Creativity is increasingly seen as central to good learning and teaching throughout the curriculum. This book examines the political and educational context behind such developments and looks at dilemmas faced by trainee teachers as they begin their teaching practice. Demonstrating what creativity is, how it evolves and how it can be nurtured in various teaching contexts, it enables trainees to develop creativity in their teaching role and in their pupils′ learning. Throughout, the book links clearly to the new Professional Standards for QTS and presents exercises, subject-based case studies and teaching examples to engage and support all secondary trainees.
This book borrows from a range of theories about creativity and about learning, while remaining largely practical in focus. It contains numerous examples for teachers of how to apply ideas about creativity in the classroom. In doing so, it attempts to maintain the subject's core identity while also keeping abreast of contemporary social, pedagogical and technological developments. The result is a refreshing challenge to some of the more mundane approaches to English teaching on offer in an age focussed excessively on standardisation and teaching to tests.
Creativity and critical thinking are key skills for complex, globalised and increasingly digitalised economies and societies. While teachers and education policy makers consider creativity and critical thinking as important learning goals, it is still unclear to many what it means to develop these skills in a school setting. To make it more visible and tangible to practitioners, the OECD worked with networks of schools and teachers in 11 countries to develop and trial a set of pedagogical resources that exemplify what it means to teach, learn and make progress in creativity and critical thinking in primary and secondary education.
Growing clamour to reintroduce creativity back into classrooms - internationally Synthesises practice, policy and research in one place Suggests practical ways of taking forward pupils' creative development Relevant for teachers who work with pupils from 3-18 Anna Craft is uniquely placed to write this book and spent time researching this issue with Professor Howard Gardner at Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA
Developing Creativity in the Classroom applies the most current theory and research on creativity to support the design of teaching and learning. Creative thinking and problem solving are at the heart of learning and application as students prepare for innovation-driven careers. This text debunks myths about creativity and teaching and, instead, illustrates productive conceptions of creative thinking and innovation, including a constructivist learning approach in which creative thinking enhances and strengthens conceptual understanding of the curriculum. Through models of teaching that support creativity and problem solving, this book extends the idea of a creative pedagogy to the four core curriculum domains. Developing Creativity in the Classroom focuses on explanations and examples of how creative thinking and deep learning merge to support engaging learning environments, rising to the challenge of developing 21st-century competencies.
The fourth edition of this well-known text continues the mission of its predecessors âe" to help teachers link creativity research and theory to the everyday activities of classroom teaching. Part I (chs 1-5) includes information on models and theories of creativity, characteristics of creative people, and talent development. Part II (chapters 6-10) includes strategies explicitly designed to teach creative thinking, to weave creative thinking into content area instruction, and to organize basic classroom activities (grouping, lesson planning, assessment, motivation and classroom organization) in ways that support studentsâe(tm) creativity. Changes in this Edition: Improved Organization -- This edition has been reorganized from 8 to 10 chapters allowing the presentation of theoretical material in clearer, more manageable chunks. New Material âe" In addition to general updating, there are more examples involving middle and secondary school teaching, more examples linking creativity to technology, new information on the misdiagnosis of creative students as ADHD, and more material on cross-cultural concepts of creativity, collaborative creativity, and linking creativity to state standards. Pedagogy & Design âe" Chapter-opening vignettes, within-chapter reflection questions and activities, sample lesson ideas from real teachers, and end-of-chapter journaling activities help readers adapt content to their own teaching situations. Also, a larger trim makes the layout more open and appealing and a single end-of-book reference section makes referencing easier. Targeted specifically to educators (but useful to others), this book is suitable for any course that deals wholly or partly with creativity in teaching, teaching the gifted and talented, or teaching thinking and problem solving. Such courses are variously found in departments of special education, early childhood education, curriculum and instruction, or educational psychology.
This book advances an environmental approach to enhancing creativity in schools, by interweaving educational creativity theory with creative industries environmental approaches. Using Anna Craft’s last book Creativity and Education Futures as a starting point, the book sets out an up-to-date argument for why education policy should be supporting a birth-to-workplace approach to developing creative skills and capacities that extends across the education lifespan. The book also draws on the voices of school teachers, students and leaders who suggest directions for the next generation of creative teachers and learners in a rapidly evolving global education landscape. Overall, the book argues that secondary schools must find a way to make more room for creative risk, innovation and imagination in order to adequately prepare students for creative workplaces and publics.
In Teaching Creative Thinking: Developing Learners Who Generate Ideas and Can Think Critically,Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer define and demystify the essence of creative thinking, and offer action-oriented and research-informed suggestions as to how it can best be developed in learners. Where once it was enough to know and do things, young people now need more than subject knowledge in order to thrive: they need capabilities. Teaching Creative Thinking is the first title in the three-part Pedagogy for a Changing World series, founded upon Lucas and Spencer's philosophy of dispositional teaching a pedagogical approach which aims to cultivate in learners certain dispositions that evidence suggests are going to be valuable to them both at school and in later life. A key capability is creative thinking, and, in 2021, one of the guardians of global comparative standards, PISA, is recognising its importance by making creative thinking the 'innovative assessment domain' to supplement their testing of 15-year-olds' core capabilities in English, maths and science. Creative thinkers are inquisitive, collaborative, imaginative, persistent and disciplined and schools which foster these habits of mind in learners need to be creative in engaging children and young people by embedding creativity into their everyday educational experiences. In this extensive enquiry into the nature and nurture of creative thinking,the authors explore the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches including problem-based learning, growth mindset, playful experimentation and the classroom as a learning community and provide a wealth of tried-and-tested classroom strategies that will boost learners' critical and creative thinking skills. The book is structured in an easy-to-access format, combining a comprehensive listing of practical ideas to stimulate lesson planning with expert guidance on integrating them into your practice, followed by plenty of inventive suggestions as to how learners' progress can be assessed and tracked along the way by both the pupil and the teacher. The authors then go further to offer exemplars of success by presenting case studies of schools' innovations in adopting these approaches, and dedicate a chapter to dispelling any pressing doubts that teachers may have by exposing the potential pitfalls and offering advice on how to avoid them. Venturing beyond the classroom setting, Teaching Creative Thinkingalso delves into the ways in which a school can work towards the provision of co-curricular experiences such as partnering with a range of external community groups and better engage its leadership team and pupils' parents with the idea of creative thinking in order to support learners with opportunities to grow. The authors offer many examples which will inspire schools to do just this, and collate these ideas into building a framework for learning that equips young people in schools today with the twenty-first century skills and capabilities that will enable them to thrive in the workforce of tomorrow. Replete with research-led insight and ready-to-use strategies, Teaching Creative Thinkingis a powerful call to action and a practical handbook for all teachers and leaders, in both primary and secondary settings, who want to embed a capabilities approach in their schools.
This book examines the gaps in creativity education across the education lifespan and the resulting implications for creative education and economic policy. Building on cutting-edge international research, the editors and contributors explore innovations in interdisciplinary creativities, including STEM agendas and definitions, science and creativity and organisational creativity amongst other subjects. Central to the volume is the idea that good creative educational practice and policy advancement needs to reimagine individual contribution and possibilities, whilst resisting standardization: it is inherently risky, not risk-averse. Prioritising creative partnerships, zones of contact, practice encounters and creative ecologies signal new modes of participatory engagement. Unfortunately, while primary schools continue to construct environments conducive to this kind of ‘slow education’, secondary schools and education policy persistently do not. This book argues, from diverse viewpoints and methodological perspectives, that 21st-century creativity education must find a way to advance in a more integrated and less siloed manner in order to respond to pedagogical innovation, economic imperatives and creative possibilities, and adequately prepare students for creative practice, workplaces and publics. This innovative volume will appeal to students and scholars of creative practice as well as policy makers and practitioners.
