise for applying the five-stage teaching is the
encouragement of learner’s freedom and willingness, and the
teaching mode should be preceded as the principle of teacher’s
love and guide. The details of the five-stage teaching are stated
below.
Idea
The stage of idea is that of starting imagination and it is most
fundamental stage for cultivating creativity but the stage from
which creative activity is started. Imagination is personal and
intuitive action that can be made from free and voluntary intui-
tion. Personal integrity can be shown by the projection of indi-
vidual desire or emotion from such imagination. Accordingly,
the cultivation of creativity begins by starting the new integra-
tion of creativity by idea that is the action of imagination.
Discovery
The stage of discover is the process to accept the value pre-
sented in the stage of discovery and have desire and passion
aiming at the value. The content of idea can be expressed con-
cretely in this stage and the unity and order are to be built. In
other words, the content or object to be found is materialized in
this stage and creative thinking is presented externally and visi-
bly to find the problem to be solved. The characteristic of learn-
er is reflected in the process. The stage of discovery is the first
stage of materialization creativity through which personal cha-
cteristic can be seen in pure state as the learner’s creativity
approaches the nearest visible state.
Digging
The stage of digging is the process that the content acquired
from discovery is changed to reasonable and systematic con-
ception and then goal-oriented and unified conception can be
achieved for the new value. The process of digging is to grasp
the elements of problem or content acquired from the stage of
discovery and then elaborate concrete creativity. Individuality
or characteristic of learner intervenes the experience of creative
work as the thinking in discovery stage leads to real activity.
Accordingly, digging is the process that learner’s individual
creative ability can be built uniquely in this stage as external
value shown in discovery is composed and elaborated.
Manifestation
The stage of manifestation is the process to complete a mea-
ningful content by utilizing dug content and arranging it sys-
tematically. That is, the content in digging stage is elabo- rated
by imagination for development state and it is presented in the
process to build unity and order. Even if the stage of manifesta-
tion is not perfection but halfway preparation to reach the value

Y. G. LEE
28
If teaching leads the formation of value in the learner’s mind
in teaching-studying conditions ultimately, the five concepts
shall be also defined by the formation of value in the learner’s
mind. The five stages of teaching shall be an important division
to grasp the action of value formation through educational self.
Such division then needs to form learner’s interest and desire
into presentation and to materialize general meaning of creativ-
ity in the form applicable to education. If so, what is the action
of value formation to cultivate creativity corresponding to each
stage as a means of teaching?
of development, the purest phase can be shown prior to the
stage of development.
Development
The stage of development is to complete a human ability by
creating new value. So, it is the stage of application to practice
and realize conception by using every thinking freely. However,
the value cannot be accomplished by the completion in devel-
opment stage. The true value of creativity is to stimulate will-
ingness that causes new creativity again. We can see creative
circulation process to present endless continuity of learner’s
development of creative ability by the five-stage teaching of
creative education; it means unlimited educational possibility of
human capability cultivation.
We can define it by the concept of freedom and willingness.
To define the concept of the five stages of teaching by the con-
cept of freedom and willingness means that the concept of
freedom and willingness can be defined by the presentation of
learner’s interest and desire. To show such five concepts by the
presentation of interest and desire, defining them by freedom
and willingness, is consistent intention to define totality of
teaching method by one concept. Thus, the concepts shown in
the five stages of teaching need to consider the principle of
guide for learners to study with design and motivation and the
principle of teacher’s love and guide both.
The content of creative education teaching can be shown in a
model stated in Figure 1.
Meaning of the Five-Stage Teaching of
Creative Education
The five stages in teaching of idea, discovery, digging, mani-
festation, and development are the core of creative education. Teaching stages of creative education contain external action
and internal action; the former is the activities by students and
teachers, and the latter is the formation of value in students’
mind. Thus, the two aspects need to be respected equally to
make the teaching stages of creative education be meaningful,
and the relationship between the two aspects must be consid-
ered.
In general, the five concepts of the five stages in teaching of
creative education are recognized as external procedures to
occur in time series, and the five concepts are considered to be
the means for teaching. It is clear that the five concepts of the
five stages in teaching of creative education are the means for
teaching in teaching-studying, but it is difficult to find that the
five concepts can have a certain meaning in creative education
based on such definition.
If one aspect is disregarded and another aspect only is em-
phasized, it would be difficult to cultivate creative ability as the
Figure 1.
The model of creative education teaching.

Y. G. LEE
value of character meaningful in creative education, even if it
may achieve educational outcome in current functional educa-
tion system. The five stages of teaching in creative education is
he theory that presents the two aspects perfectly. The ideal type
of thinking to create value is built in the five stages of teaching,
based on the concept of freedom and willingness. The ideal
type of thinking for building such value is to suggest the ideal
type of teaching-studying such as idea, discovery, digging,
manifestation, and development. In other words, creative edu-
cation is to build the ideal type of thinking for value creation in
advance and then present the corresponding teaching-studying.
The ideal type of thinking for value creation is actual measure
of education to realize the ideal type of teaching-studying. The
ideal type of thinking for value creation in the five-stage teach-
ing of creative education is meaningful as it is optimal method
to realize the ideal type of thinking for value creation.
Then, what is the system to connect the type of thinking for
value creation and that of teaching-studying, in creative educa-
tion? Freedom and willingness as the type of thinking for value
creation can be the notional classification to understand think-
ing reasonably. Freedom and willingness, that is, is the process
of thinking that must be assumed to mention “Learner’s thought
has come.”, and from the viewpoint, freedom and willingness is
the analysis unit of concept to grasp ideal thinking process. In
other words, freedom and willingness are not the concept to
provide educational measure in actual level but the concept to
explain thinking in theoretical level. On the other hand, idea-
discovery-digging-manifestation-development is the concept
for actual educational measure. It is not the concept from logi-
cal analysis of thinking but the concept to present the principle
of method to be taken gradually so that thinking can be made
rightly. The order of the five stages corresponds to the order of
thought formation. To build the thought for value creation, the
five stages need to be experiences notionally but in time gradu-
ally.
Idea-discovery-digging-manifestation-development is distin-
guished notionally and it is the concept to be classified stage by
stagy in studying, while freedom and willingness are classified
notionally only and it is connected concept from the aspects of
subject and object.
The five-stage teaching of creative education, ultimately, is
to build the system of teaching method for people’s creating
useful value through the change and cultivation of human abil-
ity by changing logical order to time series for thinking and
then applying it to education.
Conclusion
The five-stage teaching of creative education is one of the
teaching methods set up as educational methodology for the
education purpose of human creativity cultivation. Creativity is
understood as universal and holistic aspect of human in creative
education, and the spheres of creativity can be classified into
physical-physiological sphere, social sphere, rational sphere,
moral sphere, artistic sphere, and religious sphere in human life
and the properties of value ability in each sphere are presented.
Vividness in physical-physiological sphere, cooperation in so-
cial sphere, quest in rational sphere, virtue in moral sphere,
beauty in artistic sphere, and belief in religious sphere are de-
fined as the properties of value ability and presented the educa-
tional purpose. Such spheres of creativity distinguish universal
human life and the cultivation of creativity are established as
the educational purpose. Teaching method in creative education
consists of the five stages of teaching as integrated teach-
ing-studying to cultivate the properties of value ability in each
sphere of creativity, which is the stage of idea-discovery-dig-
ging-manifestation-development to encourage learner’s free-
dom and willingness with teacher’s love and guide.
Learner is the subject in the study course in the five-stage
teaching and it is the teaching-studying theory to cultivate value
ability through the learner’s thinking and experience, connect-
ing the ideal type of thinking for value creation to the ideal type
of teaching-studying. Freedom and willingness as the ideal type
of thinking for value creation are explained in theoretical level
and the actual measure for education is tried in the teaching
theory by the five-stage teaching of idea-discovery-digging-
manifestation-development as the ideal type of teaching-study-
ing. In other words, creative education is to build the ideal type
of thinking for value creation in advance and then present the
corresponding teaching-studying. The five-stage of teaching in
creative education is to build theoretical system of education to
allow students to make creative value by themselves through
the cultivation of human ability, changing logical order to time
series in thinking and then applying it to education.
The five-stage of teaching in creative education is the formu-
lization of thinking for value education for applying it to study-
ing. It is theoretical composition of the stages to develop think-
ing for value creation through the experiences of the activity
spheres, placing the study course to the learners. The five-stage
of teaching can present the educational course as creative abil-
ity cultivation as well as the teaching for realization of educa-
tional self.
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