There is a great
deal of debate about such terms as creativity, creative learning and creative
education as they often used in different contexts. Some people argue that
creativity cannot be taught at all as it is a natural capacity which is not
easily developed through education. In
1999 The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education
published an outstanding piece of work entitled, “All our Futures: Creativity,
Culture and Education” which sets out proposals to support the development of
creativity in education in schools. Although its impact was limited at the time
of publication, the key messages remain at the heart of the vibrant education
outlined in Excellence and Enjoyment of the Secondary Strategy, an education
where every young person is given the opportunity to make the most of their
talents in order to enjoy education and achieve success.
The purpose of
this website is to support schools in developing opportunities for creative
learning through sharing good practice, providing information on working with
artists who can enrich the curriculum and explaining approaches to curriculum
design.
What is
Creativity?
The Definition of Creativity:
“Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce
outcomes that are both original and of value,”
(NAACE)
Four Features of Creativity
Using Imagination
Imaginative
activity in our terms is not the same as fantasising or imaging, although it
may involve both. It is not simply producing mental representations of things
that are not present or have not been experienced. Imaginative activity is the
process of generating something original: providing an alternative to the
expected, the conventional, or the routine. The activity involves processes of
thinking or behaving. The behaviour may include activities where thought is
embodied in the movement: such as in performance and other forms where there is
not necessarily prefigurative thinking. Imaginative activity is a form of
mental play – serious play directed towards some creative purpose. It is a mode
of thought which is essentially generative: in which we attempt to expand the
possibilities of a given situation; to look at it afresh or from a new
perspective, envisaging alternatives to the routine or expected in any given task.
Creative insights often occur when existing ideas are combined or reinterpreted
in unexpected ways or when they are applied in areas they are not normally
associated. Often this arises by making unusual connection, seeing analogies
and relationships between ideas or objects that have not previously been
related.
Pursuing Purposes
Creativity carries
with it the idea of action and purpose. It is, in a sense, applied imagination.
To speak of somebody being creative is to suggest that they are actively engaged
in making or producing something in a deliberate way. This is not to say that
creative insights or breakthroughs may not occur unexpectedly along the way,
for example by intuition or non-directed thought, but they occur on the way to
something: to meeting the overall objective, or to solving the central problem.
This can be a highly dynamic process, whose eventual outcomes can be quite
different than those anticipated at the outset. Sometimes the objective changes
as new idea and possibilities come into view: sometimes, as with inventions and
discoveries, new purposes are found when an initial product or idea has
emerged.
Being Original
Creativity always
involves originality. But there are different categories of originality.
- Individual
A
person’s work may be original in relation to their own previous work and
output.
- Relative
It may
be original in relation to their peer group: to other young people of the same
age, for example.
- Historic
The
work may be original in terms of anyone’s previous output in a particular
field: that is, it may be uniquely original.
There can also be
degrees of originality within these categories: of greater or less originality
in relation to individual or group output. Originality in creative work will
often be judged to of the first two categories. For reasons we come to, this
can be of considerable importance in the general education of each individual.
But in our view exceptional individual achievement – that is, of historic
originality – is also more likely to emerge from a system of education which
encourages the creative capacities of everyone.
Judging Value
We described
imaginative activity as a generative mode of thought; creativity involves a
second and reciprocal mode of thought: an evaluative
mode. Originality at some levels is essential in all creative work, but it is
never enough. Original ideas may be irrelevant to the purposes in hand. They
may be bizarre, or faulty. The outcome of imaginative activity can only be
called creative if it is of value in relation to the task at hand. ‘Value’ here
is a judgement of some property or the outcome related to the purpose. There
are many possible judgements according to the area of activity: effective,
useful, enjoyable, satisfying, valid, tenable. The criteria of value may vary
according to the field of activity in question.
Creative activity
involves playing with ideas and trying out possibilities. In any creative
process there are likely to be dead-ends: ideas and designs that do not work.
There may be many failures and modifications and much refashioning of
imaginative activity before the best outcomes, the best ‘fit’ is produced. A
similar process may then take place in terms of the application of creative
outcomes. Evaluating which ideas do work and which do not requires judgement
and criticism. In this way creative thinking always involves some critical
thinking. Understanding this is an important foundation for creative education.
There is a distinction, and there may be differences, between the evaluations
made by the creator and those made by others. We will come back to this later
in discussing the links between creative and cultural development.
Critical
evaluation involves a shift in the focus of attention and mode of thinking as
we attend to what is working or what is not working. This can happen throughout
the process of creativity and not only at the end. It can permeate the process
of generating ideas: it can involve standing back in quiet reflection. It can
be individual or shared, involve instant judgements or long-term testing. In
most creative work there are many shifts between these two modes of thought and
focus of attention. The quality of creative achievement is related to both.
Helping young people to understand and manage this interaction between generative
and evaluative thinking is a pivotal task of creative education.
Teaching Creatively and Teaching For Creativity
There is an
obvious sense in which children cannot be ‘taught’ creativity in the way that
they can be taught the times tables. Creative processes do draw from knowledge
and practical skills. It is also the case that there are various techniques to
facilitate creative thinking. But this does not mean that children are taught
creatively by direct instruction. We define creative teaching in two ways:
first, teaching creatively, and second, teaching for creativity. Many teachers see creative teaching in terms of the
first. Our terms of reference imply a primary concern with the second. By
teaching creatively we mean teachers using imaginative approaches to make
learning more interesting, exciting and effective. Teachers can be highly
creative in developing materials and approaches that fire children’s interests
and motivate their learning. This is a necessary part of all good teaching.
By teaching for creativity we mean forms of teaching
that are intended to develop young people’s own creative thinking or behaviour.
Teaching for creativity involves teaching creatively. Young people’s creative
abilities are more likely to be developed in an atmosphere in which the
teacher’s creative abilities are properly engaged. To put it another way,
teachers cannot develop the creative abilities of their pupils if their own
creative abilities are suppressed. This too has implications for the curriculum
– and in particular for the type and amount of national prescription of what is
taught and how, and for teacher training. Teaching for creativity is a
demanding process which cannot be made routine. However, it is possible to
identify some general principles. There are three related tasks in teaching for
creativity: encouraging, identifying and 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. Many young people and adults do
not think of themselves as creative and lack the confidence to take even the
first steps. Consequently, the first task in teaching for creativity is to
encourage young people to believe in their creative potential, to engage their
sense of possibility and to give them the confidence to try. These are the most
simple steps but they can be the most important for stimulating creative
achievement; these include high motivation and independence of judgement,
willingness to take risks and be enterprising, to be persistent and be
resilient in the face of adversity and failure. These attitudes can be
encouraged and nourished to varying extents in all young people, particularly
if they are linked with the development of self-directed learning.
Identifying
All young people
have different creative capacities. A creative musician is not necessarily a
creative scientist, a creative writer is not necessarily a creative mathematician.
An essential task for education is to help young people to discover their own
creative strengths. Creative achievement is often driven by a person’s 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 people’s creative
abilities include helping them to find their creative strengths – to be in
their element. This too has implications for the range and balance of the
curriculum.
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 – for example, curiosity can be stimulated and awareness can
be enhanced. Recognising 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. Creative ability is best enhanced in
the process of being creative. This ‘learning by doing’ can be further
developed and enriched by working with personal models and mentors who are
prepared to share their experience.
In teaching for
creativity, teachers aim to:
- allow for both broad and narrowly focused experimental activity, but always specifying and explaining the purpose of such activity. Those involved have to feel prepared ands secure enough to be willing to take risks and make mistakes in a non threatening atmosphere that challenges but reassures. Such work has to be carefully tuned to the appropriate level pf development;
- encourage an appropriate attitude towards imaginative activity – a sense of excitement, respect, hope and wonder at the potential for transformative power that is involved, accompanied by a sense of delayed scepticism and distance;
- assist in the understanding of the room that has to be given to generative thought, free from immediate criticism by the learner or others before ideas are subject to rigorous critical evaluation and further development;
- encourage self expression that is oriented towards a given task;
- convey an appreciation of the phases in creative activity and the importance of time – including the ways in which time away from a problem may facilitate its solution;
- assist in developing an awareness of the differing contexts in which ideas may occur and of the roles in intuition, unconscious mental processes and non-directed thought in creative thinking;
- encourage and stimulate learners in periods of free play with ideas and conjecture about possibilities, but compliment this with critical evaluation in testing out ideas;
- emphasise the use of the imagination, originality, curiosity and questioning, the offer of choice, and the encouragement of the personal attributes that facilitate creativity.
Teaching for
creativity aims at encouraging:
- autonomy on both sides: a feeling of ownership and control over the ideas that are being offered (Woods 1995:3);
- authenticity in initiatives and responses, deciding for oneself on the basis of one’s own judgement;
- openness to new and unusual ideas, and to a variety of methods and approaches;
- respect for each other and for the ideas that emerge;
- fulfilment: from each a feeling of anticipation, satisfaction, involvement and enjoyment of the creative relationship.
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. Such teaching is compatible with a
wide range of teaching methods and approaches in all areas of the school
curriculum. 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
Encouraging self-monitoring,
reflection upon their own performance and progress, and thinking about their
own thinking – metacognition – can enhance young people’s control over creative
activity and the development of their best practice. In these ways the aim is
to encourage the development of the self-directed learner. 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. In principle, the earlier
self-directed learning is internalised, the better, but again this aspect of
teaching for creativity must be sensitive to the appropriate stage of the
learner’s development. It must be recognised that it will be in the secondary
school where self-directed learning is more likely to move in tune with the
development of young people’s growing maturity, the flow of their need for
independence, and their growing proficiency in forms of information technology.
Creativity itself
is a mode of learning. It is distinctive in the combination of three features:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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