Essential Creativity in the Classroom

Inspiring Kids

Kaye Thorne

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134204229
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Essential Creativity in the Classroom is about giving all children the opportunity to fulfil their potential. It is about developing real partnerships between parents, teachers, businesses and the community, identifying best practice, finding teachers that are inspiring and schools that are committed to providing a special learning experience. This is a book to inspire, excite and stimulate creative approaches to learning.

Without creativity, we have no real innovation; we need people who are capable of thinking crazy, out of the box thoughts; we need people who shake us out of complacency. This book covers in detail topics such as:

• What do teachers need to do to help children make the most of their creativity?
• How do children prefer to learn?
• What can teachers do to stimulate children's creativity?
• building self-esteem, helping individuals to believe in themselves
• supporting a young person in making creative career choices.

Packed with proven practical advice this dip-in guide identifies the best ways of supporting pupils as they navigate their exciting journey through a world of learning and discovery.

1 Daring to be different

The key to creativity and innovation

How creative are you? Could you enable others to be creative? Does your organization encourage creativity? Important questions in today’s education environment. In this chapter we explore the context for developing creativity and innovation, recognising that what schools develop industry implements. If we create generations of young people unable to think for themselves, who are not excited by new ideas, who cannot undertake whole-brain thinking, there will be no innovation.

The generation of an innovation culture is seen as one of the most critical areas of focus for organisations in the twenty-first century. Increasingly industry is waking up to the importance of creativity and innovation. In Business Week (26 March 2006), Bob Sutton, author of Weird Ideas that Work (see ‘Recommended reading’) and Professor of Engineering at Stanford, states, ‘The best job candidates in the future will possess a creative ability that comes from working with different kinds of people on challenging projects. If you have an MBA that’s nice, but it is not enough.’ In the same article, reference is made to a 2005 survey by Boston Consulting Group, stating that nearly three-quarters of their companies will increase spending on innovation, up from 64 per cent in 2004. Almost 90 per cent of the executives surveyed said that generating organic growth through innovation has become essential for success in their industry.

Yet how far is education going to meet these demands of the future? We examine the impact this has on preparing young people for employment in Chapter 9.

‘Penicillin, the computer, microwave ovens and the World Wide Web are just four examples of UK world-beating creativity that instantly spring to mind. Unfortunately, however, while these were invented here they were developed elsewhere in the world’, states Nigel Crouch in Innovation: The Key to Competitive Advantage (2000) (see ‘Recommended reading’). He continues:

The UK’s track record for successfully exploiting ideas and turning them into highly lucrative UK innovations is appalling. How then do we bridge the gap between inspired invention and fully fledged innovation? Encouragingly, the answer lies very close to home with a number of British Millennium Product companies, who have contributed to the Living Innovation programme being run by the Future and Innovation Unit of the DTI in conjunction with the Design Council. This takes a look behind the innovation processes at work over a broad cross-section of Millennium Products and has generated some rich pointers as to how to innovate more effectively.

The report states that the essence of successful innovation came down to three key elements:

• unique understanding of customers and markets;
• an outstanding ability to implement;
• inspirational and cultural leadership.

It added that it was essential that a company gets all of them right in order to make a critical difference to the bottom line.

However, there would be no innovation if creative ideas were not generated in the first place. Equally, identifying how to innovate successfully is only one of the steps in a very long pipeline to become world-class innovators. The very first steps towards this are taken in schools with the development and fostering of creative thinking and understanding of how to generate creative ideas. Tony Buzan in Head Strong (2001) (see ‘Recommended reading’) states that creative ideas need to be ‘original, removed from the norm and as such, they are usually exciting’.

Professor Stephen Heppell, in the introduction to the Create and Motivate Education Guardian Supplement: Using Technology to Encourage Creativity in Class (7 March 2006) explains his surprise at the lack of mention of creativity in a recent government White Paper, ‘Higher Standards, Better Schools for All’ (October 2005):

How many mentions does the word get in ‘Higher Standards, Better Schools for All’ (October 2005) White Paper? ‘Standard’ is mentioned 144 times, ‘Fail’ appears 53 times. Rather surprisingly the words ‘creativity’ and ‘creative’ are not mentioned at all, probably unique for an education policy paper in the 21st century. But where the White Paper has failed spectacularly to notice creativity, our teachers, students and parents are embracing it, armed with some very useful new tools. All around the UK schools are seeing remarkable levels of engagement and effort resulting from a quite specific focus on creative activity.

Later in the same supplement, Julie Nightingale quotes Alan Rodgers, primary representative at the education technology advisers organisation Naace, ‘People are beginning to have confidence in creative activities rather than sticking rigidly to the QCA schemes of work’, and Mark Rogers, MD of Apple UK, Ireland and Nordic regions, ‘The creativity path is a much better option for a lot of pupils, which doesn’t mean that only certain types of pupils should have access to creative activities in the curriculum. It actually means a different way of doing things for everyone.’

Equally some credence should be given to the findings from the Ofsted report Expecting the Unexpected: Developing Creativity in Primary and Secondary Schools (August 2003):

Overall inspectors found:

• head teachers placed the development of creativity high on their list of priorities in the majority of schools visited;
• the schools that promoted creativity effectively were outward looking, welcoming and open to ideas from external agencies;
• children’s creativity was not associated with radical new teaching methods, but the willingness of teachers to observe, listen and work closely with children to help them develop their ideas in a purposeful way. Exemplifying this was a primary school teacher who told her class, ‘the unexpected is expected in my lessons’.

However, if we take an overview of the path from the incubation of an idea through to its successful implementation there is still some way to go before all schools, primary and secondary, further and higher education, and organizations embrace the importance of creativity and innovation and develop it in a fully joined-up manner. So just how do you encourage creativity and innovation? First let’s focus on innovation.

Innovation

One of the most overused words in corporate communications is ‘innovation’. It is found in mission and value statements, in employee competencies and inevitably in recruitment advertisements. However, the desire to acquire it often outweighs the understanding of exactly how to achieve it. Ask any CEO their view on innovation and they will all agree that it is important. If you subsequently ask them what they are doing about it their response is more guarded. The real issue is that, although everyone wants it, they really are not sure how to go about achieving it.

There can also be a lot of ‘hype’ about ‘innovative’ organisations and a common belief that you need a leader like Branson, Dyson or Gates. In reality it is within the corporate capability of any organisation to foster and develop innovation. Equally, creating a culture of innovation is as relevant to education as it is to a larger corporate organisation.

Being innovative in education can be seen as a challenge for some schools as they may feel that increasing external pressure has robbed them of their opportunity to be innovative. Faced with increasing testing, reporting and the National Curriculum they may question the opportunity to be innovative. However, schools like the Coombes School (see Chapter 4) positively relish the opportunity to be innovative almost in spite of the National Curriculum. It is much more about creating the right environment and really seeing challenges as opportunities.

It is not about investing vast resources. What is required is a real understanding of how innovation works and a commitment to create an environment which not only encourages idea generation but also has a process to follow it through. Really successful organisations do not simply innovate; they accelerate and innovate again.

Supporting creativity and innovation

Creative people are often viewed as being ‘difficult’ to manage; innovative organisations are perceived as being unusual, with a certain level of ‘wackiness’. As a result, many organisations have reservations about their capability to accommodate these differences.

Tom Peters, in his book The Circle of Innovation (1997), gives some examples of these viewpoints when he reproduces the following quotes from different writers:

Our most beloved products were developed by hunch, guesswork, and fanaticism, by creators who were eccentric – or even stark raving mad.

(Jack Mingo, author of How the Cadillac Got its Fins)

You say you don’t want emotional, volatile, and unpredictable, just imaginative? Sorry, they only come in a package . . . I can offer you a dedicated, loyal, honest, realistic, knowledgeable package, but the imagination bit would be rather limited.

(Patricia Pitcher, author of The Drama of Leadership)

Daniel Goleman, in his book Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998), describes it as follows:

The creative mind is by its very nature a bit unruly. There is a natural tension between orderly self-control and innovative urge. It’s not that people who are creative are out-of-control emotionally; rather, they are willing to entertain a wider range of impulse and action than do less adventurous spirits. That is after all what creates new possibilities.

Starting from an early age, these creative individuals may also have had a lifetime of asking questions, or making suggestions which may have been largely ignored, or dismissed as being too fanciful, or impractical, or too difficult to answer. The reasons for this are many. The ability to be creative and to generate innovative ideas has often been perceived as something outside the normal realm of behaviour, and in many ways creative people often suffer for their craft before they gain recognition.

The really innovative organisations, however, are those where creativity and innovation are recognised and encouraged, not just in a special group of people called ‘Creatives’, but where everyone is involved in the ‘good idea’ philosophy.

Creating the ‘right’ environment can be more of challenge. Lack of understanding about the process of innovation has traditionally led to people dividing themselves into two camps: those who are seen as creative and those who are not. This applies to individuals’ assessment of themselves as well as the perception of others. By recognising how the process of innovation works, individuals and teams can develop a clearer understanding of and respect for each other’s contribution.

Managing the process of innovation is absolutely critical for its success. Starting in schools, understanding how ideas are generated, sponsoring creative thinkers and allowing people freedom to think are an important part of the role of any teacher. The really excellent schools are those that assemble teams where creative and innovative people are supported by others who can help them explore their ideas and people who can help them take an idea to the next stage of making it happen. Within this environment, high trust develops, allowing ideas to be challenged, modified and implemented while remaining true to the original concept, thus enabling the creative and innovative people to move on to generating the next good idea.

If you want to assess your school’s ability to foster innovation, you may like to find answers to the following questions:

• Is there top management support? Does the head and the board of governors sponsor innovation and creativity?
• Do we as a team of teachers champion idea generation?
• Do we accept ideas that break organisational precedent?
• Do we encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas and perspective?
• Do we give children, young people and teachers personal space to be creative?
• Do we tolerate failure in the pursuit of a good idea?
• Are changes in direction accepted as necessary?
• Do we reward ideas that develop the success of our school?

Characteristics of creative and innovative organisations

Creative and innovative organisations:

• nurture creativity;
• are supportive but challenging;
• develop effective teamwork;
• encourage cross-school communication and coordination;
• build networks;
• support innovation;
• recognise small changes;
• allow time for reflection and debate;
• encourage active participation and involvement;
• create a climate of cooperation and trust.

Retaining good teachers is critical in today’s buoyant economic environment; every head teacher needs to identify why their good teachers would want to stay with them.

So how do schools sponsor innovation and creativity?

1. Create an environment where good ideas are the philosophy of the whole school rather than in the minds of a few creative people. Develop the ‘spirit of enterprise’.
2. Recognise the innovation process and encourage staff teams and children to work together building on each other’s strengths.
3. Encourage one or two individuals to take a proactive approach to idea generation.
4. Suspend overly critical judgement; instead, give evaluative and positive feedback to help the idea generator explore options and choices for implementation. Far too many good ideas are lost because of overly critical judgement applied too soon.
5. Develop values of trust, integrity and freedom of spirit.
6. Encourage a climate of self-awareness; create a learning environment where individuals are encouraged to identify their preferences when innovating.
7. Play to individual strengths within a team, not expecting those who generate an idea to implement it. Create strong communication and feedback channels to ensure that the original concept is maintained.
8. Build networks with parents and the community, and in the broader global education marketplace. Develop zones of creativity.
9. Invite creative people with a whole range of talents into the school. Build children’s knowledge of different creative careers.
10. Create a coaching environment where teaching colleagues are encouraged to share learning and where knowledge and wisdom are valued.
11. Streamline processes for evaluation, decision making and feedback, thus increasing speed to implementation.
12. Champion individuals who think differently. Share your best practice. Seek to be the school that others benchmark against.

As we move further into the twenty-first century, the need to continuously innovate will become even more important and the need to retain talent will continue to be critical. However, there will be no real progress if we retain the status quo. In the words of Ridderstråle and Nordstrom in Funky Business (2000):

To succeed we must stop being so goddam normal. If we behave like all the others, we will see the same things, come up with similar ideas and develop identical products and services. At its best, normal output will produce normal results. In a winner takes all world, normal = nothing. But, if we are willing to take one little risk, break one tiny rule, disregard a few of the norms, there is at least a theoretical chance that we will come up with something different, actually get a niche, create a short term monopoly, and make a little money. Funky business is like playing the lottery. If you participate there is a 99% chance that you will lose. On the other hand if you do not take part, your chances of losing are 100%.

This quote may have originated in the business world, but it has just as much relevance to the world of education, not ju...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Daring to be different: The key to creativity and innovation
• 2 What’s it really like to be creative?
• 3 The creativity powerhouse
• 4 Unlocking the windows of the mind: How to create an inspiring learning environment
• 5 Coaching conversations
• 6 ‘Rage to learn’: Supporting gifted children
• 7 Building self-esteem
• 8 Creativity and blended learning
• 9 Creativity and employment
• 10 Fulfilling your creative potential
• 11 Doing it differently: How to enrich your life
• 12 Resources and other sources of inspiration
• Recommended reading
• References