Creativity and Imagination in Education

Early Definition of Creativity
1. an also take on an arguably more higher saturation and expression of creativity through social interaction. This is evident in the situational theory of learning.
2. "...an active process" (Fautley, M and Savage, J,)
3. that all people are creative.(Boden, 2004)
4. Apparent in curriculum documents where creativity is no longer limited to the Arts domain but now is recognised in other educational domains such as Mathematics, English, Religion and so on.
5. A creative thought , as Guildford explains in 1967, can be “convergent” where we move to one fixed answer or “divergent” where there is no predetermined answer.
6. Creativity is no longer a term simply applied to painting, dance, performance but it is a term that underpins disciplines in all learning areas so that the learning is one aimed at arming our students for their present and future roles in society and the workplace.
7. Mistakes are necessary to cultivate a creative environment
Sir Ken Robinson (2006 TED)
1. Every education system around the earth has the same hierarchy of subjects.
2. Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.
3. …many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they are not because the thing they were good at school wasn’t valued or it was stigmatised.
4. we "have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children".
Using Steven Johnson's "Where Do Ideas Come From? TED Talk 2010
1. Intellectual Flowering” I start to think that solitary moments and solitary participants are no longer a necessary part of the definition. Flowering suggests “over a period of time”
2. Innovation needs order in the disorder..strange as that may sound. When an environment is hectic with people communicating, there is a “chaos where ideas can come together (Johnson, 2010)
3. When a “liquid network” of people from different backgrounds, different ideas and different interests share a common space, intellectual and physical, we start to build a network of invigorating and inspiring conversations, and when we can have this sort of ”architecture of space” (Johnson, 2010) we can take away from the predictable outcomes that often arise from singular, solitary cognitive processes.
4. HUnch moments Johnson suggests that hunch moments actually “incubate” over a longer period of time and refers to them as “Slow Hunch”.
5. What is cognitively arousing is the encouragement to share and associate thinking by many individuals as opposed to secretly “festering of an individual thought”. Johnson refers to this as “Connecting vs Protecting”
Communities of Practice M. Smith 2009
1. http://webclasscommunity.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/communities-of-practice/#more-64
2. 2……
3. 3……
REFLECTIONS
1. can be challenging
2. think abstractly about learning
3. look for patterns, connections and progress
4. Taxonomy of Reflection (Peter, Pappas, 2010)
  1. Remembering : What did I do?
    1. retrieve, recognise and recall
  2. Understanding: What was important about it?
    1. Construct meaning
  3. Applying: Where could I use it again?
    1. Extending a procedure
  4. Evaluating: How well did I do?
    1. Making judgments
  5. Creating: What should I do next?
    1. Combine and organise a new pattern or structure
Lui, E. & Noppe-Brandon.S (Imagination First, Unlocking the Power of Possibility 2009)
1. 3 Myths About Imagination
2. 1) You either have it or you don't
3. Implies we don't have it or a fixed amount
4. it is not fixed or static:it is completely malleable
5. Imagination is the raw ability to conjure up a different reality
6. 2) How Imagination Works is a Mystery
  1. we can demystify both the process of imagination and the application of imagniation
7. 3) Can't be taught, instilled, developed or cultivated
  1. Fear of not being imaginative in comparison to peers
    1. We fear we have a barren store of dreams, images, ideas and examples
8. Vitality of our economy depends upon having imagination
  1. Imagination is the greatest domestic renewable resource
  2. conventions define opportunity unless we feed our collective capacity for imagination
9. Imagination opens up the way we try to forecast the future
10. Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls "black swans" the rare random events that we never plan for
11. Without imagination education is empty
  1. Too many schools focus on the measurable to the exclusion of the possible
    1. Students become good at taking tests rather than skillful learners in the world beyond school
12. Imagination isn't a nice to have luxury in education rather it makes education relevant to everyone
13. Nothing more basic and fundamental in good education than developing the innate ability to imagine
14. If we cram children with WHAT they are unready for WHAT IF
15. WHAT IF are powerful words that allows us to express imagination in word and image
16. As adults we become socialised to certain norms of mutual justification
17. Reflection in action" (Donald Schon) is when we face ourselves honestly and in fellowship with others
Lincoln Centre Institute's "Capacities for Imaginative Learning"
1. "Noticing Deeply" is identifying and articulating layers of detail through continuous interaction with an object of study
2. "Embodying" is experiencing a work through your senses and emotions and physically representing it
3. "Questioning" is asking "Why" and "What if?" throughout your explorations
4. "Identifying Patterns" is finding relationships among the details you notice, and grouping them into patterns
5. "Making Connections" linking the patterns you notice to prior knowledge and experiences of yours and others
6. "Exhibiting Empathy" is understanding and respecting the experience of others
7. "Creating Meaning" creating interpretations of what you encounter and synthesizing them with the perspectives of others
8. "Taking Action" is acting on the synthesis through a project or an action that expresses your learning
9. "Reflecting And Assessing" is looking back on your learning to identify what challenges remain and to begin learning anew
Elliot Eisner's Imagination and Learning: Thoughts by Gillian Judson and Kieran Egan
1. Imaginative life of the student is no longer considered some exotic and largely irrelevant intellectual activity
2. Imagination is the great workhorse of learning
3. Eisner's work has ensured that we value imagination and creativity in our images of good teaching, learning and students' expressions of understanding
4. engaging student's imaginations in curriculum materials is one of the keys to successful learning
5. "standardised teaching from an educational perspective, is an oxymoron" ( 2002, p7)
6. the imagination is not only desirable but necessary in education
"Start With What the Student Knows or What the Student Can Imagine" K Egan (2033)
1. Ask the student what they can imagine not what they know
2. Students' imagination is a better starting point than what children already know
3. starting where the student is may be inadequate and restrictive
4. no one's understanding of the world expands according to this principle of gradual content association.
5. ignoring the imagination because our research methods have difficulty coming to grips with it is somewhat self-defeating.
6. imagination is the ability to think of things as possibly being so
"To Understand is to Create: An Epistemological Perspective on Human Nature and Personal Creativity" (Runco, 2007)
1. Constructivists believe knowledge is created by the individual and a construction of understanding
Information Exchange
1. Sharing of ideas
2. Little collaboration
3. Lack of critical thinking
4. Lack of reflective practise
5. Lack of communicative practice
Knowledge Created
1. collaborative
2. reflection in action
3. reflection on action
4. communicative practises
5. Constructive commentary
6. Critical thinking