Creativity in the Classroom

What a crazy few days! I was a last minute addition to the IP. I was supposed to be beginning my practicum, but due to the teacher lockout in Denmark I was unable to being. This meant that I did not know until the day before the IP began that I was registered for the program. I was so happy when I came in that everyone was so open and welcoming, even when they did not know that I would be there! I found the presentations so interesting yesterday, especially learning about different education systems around Europe and the problems that they all face. The problems are so similar and interconnected, like different sides of a dice that I feel that the next few weeks could come up with possible solutions to many of these problems.

Today was a full day on creativity! I was particularly interested in the idea of incremental inventions, or the fact that some inventions are not revolutionary so much as evolutionary, and just progress the technology. When Apple released the iPhone 5 some people were outraged because it did not change the face of cellular technology, like the iPhone did, but just continued to refine the existing technology. I have found though that this is how progress in education is usually made – instead of a revolutionary, ground shaking idea that everyone accepts and implements immediately, it is usually continually changing the accepted way of doing things by constantly questioning the status quo and making improvements for your classroom and your students, that may then be adopted by more and more people.

            I found today just how difficult discussing something as abstract as creativity can be. When you say the word everyone has his or her own definition and conception, which may differ greatly. Language barriers compound these differences in definitions, because many students cannot fully communicate with each other because they lack the social experiences and vocabulary that lead to a definition. The model that I most responded to was the Guilford Factors of Creativity, mostly because it was such a large and encompassing model. Of the 120 factors that Guilford includes, I am most affected by flexibility, taking risks, originality and freedom.

            I find that these factors interconnect and consistently affect each other. If students are given the freedom in class to take risks and be innovative in their problem solving, than even if they fail they have learned something, while if the students are always spoon-fed the answers by the teacher they will never truly learn anything for themselves. This requires the teacher to be incredibly flexible and follow the students interests in order to engage and challenge them the most, as well as asking the teacher to make leaps of faith and follow a the different lines of reasoning that students are often capable of inventing. As a teacher I find that this knowledge of creativity, and especially the different methods that I learned during our group discussions (like how in The Netherlands they use a placemat to encourage group thinking, or cooking in Belgium) will definitely change how I teach. I will now actively seek out more opportunities for my students to be creative, and try and introduce a few creative challenges for them to solve during time not directly learning (like continuing patterns).

            Of the entire day I probably enjoyed the group discussion the most, because I love hearing about what the best practices are in so many different countries. I found the most similarities with Denmark, because we both value freedom and innovation in our curriculum, while I found the most cultural differences with Turkey and Hungary. In Hungary, a student in my group pointed out, that while we may talk about all of these wonderful ideas, when we get into the classroom the realities of behavior management, an unwieldy curriculum and time pressures gets the better of many teachers and they rely on lecturing students and directly giving them information. This led her to even question if Hungary values creativity at all. In Turkey I also found many differences, particularly because of how the school system is structured and the emphasis it places on intelligence, rather than creativity, freedom to learn, or anything else.

            I am very much looking forward to tomorrow’s workshops on drama in education, and how to use movement and engaging activities with students. Thank goodness I can wear sweatpants!