Real creativity
– the missing element in education
Readings 24th June 2019
We are coming to the thought that we are speaking to a
minority in our efforts to encourage an education system that places creativity
and the creative arts central to
teaching and learning.
Confirmed by views seen recently on TV
The views of classrooms on show (with a couple of
exceptions) through the teachers’ strike
indicated to us a system featuring an
emphasis on literacy and numeracy with work on display more to do with teachers
than celebrating student creativity.
As well, postings on the Teachers’ Facebook page seem to illustrate creativity more as decoration often clone like in appearance. And the issue of workload seems to relate to an obsession with testing, assessment and associated documentation once again focused around literacy and numeracy – areas that seem to take up most of the morning leaving little time for equally important Learning Areas. And to make it worse associated with demeaning ability grouping.
Let’s leave current formulaic teaching models.
As well, postings on the Teachers’ Facebook page seem to illustrate creativity more as decoration often clone like in appearance. And the issue of workload seems to relate to an obsession with testing, assessment and associated documentation once again focused around literacy and numeracy – areas that seem to take up most of the morning leaving little time for equally important Learning Areas. And to make it worse associated with demeaning ability grouping.
Let’s leave current formulaic teaching models.
 |
| Formulaic teaching |
Where is the emphasis on developing the gifts and
talents of students?
We do recognize areas that value student creativity
such as: play based learning (with its similarity to 1950/60s developmental
teaching); the concept of student agency; place based learning; Project Based
Learning; and personalized learning (which, however, has been captured by
‘thin’ or fragile’ learning via Google) and the potential of Flexible Learning
Environments.
Where has the creativity gone?
Professor Peter O’Connor (Faculty of Education Auckland
University) has written "Schools as we know them were originally designed
at the same time as mass industrialization began. Not
surprisingly factories
and schools centre around the testing and standardization of the products they
make and value conformity and uniformity.
The need to take risks
 |
| Prof Peter O'Conner |
The need to take risks
Creativity in these environments shrivels because its
fundamental includes a willingness to take risks, to be curious, to be playful
with ideas and to consider possibilities to make something not seen or imagined
before. This approach has never been a feature of New Zealand schools except in
isolated instances and for a brief period in the 1950s, when progressive
education philosophies were introduced.
Art and well being
Art and well being
The vitality of schools at the time was based on the
twin ideas that the arts train the imagination, and the social imagination is
vital for social progress, social justice and national wellbeing. There was a
belief that the arts and education were a strong foundation stones for a strong
democracy.The need for creative empathetic citizens
It was understood that one of the school’s primary
functions was to create critical, creative empathetic citizens as a safeguard
against the rise of extremism.”
Creativity killed by National Standards and STEM
O’Connor continues, “I believe nine years of National
Standards essentially killed off creativity in New Zealand schools. The
overriding focus on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) was
highly effective in dismantling the arts across the whole education system…”.
“The arts curriculum is the vital tool for teachers to
be creative with their children and be creative themselves.”
We couldn’t agree more with ProfessorO’Connor
.
.
Sir Ken Robinson - a similar challenge
Sir Ken Robinson writes a similar story about the need
to move away from current standardization. He writes one role of education is
to help people develop their natural talents and abilities’. ‘We have the
opportunity to rethink the whole ecosystem of education. We need to reinvent
schools…..We need to stir the motivation , vision, optimism and political
commitment’.
The Modern Learning site always provides valuable
inspiration for teachers willing to move into creative teaching. Their writers
often quote Seymour Sarason about his need for the artistry of teaching
who says teachers need to create ‘those conditions that make students want to
learn;
not have to learn but want to learn more about self, others, and the
world…..you seek to help the child forge connections between what he or she
wants to know and what the child wants to learn’.
What if ....
So, the Modern Learners write ‘what if we started with the premise that school could be the most interesting place in a young person’s life given our curious, connected, self-directed modern learners are truly capable of doing what was previously unimaginable.’
What if ....
So, the Modern Learners write ‘what if we started with the premise that school could be the most interesting place in a young person’s life given our curious, connected, self-directed modern learners are truly capable of doing what was previously unimaginable.’
In contrast New Zealand site Number Agents write, ‘we
need to stop constantly measuring children against so called benchmarks.
Measuring and gathering data does nothing to help the child’s growth, but does
take up time that could instead be used for fostering and inspiring the joy of
learning.’
An old Rural Adviser once said ‘teachers have
two important attributes, their energy and their time and if they waste in on
b/s they can’t teach’.
‘The question is’, Gary Stager writes in a
Modern Learning posting, ‘how can we create
experiences and context in
classroom where kids can discover things they don’t know they love? This is
done by implementing good projects that spur creativity, ownership and relevance'
One of our favourite quotes comes from Jerome
Bruner, who says 'teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation'.
.Another favourite writer of ours is Frank Smith who writes, ‘we become like the company we keep, we learn to be like them .. the identification creates the possibilities of learning. All learning pivots on who we think we are, and who we see ourselves as capable of becoming’.
.Another favourite writer of ours is Frank Smith who writes, ‘we become like the company we keep, we learn to be like them .. the identification creates the possibilities of learning. All learning pivots on who we think we are, and who we see ourselves as capable of becoming’.
A metaphor for a classroom.
We see classrooms as an amalgam of a museum, art
studio, media centre, laboratory and exhibition gallery populated by
interesting talented teachers
In such a rich and challenging environment students will learn – it’s what they do.
No need for the current tiresome assessment models – the work the students complete, their portfolios, will be evaluation enough.
In such a rich and challenging environment students will learn – it’s what they do.
No need for the current tiresome assessment models – the work the students complete, their portfolios, will be evaluation enough.
Bruce Hammonds and Allan Alach
This weeks readings
Professor Peter O’Connor – the killing of creativity in our schools
THIS IS A MUST READ ARTICLE.
‘I believe nine years of National Standards
essentially killed off creativity in New Zealand schools. The overriding focus
on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) was highly effective in
dismantling the arts across the whole education system.'
Sir Ken Robinson – time to personalize education
‘Standardisation broke
education. Here's how we can fix our schools. "The movement towards
personalisation is already advancing in medicine. We must move quickly in that
direction in education, too”’
‘In the face of so much
science, a critical but overlooked, component to teaching is becoming
increasingly rare in the classroom - creativity. An area that is not
easily quantified into numerical data, inputs and outputs, the use of
creativity by a classroom teacher to ensure a level of joy in learning and
teaching extends the science of teaching into the art of it.’
The Benefits of Cultivating Curiosity in Kids
‘Despite the centrality of curiosity to all scientific
endeavors, there’s a relative dearth of studies on the subject itself.
Fortunately, scientists are actively unraveling this concept and, in the
process, making a convincing
Teachers need to get students involved in open studies
with no known answers
“Here are ten criteria for
‘wicked problems’”.
This is Why
We Must Be Teaching With Imagination, and How to Do It
In which Pooh
looks for a 21st Century Education Part 2
Another
instalment from Kelvin Smythe’s ATTACK series that he completed just before he
died:
‘Except as a chronological expression, 21st century
education is nothing special, remaining part of a continuity that, despite
considerable twisting and turning, remains just that, a continuity; the
technological disruption predicted for that chronological expression being just
a further example of ideological disruption that is always there or near in the
sensitive and value-laden area of school education.’
Children need
art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and
fresh air and play.
‘But if you don’t give a child art and stories and
poems and music, the damage is not so easy to see. It’s there, though. Their
bodies are healthy enough; they can run and jump and swim and eat hungrily and
make lots of noise, as children have always done, but something is missing.’
For more information about the need for educational
transformation, creativity and talent development in earlier blogs:
https://leading-learning.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2019-06-03T16:30:00%2B12:00
