How could creativity potentially impact on primary education? - Hollie Monks

Hi Bloggers!

We’ve been doing creative work within our seminars this week and reflected on how these lessons could influence children’s development, this post will discuss how creativity can potentially have an impact on primary education and what my views are on this subject.

Creativity can include a variety of different meanings such as originality, problem solving, productivity and so on, so there cannot be one definition for what it is. Koestler (1964, p. 95) defines it as ‘the ability to make connections between previously unconnected ideas’, whereas Bateson and Martin (2013, p.4) say that ‘creativity is displayed when an individual develops a novel form of behavior or a novel idea, regardless of its practical uptake and subsequent application (divergent thinking or behavior).” I believe that creativity is when a child can build upon all their existing skills and be able to solve problems through divergent thinking, my views corresponds with Craft (2000, P.38) who summarises creativity as ‘a state of mind in which all our intelligences are working together’…involving ‘seeing, thinking and innovating’.

Craft (2000) believes that ‘creative teachers tend to place the learners above the curriculum and combine a positive disposition towards creativity and person-centred teaching which actively promotes pupils who learn and think for themselves’, this shows how creative teaching can have a positive impact on primary education as the children will learn to become more independent because the process of creativity gives the children the chance to move between their memories to find a solid solution to problems and overcome new tasks. (Claxton et el. 2004) These ideas resonate with Eugster’s (2008) idea that children will think for themselves and use their imagination from their own experiences to come up with new idea’s and skills.

Creativity can be used in any subject from art to science, NACCE (1999, p.30) state that there are ‘two modes of creative thinking: the ‘imaginative-generative’ mode which produces outcomes, and the ‘critical-evaluative’ mode which involves consideration of originality and value.’ Using creativity involves the children to ask questions, explore options and generate ideas as they take risks and imaginatively think their way forwards and make new or innovative connections. (Grainger, 2006) As shown by the Ofsted study (2006) that creativity has and can help children become more ambitious learners who are ready to take on their future while improving skills such as communication and team work development.

If there are limited opportunities for children to be curious it will limit their creativity and their motivation to be engaged in tasks will disappear, (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p.11) Cremin (2015) discusses how education used to be mainly taught as traditional subjects which is why Donaldson proposes to implement creativity into the new curriculum of Wales ‘Successful Futures’ (2015, P.64) with the intentions to provide rich learning for children as he believes that there has been a rise for creative learners within recent years, Successful Futures (2015) proposes 6 area’s of learning which will allow facilitators to be creative when teaching as they can work collaboratively with different subjects and keep the children engaged and actively thinking. (Donaldson, 2015)

While being on work experience I have seen a lot of creativity being used within classrooms, children get to express themselves from activities such as role play to drawing, I think that activities like role play are great for children to not only develop their creativity but expand their other skill sets such as social skills and stimulate their imagination, it also encourages friendships by turn taking, cooperation and listening. (Limarcher, 2013)

References

·         Koestler, A. (1964) The act of creation.  London: Hutchinson & Co.

·         Bateson, P. Bateson, P.P.G. and Martin, P., 2013. Play, playfulness, creativity and innovation. Cambridge University Press.

·         Craft, A. (2000) Creativity Across the Primary Curriculum: Framing and Developing Practice, London: Routledge Falmer.

·         Claxton, G and Lucas, B (2004) Be Creative; Essential steps to revitalize your work and life, London, BBC.

·         NACCCE (1999) All Our Futures, the report of the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural education, London: DfEE/DCMS.

·         Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

·         Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of discovery and invention., New York, Harper.

·         Cremin, T (2015) ‘Creative teaching and creative teachers’ ‘in’ Wilson, Anthony ed. Creativity in Primary Education. London:SAGE. pp. 33-44

·         GRAINGER, T. and Barnes, J. (2006) Creativity in the Primary Curriculum in J. Arthur, T. GRAINGER and D. Wray. (eds.) Learning to Teach in the Primary School London: Routledge.pp.209-225.

·         Eugster, K. (2008) Encouraging Children to Play Imaginatively and Creatively. Available at: http://kathyeugster.com/articles/article007.htm (Accessed: 02/12/2017).

·         Limarcher, U. (2013) The importance of role plays for children (and us…). Available at: https://expatsincebirth.com/2013/02/03/the-importance-of-role-plays-for-children-and-us/ (Accessed: 5/12/17).

By Hollie Monks - st20101449