Experiencing+and+Facilitating+Creativity+and+Imagination

**My podcast transcript:** The group wikispace can be found at LM2egroup.wikispaces.com. My subject area was ‘Experiencing and Facilitating Creativity and Imagination’. To me, creativity is best described as ‘possibility thinking’ – it’s the ability to go the beyond the usual ideas, to ‘think outside the box’ to use a well-touched upon metaphor. Imagination, which in practise is forming concepts and/or images that are not present in reality, can lead to creativity – for example, thinking differently and acting upon those thoughts is a part of the creative process.

I believe, and it has been shown through extensive research mentioned in the readings, that the extent of creativity and imagination displayed in a classroom depends upon a few different factors. The foremost of these factors impacting on this is 1) the relationship between the teacher and students, and 2) the style of teaching employed in the classroom. Now, I //know// that it is very easy when talking about ‘creativity’ to draw a logical connection to activities that produce creative things such as poster making or drafting and acting out a play. These activities certainly play a part, but working towards experiencing and facilitating creativity and imagination should be extended beyond the obvious subjects and particular activities and spread out to cover their involvement in all different contexts and subject areas; it is NOT just confined to art projects. An example of creativity always existing in class comes from when I was on teaching rounds. I led a discussion in English with the issue of “should professional boxing be banned?” The students surprised me greatly with well thought-out and original answers from perspectives that I had not thought of myself - and I believe that this is only one small example of creativity in practise.

I think that to properly facilitate the experience of creativity and imagination in a classroom, a teacher needs to keep in mind that both can (and should) be experienced at any time, can be apparent in every task the students complete. Encouraging students to think 'outside of the box', as well as giving them the tools to properly communicate this, and an environment that encourages 'having a go' and sharing of opinions and ideas, is the job of the teacher.

**Experience**= “to have experience of; meet with; undergo; feel”

**Facilitate**= “to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.): //Careful planning facilitates any kind of work.”// And in this instance, we’re talking about the intent //“//to assist the progress of (a person).”

**Creativity**= “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”

**Imagination**= “the faculty of imagining or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.”

__Reference__: Dictionary.com. (2012). //Dictionary search.// Retrieved from: __[]__

__Before__ picking up any of the set readings or texts, I decided that it would be best to closely define exactly what I am looking to focus on. Defining the words using a removed source, although I already had my own understanding of them, seemed the best idea to direct myself through this task. ‘Experiencing and Facilitating Creativity and Imagination’, at this point in time to me, has the most to do with the teacher’s approach to handling the classroom and activities with students and the environment they choose to encourage and uphold in a classroom the most. The most ideal environment to allow students to experience enough freedom and licence in a classroom as to allow for creativity and imagination in school has to be facilitated by the teacher through a reciprocated attitude of respect towards students.

Questions: 1. What do you think is the best approach for facilitating creativity in the classroom? 2. Why do we need to facilitate creativity and imagination? 3. Can facilitating creativity have a negative effect in certain situations? 4. Why do we highlight the need for imagination and creativity in a classroom?

POST 2 - 19/3 **READING 2** (quotes from it and discussion, please comment back for me!)

**Craft, A.** (2005). A Language for Creativity. Creativity in Schools: Tensions and Dilemmas (pp. 17 - 25). Oxon: Routledge.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This reading I found incredibly applicable to my subject. Some quotes to think on and explore are pasted for the following. **I’m thinking of making this into my first podcast**, so I’d really appreciate both of you input into my thoughts to make it an example of collaborative work for the project:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1. “the concept of human creativity goes back so far in time, so many cogent things have been written and said – acute observations, poetic reflections, and philosophical ponderings, that one despairs of bringing to the subject anything more than a private view of an immense terrain” p18

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This really rang true for me; when approaching some form of creativity-based activity, there is always some measure of feeling to it that there’s nothing I can do that will be completely original – it will always be presented as some aspect of another person’s idea, which was built upon another persons and so on, a chain of revelations and thoughts that run back to the very first thought translated onto paper (well, it would be another medium, but you get the idea). As a teacher, you’ve really got to be able to take the pressure off of students to some extent, I think – make sure you keep the actual goal in mind, and make sure they know exactly what you’re assessing so that they can trust their own instincts when applying them to school work; don’t put down too broad of a goal, or there’s the possibility that they’ll be overwhelmed by the work and be stifled in their creative process, resulting to sticking closely to the questions without branching out and working creatively on the task.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2. **p19. Creativity as described in the reading:**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Creativity**: distinction between ‘High’ Creativity and little ‘c’ creativity:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">High Creativity = “the achievement of something remarkable and new, something which transforms and changes a field of endeavour in a significant way... the kinds of things that people do the change the world.” 19

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Little c creativity= “little c creativity has been suggested to be the ordinary but lifewide attitude toward life that is driven by ‘possibility thinking’ but is about acting effectively with flexibility, intelligence and novelty in the everyday rather than the extraordinary.” 19

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">My view: Obviously, the ‘little c’ branch is what we think about when we think of creativity added to education- we are definitely not expecting High Creativity, just touches of creativity added to everyday life, displaying the uniqueness of the individual. We definitely need to keep that in mind, and watch for the small touches each puts into their work, and ensure that we encourage this individuality.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">3. More in-depth definitions:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Creative thinking**= “generating new ideas, concepts, wishes, goals, new perceptions of problems. Nolan suggests this can be fostered through a variety of processes – and what is generated is ‘new thoughts. Which in themselves do not change anything in the real world until they are implemented in some way” p20

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Creative behaviour=** “those behaviours which facilitate the creative process.” Suggested the “first step in creative behaviour is suspension of judgement; following this, many other strategies may follow.” 20

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Creative action=** “actually doing new things.” –includes doing stuff for the first time, and “things that are new to the world” = “experiment and innovation”

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">>These are helpful to get the teacher (us) thinking about the kind of language we use to describe exactly what we aim to do in a classroom, and this is really helpful in pointing out exactly what we should be focusing on, what types of behaviour will allow us to facilitate a creative experience for students.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">3. **Creative teaching**: distinction between //teaching creatively & teaching for creativity//:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Teaching creatively=** Properties/features= “innovation, relevance, control and ownership.” p22

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Teaching for creativity**= “seen as forms of teaching that are intended to develop young people’s own creative thinking or behaviour.” p22

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The text implies that one leads to the other – that teaching creatively often leads to students being more creative in their approach. I think this is so because ‘traditional’ approaches that the text is referring to would involve the rigid control of a classroom and the teacher role of directing students strictly in their studies, controlling the room from the front and lecturing on a topic, followed by them answering questions.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Teaching creatively hinges on the teacher’s relationship with their students, and the ability to involve them – in my understanding. **How do you both understand this?** I completely agree that the relationship between the teacher and students is the key aspect to developing creativity in the classroom. Students need to feel comfortable with the teacher and be able to express their ideas and not have 'fear' of failure as Ken Robinson explained in the video clip. Is resonates strongly with my own experiences in the classroom but as a student and always having the fear of failure with one particular teaching. This lead to never wanting to try something 'new' or even ask questions when I was confused, as she made me feel self-conscious and nervous that it was a silly idea/question. As teachers we need to form relationships with every student as best we can and treat each one as an individual.

> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Interaction with students influences teaching, teaching encourages and celebrates creative learning and learner creativity, while being creative teaching – paraphrased from pg23 (how I understand what the author is saying at least)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">4. **Implications for pedagogy**: use of the terms creativity, <range type="comment" id="423477">imagination and innovation could alter how we emphasise activities in the classroom also the value we place of the three elements of pedagogy discussed here – creative teaching, teaching for creativity and creative learning influences how a classroom is organised and executed) – close paraphrase/quote p23

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">“The NACCCE (1999) definition of creativity was ‘imaginative activity, fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are original and of value”25

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**OVERVIEW:**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This reading has a lot to do with creativity; defining it, breaking it down to its elements and exploring somewhat how it is to be used in the classroom. I’m thinking, as I mentioned above, of basing my first podcast on the conclusions I’ve drawn from the source (and searching more sources for other ideas, of course) and I’d really appreciate both of your inputs for the sake of our collaborative mark. Please, I’d love ideas, and I’m more than happy to reciprocate – and lets cross our fingers for a good mark on this assessment!