Elephants and the Wind: Creativity Sparking Bigger and Better Ideas - Essay Example

? Elephants and the Wind: Creativity Sparking Bigger and Better Ideas Contents Introduction 3 The Event 3 Personal Contribution 5 Reflection 6 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Elephants and the wind: Creativity sparking bigger and better ideas Introduction The ideas that become activated and put into place are often thought about for some time before they manifest. Sometimes, however, it is through creating as one works that some of the more interesting ideas begin to emerge. One thought leads to the next until a problem becomes realized, which then leads to the need for a solution. It is in looking for a solution that creativity comes into play, creating a gap filling experience in which one idea is birthed against the problem that presents itself, spawning idea after idea until one core concept wins out over all of the others. The question that was presented to me during an event of volunteering with some school children was how to incorporate their beliefs into a lesson that did not shatter their ability to create beliefs about the world. Where the original event of an art project provided context for teaching them about the weather, the surprising results of that project became the catalyst to a more richly evolved lesson that could teach them something about culture as well as the truth as it related to scientific discovery. Reflection upon that event can allow for me to understand a deeper meaning to the process of creativity, giving me a perspective on the event that was not previously considered. The Event I was asked by a friend to help with an art experience with some children from a local school, ages ranging from about 5-6. The children were asked to create an art project that explained how some aspect of weather worked. The children were encouraged to take on a topic of weather such as wind, snow, rain, or any other phenomenon of weather that they wanted to explain and to create a visual about how it happened in the world The children created the most marvellous mythologies about how they saw the world, many of them clearly coming from having only just thought about it, but still others seemed to have thought about the idea of something about the weather before the art project was presented to them. The experience was surprising to me as I began to see how myths about certain subjects were developed in minds that had yet to come to understand aspects of the weather and the climate. I got involved with the event through a friend who had volunteered at the school on a regular basis. The project was a part of a classroom experiment about how ideas are conceived and was intended to inspire both creativity and questions about the topic which was going to be explored by the class. The idea was that the project was intended to create an environment of discovery, without disturbing the stories that the children told. What was not expected was the level of creativity with which they would approach the project. That level of creativity was surprising in ways that led those in charge to realize that to teach from that point was going to destroy some myths and stories that the children created for the events of weather. This became a great concern for those of us involved as we watched these amazing stories come to life. We began our day by setting out a series of supplies for the children to use, including glitter and glue, safety scissors and coloured paper. Other items such as sticks, leaves, and assorted safe natural items were included in the resources that were given to the children. The idea was to make a visual representation, but the stories that they told with their works of art became these beautifully crafted ideas from which the entire project was changed. The most creative project, in my eyes, was the one where the child was telling about her ideas about how wind was made. She decided that wind came from the flapping of the ears of elephants in Africa who moved the wind around the world, starting from that point and filling the entire world from the flapping of those large ears. She used leaves to make the ears, which I also found a bit astounding. That project is most likely the center of the change in curriculum that happened at that point. The project inspired a change from a study of weather to a study of mythology. A simple idea that asked “how do people think about the world?” Although they were young, the way in which they came up with their ideas was used to spark conversation about those ideas. This allowed the topic to transition into a more scientific, but simple, discussion of weather without discussing about whether or not someone ws correct about their ideas. The most fascinating part of this entire project was the moments in which the ideas sparked to life in the eyes of those children. The experience taught me a great number of things in the process of working with their learning experiences. From a practical side of thinking, I began to explore the idea of how stories about the world begin and how they make sense as they are perpetuated. As well, the stories of our childhood which developed our understanding of our world began to emerge as a place of security, developed on a mythology that allowed us to make sense of what we saw. After all, kittens do grow up to be lions, don’t they? Isn’t that the logical reason that a mother and father may not want one in the house? Personal Contribution As I watched the young girl create elephants with leaf ears, the indications of their flapping heavily drawn with dark pen making it look like wind, I began to think about how mythic this story was to this child. It was at this moment I spoke up, out of the ears of the children, and mentioned that simply telling them they were wrong in their stories may not be the best approach. I helped the idea of transitioning from mythology to science to come to life, bringing in stories from other cultures about the world in order to create a relationship between what is believed and possibly more beautiful than what was real, to an understanding of what was known by those men called scientists, who help us all to see the truth within the world. These were children who still believed in fairies of the woods and Father Christmas, after all, and to give them too much reality might be difficult and confusing. In order to frame the concept, a website was consulted about different cultural myths that were associated with weather. One of those myths was about North American Natives who had believed that great birds flapped their wings and created the wind, an idea that could be associated with the elephants. As well, another myth that could be used was associated with Nigeria in which Yoruba priests would hold up staffs to quell the thunder (White 2012). Myths about a great many different belief systems were included to create a series of stories, many of which could be related to the work of the children. Reflection Although Shon (1983) describes the reflection-in-action as difficult and more rare, this experience is an example of this type of thinking. In the process of doing this art project with these children, I began to see how the way in which the stories were developing was more crucial to the learning experience than was the deflation they might experience would be if they were simply told they were wrong. In this case, I saw the problem and I searched for a creative way in which to resolve the issues that I thought I perceived as a result of the intended plan of action. The process began by seeing the problem as it was emerging. The problem was that the stories that were being told were also being invested in through the cleverness with which the children saw in their own work. The problem became the instrument with which I sought to find change in the system. Shon, according to Moon (1999, p. 45), defines this point through the concept of “action via knowledge in use”. The knowledge that I had about the ideas of mythologies for children at this age was that it was about the time that certain myths would begin to break open and the truth be revealed, such as that revolving around Father Christmas and other childhood stories that helped to frame experiences. The knowledge of how much these children were convincing themselves of the truth behind their ideas made me pause about the content of the next step in the lesson. It was through knowledge of both children of that age, the exuberance with which they were telling their tales, and through the idea of how much it might actually hurt for them to see their myths broken, that I began to consider the consequences. In response to this experience, it seems that the way to think about creativity is to consider it a conduit to a solution. There was a problem that was defined and expressed, therefore some sort of solution needed to be created in order to address that problem. What stands in the gap between problem and solution is creativity. Evaluate The process through which the creativity was inspired is an interesting thing to contemplate. O’Donnell, Reeve, and Smith (2011) discuss the idea of reflective teaching which also relates to the experience of the art project on weather. According to the authors, reflecting teaching is defined by “reflection, information gathering, decision making and evaluation” (RIDE) (O’Donnell, Reeve, and Smith 2011, p. 26). This concept allows for some flexibility, which in turn allows for refection-in-action, responding to how the children are framing their experience in order to make the overall learning example more meaningful. In relationship to making a creative thought process work, the ability to look beyond what is known into a new realm of inquiry creates a critical process through which ideas will emerge (Emery 2002). Walker (2005) discusses the idea of the ‘big idea’ and the ‘art making problem’ that co-exist as a foundation through which creativity becomes the core of the solution. The big idea is filled with personal connections and a knowledge base, while the art making problem involves boundaries and conceptual strategies. In associating my ideas and how they evolved with this kind of framework, the personal connection was my own mythologies that I attached to concepts that were bigger than myself when I was a child and how disappointing it was to have to let go of those ideas, even though it was a part of growing up. The knowledge that I had about mythologies of cultures before science had begun to find the root truths of the bigger questions led me to the big idea in which the development of this concept of a larger lesson emerged. (Walker 2005, p. 7) Thoughts on the Process Silcock (1994, p. 273) suggests that “different types of reflection are argued to be instances of cognitive restructuring determined by purpose and by context”. Silcock (1994) lists two types of practice of reflection, the first mirroring that of Shon’s (1993) reflection-in-action. This type of reflection for Silcock (1994) is defined for accessing what he calls the non-logical, procedural sections of knowledge. This can be interpreted for the methods of ‘on the spot’ developments of creative energy in which solutions to problems are erupting from the previously held knowledge, but not constrained from fears that might come if one is thinking back on a problem. When a solution that is outside of the norms comes to mind and there is time to consider that solution, then it may be tossed aside as too avant-garde or breaking too many conventions (Emory 2002). When a solution presents itself on the fly, however, it is more likely to be considered within the pressure of a time constraint. In the moment that I was realizing the parameters of the problem, I chose to marry different learning outcomes to create a whole new idea about how to approach the problem. If I had been tasked to create a solution for the problem by taking the issue with me and heading home to think about it, a different solution that was more mundane might have emerged. It is likely, if the contemplation of the problem had occurred before the actual art project, the idea of creating art to reflect how weather is produced might have been scrapped because of the danger of ruining the ideas that the children developed on their own. Instead, because it happened within the moment, it was easier to take an idea that was very different and create a whole new learning experience through science and mythology in relationship with the very young age of these children. Conclusion The nature of creativity can be seen as a process in which a problem is presented and between the problem and the solution is the spark that is creativity. As shown in Walker’s (2005) diagram, there are two aspects that can be considered as central to the issue, with individual aspects which frame those foundational ideas. Through coming up with the initial big idea, the logistics are the only obstacles towards finding the ultimate solution. When time is available to think about a problem, it might provide for too much editing until the ‘big idea’ is nothing but convention. In creating this solution, I was excited and enriched through the discoveries that were made during that event. In reflection, I grew in ways that I never expected, allowing something new to develop for a group of children who were very creative, filling me with inspiration. (word count 2552) Bibliography Emery, Lee. 2002. Teaching art in a postmodern world: theories, teacher reflections and interpretative frameworks. Altona VIC: Common ground publishing. Kuhns, Richard. 1983. Psychoanalytic theory of art: a philosophy of art on developmental principles. New York: Columbia Univ. Pr. Moon, Jennifer A. 1999. Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice. East Sussex: Taylor and Francis, Inc. O'Donnell, Angela M., John Marshall Reeve, and Jeffrey K. Smith. 2011. Educational psychology: reflection for action. Chichester: Wiley. Scho?n, Donald A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. [New York]: Basic Books. Silcock, Peter. September 1994. The process of reflective teaching. British Journal of Educational Studies. Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 273-285. Walker, Sydney. May 2005. Understanding the art making process: Reflective practice. Art Education. Vol 57, No. 3, pp 6-12. White, Taylor. 2012. Myths about weather. Helium. [Online] Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/930576-myths-about-weather (Accessed on 26 April 2012). Read More