The following section of this paper will be a critical discussion about the materials Elliott discussed in the chapter. Overall I really enjoyed Elliott’s arguments about creativity, I found it very easy to read and helped open my eyes on the use of creativity in the classroom. The creative philosophy that Elliott outlines in this chapter was incredibly helpful. I have always thought of the creative aspect in a classroom as being a compositional project, or improvisation and Elliott’s disapproval of that thought process has cleared some questions I had. There are so many possibilities to involve creativity in the classroom now, such as with performance, composition, improvisation, listening assignments and more. I am very excited to get out there and try some new lessons out for myself. Furthermore, the curriculum tends to feel too broad yet too limited at the exact same time when it comes to creativity. There are four components in the curriculum and they often seem very segregated. Even in some of our classes it has always been, “write a lesson plan for one of the wings”. I really like this idea of Elliott’s to always involve creativity because then it combines the wings. Creativity can take place alongside performance, historical context or critical evaluation. It is our job as teachers to stop segregating these wings so that everything is not so blocked off. Taking a step back, what would have been great in this chapter is if Elliott went into further detail of how to
In this age of high-stakes standardized testing the idea of creativity in the classroom has become less and less popular. Susan W. Cress and Daniel T. Holm present a compelling case study for keeping creativity in the classroom in “Creative Endeavors: Inspiring Creativity in a First Grade Classroom” published online April 1, 2015 in the Early Childhood Education Journal.
The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.
In a society where everything is constantly shifting and changing, it is essential for education to move away from teaching facts and figures to educating to inspire curiosity and creativity. The need for creativity in the classroom matters more than ever in our society. "Creativity is no longer seen as just being for artists and musicians .It's a crucial skill for everybody to master. "the following three articles were elaborated critique Department thinking, creativity and observation of contact,
For the entirety of the fall semester, I took on a project to create a three-page layout for a fictional campaign in National Geographic magazine about endangered species. The goal was to create different content for my portfolio, challenging my skills in photography and photo-manipulation. I transformed people into animals and used gel lighting and Photoshop to create my artwork (see Appendix A figure 1 & 2). At the end of the semester, I reviewed my completed pieces and two theorists best fit my creative process, Julie Burstein, and Teresa Amabile. Julie Burstein discusses the best way to foster creativity is by ‘letting go’ she outlines this in four lessons (Campbell and Dubois, “Artist Best practices” 25). These lessons include experiences, challenges, limitations and loss (Campbell and Dubois, “Artist Best practices” 25). While Teresa Amabile discusses how the theory of creativity is fostered through her componential model of creativity (Campbell and Dubois, “On theories of” 14). These include domain-relevant skills, creative thinking skills and motivation (Campbell and Dubois, “On theories of” 14). Both of these theorists go hand in hand providing me with the framework for my best work. This essay will discuss how Amabile’s theory for intrinsic motivation and Burstein’s lesson of experience and loss, align in my creative process to be conducive to my work.
Understanding of creative learning differs from those who see creativity as freedom to express ourselves to those who link it to self-discipline, practice and crafts.
Education has tarnished the idea of an original thought and has caused us to “grow out of creativity.” An idea that I am now convinced is a possible reality due to the intellectual, thought-provoking argument made by Sir Ken Robinson that schools do restrain creativity. In Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” Robinson argues that schools do kill creativity by addressing his audience in a sophisticated yet playful tone that keeps the audience entertained and invested in what is being discussed. Robinson connects with the audience by telling jokes, using simple reasoning, facts, and personal stories that allows the audience to be emotionally moved by the argument. Robinson is able to open up the audience to a reasonable idea with only one reasonable solution, and it just so happens to be his. Obviously, a bit biased, Robinson steers clear of self-promotion by recalling stories of other’s accounts and relating to people as a professor instead of a person.
Are we underestimating the importance of creativity? Many times children are not encouraged at home to be creative, either because their parents restrict their ideas, fill their decisions with pessimism, or simply do not pay attention to this matter. However, creativity is a skill that makes the human being flexible and resourceful as well as helping them see problems differently and identify solutions more easily. Many times education will directly contradict creativity. It destroys the innovation of ideas, and stifles the imagination, while claiming it is “teaching.” Sometimes entering a classroom becomes the closest thing to entering a time machine since our teaching methods differ very little from those of ancient Rome over 2000 years ago. In Ted Talk “How Schools Kills Creativity” by Ken Robinson and the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” by Leon Botstein, two different opinions about the current educational system are presented. While Robinson believes that the schooling system should work to promote creativity, Botstein says that the concept of a high and middle school is useless and should be abolished. However they both agree on reform. As a parent, I have always been concerned about my daughters’ education, and have always believed, like Robinson and Botstein, that our educational system needs a change.
Creativity is equally as important as literacy, and we need to start treating it that way in schools around the world. According to Ken Robinson’s claim in his, “How Schools Kill Creativity” speech, he believes this to be exceptionally true. All children are creative and talented, however, we have grown up in a world where we believe that it’s wrong to exemplify our creativity. Robinson uses both, pathos, and ethos to help make his claim. He arises emotion in you; he causes you to really think, to trust him, and to question ultimately, how things are being done in the educational system. We as a world have become so consumed with the idea of putting each child into a category of what they’re going to be successful in, regardless of their creativity or passions. You’re either good at math, science, or English; everything is based on your academic ability. What happens then to the people who aren’t academically smart, but are more creative? They are then made to feel that what they have to offer the world simply isn’t good enough, but the truth is, it is good enough. Over time however, we are taught out of our creativity. Schools around the world kill creativity by instilling a sense of fear in the child that what they are doing, and how they feel is wrong, this ultimately discourages them, and they fall victim to the industrialized educational system that we have present day. Robinson believes now more than
Creativity is all about the 21st century skills and the future students. One form of creativity they will use is brainstorming. It includes elaborating, analyzing refining, and evaluating ideas to improve and maximize creative efforts (Syrett, 2002). Creativity involves originality, and working with peers to come up with ideas. It will allow you to fail and work on what went wrong and recreate it. They will have the tools that are needed to be creative. Creativity is an important aspect for every student to
In the first English class, I was only there for the last half of it. Before I came into the class, I was worried that I would not find any creativity because English can be a tough subject to add creativity too. The teacher, Mr. Romono, did a marvelous job of teaching the common core and maintaining his students interest, with creativity. Not only did he come up with a creative way to teach his students, or let his students accomplish creativity, his classroom was also creative. He had student’s artwork on his wall of characters from books they were reading. He also had a ton of posters with different ideas behind them. (Quote). This provides the students’ something to look at, and in addition, to develop excitement for learning about these books. (quote form pp). The students in the ninth grade English class are working on
During this session we examined the different stages of teacher development and the different types of teachers we may be. I reflected on the fact that to a large degree, we as student teachers are expected to ‘play the game’, deliver the curriculum and are, in many cases, not encouraged to develop our creativity in the classroom. As a reflective practitioner, I must acknowledge that I have felt stifled by this approach but have found myself delivering the curriculum by the dictates of whichever placement I have been involved. Some subjects offer more scope for creativity, science, art, history, music and these are the subjects in which I have felt there has been more flexibility for a more creative approach. The lesson
The creative curriculum applies Gardner's theory by showing teachers how to provide opportunities for each child to pursuer his or her special talents and to demonstrate areas of strength. In
A smart man said “Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same standing.” (Ken Robinson-“Do schools kill creativity?”). There are multiple studies on how creativity helps improve a student’s mind. Project based learning is a huge creative booster for students. A math teacher from California uses projects to do math instead of using the text book. From doing this, she’s had more students pass her class then from when she was teaching straight from the text books. Instead of having standardized tests, using more creative techniques for students to enjoy the learning they’ve done and for them to show the higher officials what the students are learning. Creativity is the process of turning real world problems into an understanding by extending the minds cognitive processes. In Alabama, kindergartners are studying different ways to be creative.
Creativity is an abstract concept that is crucial as part of our advancements of mankind whether that be in the scientific fields with new inventions and research or in the artistic fields with new paintings and amazing portraits, but most people do not understand that the gift of creativity can be a crucial source of innovative ideas. As a result of the need of creativity, schools must include creativity as part of the daily curriculum that students learn. Students already spent seven hours a day at school, exposing them to a class that helps them efficiently and correctly use creativity would be beneficial to not only students but to all members of society. Places of education such as high schools must include classes in creativity in order to create
Creativity is defined as the ability to produce new and unique ideas that diverge from established customs and norms. Over the years, however, it has diminished greatly in today’s society. From a young age, schools as well as some business force people to learn certain skills in order to please others. For quite some time, colleges based a student’s intelligence on their GPA rather than creative abilities. Those who are creative are restricted in their abilities; it is acceptable for a mathematically inclined person to lack artistic skills, but heaven forbid a creative student find a science based class challenging. Currently, Academy School District 20 has not implemented a creative thinking class in Liberty High School. I believe we should include such a program, seeing that creativity in students continues to weaken nationwide. By requiring students to think creatively, we can encourage students to innovate, grow, and learn.