QUESTION: Given the huge pressure schools are under to produce ‘exam results’ how can schools at the same time encourage and develop a culture of creativity and risk taking?
To a large extent the constraints of producing exam results in secondary school does stunt the growth of true creativity in the secondary classroom. However, in the current economic climate of the western world, it is vital that this changes and that creativity does become more prominent as Hulme et al, 2011, explain: “Interest in creativity in education has been renewed through the association of creative capacity with economic growth. Creativity is re-conceptualised as an ‘employability’ attribute” (p. 439).
Although the development of CfE is serving to move creativity “from the periphery to occupy a more central position within policies informing public education” (Hulme et al, 2011, p. 445) there are still many barriers. If a genuine culture of creativity and risk taking is to be fostered, changes will need to take place at both an individual and governmental level: “Changes in practice will be dependent on (1) the capacity and will of the profession to ‘unlearn’ established practices and habitual responses and (2) the capacity of the system to adopt a stronger learner orientation over a performance orientation” (Hulme et al, 2011, p. 445).
At a grassroots level teachers can encourage creativity and risk taking through a change in their everyday methodologies and attitudes. For example, in terms of assessment, a greater focus on formative assessment with “the belief that dispositions to learning are not fixed but can be altered with appropriate feedback from skilled teachers” (Hulme et al, 2011, p. 443) can be very significant in the development of all aspects of learning, including creativity. Using a constant process formative review and evaluation of work as a guide for it’s direction rather than a pre-set end product allows the work to be open ended and thus more creative. It is a process of “continual correction, in response to an ongoing perceptual monitoring of the unfolding task” (Ingold, 2011, p. 217).
A shift in many teacher’s attitudes would also help to foster creativity and risk taking. On a larger scale, teachers must take courage and embrace the flexibility and lack of prescription offered by CfE rather than demand increased levels of exemplification: “The pressure from sections of the profession for centrally provided exemplification may yet produce the re-establishment of new targets for authorised versions of creativity” (Hulme et al, 2011 p. 445).
On a more individual level, within each classroom, the teacher must move away from a didactic, authoritarian view of themselves and adopt much more of an equal stance as co-learners with pupils. Friere, 2006, summarises this shift: ‘Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with student-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the one who teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn teach while also being taught. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow” (p. 80). Thus creativity is fostered as ”the students - no longer docile listeners - are now critical co-investigators with the teacher” (Friere, 2006, p. 81).
Within an arts context, a simple example of this would be to have both teacher and pupils producing their own artwork concurrently in the classroom / studio setting. This is very much part of the underpinning principles of Room 13 (Gibb, 2012) and KOS (Artwork Scotland, 2012) and it’s benefits are summed up as follows: “Each Room 13 studio facilitates the work of young artists alongside a professional adult artist in residence, providing an exchange of ideas, skills and experience across the ages. The result is an ongoing collaboration between adults and young people and a thriving culture of philosophical enquiry driven by a motivation to think and to learn” (Gibb, 2012, p. 237).
References
Artwork Scotland, 2012. Tim Rollins and KOS http://artworksscotland.wordpress.com/media-films-and-interviews/
Friere, P., 2006. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary edition). New York: Continuum.
Gibb, C., 2012. Room 13: The Movement and International Network. In IJADE 31.3
Hulme, M., Menter. I. and Conroy, J., 2011. Creativity in Scottish School Curriculum and Pedagogy. In Sefton-Green, J. et al (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Creativity Learning. London: Routledge. Ch 44.
Ingold, T., 2011. The Textuality of Making. In: T. Ingold Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. London: Routledge. Ch 17.
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