For a term in such common use in ELT, 'creativity' proves difficult to define: as Amabile (1996: 33) states, 'a clear and sufficiently detailed articulation of the creative process is not yet possible'. Yet we readily recognize it, even if we cannot completely define it. The notion of creativity comprises core ideas such as 'making something new', 'perceiving old things in new ways', 'finding new connections', or 'evoking pleasurable surprise' (Maley 2003). Creativity can be seen either as the quality of being creative or as the ability to create, which Krathwohl (2002: 215) describes as 'putting elements together to form a novel, coherent whole or make an original product'. However, novelty is not alone sufficient for something to be recognized as creative: it also needs to be seen as relevant in a specific domain Thus, in our own field, the recently formed 'C Group' has defined creativity as 'thinking and activity in language education that is novel, valuable, and open-ended, and that helps to enrich learning in our students and ourselves' (C Group 2015). Of course, what is 'novel' and 'valuable' will vary according to context, but this definition represents a useful starting point.
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Maley et al. (2015) studied this question.