Blogging assignment 2: Teaching creativity and assessing creativity in the classroom: Designing a new curriculum for teaching english as a second language

Can We Really Teach Creativity?

What is Creativity?

 

"To generate new and useful ideas."

"Connecting dots in new ways" 

"Applying the old solutions to new problems"

Academics and researchers have conducted a lot of research on creativity.  They tried to answer questions like, why some people are more creative than others.  Is creativity an ability being nurtured?  Are creative people simply born with this ability?  Shall we define creativity as a single thing or is it consists of a set of complex inter-related behaviors?  Shall creativity be defined as separate discipline or shall it be embedded across all disciplines?

Robert Sternberg, one of the foremost experts on Intelligence and Creativity, proposes an Investment Theory of Creativity.  The investment theory is based on the notion that creative people decide to buy low and sell high in the world of ideas – that is, they generate ideas that tend to “defy the crowd” (buy low), and then when they have persuaded many people, they sell high, meaning they move on to the next unpopular idea.  He states that creativity is a decision with three parts: the decision to be creative, the decision of how to be creative, and implementation of these decisions. The view of creativity as a decision suggests that creativity can be developed.

James C. Kaufman and Ronald A. Beghetto proposed a "Four C model of creativity".  They expanded the general understanding of creativity beyond the "Big-C" and "Little-C".  They added the idea of "Mini-C" and "Pro-C".

Big-C: the creativity which results in innovations which profoundly advances a field or discipline.

Little-C: the creativity which processed by all people which are applicable to everyday life.

Mini-C:  the "trans-formative learning" involving "personally meaningful interpretations of experiences, actions and insights"; creativity in social context;

Pro-C: exhibited by people who are professionally or vocationally creative like professional photographers, writer and artists

Can we measure creativity?

Torrance test of creative thinking is created by Ellis Paul Torrance based on the research by J.P. Gulford.  The test assesses creativity in four major aspects:

Fluency: No. of creativity idea can you generate

Originality: Is the idea novel or unique

Flexibility: How many dimensions do the idea cover ( the width)

Elaboration: the amount of details can be provided (the depth)

Elements of creativity

Teresa Amabile claims that the elements of creativity are interconnected: each is caused by and causes the others.

Source: Teresa Amabile (Crown, 1989), Growing Up Creative

Karlyn Adams explains in Sources of Innovation and Creativity: A Summary of the Research, "an explicit decision to be creative, along with a meta-cognitive awareness of the creative process" can do much to enhance "long-term creative results".

Source: Adams K., Sources of innovation and creativity: a summary of the research

Adams added on that in addition to general knowledge and discipline specific knowledge, motivation is also crucial for creativity.  As an individual most likely need to come up with many unsuccessful creativity ideas before they can reach a successful idea.

Some individuals are born with more creativity, for example the gifted artists, poets and innovators.  These creativity potentials are innate abilities.  While aspects of creativity can be fostered thru educational experience for example an individual’s trait in acceptance novel idea and the ability to build on these new ideas and the critical thinking.

Adams also stated the environment also plays role.  An open-minded and non-controlling climate is vital to foster creativity.  For example, teachers in school shall ask more open-end questions rather than closed-end/standard one answer type of questions to inspire the students to utilize their creative capacity.

Fostering creativity

In addition to environment factor, course planning is the center stage for fostering creativity.  Teachers shall incorporate fostering creativity in its curriculum.  Students shall not be just required to gain and demonstrate declarative knowledge (facts, concepts and terminology).  They shall also be required to develop procedural knowledge (inquiry, reasoning and metacognition).

During the course, the assignment shall provide students the chance to practice their procedural knowledge.  The assignment or activities can be ranged simple team based group projects to open-ended research projects.

Students’ creativity can be simulated when the assignments are sufficiently challenging, but not overwhelming.  For example, our ancestors discovered how to generate and use fire because the innovation can greatly enhance their chance of survival.  During the World War 1 & 2, we had many advance technological and medical fields.  The threat factor is a significant driving force for creativity.

Divergent thinking shall be encouraged which facilities student to generate new ideas.

How to teach creativity?

According to Edward De Bono, the leading authority in the field of creative thinking, believes that creativity is a learnable skill, not just something inborn. So creativity is a skill that can be developed.

Teach creativity? TEACH CREATIVELY!!

Creative teaching can be considered as a form of teaching that favor understanding than memorization.  Teachers can use creative activities to bring out the creativity thinking in class and here are the principles:

1. Create an appropriate LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

To complete curricular demand, students are usually doing what the teacher wants without putting too much of themselves into it. To encourage students to break through from the preconceived notions of what the teacher wants, a non-critical and non-threatening atmosphere is need to be created in the classroom. Students are free to voice out ideas and words. Students will be more confident in their abilities in using English to express their thoughts and be more willing to be creative.

2. The importance of CONCEPTS

Concepts are a very important part of thinking and in generating new ideas. Concepts have a strong linkage with knowledge so along with the teaching of skills in developing creativity and thinking, teachers are also be reminded to contribute to the development of knowledge acquisition in the curricular. When you come up with a question, the concept comes first then you need to figure out what to do and how to do it. Concepts are always there though you might not notice but it becomes very useful when you are dealing with something that you are not familiar with.

“Concepts are the parents of ideas. If you can locate the parents of a child then you can find the brother and sisters and even other relatives of that child.”

“You do not go out into the street in your underwear, although usually you are wearing underwear. The underwear is not visible but it is there all the time. It is the same with concepts. They are there. They underlie practical things we do- even when we are not conscious of them.”

― Edward De Bono, How To Have A Beautiful Mind

3. The ability of generate ALTERNATIVES

There are always an alternative ways in carrying out a task. If we stop searching for alternatives, the only thing left is a rigid mind. Teachers can encourage students to seek a better view or a better way of doing things. Sometimes the alternatives may become a fantasy but it can still be considered as an exercise in thinking and to liven up a discussion in class.

Here are some approaches or techniques for teaching creativity.

Questioning Activity

Questions are a key means of interaction in discussion or conversation. Asking questions is a way of getting we want or want to know. Through questions, the listeners may make the speaker to be more explicit. Teachers can encourage students asking questions in the class, like playing the game “Hot Seat”. The student on the hot seat will be asked a barrage of questions by the class. Questions can be general or based on a particular topic or reading. The game serves as a great way to stimulate responses and interest as well as serve an opportunity to work on their spoken English.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a useful creativity technique to develop creative solutions for a specific problem. Students are asked to develop ideas or thoughts spontaneously. Even unusual ideas are welcomed. Brainstorming can help define an issue, diagnose a problem, or possible solutions and stimulate idea generation. Since criticism dampens creativity in the initial stages of a brainstorming session and judgment and evaluation should be suspended during the session. Participants are encouraged to pick up on ideas offered to create new ones. This kind of activity is a good one for stretching the imagination.

Reverse Brainstorming

Reverse brainstorming solves the problems of direct questioning and the singular approach by exploring multiple factors in reverse. It helps to examine the potential failures in the listed ideas generated in brainstorming. This method encourages more creative thought. With reverse brainstorming, the question asked is “What causes the problem?” By evaluating the negative ideas, students can be leaded to possible solutions.

Role-playing

Traditionally, we use pro and con argument as a way of thinking but the actual exploration of the subject is limited. Teachers can teach the use of parallel thinking, the Six Thinking Hats, to pupils. The direction of thinking is indicated by six colored hats and each of them indicates a mode of thinking. The hats provide a means to request a particular type of thinking and to align the thinkers of the discussion so they can all looking in the same direction. Hats are used to indicate roles. 

The white hat indicates a focus on information. 
The red hat gives permission for expression of feelings.
The black hat focuses on faults and weaknesses.
The yellow hat focuses on values and benefits.
The green hat for creative effort.
The blue hat do with the organization of thinking.

This kind of role-play can interest the students and give them a chance to practice what they have learnt and explore the subject thoroughly. They will also be given opportunities to be original and come up with unique ideas as well as take one idea and elaborate on it.

How shall we assess creativity

"The framework of assessment for learning, though it does not consider creativity, goes in the same direction. It recognizes the priority of promoting students' learning and understanding, and highlights the impact of self-assessment and peer-assessment in raising children's achievement (Black, Harrison, Lee Marshall, & William, 2004). Assessment therefore monitors students' progress and aims to help students reach their full potential."

Actually, traditional assessment cannot meet the needs of the creative teaching because most of the general school is mainly based on summative assessment.  Most of the general school emphasized on written tests or static assessment which cannot realize actual benefit of the students from learning. Hence, creative teaching method should use diverse assessment in order to realize the creativity of the students. They emphasis the importance of the process and the outcomes during learning.

 

Diversity assessment is not only limited on tests or a score. It is a change from written test assessment to dynamic. Simply saying is one test change into diversified activity. By this method, students can put his knowledge into his daily life. It can let the teacher know the differences among the students and easily look after those students who academic are behind.

The development trend of the assessment

The evaluation of creative teaching should take consideration of the trend of general teaching evaluation, here are some references:

1. Integration and adaptive of assessment in teaching

Assessment is not only predicting the development of the students. It also assists the student to realize what they have learned. Creative teaching assessment results incorporated with the teaching targets can help the teachers realize if the lessons are helpful to the student during learning.

2. Contents of the assessment should be diversity and practical

Most of the students memorized the textbooks' information which they learned in the class and they may not be able to use that knowledge in their daily life. If creative teaching put that knowledge into practical for scoring, student can make use of the knowledge and apply it into different situations. This can sure improve the way of learning.

3. The evaluators should be interactive and diversified

Students can find different people to give appraisal to them such as their schoolmates, parents and friends. By evaluating from different people, the score can be more objective.

4. Avoid any bias and misuse during assessment

We should avoid being critical to the students even when there are mistakes during the progress. We should consider on diversity assessment in order to understand the student’s creativity ability and the performance such as observation, interview etc. By doing so, we can give them a guideline that best for them.

5. Assessment emphasis on criterion - referenced test

Compared with the norm-referenced test, criterion-referenced test can realize the strengths and the weakness among the students. According to the results of the students, school can propose an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) to the students who need special education and the teacher can design a unique program for them.

From Wikipedia encyclopedia, criterion-referenced test is one that provides for translating test scores into a statement about the behavior to be expected of a person with that score or their relationship to a specified subject matter. Most tests and quizzes written by school teachers are criterion-referenced tests. The objective is simply to see whether the student has learned the material.

6. Assessment results can be the focus

Teacher can use the assessment results as a reference for the reform of the education in future. 

Different types of assessment:

1. Implement assessment

Teacher can set a model test which is the situation is the same curriculum on learning. This method  emphases the student to input the knowledge they have learned in class into the model test so it can let the student knowing what they have learned.

The nature of implement assessment

• Knowledge is the technique of overcome problems.
• Concern on deeply thinking and the technique of overcome problems.
• Be flexible to different kinds of students
• Diversification scoring method
• Emphasis on corporation and learning process
• Teachers should have a clear target and professional attitude

Different types of tools for assessment

• Rating scale
• Checklist
• Anecdotal record
• Oral assessment
• Portfolio assessment

2. Dynamic Assessment

In the process of learning, the student gets less assistance to more assistance. Students can get more interaction with the teachers so the they can keep on amend their ideas by use the method of “evaluate –intervene – reevaluate.”

Stakeholders' potential concerns on creativity teaching

We have analysed 3 types of stakeholders' potential concerns what do they think of creative teaching.

Future Employers

 "Employees can work independenly, more creativity on their work and give innovate ideas. They are willing to listen to people and enjoy to working in teams. "

Administrators

This teaching method must be reviewed in a long-term and periodic basis. Administrators need to review and evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum change. This means administrators must maintain an on-going involvement in the curriculum. To implement this teaching method, administrative support is essential. To effectively implement the curriculum changes, administrators and teachers must think about how to process a systemic change, how to implement it effectively, and how to incorporate the ideal of teaching creativity throughout the curriculum.

Insights

Why creativity is important to us?  From the two class readings "Building Innovation Factory" and "Creativity: Pixar",  the top CEOs know that ideas and innovation are the most precious currency in the new economy.  It is also important for companies to maintain sustainable constant flow of creativity (like Pixar).

Little-C creativity (the everyday creativity) shall be teachable and be able to be developed.  But, it shall be impossible to train or develop Big-C creativity.  If it were possible, we might able to have many geniuses like Steve Jobs.  Their abilities appears to be in-born rather then being developed.

To better develop students creativity, we might consider:

• Make it a separate mandatory course for all university students;
• Leave the formal assessment which release the pressure of both teacher and students (a relaxing environment is good for creativity);
• Adopt informal assessment approach; assessment result will only be available to the teacher and students;
• Students shall be encouraged to apply their creativity to all course work.

Reference:

1. Anusca Ferrari, Romina Cachia and Yves Punie(2009). Innovation and Creativity in Education and Training in the EU Member States: Fostering Creative Learning and Supporting Innovative Teaching Literature review on Innovation and Creativity in E & T in the EU Member States(ICEAC) (pg.27). Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterion-referenced_test
3. http://resources.edb.gov.hk/gifted/ttp/mindset/chapter7.html
4. Edward de Bono, (2004). How To Have A Beautiful Mind. 1st ed. United Kingdom: The Random House Group.
5. Judy A. Johnson, (2001). Principles of Effective Change: Curriculum Revision that Works. Journal of Research for Educational Leaders . 1 (1), pp.5-18
6. http://www.celt.iastate.edu/creativity/home.html
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity
8. Andrew Hargadon and Robert I. Sutton.  Building Innovation Factory.  Harvard Business Review, May-June 2000
9. Ed Catmull.  How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. Harvard Business Review September 2008.