Experiencing+and+Facilitating+Creativity+and+Imagination

=__**SOFIA'S SECTION**__= = = =__**My idea of what this section of the podcast will look like....**__= Creativity and associated capacities are highly regarded as a life capability, both for the individual and society. As a person experiences creativity and imagination it changes their current understanding of all possessed knowledge. Everything becomes possible when previously impossible. Thus, It is clear that creativity has an important role to play and that our children in schools need to be nourished in order to develop this skill. According to the NACCCE, ‘Young people’s creative abilities are most likely to be developed in an atmosphere in which the teacher’s creative abilities are properly engaged’. This can be facilitated in a number of different ways. Some include, teaching creatively, teaching for creativity, acknowledging, encouraging and rewarding for creativity. All of these ways will have an impact in the classroom although there is much controversy about which is more effective and has the least negative impacts.

Creative teaching in a classroom engages students more effectively and draws students into learning while also empowering children who are not seen as achieving in the academic subjects. Su in the Journal of Lifelong Education sums up creative learning for the students quite well, she states that, “What really matters is not what or how much the learner knows, but how well the learner can use and engage in what is known to create what is wanted or needed.”

Institutions such as Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland have worked together with artists, architects, scientists and teachers to create a program in which schools can adopt to help teachers inspire children and help them learn. Independent surveys and tests have indicated that those who use this program have had a 91% improvement in pupils communication skills, 92% improvement in pupils confidence and 78% increase in pupil’s ability to learn independently.

Creative Partnerships is one of many different programs, projects, tests and assessments that have found creativity and imagining in our classrooms to have a positive impact on our children and their learning. Creativity is a complex concept, but as Warner and Myers stated, “As we become more sophisticated in our understanding of the workings of the human mind, it becomes increasingly clear that the processes of teaching and learning are more complex and subtle than was once thought. Models of education that were appropriate in the past are now obsolete.” Creativity and Imagining in our classrooms is the present and the future. = = =__**Some Exerts From The Readings in Relation To This Topic**__=

I**nformation Society: An International Journal “Creative Industries after the First Decade”**

“What has been traced in this article thus far is the manner in which the rise of creative industries as both theory and policy discourse has intersected with changing understandings of the relationship of the arts, the media and applied creativity to the new media technologies, globalization and the twenty-first century knowledge-based economy.” - Page 117


 * Creativity in schools: Tensions and Dilemmas**

(In this article there are a lot of definitions defining creativity and Imagination which are not written here)

“In the current era, creativity and associated capacities are highly regarded as a life capability, both for the individual and society” - Page 17

“The study of creativity and imagination extends far back into human history” - Page 17

“Creative teaching was seen as ‘using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting and effective’ - Page 22

“Teaching for creativity, by contrast, was seen by NACCCE as forms of teaching that are intended to develop young people’s own creative thinking or behavior.” - Page 22

“ NACCCE report itself suggests that ‘teaching for creativity involves teaching creatively’, noting that ‘Young people’s creative abilities are most likely to be developed in an atmosphere in which the teacher’s creative abilities are properly engaged’. - Page 22

“The National Collage for school Leadership names creative learning within its program, Creative Partnerships has become increasingly focused on it....” - Page 23

There is an example of creative teaching and learning. “Ben the teacher values imagination and organises his teaching in such as way that his students have to imagine themselves in new situations, in order to use and develop there written and spoken language skills. His focus alternates between interaction, where collective creative thought, behavior and action are usually called for, and individual work, where imagination is often but not always required. His own interactions with students are very significant in the way he teaches, and his teaching often encourages and celebrates creative learning and learner creativity, while teaching creatively. The classroom provides examples of creative teaching and learning and also teaching for creativity. in other words, his pedagogy is creative in itself, and students are drawn ino the learning (thus their learning is creative) and his practice also fosters their creativity (thus, he teaches for creativity)” - Page 24

“However what this chapter suggests is that if we are to foster students creativity effectively, we need precision in associated terms too” - Page 25


 * Learners reconceptualising education: widening participation through creative engagement?: Journal of the Association for Programmed Learning ETTI**

“Engaging imaginatively with how education is manifested is necessary for providers both in higher education and in preceding contexts and phases.”

“The project involved three strands: (1) Supporting 11-18 year olds to develop 'provocations' to trigger creative yet grounded thinking in developing visions of schome.”

“The team worked with two groups of students (and their teachers), identified through NESTA's creativity networks and peer-referred: (1) high-achieving students from a boys' Catholic school in a city in south-west England; (2) students classified in the lowest achieving set at a Comprehensive school in a city in south-east England. For students, the project spanned five months (March to July 2006).”

“Students developed their own visions for schome, before creating 'provocations' to help others think in a creative yet grounded way about schome. Support included teacher facilitated workshops and contributions from external consultants. Schools tried out each other's provocations, offering refinement feedback. Celebration Events in July at each site enabled students to reflect on progress. Some students became drawn into the schome community website (see The Schome Community, 2006), designed to support, log and extend creative engagement.”

“Aspire Pilot involved generating and theorising visions of future education systems addressing capabilities in a grounded and creative way, putting young people's ideas at the heart of these processes. These ideas were developed with no hierarchy; especially key in terms of pushing for creative ideas - afterwards, summed up by one of the teachers: 'do allow all suggestions, however "way out'". Teachers in particular, encouraged young people to genuinely critique their educational experiences. A critical observer to the project acknowledged the courage involved in teachers inviting students 'to think critically and imaginatively about their own educational experience'. Acknowledging participants' perspectives and working with these through a range of methods and modes to trigger imagination. This involved skilled facilitation and use of, e.g. role play, sculpture, photography, podcasting, craft.”


 * The influence of the Creative Learning Assessment (CLA) on children's learning and teachers' teaching**

“The focus on creative learning also showed that creative contexts empower children who are not shown as ‘achieving’ in academic subjects or through current testing systems. By recognising children's strengths in creative contexts, teachers were able to build children's confidence and success in other curriculum areas. Writing was found to be a key area of improvement for children, supported by the expansion of talk and the symbolisation of meaning using different artistic forms.”

“Furthermore, the viability of the CLA as an assessment model was confirmed by the moderation process where there was an extremely high level of agreement in teacher judgement. Although regarded as a difficult area to define and pin down (__Craft, 2005__; Craft,et al. 2005), the moderation process showed that teachers recognised the elements of creativity in the CLA, and were able to use these to observe, assess and develop creative learning.”

**The Creative Classroom: The Role of Space and Place Toward Facilitating Creativity**

“As we become more sophisticated in our understanding of the workings of the human mind, it becomes increasingly clear that the processes of teaching and learning are more complex and subtle than was once thought. Models of education that were appropriate in the past are now obsolete.”

“Technology education has also had research efforts to identify the characteristics of classroom and lab facilities that encourage the creative spirit.”

“If environment does in fact influence our behavior, what are the variables that at some level cause the behavior to occur? The Environmental Variables, light, color, decorations, furniture, resources, sensory variables, space configurations, class size.”


 * International Journal of Lifelong Education. Idea creation: the need to develop creativity in lifelong learning practices**

“This paper considers what the idea of creativity can mean and how it can contribute when creativity becomes a key to the development of lifelong learning practices.” - Page 705

“This paper contends that creativity as an ability is indispensable to the effective development of lifelong learning practices. While there has been some general discussion of creativity in the field of psychology, the exploration of creativity and how it may be seen in lifelong learning practices has little been considered.” - Page 706

“This demand indicates the importance of further study into the question of how the role of creativity can enable one to be an effective lifelong learner.” - Page 707

“Creativity is a complex concept. In the field of psychology, there is still no single, authoritative perspective or consensus within the literature as to what creativity is. The most commonly accepted criteria for creativity are considered to be originality (novelty) and appropriateness.” - Page 707

“It follows that, second, the development of creativity is not necessarily considered to be confined to the specific domains of professions, such as the arts and the sciences, with which creativity traditionally tended to be associated.” - Page 710

“Teaching for creativity requires a shift in focus from knowledge content to the learner’s engagement. In thinking of learning to associate and create across one’s own life span, a mode that essentially involves nonlinearity, one can see how crucial the learner’s ability to engage is. What really matters is not what or how much the learner knows, but how well the learner can use and engage in what is known to create what is wanted or needed.” - Page 712-713

“When appropriate, the teacher can also invite problem-solving activities and cooperation among learners in order to stimulate creative thinking and acting.” - Page 713-714


 * Creative Partnerships: The Creativity Wheel**

The Creative Partnerships programme brings creative workers such as artists, architects and scientists into schools to work with teachers to inspire young people and help them learn.

**I mprovements in key skills **
Creative Partnerships can have a positive impact on key skills of children and young people in the programme. An independent survey of Head Teachers found that: >
 * 91 per cent reported an improvement in pupils communication skills
 * 92 per cent saw an improvement in pupils confidence and
 * 78 per cent reported an increase in pupil’s ability to learn independently.

Improvement in attendance
Creative Partnerships was associated with "an educationally significant reduction in total absence rates in primary schools." In some ways this is no surprise given the positive reports of Creative Partnerships impact on motivation and more interesting teaching. However 'Educationally significant' is a very rare finding and one which indicates that the only explanation of the evidence is the impact of Creative Partnerships.

Impact on Teachers
"It has been a revelation to me that I can work with someone with such complementary expertise and how much this extends what together we are able to offer students." **Secondary schoolteacher, Derbyshire**