Teaching Creativity and Teaching for

Creativity
What is Creativity?
The Definition of Creativity:
The application of knowledge and
skills in new ways, to achieve values
outcomes (NCSL)
Imaginative activity fashioned so as
to produce outcomes that are both
original and of value, (NAACE)
Features of Creativity:
Using Imagination
Pursuing Purposes
Being Original
Judging Value
Creative Teaching
We define creative teaching in two
ways:
1. Teaching creatively
2. Teaching for creativity
Tasks in teaching for creativity
Encouraging
Identifying
Fostering
Encouraging
Highly creative people in any field
are often driven by strong self-belief
in their abilities in that field. Having
a positive self-image as a creative
person can be fundamental to
developing creative performance
Identifying
Creative achievement is often
driven by a persons love of a
particular instrument, for the feel of
the material, for the excitement of
a style of work that catches the
imagination. Identifying young
peoples creative abilities include
helping them to find their creative
strengths.
Fostering
Creativity draws from many
ordinary abilities and skills rather
than one special gift or talent. Thus
the development of many common
capacities and sensitivities can help
to foster creativity.
Recognizing and becoming
knowledgeable about the creative
process can also help foster creative
development; teaching for creativity
helps young people in
understanding what is involved in
being creative and becoming more
sensitive in their own creative
processes.
Teaching for creativity aims at encouraging
1. autonomy on both sides: a feeling of
ownership and control over the ideas that
are being offered (Woods 1995:3);
2. authenticity in initiatives and responses,
deciding for oneself on the basis of ones
own judgment;
3. openness to new and unusual ideas, and to
a variety of methods and approaches;
4. respect for each other and for the ideas
that emerge;
5. fulfillment: from each a feeling of
anticipation, satisfaction, involvement and
enjoyment of the creative relationship.
Trust
Above all there has to be a relationship of trust.
Teaching for creativity aims to encourage self-
confidence, independence of mind, and the
capacity to think for oneself. The aim is to enable
young people to be more effective in handling
future problems and objectives; to deepen and
broaden awareness of the self as well as the
world; and to encourage openness and reflexivity
as creative learners.
Self-directed Learning
Teaching for creativity encourages a sense of
responsibility for learning. It aims at a growing
autonomy involving goal-setting and planning,
and the capacity for self-monitoring self-
assessment and self-management.
Creativity itself is a mode of
learning. It is distinctive in
the combination of three
features:
A. It involves a thoughtful
playfulness learning through
experimental play. It is serious play
conjuring up, exploring and
developing possibilities and then
critically evaluating and testing
them.
B. It involves a special flexibility in
which there may be a conscious
attempt to challenge the
assumptions and preconceptions of
the self an unusual activity in
which there is an active effort to
unlearn in order to learn afresh.
C. This process is driven by the
find, introduce, construct or
reconstruct something new. It seeks
actively to expand the possibilities
of any situation. In this sense the
learning of creative thoughts is not
neutral; it has a bias towards the
innovative.
Tips for building
creative learning
Start simply, build progressively
Find easy ways in to creative learning. Start with the classroom environment.
Move on to how pupils and staff use speech and questions. Keep it
manageable, keep the focus tight. Show and share tangible changes. This
will develop confidence to go further.
Be a creative advocate. Create a presentation or materials that you can
use both within your school to convince colleagues and out of school. This
will help to build a whole-school ethos around creativity.
Focus on one area at a time, for example, in developing more creative
learning in maths, and use this to raise awareness and encourage staff to
think about applications in other subject areas and spaces in the school.
Organise an Enquiring Minds-type project where pupils have an opportunity
to negotiate the aim of the project and are instrumental in designing
how it is carried out (see: www.enquiringminds.org.uk).
Set up an inventors club after school.
Transform one small area in the school as a space designed for creativity
and imagination. Make sure that the pupils have some ownership of the
project.
Critical Thinking and Self
Awareness
Scriven and Paul (1996), define
critical thinking as "the intellectually
disciplined process of actively and
skillfully conceptualizing, applying,
analyzing, synthesizing, and
evaluating information gathered
from, or generated by, observation,
experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief
and action."
Through critical thinking and self-
awareness, one can understand the
relationship between thoughts and
emotions. Although it is assumed
that they are independent, the truth
is that feelings are based on some
level of thought, and thoughts
generate from some level of feeling.
Highlighting Self-awareness
* Perceptions
* Assumptions
* Prejudices
* Values
* Breaking Habits
* A New Point of View
* Evaluation
Pupils need to be thoroughly
engaged with their own learning,
and provided with plenty of
opportunity to practise their skills,
talk about their learning
experiences, reflect on their
strengths and weaknesses and to be
actively involved in evaluating their
own development.
Whether you decide to mediate the
skills, dispositions and attitudes
contained within the framework by
adopting a stand-alone skills
programme, an infusion approach,
or by introducing a mixed model,
here are seven classroom strategies
that will underpin the success of
any approach:
Seven Implications for Classroom Teaching
1) Set open-ended challenges
2) Make thinking important
3) Make thinking explicit
4) Ask rich questions
5) Enable collaborative learning
6) Promote self-management
7) Make connections across contexts
What it takes to be a creative
teacher is what it takes to be a
creative artist:
You need creativity and ability to
express yourself and your emotions.
Some teachers have huge amount of
knowledge, but they can't express it
or create the spark in their students
to learn.
Conclusion
Thank You