Creativity in Education - Essay Example

How Can a Teacher Help Children to Develop Their Creative Abilities to Produce Outcomes That are Both Original and of Value Introduction Creativity itself is a very slippery concept which has many endeavoring definitions related to psychology and educational literature. Somewhere it has been described as imaginative or ingenuity manifested in any valued pursuit and, at other places, some writers have explained it as a process that leads to cultural production as well as a function of intelligence. It can also be defined as a state of mind of a person. Willings (1980) has identified three types of creative thinking: Adaptive Thinking: It is concerned with the ability to relate what is observed to something that is not obviously relatable. This actually means to create links between the unconnected areas. When we apply this discovery to the teaching methodology it means that the students have to come up with something that appears connectionless but, the imagination of the students run in such a way that they make sense of the disconnected things. Elaborative Thinking: This type of thinking is not concerned with the original ideas but it is related to the researching and refining of the ideas and thoughts of other thinkers. When we relate this with the teaching, there are a number of examples that can be seen in this category in primary classes. When a concept is given to the students they transform it into a new thing usually by adding or deleting something from it. Developmental Thinking: According to this, the individual has to enlarge his concepts about himself as well as the world around him. This implies that developmental thinking improves the thinking capacity of the individual; with this ultimately his personality improves too. When we apply this technique in primary classes the students develop their personalities in their own way and develop the concept of right and wrong themselves. Features of Creativity All together there are four features of creativity that can lead to a better learning environment which are as follows: Use of Imagination: First of all, teachers should make the students understand the use of imagination in their work. The students should learn about the benefits of using their imaginations within their educational period. Imagination not always means fantasizing or imagining, it is producing or generating an original idea that has not been present and has not been experienced before by anyone. It can be the extension of the given idea or the other side of the picture that gives a total new perspective to the situation. This shows that the creative insights usually occur when the existing ideas are combined in an unexpected way and the relationship that has been developed between the ideas and objects has not been seen in the relationship before this (Anna, Jeffrey & Leibling, 2001). Pursuing Purposes: Along with creativity, the idea of action and purpose moves with it. When we talk of somebody being creative it means they are enthusiastically engaged in things that help making something. Though it is possible that the intuition or non-direct thought may occur any time but the meeting and the mood is very necessary. This means that the idea of creativity can come to a person at any time as a hunch but the environment matters a lot in order to have the best ideas (Anna, Jeffrey& Leibling, 2001). Being Original: Creativity has a deep link with originality. If the proposed idea is not original, it means it is not a result of creativeness but it would be considered as a replication of someone else’s concept. Originality of the work is defined under three categories. The first category is being original; it means that the work of the person may be original when it is compared to their own previous work and output. The second category involves relativity which means it can be original when it is compared to the rest of the peer group. The last category is historic; it revolves around the previous work of someone else and when it is presented in an individual’s own way then the idea comes out to be original. However, the degree of being original is relative to the input of the work. The first two types of categories are seen almost in all the fields but the third category is commonly observed in the educational systems in which the students have to present the older ideas of the scholars in their individual ways (Anna, Jeffrey & Leibling, 2001). Judging Values: In the creative work, being original is not enough. With originality the work has to be relevant to the task. The activity should be effective, useful, enjoyable as well as satisfying for teachers and students. To judge values and ideas critical thinking is required. Critical thinking involves a shift in the focus of attention in all the stages of work. It is not necessary that it must happen in the end; this can happen throughout the process of creativity (Anna, Jeffrey & Leibling, 2001). Creativity in Teaching If a teacher wants to introduce a sense of creativity amongst his students then he must build up such ambiance in the class. To acquire such an environment, under the guidance of an instructor, simulations can be used within the class in order to help create a creative sense amongst the students. Since the topic is limited to the primary classes, the teachers must create certain activities in which the students can play as well as work which will help sharpen up their sense of creativity. The creativity in students flourishes when there is some motivation or encouragement giving to them. The teacher should give them appropriate information and the students should use this information as the underlying element to increase their knowledge. After the required input by the teacher has been made, the students should be given open ended assignments so that they can know the inference or there personal ideas about the topic. In this regard a student should be encouraged to be different and he should be allowed to let his inner thoughts take over. (Dan, 2005) In order to promote creativity within the class room environment, the teachers should encourage the students to ask questions as it can enhance their level of confidence giving them opportunities to explore the concepts as well as letting them identify different ideas about the topic and discover the many different directions to it. When teachers encourage the students, they tend to make the relations between all the unexpected and unrelated things likewise introducing another side of the picture. When the students learn on the basis of activity and explore different ideas out of it then it helps them to keep their minds open not only in class but also in their everyday life. When a question or an idea is proposed in the class there might be some feedback from rest of the students, thus, automatically letting them to develop the critical thinking in them and also educate them to see the positive and negative aspects about the topic with their own thought process. To build up such a behavior in the students, teachers should highly motivate them and give them plenty of chances to communicate and express it in front of the class (Harrington, 1990). How Art Can Be Taught In a Creative Way: Classroom Experience Newton (2009) thinks that the sense of creativity should be encouraged among the young children. However this attribute has more inclination towards the arts than towards sciences. Since the teachers can polish the sense of creativity more in the students in the field of Arts therefore, they should avail this opportunity to activate the creativity within the students. Activity 1: When covering the Arts subject, I tried to establish a sense of creativity amongst my students as much as possible. For this reason, in the spring season, under the theme of flowers, I gathered them in the school’s garden where they were given five minutes to observe the garden and then I led them towards the class. There I divided the class in two groups and once they were divided one of the groups had to use pastel colors for drawing and the other one was supposed to use paints. After that they were asked to make the garden they have seen and in addition to the original work they had to enter the details that they want to see in the garden. Once the students had made their drawings I called them one by one and they gave a presentation on it. They told the class about the added details as well as the reason behind the additions. Other than this they were required to express the pros and cons after these things were added in their garden. As a result of this activity the students have developed the sense of adding details and also scrutinizing it. This shows that the students are not only getting the training of thinking anything and applying it in their work but they also have to have a knowledge of what will happen if something is added or subtracted from the scene. Activity 2: The other activity that I did with my class was related to both science and arts. I showed them few of the picture of the environment on the screen and than we discussed the issue of pollution. I discussed the types and sources of the pollution with them. Later they were asked to draw the polluted environment and were supposed to identify few of the solutions in their drawings. Once they have shown this on one sheet then they were asked to draw the results, on the other sheet, of the remedies applied by humans, on the environment. Since the students were not bound for working on any specific pollution and the remedies were not proposed to them so there were number of remedies that came up by the end of the class. In this way the students were exposed to the idea and they were supposed to drag a lager concept out of it, which meant that they had to apply the given knowledge and by using their own creativity they had to extend that idea. This was the outcome of this activity, in addition to the prior knowledge, when the students are practicing the concept of applying their own knowledge then they understand the idea in a better way and when they have to use many different shades in one picture than their concept of colors enhances and it also develops a good imaginative sense within them and it also encourages students for working on their own. The same concept is proposed by Susan (2002), in which she says that the students are supposed to do activities in the class and during these activities the teachers are supposed to make observations within the class and during this the teacher can observe the creative minds of the students and than they can work accordingly with them. How History Can Be Taught in a Creative Way: Classroom Experience It is a much known fact that history is a very dry subject and most of the students are unable to grasp the concept behind teaching it therefore, they do not enjoy it. For this reason it is suggested for teachers to introduce such activities that can help them to understand the concept of studying this subject. Activity 1: There are many ways in which we can teach history to the students. In my class I have tried to add few of the things on the wall which really helped me to develop a better understanding in the students about the concept. I have added a world map on the wall and I refer to it whenever I have to explain the fights between two nations or the movement is explained to them. After applying this I have seen the difference in the level of understanding within the class thus, it became clear that if the teachers are explaining the concept on the map then the student develops a far better idea for the movement and it remains in their mind. In addition to this, when I was explaining to students I defined small terms that are used in the context and once the terms are explained then the students were supposed to explain the reasons and the motives behind the fights. Once the concept is explained to them in this way then I design an activity for them in which they have to pretend to be the men and women of that time. We used the get up of those people and when the stage was set, few of the students were supposed to give their personal opinion about their every day life. After this there was a demonstration of the war by the students. Once the war was over the students from the victorious gang and the other group describes their personal experience and their opinion about the incident and they also discuss the after-effects of the war on them. These are their own opinions and once they try to get the essence out of the whole drama then on the basis of this evaluation, they understand the concept and hence their power of thinking is enhanced. The same idea is discussed by Abdulhak Halim Ulas (2008) where he says that drama activities are very essential for learning. Activity 2: Spodek (2006) explains in his book that the demonstration is very important in the creative learning process. Keeping this in mind I designed an activity for the students. After I entered the class I randomly chose 5 of the students and made them the leaders of the class. After this these students were given a privilege to go out for the washroom whenever they wanted to and they could eat their lunch any time during the class without taking my permission. For the rest of the students the rule was that they are not allowed to eat or go to the washroom other than the recess time. Later I called those five leaders and asked them to write the name of three students who cleaned the class after the school. One by one those five students went to the back of the class and they wrote the name. Once these names were announced in the class the students were supposed to come in front of the class and had to tell the class how they felt when these five leaders could go out and others cannot and what were their feelings when these students had the right to vote but others could not. After this discussion I let those students express their feelings when their names were called for cleaning the class. Once the discussion was over and the drawn conclusion was that they really felt bad about all this. Then I told them the story of Africans how only the white people were enjoying the right of voting for the whole Africa and how the white were treating black people. Thus, in the end they become rebellious and stood against white people. Later I called the students who were supposed to clean the classroom and they shared their feelings with rest of the class. In this way the students had a clear idea on how the people felt about the situation when injustice is done to them and they could feel themselves whether they did the right thing or not. Conclusion The report session of the house of Great Britain has also discussed the essential effects of introducing the activities in the class that can help them develop their creativity and critical thinking among the students. According to the report, such opportunities help the students to use their imaginations through which they can explore possibilities. Like this they can also generate ideas and since they have taken a risk they can learn from their mistakes and build confidence within themselves that if they have done something wrong than they surely can do something right as well. Creativity can help the students refine and modify the current ideas and product. When these ideas are refined they can see their own reflection in the ideas. Other than this it also helps the students to make connections between the two different ideas. When the aspect of creativity is engaged in all the activities then the students are able to link between the subjects and wider aspects of learning. This also helps them to have an experience of the world in which they have to deal with the real concept and real audience. Here, their confidence is matured once again. Since the students are learning and giving inputs from themselves, so they get familiar with the legends from a very early age and try to prove themselves just like them by adding or subtracting one of the things from their theories (Koestler, 2010). Reference Anna,C. Jeffrey,B.& Leibling,M. (2001). Creativity in Education. Great Britian. Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn. Accessed on April 17, 2010 http://books.google.com/books?id=z6fJPukcrxwC&pg=PA19&dq=How+can+a+teacher+help+children+to+develop+their+creative+abilities+to+produce+outcomes+that+are+both+original+and+of+value.+in+ARTS&hl=en&ei=fADGS8vDHZSWOIySgOMM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false Dan, D. (2005) Creative Teachers for Creative Learners. Accessed on April 17, 2010 http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/attachments/c3096c7b-da04-41ef-a7ac-50535306e8fb.pdf Harrington, D. M.(1990) ‘The Ecology of Human Creativity: A psychological perspective’, in Runco, M. A. And Albert, R. S. (eds.) Theories of Creativity. London. Sage Publications. House of Common (2007). Creative Partnerships And Curriculum: Eleventh Report Of Session 2006-2007.Great Britain. Accessed on April 17, 2010. http://books.google.com/books?id=yXOqQWD8RvEC&pg=RA1-PA25&dq=How+can+a+teacher+help+children+to+develop+their+creative+abilities+to+produce+outcomes+that+are+both+original+and+of+value.+in+ARTS&hl=en&ei=fADGS8vDHZSWOIySgOMM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false Koestler.A(2010). Creativity in Currriculum. Accessed on April 17, 2010 http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/creativity-in-the-curriculum-1561 a Newton,D.P.(2009) Research In Science & Technological Education.: Some Student Teacher’ Conception Of Creativity In School Science, 27(1) accessed on April 17, 2010 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a909811790&db=all Spodek,B. Saracho. N.O. (2006). Handbook Of Research On The Education Of Young Children. New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Assosoation. Accessed on 17th April 17, 2010. http://books.google.com/books?id=SgNNlGBV_i4C&pg=PA128&dq=How+can+a+teacher+help+children+to+develop+their+creative+abilities+to+produce+outcomes+that+are+both+original+and+of+value.+in+ARTS&hl=en&ei=fADGS8vDHZSWOIySgOMM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Ulas.H.A. (2008).Effects of Creative, Educational Drama Activities on Developing Oral Skills in Primary School Education. 5(7). Accessed on April 17, 2010 http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/ajas/ajas57876-880.pdf Willings, D. (1980) The Creatively Gifted – Recognizing And Developing The Creative Personality. Cambridge: Woodhead Faulkner. Winebrenner, S. (2002) Teaching gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom: Strategies and Techniques .USA. Library of Congress. Read More