Creativity
and creative ways of learning is a common topic when it comes to pedagogy. The
man who was quoted 'education, education, education' Tony Blair spoke of
'creating a nation of creative talents where we compete on brains not brawn'
(Lucas 2001). In this current century, Sir Ken Robinson has spoken out on how
education kills creativity, and how children are afraid to be wrong (Robinson
2006). Mercieca (2015) said that we need to 'End education conveyor belt to give pupils a chance in
the job market'. Children
are passed through a conveyor belt of knowledge where they take what is told as
fact, there is one right way of solving a problem. There needs to be more
creativity in the curriculum in order to create a generation of innovative
thinkers who can bring so much to a work force.
References:
Craft, A. Jeffery, B. Leibling, M. (2001) Creativity in Education. Continuum: London.
Do schools kill creativity? (2006) Directed by TED, Distribution Company TED.
Craft, A. Jeffery, B. Leibling, M. (2001) Creativity in Education. Continuum: London.
Do schools kill creativity? (2006) Directed by TED, Distribution Company TED.
Mercieca, M.
(2015) 'End education conveyer
belt to give pupils a chance in the job market'.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11954652/End-education-conveyer-belt-to-give-pupils-a-chance-in-the-job-market.html (Accessed: 27/04/2016).
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Using drama as a creative format
Drama is a useful tool in creative learning because it ties
very well with English Language and Literature. Children at ages 10 and above
are reportedly finding it difficult to read books for pleasure, because of
their attention span (Paton 2012). Using drama as a way to recreate
scenes from plays or to perform a scene of their own allows a child to be
creative. (Moore 2004) said that ‘The frontal lobe is involved in creativity
judgement, and problem solving. In drama, the student is creating something new. Their
imaginations are activated and many times students work together to solve
problems in drama’. In my own personal experience of taking part in drama
sessions in school, I found it very refreshing to be moving around rather than
sat at a desk. It allows children to work with their friends to create a final
product and have fun while doing it. Children are able to bounce ideas off each
other and learn something new, which is one of the best way of learning.
A fun idea for a drama session.
References:
Moore, M. (2004) Using Drama as an Effective Method to Teach Elementary Students. Senior Honors Theses.
Moore, M. (2004) Using Drama as an Effective Method to Teach Elementary Students. Senior Honors Theses.
Paton,
G. (2012) Children with short attention spans 'failing to read books'. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9342391/Children-with-short-attention-spans-failing-to-read-books.html (Accessed: 27/04/2016).
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The Mantle of
the expert
The Mantle
of the expert was developed by a British educator called Dorothy Heathcote
(1926−2012). She was mainly a drama educator and her idea of the Mantle of the
Expert was the result of 40 years of teaching. She believed that the metaphor
of a mantle or cloak allowed a learner to grow their qualities from within such
as leadership and knowledge (Fraser et al. 2013). In this approach the children
are part of a made up company, and are given the opportunity to solve a problem
for an imaginary person. The children could be detectives, construction workers
or even a food company thinking of a new product. The children then need to
plan and either create or research in order to help the imaginary person with
their problem. My seminar class was asked to create a build which had fallen
down after a storm, it had to both cheap to construct and strong. Each group
created a plan for their bridge and a cost, when the bridges were made they
were tested for how they look, their cost and how strong they were.
Pictures from my experience of Mantle of the Expert
References:
Fraser, D. Aitken,
V. Whyte, B. (2013) Connecting
Curriculum, Linking Learning. NZCER Press: New Zealand.
The Welsh Government (2015) Curriculum for Wales - The Foundation Phase (Revised 2015). Crown: Cardiff.
The Welsh Government (2015) Curriculum for Wales - The Foundation Phase (Revised 2015). Crown: Cardiff.
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Scientific play
As science
is one of the core subjects in our curriculum, it is important that children
have an interest and want to learn more. The National Research Council (1996)
defined scientific inquiry as “the activities of students in which they develop
knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of
how scientists study the natural world”. Techniquest in Cardiff, South Wales is
a government funded organisation based on scientific play. Their mission is to engage
people with science and motivate them to learn more (Techniquest, 2016). They
have many hands on scientific activities such as using magnifying classes to
see insects, using water to create pressure and teaching children how sound
travels. They also do sessions for schools in Wales to bring the fun of science
to the classroom, I was lucky enough to experience one of these. We were given
pictures of cells to identify and took part in an experiment to show how easily
bacteria can move around. We were all given a shot glass of water and a
pipette, most people had water and a small number had vinegar in their shot
glass. Everyone had to put some of the liquid from their glass into someone
else’s glass five times, and then everyone was tested to see if they had vinegar
in their glass. This was to show how quickly bacteria can spread, for example
during winter when colds are around. I have been to Techniquest many times
because my primary school went there often, and I always loved it there. I can
definitely see the benefit of scientific play because science should always be
hands on and children can enquire by themselves be experimenting with the equipment. Professor Lord Robert (2012) Winston stated that “Science is
practical and students will learn more if given the chance to have hands on
experiences with experiments rather than textbooks.”Thus it is essential that children get the
opportunity to play with science, in a way that will get the engaged with a
subject that very much affects them (e.g. global warming and caring for
nature).
Ideas of scientific play (Hamlin and Wisneski 2012).
References:
Hamlin, M. Wisneski, D. (2012) 'Supporting the Scientific Thinking and Inquiry of Toddlers and Preschoolers through Play' Young Children (May 2012) pages 82-88.
Hamlin, M. Wisneski, D. (2012) 'Supporting the Scientific Thinking and Inquiry of Toddlers and Preschoolers through Play' Young Children (May 2012) pages 82-88.
London International Youth Science forum (2012) Science Should be Inclusive and Hands On. http://www.liysf.org.uk/about-us/press-releases/science-should-be-inclusive-and-hands-on/ (Accessed: 28/04/2016).
National
Research Council (1996) National Science
Education Standards: Observe, Interact, Change, Learn. Washington, DC:
National Academies Press.
Techniquest
(2016) About Us. http://www.techniquest.org/20120315131/about-us/about-techniquest.html
(Accessed: 28/04/2016).
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Creative
writing
Creative
writing is a classic way to evoke creativity from children in English lessons.
However, the degree of how creative a child can be is fickle. I was sat in a
year two class, and children could recreate a book that they read as a class
but had to use the same plot. The only creative side of the activity was that
they could choose a main character and villain. Although the children were only
7 year olds, they could have done so much because of their age. Children are so
creative especially in storytelling, this allows them to improve their language
skills. (Speaker, 2000; Allison and Watson, 1994 cited by Speaker et al. 2004) stated
that ‘Young children naturally enjoy stories. Children involved in education
programs that utilize storytelling exhibit many positive behaviours related to
increased literacy’. However, it is often the case that people shy away from
poetry, because they feel that they are unable to create a poem or that it’s a ‘scary’
part of literature. Hayati et al. (2009) found that ‘Students’ suggest that negative
attitudes are associated with reading poetry. A total of 70% of the respondents
agreed with the statement ‘I find the poems difficult to understand’. One activity that I took part in that children
could also do is creating a mind map of two concepts, my group did night and
day for instance. We then had to use the words that we put in our mind map to
create a poem. It worked very well because poems don’t have to be deep and
meaningful, and the mind map idea made it very easily to see how words can fit
together to make poetic sentences.
References:
Hayati, A.
Thajur A. Parsons, B. Braniger, C. Tait, C. Xu, C. Ditvall, C. Klu, E. Cianflone,
E. Samah, H. Huang, H. Gil, J. Howell, J. Vethamanu, M. Sabet, M. Kabilan, M.
Mahorta, S. Singh, S. Takseva, T. (2009) ‘ESL Students’ Attitude towards Texts
and Teaching Methods Used in Literature Classes’ English Language Teaching, Volume 2. No. 4 (December 2009) Page 54.
Speaker, K.
Taylor, D. Kamen, R. (2004) ‘Storytelling: Enhancing Language Acquisition in
Young Children.’ Education 125.1, (Fall
2004) Page 3-11.
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Creative play and the outdoor classroom
Being in a
classroom all day, especially when the summer comes around is not the best way
to keep children eager to learn. The Foundation Phase’s Outdoor Learning Handbook
(2008) states that ‘the outdoors is the ideal environment for experiential
learning, because it offers unique opportunities to be creative, to move
around, to be noisy and to take risks.’ Forest Schools in Wales’ main outdoor
learning experiences for children in primary school. Children are given the
opportunity to play in a safe space in a forest where they can play and learn
life skills, like lighting a fire. However, more still needs to be done to
allow children to learn and play outdoors. One example of what children can do
is a treasure hunt, they simply need to find objects with every letter of the
alphabet. It is a brilliant way for children to work together, however I don’t
think it goes as far to say that children can learn through enquiry. This kind
of activity would be difficult to prepare in a primary school environment
because you can’t let the children go too far away. When I took part in this
activity at university, we were going a fair amount of distance to complete the
task. But we also had to think creatively about the letters which weren't so easy to find, for example x,y,z were difficult to find. Children could however, search for insects for science or numbers to
solve maths problems. The Teacher Education through School-based Support India project found that ‘games are
highly effective in delivering and consolidating subject knowledge. By offering
students the chance to learn by doing, games can be motivating and engaging’.
Children love to play, so the idea of learning through educational games will
make the child feel like they’re not learning at all. However, they are
learning a lot about themselves, the subject they’re looking at and about other
social skills which allowed them to work with others.
Pictures from my experience of outdoor learning.
References:
The Welsh
Government (2008) Foundation Phase
Outdoor Learning Handbook. Crown: Cardiff.
The Teacher
Education through School-based Support India (2015) Making and
using games to support learning: understanding electricity. The Open University.
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