Creativity in Higher Education Teaching
& Educational Development
Norman Jackson, Lifewide Education
Copies of slides and background studies
http://limerickcreatives.weebly.com/
Imaginative Curriculum network: a social structure
or ecology for collaborative learning
Jan 2001
30 to 300+
participants
1 Teachers’ and students’
perceptions of creativity and how to
facilitate and assess students’
creative development in different
disciplines
2 Disciplinary perspectives on creativity
HE Academy website
Imaginativecurricuum.pbwiki.com
normanjackson.co.uk
3 Creative pedagogies
‘Developing creativity
in higher education’
Routledge-Falmer
Dec 2005
Collaborative studies of
creativity in development
2013
2014
2014
How creative do you feel in your work as a teacher?
Important Beliefs
What does being creative mean?
% agree/
strongly agree
•being imaginative
100%
•improvising when I have to
100%
•having ideas new to me
94%
•adapting ideas to a new context
94%
• being able to put ideas together in
94%
different/personally meaningful ways
•transferring an idea or practice
94%
from one context to another
• changing my understanding
89%
•making new things happen
89%
•making new things
83%
Important Beliefs
Being creative is an essential part of my
identity and practice as a university teacher
38%
38%
19%
6%
0%
Important Beliefs
Being creative is an essential part of my identity
and practice as an academic researcher
38%
38%
19%
6%
0%
Important Beliefs
My creativity enables me to accomplish my
most significant challenges
39%
39%
22%
0%
0%
Important Beliefs
I develop myself through my
work and this includes my
creative development
I don’t have much opportunity to
be creative in my everyday work
56%
50%
44%
22%
22%
6%
0%
0%
0%
0%
What is the relationship between your creativity, your educational
development work and your own development as a professional?
‘My creativity enables me to come up with interesting ideas and to persuade
others that the ideas have value. But it's in the implementation of these
ideas that I have to exercise my will, use my expertise and develop new
knowledge and capability in the process. So it might be argued that
imagination leads to creative ideas which drive motivation to implement
them but it's learning through and after the experience of trying to
implement an idea that leads to my continued development as the type of
professional I want to be. So they are connected in a way that enables me
to be me.’ Contributor to Creativity in Educational Development Survey
Important Beliefs
I am at my most creative
when I am working by
myself on things that
interest me
I am at my most creative
when I am working
collaboratively with others
44%
39%
28%
28%
28%
22%
11%
0%
0%
0%
Understanding the epistemology of practice
Michael Eraut
Where are the affordances for creativity in the
professional practice of higher education teaching?
•
Assessing situations (sometimes briefly, sometimes involving a long
process of investigation) and continuing to monitor their condition
•
Deciding what, if any, action to take, both immediately and over a
longer period (either on one’s own or as a member of a team)
•
Pursuing an agreed course of action, performing professional actions modifying, consulting and reassessing as and when necessary
•
Metacognitive monitoring of oneself, people needing attention and the
general progress of the case, problem, project or situation; and
sometimes learning through reflection on the experience.
Modes of Cognition in Practice after Michael Eraut
Type of
process
Instant
reflex
Assessment
of the
situation
Rapid
intuitive
Deliberative
analytic
Slow intuitive
Pattern
Rapid
recognition interpretation
Prolonged diagnosis
review, discussion
and analysis
Associative or
synthetic thinking
Decision
making
Instant
response
Intuitive
Deliberative
analysis/discussion
Intuitive - sudden
insights after
prolonged
immersion
Actions
Routinized
action
Routines
punctuated
by rapid
decisions
Planned actions with
periodic progress
reviews
New actions are a
consequence
Metacognition
Situational Implicit
awareness monitoring
Short
reflections
Monitoring of
thought and activity
Reflective learning
Seeing
/understanding
something differently
TASK 1 Are these the stages in the professional process of teaching and
are particular aspects of creativity used at different stages of the
teaching and learning process? DISCUSS IN PAIRS & RECORD POINTS
1 THINK ABOUT CONTEXT:
2 DEVELOP RESOURCES & TOOLS TO AID
WHAT, HOW, WHEN, WHY, WHERE?
LEARNING & DEVISE STRATEGIES TO
HELP LEARNERS LEARN
5. PLAN TO DO IT
DIFFERENT/BETTER
NEXT TIME
4. EVALUATE IMPACT ON
STUDENTS’ LEARNING
& EXPERIENCE
3 TEACH & ASSESS
LEARNING
Beliefs about student development
Most people can develop their
creativity if they are given the
opportunity to do so
Some people are naturally
more creative than others
61%
50%
28%
33%
6%
11%
11%
0%
0%
Beliefs about student development
Cultivating students’ creativity is
a significant challenge to
university teachers
Developing students’ creativity
should be an important part of
their development while at
university
61%
61%
39%
33%
6%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Beliefs about student development
Students’ programmes are
designed to encourage their
creative development
There are lots of opportunities
for students to be creative in
their co-curricular activities
44%
44%
22%
22%
11%
17%
11%
6%
0%
17%
Beliefs about student development
It’s not possible to teach
students to be creative
It’s not possible to assess
students’ creativity
39%
33%
39%
33%
22%
22%
6%
6%
0%
0%
Important Beliefs
39%
43%
The role of the teacher is not to
define creativity for students and
assess them against what they
think it is. Rather, it is to help
students understand their own
creativity and help them make
claims with evidence that they
believe is appropriate
12%
6%
St
ro
n
re
e
gl
y
di
sa
g
gr
ee
Di
sa
no
w
ee
Ag
r
Do
n’
tk
St
ro
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gl
y
ag
re
e
0%
Personal creativity in the service of others Limerick Creatives
A [creativity] may pertain to my ability to develop creativity and innovation
among the students (e.g., giving them fuzzy problems that can be solved
by multiple solutions) or the role of originality in my presentation style and
structure of the learning environment (e.g., switching to campfire mode
aided by lego with grad students so we can all communicate on the levelor even using different metaphors to convey complex ideas).
B Doing things in a certain way (perhaps a slightly different way ) to achieve
the best possible outcome for students (and myself – personal satisfaction)
C When I am teaching I am constantly trying to find creative ways to present
content to my students so that their learning can be maximised. In the
classroom – being creative means that I am never doing the same thing
twice the same.
D Using different methods to try and convey information in an informative
and enjoyable way. i.e. using methods which students relate to such as
social media, online resources and interactive methods such as quizzes and
competition to reinforce knowledge.
TASK 2 What are the characteristics of teaching and
assessment strategies to encourage and evaluate
students’ creative development? What works for you?
2 DEVELOP KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES &
1 THINK ABOUT CONTEXT:
DESIGN STRATEGIES TO HELP
WHAT, HOW, WHEN, WHY, WHERE?
LEARNERS LEARN
5. PLAN TO DO IT
DIFFERENT/BETTER
NEXT TIME
3 TEACH & ASSESS
4. EVALUATE IMPACT ON
STUDENTS’ LEARNING
Example of teaching innovation to
aid learners’ creative development
FROM THIS TO
A CREATIVE LEARNING ECOLOGY
DESIGN
MANUFACTURE
MARKET
SELL
REFLECT ON LEARNING
Cultural-social Model of Creativity
Mihayli Csikszentmihayli
a process that can be observed only at
the intersection where individuals,
domains and fields interact.
This environment
has two salient
aspects: a cultural
or symbolic aspect called
the domain, and a social
aspect called the field.
Csikszentmihayli (1999)
Creativity in the disciplines
What do subject benchmark statements tell us about
teachers’ perceptions of creativity in the disciplines?
analytical tool developed by Jackson & Shaw (2006)
using the categories of:
- imagination and originality
- thinking abilities (particularly combining analytical rational
thinking with divergent and associative thinking)
- capacity to generate/evaluate ideas
- activities aimed at doing or producing something from
the ideas generated
number of indicators (max 18) referred
to in 19 subject benchmark statements
(Jackson and Shaw 2006)
A&D
Engin
SocW
Arch
DDP
Nurs
13
9
9
8
8
8
EES
Med
Bios
B&M
Chem
Eng
7
7
6
6
6
6
Hist
LRS
Math
Tour
Geog
Ed
Acc
6
6
5
4
4
4
3
What being creative means in seven disciplines
% quite/very
Jackson and Shaw (2006)
important
Being imaginative – ability to think generatively
Being original
Being inventive with someone else’s ideas
Being resourceful
Being able to combine, connect and synthesise
Being able to think critically to evaluate ideas
94%
56%
94%
94%
78%
89%
Being curious having an enquiring disposition
Being able to communicate in ways that help people
comprehend and if necessary, see things differently
94%
83%
Willing to take risks to tackle unfamiliar problems
Able to cope with complexity
Willing to persist and try again if not successful
89%
78%
94%
Surveys of teachers in seven disciplines
In history - creativity exists in
• the processes of knowledge-gathering
• the analysis of the information from the past
• the utilisation of approaches offered by other human
science disciplines
• the empathetic and imaginative representation of the past
• the process of historical writing and story telling
• the releasing of the imaginative truth, enabling students to
apply their own life-experience to the understanding of the
past.
Important Beliefs
Students cannot be creative in their discipline before
they have mastered a lot of subject knowledge
61%
17%
11%
11%
TASK 3: We have talked a lot about creativity and
development –
What does development mean and what is its
relationship to creativity?
Development is intentional movement towards something different that has
potential to be better than what currently exists or to add value to what exists
NEWNESS
- structures, tools, frameworks, processes, procedures
-- behaviour and practice
-- thinking, knowledge and understanding
MAKING SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Modifying/adapting something that already exists
REPLACING SOMETHING
STOPPING SOMETHING
BECOMING DIFFERENT
Developmental Spectrum
INCREMENTAL
Doing the right things
Doing things right
Doing things better
NON-INCREMENTAL
Doing new things that someone else is doing
Appropriating what someone else is doing
Doing things that no one else is doing
Trying to do things that can’t be done
Doing things that are not right
and learning in the process
Stopping doing things in
order to do something else
Innovation is the application of new ideas – making ideas concrete
It has four important characteristics a) intentionality b) newness
(c) application (d) benefit.
‘the intentional introduction and application within a role, group or
organisation of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the
relevant unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit the individual,
the group, the organisation and/or wider society’ West and Farr (1990:9)
An innovation in one situation may be
something already established elsewhere,
but .... initiative takers and participants see it
as innovation in their circumstances..
(Hannan and Silver, 2000:10).
A definition of creativity
that explains the narrative
Personal creativity is
'the emergence in action of a novel relational
product growing out of the uniqueness of the
individual on the one hand, and the materials,
events, people, or circumstances of his life'
Carl Rogers (1960)
product = ideas, material or virtual objects,
practices and performances and processes
PRODUCT RESULTS FROM PROCESS!
Integrating creativity, development
& innovation in the same narrative
A cake that plays
your favourite
tunes as you eat it
IMAGINE
DEVELOP
MAKE & BRING INTO EXISTENCE
Which parts of the development spectrum offer
the greatest potential for creativity?
INCREMENTAL
Doing the right things
Doing things right
Doing things better
Stopping doing things
NON-INCREMENTAL
Doing new things that someone else is doing
Appropriating what someone else is doing
Doing things that no one else is doing
Trying to do things that can’t be done
Opportunities for being creative in the incremental
parts of the developmental spectrum (n=30)
Doing the right things
Doing things right
Doing things better
Stopping doing things
favourable
most favourable
Opportunities for being creative in the innovation
parts of the developmental spectrum (n=30)
Doing new things
that someone else
is already doing
Appropriating what
someone else is doing
Doing things no
one else is doing
Trying to do things
that can’t be done
good for some
good for some
most favourable
good for some
Creative effort in educational development
Think of a significant educational development project you have been
involved in and try to match it to one of these types of situation
Adaptive - being inventive with
someone else’s ideas or practices.
Recreation - adapting things that
have been done before in another
context. Doing things that have
been done before but differently.
Incremental - building on what
already exists in your own context
perhaps drawing on ideas and
practices from elsewhere
Original - your own ideas,
inventing new practices.
Doing things that no one
has done before to the best
of your knowledge
Combinational - mainly
adapted from ideas and
practices elsewhere but
containing some original
features developed in your
own context
Distribution of creative effort within a
specific educational development project
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
Most relevant
10%
4
0%
Average relevance
2
Least relevant
Creative effort in educational development
Creative effort of engaging and persuading others
Creativity in Development –
Collaborative Open Learning Project
thttp://www.creativityindevelopment.co.uk/