Creativity

Welcome back bloggers, as mentioned in the previous blog I am going to be exploring creative teachers and creative learning discussing questions such as what is creativity? What makes teachers creative? How are children encouraged to learn creativity?

To begin with, Maley (2003) defines creativity as a collective of terms such as creating something new, adapting old things into a new way, discovering connections and using creativity as a surprise that engages learners. When teachers are using pedagogical methods to enhance creativity they often use effective and interesting techniques which spark imagination within the classroom. Throughout my time at university creativity has been heavily encouraged, one of the major creative tasks which have been undertaken is forest schools. Within forest schools, we had to creative houses using the environment using our imagination on how we could use objects to their full potential.

Creative teaching and creative learning can be tracked back to Carl Jung in 1912. Jung introduced the idea of active imagination, suggesting that imagination can creative deep awareness through active practice. (Tsai, 2007) In support of Jung’s active imagination is the use of picture books throughout the early years of primary education having a huge influence on both creative teaching and creative learning. As picture books have a very limited amount of contextual explanation the reader can interpret the pictures in their own way. Teachers are able to use their imagination interpreting these pictures very quickly but they need to be aware that children need adequate time to interpret the pictures as they take longer to immerse their selves in the world of the story. Teachers can help children’s creative aspect by explaining in-depth using descriptive words by painting a picture. (Tsai, 2017)

In support of picture books and creativity, Hsaio (2010) study has shown that the use of picture books in a primary setting has a positive impact on children thus enhances the effectiveness of teaching.  However, George and Zhou (2007) believe that creative learners are the influence of positive emotions. Learners will become more creative if rewards can be gained thus making them happier. If a learner experiences negative emotions they are more critical so they stray away from being creative.

Although creativity is often viewed as a key influence in aiding learning it is not at the heart of education. With creativity being left out of curriculums, teachers have not got to include it. Teachers have no incentive to teach creativity and often leave it out due to the amount of effort taken to implement it. (Maley, et al. 2015)

However, Donaldson believes that there is now a demand for creativity and it should be included within the modern curricula. He believes that the curriculum at the moment is focused on short-term goals, for example, learning about and learning should instead focus on learning to skills with creativity at the forefront. Within Donaldson’s review, he views that creativity should be placed alongside the highest points of the framework, numeracy and literacy with this being one of the core themes across the curriculum children will be able to enjoy learning about subjects. Throughout an individual’s life, creativity and innovation are needed ever more to make an individual stand out from the crowd, with a creative ability learners are able to be open, generate ideas and have the ability to explore and express ideas.

Creative teaching could be used by teaching through gamification. Gamification incorporates gameplay with nongame situations. Technology can be a huge factor of gamification with learners using technology to face off with one another. In my own experience gamification has been used along with technology using Kahoot, where learners access a unique link and create a username then answer the following quiz. (Prince, 2013)

In summary creativity throughout the classroom is a crucial need for a learner’s success. Throughout Wales creativity is going to develop over the coming years with it being placed highly in the curriculum. Thank you for reading this blog, the next blog is going to discuss teaching in a cross-curricular style.

Reference List

C.Y. Hsiao. 2010. ‘Enhancing children’s artistic and creative thinking and drawing performance through appreciating picture books’ International Journal of Art & Design Education, 29 (2), pp. 143-152

Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

George, et al. 2007. ‘Dual tuning in a supportive context: Joint contributions of positive mood, negative mood, and supervisory behaviors to employee creativity’. Academy of Management Journal, 50 (3), pp. 605-622

Maley A . 2003. ‘Creative approaches to writing materials’ in B. Tomlinson (ed.). Developing Materials for Language Teaching  . London: Continuum.

Maley A, et al.(2015). 'Creativity',ELT Journal. 69(4), pp.434-436

Prince, D (2013) 'Gamification', Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries , 10 (3), pp. 162-169.

Tsai, Y.C. (2017). ‘Learning under time pressure: Learners who think positively achieve superior learning outcomes from creative teaching methods using picture books’. Thinking Skills and Creativity. 27, pp. 55-63