Creatvity in Education

Hey Education Bloggers!

Today’s blog will be all about creativity! What creativity is, how we have explored creativity in our AOLE sessions, and academic literature to support creativity in the classroom will be discussed.

Firstly, what is creativity and why do we use it within the classroom? In 1988, when the national curriculum was introduced, it proposed that; we should enable pupils to be given the opportunity to “become more creative, innovative, enterprising, and capable of leadership to equip them for their future lives as workers and citizens” DfEE/QCA (1999). Even though Wales are currently in the process of adapting to a new curriculum ‘Successful Futures’, Donaldson (2015) still stands by this definition and states that pupils will be “enterprising, creative contributors who: connect and apply their knowledge and skills to create ideas and products. Play different roles in teams effectively and responsibly, and are ready to play a full part in life and work”. As you can see, both statements have highlighted the importance of preparing children for their future.

Furthermore, Wright (2010) supposed that everyone has potential regarding creativity, however it may be within specific aspects. For example; a pupil may be creative in art and not music, or intelligent at maths but not science (Wright, S, 2010, p.3). Donaldson (2015) identified this and proposed that all subjects be as equally important as each other; giving all pupils the opportunity to excel at what they do best; thus being supported by the quote; “The education and young people should include rich experiences that are valuable in their own right” (Donaldson, G, 2015). Rather than them being known as subjects, they are now known as areas of learning and experience, and have been split into 6 areas.

These areas are:

·         “Expressive arts

·         Health and well-being

·         Humanities

·         Languages, literacy and communication

·         Mathematics and numeracy

·         Science and technology” (Donaldson, G, 2015).

Donaldson (2015) proposed that the purpose of education experiences is to “broaden children and young people’s horizons, stimulate their imaginations and promote enjoyment in learning”.

During our AOLE lecture, we were discussing the qualities of a creative teacher, and Dylan asked us “Should sessions follow and stick to a plan?” Personally, I don’t believe you should because a lot of the time something will spark the pupils interest and it’s a clever idea to expand on that instead because that’s what they’re really interested in; this is where experiential learning takes place. You will still be able to achieve the outcome of the lesson, but through a different route. This is referred to as ‘children’s choice’ as you are allowing the pupils to take ownership of their own learning.

For example; the pupils may be learning about counting in a mathematics lesson, it begins to snow outside and all the pupils are excited and looking out the window. The teacher then decides to abandon the lesson plan and take the children outside in the snow. The outcome of lesson (counting) can still be achieved as the teacher may say to the pupils “Let’s see how many snowflakes we can catch!” or “Let’s see how many snowballs we can make”.
To summarise this example; even though the teacher did not follow through will the lesson planned, the pupils still achieved the outcome of the lesson whilst using exploration to use all their senses, such as; touch, smell, hear, see, and taste.

There are strengths but also weaknesses to using creativity within the classroom. Firstly, a strength of using creativity in the classroom is that children will learn more efficiently as they are more likely to remember things that have been creative or interactive. Creativity caters to all needs of the pupils. Whether they learn visually, auditory, or kinaesthetic, children can access learning through creativity in a variety of ways (Desailly, 2012, p. 22). Children also have autonomy over their learning and get more personal fulfilment.

However, even though there are strengths to using creativity in the classroom, there are also many weaknesses. Firstly; creativity within the classroom can be known to have issues with time management, this may be because some children may finish the activity quicker than others when completing meaningful exploration. You then must find other activities for the children to complete whilst waiting for others (Desailly, 2012, P. 23). Another weakness may be that the parents may not understand the creativity purpose within education as there may be lack of written work in pupil’s books; this can be overcome by discussing with and showing parents the importance of creativity within the classroom and how much it should be valued. Lastly, asking children to come up with their own ideas can be very threatening and intimidating. This is also known as the ‘blank sheet’ moment; this can be overcome by having a structured plan for their creativity, and gradually building the children’s confidence and skills rather than putting them on the spot (Desailly, 2012, p. 23).

Reference List

Desailly, J (2012) Creativity in the Primary Classroom. London: Sage Publications.

Donaldson, G (2015) ‘Successful Futures’ Available at: file:///C:/Users/Sophielauren/Downloads/Donaldson%20Report%20-%20Successful%20Futures%20-%20Independent%20Review%20of%20Curriculum%20and%20Assessment%20Arrangements%20in%20Wales%20(1).pdf [Accessed: 28^th November 2017].

Wright, S (2010) Understanding Creativity in Early Childhood. London: Sage Publications.

 

How could collaborative learning potentially impact on primary education?

Hello Education bloggers! Today’s discussion is all about collaboration. Collaborative learning is an important skill that children need to learn in order to be successful in the future as the majority of jobs demand people to work together on various projects effectively.  Dillenbourg (2000, cited in Gama, 2000) states that ‘Collaborative learning’ is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Within primary education, collaborative learning is essential to improve teacher practice, developing children’s learning through sharing ideas and concluding the same outcome and Lawson (2009) suggests that failure to collaborate may be indicative of negligence and malpractice. This indicates that if we as teachers fail to collaborate then we will be very unprofessional and inhibiting children of the best possible practice we can provide. For example, why should children learn more effectively in next door class from the teacher using an amazing pedagogical approach just because they have not collaborated sufficiently in sharing ideas? This could be why the emphasis has shifted from individual efforts to group work (Leonard and Leonard, 2001). A vital skill that can enhance collaboration is communication and Lloyd and Bear (1995) recognised this and stated that talking is a technique that we “use to interpret, communicate, work through and make sense of our experiences” and therefore, is a significant importance to learning within our classrooms. Although talking can also be a draw back to collaboration since children easily get distracted and do not discuss the topic. This can be difficult to manage as a teacher and children relationships within the classroom can also cause collaboration to become less effective however, as a teacher you can manage this by giving pupils opportunities to try and collaborate with other pupils in different ways, for example, through communication or using technology with an anonymous feature within the activity (Newell and Jeffery, 2002). For effective collaboration to take place children have to socialise with each other and Vygotsky (1978) noted that social interaction was at the core of the development process which highlights the importance of encouraging a collaborative approach to learning by adopting a ‘sustained shared thinking pedagogical method of teaching (Blatchford, 2007). Children sharing ideas about their understanding of different concepts and ideas will open up children’s minds and allow them to make sense of the world around them. However, a powerful influence within their peer group could have an overpowering idea about something which could end up being negative. However if the teacher develops children’s critical thinking skills this will allow children to think about why that person thinks the way they do and whether they have to agree with their idea or not. This will also encourage more children to be open and confident about their ideas which will bring diversity and new view points to the classroom which has been proven to be effective even within a maths lesson (Parks, 2009).

During one of our ‘areas of learning and experience’ lecture we experienced an amazing first-hand example of how collaboration with the wider world can benefit children in primary education. We Skype called a head teacher from Cheery School located in the Kibera slum in Kenya. This provided us with some hard hitting facts about the challenges children and schools face in such an under developed country. For example, they had 6 rooms and 9 teachers for 450 pupils and many of the pupils were neglected and abandoned. However, by just having one computer within the school it allows them to collaborate with people across the globe which enables them to learn about other cultures, share their own experiences and gain money other countries have fundraised for the school. Without technology and collaboration none of this would be possible. According to Coleman and Levine (2008) technological collaboration provides schools with access to experts all over the world, saving time or money on travelling, increasing quality and provides decision support and it is innovating. However, you have to do some background work to ensure who you are talking to is safe and relevant to learning and gaining first hand experiences which can be time consuming. This relates to linking learning to real life contexts which will make the learning more meaningful and motivating which Donaldson (2015) outlines within his ‘successful futures’ review, that it is important to provide children with opportunities to gain a selection of content through experience and effective pedagogy. We were lucky enough to explore the benefits of collaboration with the wider world when St Nicolas Primary School came in to create a green screen introduction for the children in Nairobi which links to Kolb’s experiential learning theory since he argues individuals create knowledge through experiences (Bergsteiner, Avery and Neumann, 2010).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWu6te0UFO4 …

This was a very beneficial experience for the children because not only did it allow them to collaborate with another country and learn about their culture but they were also collaborating with the university and learnt how to use green screens which links to the new Digital Competency Framework since they gained confidence using new technology (Welsh Government, 2016). This was also a cross-curricular activity since it developed the children’s communication skills, research skills, technological skills and in my particular group it developed their history knowledge.

Education bloggers, I would like you to reflect on the following point: if collaboration impacts primary education and benefits children’s learning to a significant extent, what about children who are home schooled?

References

Bergsteiner, H. & Avery, G. & Neumann, R. (2010) Kolb's experiential learning model: critique from a modelling perspective, Studies in Continuing Education, 32(1), pp.29-46.

Blatchford, I. (2007)  Creativity, communication and collaboration: the identification of pedagogic progression in Sustained Shared Thinking, Research in early childhood education, 4(1), pp.3-23. 

Coleman, D. & Levine, S. (2008) Collaboration 2.0: Technology and Best Practices for

Successful Collaboration in Web 2.0 World. Happy about. 

Donalson (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales, Available at: https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/asset/A788604C-3046-4005-A1EA0EAFF023E0DD/ (Accessed: 28th November 2017). 

Dillenbourg, P. (2000) 'Book reviews'. review of Collaborative Learning—Cognitive and Computational Approaches (Advances in Learning and Instruction Series), by Cauldia Gama. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 22(1), pp.131-134. 

Lawson, H. (2009) The logic of collaboration in education and the human services, Journal of professional care, 18(3), pp. 225-237. 

Leonard,L. & Leonard, P. (2001) Achieving professional community in school: the administrator challenge, planning and changing, 36(1), pp.23-39. 

Lloyd, C. & Beard, J. (1995). Managing classroom collaboration. London: Cassell.

Newell, S. & Jeffery, D. (2002) Behaviour management in the classroom: A transactional analysis approach. London: Taylor and Francis.

Parks, A. (2009) Diversity of practice within one mathematics classroom, Pedagogies: An international Journal, 6(3), pp.216-233. 

Welsh Government (2016) ‘Digital Competence Framework: Your questions answered’. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/160831-dcf-your-questions-answered-en.pdf (Accessed: 28th November 2017). 

Cross-curricular learning

Hello education bloggers! Today I will be discussing how cross-curricular learning could potentially impact on primary education. Cross-curricular teaching can help bring creativity and autonomy to the classroom whilst relating learning to real life contexts. Donaldson (2015) and Kaldi (2010) has recognised that there is a need to embrace cross-curricula teaching and that the curriculum is outdated and has become overloaded and complicated, therefore teaching in projects using Donaldson's six 'Areas of Learning and Experience' will be more effective. The developments in technology significantly contribute to why the curriculum is outdated since children are more likely to connect with technology and using a cross-curricular approach will encourage teachers to implement and explore the new digital competency framework into their current teaching practice (Donaldson, 2015). Using a cross-curricular approach might provide children with positive learning experiences and neuroscientists have argued that for learning to be successful teachers must ensure that the children are challenged and that they have multi-layered experiences which stimulate the senses (Barnes, 2011). However, does the current system provide teachers with the opportunity to be autonomous and provide rich and meaningful experiences?

Teaching cross-curricular will make learning more relevant, providing contexts for using and applying subject specific skills and concepts, improve coherence in learning between subjects and it builds and reinforces key concepts (Dean, 2001; Barnes 2007; Kerry, 2015). Children will be able to relate information to real life contexts and make sense of the world around them. Using a cross-curricular approach also decreases the amount of teachers that are fixated on the content rather than how to actually facilitate the learning and encourage higher levels of thought and develop a critical focus (Kerry, 2015). It also can naturally pigeonhole teachers into subject specialisms whereas teachers need to be able to adapt, motivated to research and learn around a variety of topics and maximise on the unexpected reactions of children encountering real problems and using the skills and knowledge of several subjects to solve them (Pollard, 2010). However, there are many factors that inhibit cross-curricular teaching becoming a normality in education and one of the most influential factors is assessment. How can we as teachers be expected to teach using a cross-curricular approach when most exams are still based on traditional subject learning? Many exams still rely heavily on pupils retaining knowledge whereas a cross-curricular approach is all about children using their knowledge to develop skills and make links between concepts, real life scenarios and a diverse range of knowledge. Therefore, we need to increase cross-curricular assessment as a way of measuring learning that has occurred. Although we need to ensure that studies remain faithful to the individual disciplines that underpin them and that the disciplines are used in an insightful and balanced way (Kerry, 2015).

Within our ‘Areas of learning and Experience seminars’ we planned a cross-curricular project tailored to year 1 which involved many opportunities for children to develop skills and for self-directed learning to take place which Lawton (1997, cited in Crawford, 1998) included within his proposed 4 principles of change away from content led curriculum. Below shows a picture of our planned lessons for our project. 

However, during the first session we would carry out a ‘wow’ event that involves bringing a real-life princess into the classroom to get the children engaged and excited about the topic. We also made a recording using a green screen app. and Mofo. Below shows a link to the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtQKEb8w2Y&feature=youtu.be

This might also encourage empathy from the children which will draw in their emotions which Immordino- young and damasic (2007, cited in Waite, 2011) states that it will reinforce memory and make learning accessible to important social uses. Lesson 4 will encourage the children to work as teams and socialise with other students for ideas about what materials will be good to stick on their crowns. This links with Vygotsky (1978, cited in Leone, 2011) because he believes that social interactions can help children learn new concepts or skills which the social learning theory (Bandura, 1997, cited in Hanna and Crittenden and Crittenden, 2013) also indicates since children are influenced by the environment and their peer’s behaviour. This has a significant impact in education today since teachers understand the importance of allowing children to have opportunities for rich experiences that encourages child-led learning through socialisation. However, in order for these sessions to be successful as teachers we must ensure learners are clear about what the learning expectations are, so they have time for skills and knowledge development and they also need time to digest what they have learnt at the end of each session (Perkins 2009).

References

Barnes, J. (2011) Cross-curricular learning 3-14. 2nd edn. Los Angeles; London: SAGE.

Barnes, J., and Shirley, I. (2007) Strangely familiar: cross curricular and creative thinking in teacher education, Improving schools, 10(2), p.28.

Dean, J. (2001). Organising Learning in the Primary Classroom. 3rd edn. London: Routledge.

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales. London: Crown. 

Hanna, R. & Crittenden, V. & Crittenden, W. (2013) Social Learning Theory: A Multicultural Study of Influences on Ethical Behaviour, Marketing Education, 35(1), pp. 18-25.

Kaldi, S. (2010) Project-based learning in primary schools: effects on pupils' learning and attitudes, Education 3-13, 39(1), pp.35-47.

Keith Crawford (1998) The construction of the National Curriculum: an ideological and political analysis, Research Papers in Education, 13(3), pp.261-276.

Kerry, T. (2015). Cross-curricular teaching in the primary school : Planning and facilitating imaginative lessons. 2nd edn. London; New York: Routledge. 

Leonne, G. (2011) Observing social signals in scaffolding interactions: how to detect when helping intention risks falling short, Cognitive processing, 13(2), pp.477-485.

Perkins, D. (2009). Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching can transform Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Pollard, A. (ed.) (2010). Professionalism and Pedagogy: A contemporary Opportunity: A commentary by TLRP and GTCE. London: TLRP.

Waite, S. (2011) Teaching and Learning outside the classroom: personal values, alternative pedagogies and standards, education 3-13, 39(1). pp.65-82.