A Study on the Relationship between Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Learning Methods towards Students Academic Performance at Private Higher Education Institution, Malaysia

Education is an engine for growth and progress for any society and nation. Many challenges faced by 21st century education despite the implementation of many teaching and learning approaches. In the pre- technology education context, most teachers use teacher - centered learning method. There are many studies which shows that traditional method no more relevant to the current younger generations and many higher Education Institution moving forward by applying creativity and innovation in their teaching and learning activities. This paper attempts to investigate the relationship between creativity and innovation in teaching and learning activities towards students academic performance in private higher education institutions. Information has been collected through surveys, depth interviews, observations with teachers or educators and together with secondary data (library research) were analyzed using SPSS. The studies found that creative and innovative teaching methods makes a particular concept clear to the students, students develop interest to know exactly the concept, creates long lasting memory / correlation of a concept and there is positive relationship with creativity, innovation with student academic performance using various teaching methods. Through this study, the reasearcher have proposed few ways which could be used applied by teachers / educators in private higher education institutions in effort to educate students using student centered learning instead of traditional teaching method to ensure students’ improve in academic performance .