This painting arose because the student concerned wanted to make a painting of an experiment from the class science study on sounds. It features the experiment where bell like sounds from the swinging spoons reach the ears.It is also a an excellent painting showing a great use of paint.
As I was reading and then writing about the thoughts in my diary of my first months teaching I recognised the same challenges that face creative teachers today.
My experience in the classroom -which lasted three years - was my attempt to put into practice the beliefs about teaching and learning I had come to believe in and which I had helped other teachers implement as part of my role as an adviser.
Today we need to return to valuing the ideas of creative teachers and to capture and spread their ideas to other teachers and hopefully for courageous principals to develop schools around 'new' visions of teaching and learning.
Not so 'new' in reality as there have been precursors who had pioneered such approaches from way back in the 50s in NZ ( see Elwyn Richardson's book 'In The Early World") and teachers who courageously developed similar ideas through out the world right back to the days of John Dewey .For myself I was heavily influenced by the English Junior schools of the 60s and the US Open Education movements of the 70s. This was a time, before 'Tomorrows Schools' when creative teachers were valued, if not fully encouraged.
Since '86 distant curriculum experts, technocrats, assessment 'freaks' and politicians have held the upper hand. We need to return to valuing the artistry of creative teachers and to share their ideas.
So if I were to return to the classroom ( perish the thought) I would face the same situation as I did all those years ago. To be honest it is worse today as our schools are full of 'managerialism', and 'scientific' management procedures - none of which represent science - science, according to Professor Brian Cox Adviser to the UK Government, who says, that 'science is about being comfortable with the unknown'.
True creative teaching is about exploring the unknown not confirming the present. Being creative is the default mode of humans until 'flipped' by school experiences.
A look at the days programme in any school will show that traditional subjects still eat up most of the school day and that inquiry, or creative,learning is almost an afterthought. Assessment processes confirm this bias and Nation Standards will simply add to the problem. The reverse ought to be true. Experiential learning, inquiry, creativity, and personalised learning ought to be the default mode of learning.
So what are the attributes of a creative teacher - the beliefs I tried to implement during my teaching experience I have been reflecting about?
For one thing creative teachers respect the real world of the young people they 'teach' - they take their feelings, ideas, queries, theories, and lives seriously. They listen to young people and believe that, given the appropriate learning environment they all can learn in their own way
They believe that the power of learning ought to be shared with their students - they try their best to create their classrooms as democratic inquiry communities by negotiating learning, activities assessment criteria with their students.
They appreciate the diversity of their students and avoid a 'one size fits all' mentality - or a 'four groups fit all'. They believe in personalising any assistance according to need.
They want their students to being involved in 'digging deeply' into significant learning experiences rather than working through pre-planned progressions in subject areas.
They believe in personal excellence. They want all their students to be able to show growth and for all students to demonstrate their 'voice' and creativity in all they create. They believe strongly that all students can achieve personal excellence.
They see any Learning experience as: a chance to develop deep personal understandings; as an opportunity to tap individual student's' gifts and talents ;and to develop the dispositions ( or 'learning power') to be able to continue learning. True learning can only be seen ( or assessed) when the ideas are transferred to a new situation.
They see the curriculum as emerging from: the interests and concerns of their children; or arising from the local environment; or 'negotiated'; or introduced through, what Jerome Bruner calls, 'the canny art of intellectual temptation'. But however inquiry is introduced it needs to done deeply and well. Students' finished products, (and the room environment) need to demonstrate continual growth in intellectual understanding and aesthetic awareness.
Achieving such a personalised, inquiry based, creative programme in the future will require considerable courage. The 'new' New Zealand Curriculum demands a fresh look at how we organise our schools and classrooms - it is just not about 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to get a better view' which most most school seem to be doing.
A clue is see how much time is given to literacy and numeracy, or at least, to see how much such areas have been 're framed' to serve the needs of student inquiry and creativity.
If we want our students to develop their personal set of gifts and talents, and to develop the competencies to become 'seekers, users and creators of their own knowledge' as expressed in the NZC, then schools really need to be transformed. Schools need to leave the world of prescribed academic subjects and mass education processes and enter the world of personalised and creative learning.This is the world where their students are heading and where many already live today. It is no wonder that so many students currently fail today in schools not suited to them and no surprise to see which student are currently the 'winners'.
In the future all students need to leave schools as 'confident life long learners'.
The spark of hope is that such an education has been achieved in the past (even if in individual classrooms) and that there are still teachers and schools today who believe strongly in such a transformational vision.
Such teachers have the responsibility to continue their efforts - often against the odds. Creativity is never easy but aways exciting
5 comments:
Be great if such creative teachers were to be valued once again -it seems we have gone as far as we can with current teaching in primary schools. Pleasant places but now lacking imagination or intellectual courage. Secondary schools remain much as they have always been, secure in their traditional shape -except they are having trouble with 'engaging'students who would never have been enrolled in earlier days. Of course it is these students who are at fault when schools should be personalising learning to help them in the ways you suggest
If teachers don't collectively take the initiative and develop a creative approach to learning then things won't change much. Current 'best practice' formulaic teaching is leading us to standardisation. If there is one thing that is certain it is that the future will be unpredictable - we need minds equipped to deal with unpredictable challenges.
If we want to 'engage' all learners we have no choice.
The dilemma of creativity and acknowledging individual difference in students in secondary schools is an age behind primary and is totally stifled by the systems used to acknowledge achievement. Teachers who have become comfortable in their '1 subject' expertise do not want to venture outside of their comfort zone. At year 11 the quote 'I know they won't pass' is often heard from teachers. This begs the question, What does that do to the learner? In my role as SCT I intend to use your quote, If we want our students to develop their personal set of gifts and talents, and to develop the competencies to become 'seekers, users and creators of their own knowledge' as expressed in the NZC, then schools really need to be transformed. Schools need to leave the world of prescribed academic subjects and mass education processes and enter the world of personalised and creative learning.This is the world where their students are heading and where many already live today. It is no wonder that so many students currently fail today in schools not suited to them and no surprise to see which student are currently the 'winners'. Hopefully to engender some long overdue professional conversation based around the NZC. Thanks for the inspiration.
Hi Simon
Contact me and I will send you a magazine to read. You do live near the Mountain?
Bruce
It is terribly sad watching fantastic left-field teachers sruggle with fitting themselves into a mangaerialist system that neither they nor their students suit. I am glad that you are talking abou the artistry of teachers because those are exactly the words that have been left out of most descriptions of what teaching is. Many of us have "mutated and survived" but the new round of criteria for teachers to be assessed against coming in may be enough to finally rid the system of all of us. And yet any real in-depth reading of how we teach and learn describes the artistry of the truly experienced talented teacher - we desperately need teachers stories of what we do and how we do it - not politicians' ideas of an input/output model.
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