Surprisingly, I see the least imaginative work being produced when a teacher gives instructions and says, In this lesson you can use any topic you want to. Or, In this lesson you can work in any media you like. Even in the case of students whose work seems quite imaginative and creative, if I know the student, I generally find that the work is merely a rehash of that student's previous success. We are naturally creatures of habit. Our natural way to learn is by imitation.
Students imitate their own success and they imitate their peers.
In art, this amounts to what I call, another one of those artworks. Limitations can be a good thing to motivate creativity. Requirements in an assignment narrow the realm in which one is allowed to operate, making it easier to focus on a problem or an issue. We can find some useful teaching strategies by looking at how artists generate ideas. Many artists use a device called changing habits of work .