Abstract
How creativity in education is applied by teachers to secondary school contexts is dependent on how the term ‘creativity’ is grounded, politicised, and practised. This paper reports on an international study of secondary schools in Australia, USA, Canada, and Singapore investigating how creativity is understood, negotiated, valued and manifested in secondary schools, focusing on teacher and student understandings, actions, benefits and impediments to creative and critical thinking. Participant reflections revealed inter-, trans- and cross-disciplinary learning shaped by teacher collaboration, dialogue and classroom organization that fosters critical and creative thinking. Implications are made for the ways practicing teachers develop and foster creativity via pedagogical approaches that enhance connectivity and interdisciplinarity of teaching practices between domains of learning. An education-based Creativity Index through which administrators and teachers can gauge, assess and implement creative skills, capacities, pedagogic practices and assessment of creativity within secondary schools is posited. Implications for STEM/STEAM education and centralizing creative capacities in teaching, learning, and educational change are offered.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by an Australian Research Council DECRA Grant (#DE140100421) entitled The Creative Turn: An Australia-wide Study of Creativity and Innovation in Secondary Schools (2014–2016) and expanded to encompass its international comparative data.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Focus group questionnaire
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1.
How do you develop creativity in your students?
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2.
What pedagogies work best for you in developing creative behaviours in your classes?
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3.
What collegial discussions do you have to develop pedagogies that facilitate creativity?
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4.
Do you find it difficult to establish/develop/ignite creative behaviours in students?
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5.
What hot-spots are there in your school that you think promote creativity?
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6.
How does creativity manifest in your students work?
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7.
What actions with other teachers do you do to promote creativity?
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8.
Describe the collaboration that occurs in working with other staff to bring subjects together?
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What inhibits you from fulfilling creative outcomes in your classrooms?
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10.
Do you think you are creative?
Appendix 2: Whole School Creativity Audit
School policies and practices | ||
External policies | ||
1.1 | Are we aware of the national economic and education policies that address creative education? | Yes/No/Review |
1.2 | Are we aware of the state-based policies and initiatives that support creative education? | |
1.3 | Are we aware of the ways in which the national curriculum or department of education in our district addresses creativity in education? | |
1.4 | Do we effectively share these documents and visions with our students and staff? | |
Internal policies | ||
1.5 | Do we actively pursue ongoing development of internal evaluations of our creative capacities, rather than defer to external requirements? | |
1.6 | Do our creativity policies and structures reflect the uniqueness of our community and place? | |
1.7 | Do our students and staff have input into our creative strategies? | |
Teacher professional development | ||
1.8 | Do we demonstrate a commitment to creativity by proactively and universally offering creativity PD to all staff and students? | |
1.9 | Do we recognize creativity as a skill that must and can be developed, reflected in our PD program? | |
Whole-school creative practices | ||
1.10 | Do we actively program whole-school activities that foreground creativity as artistry or innovation? | |
1.11 | Do we have (or are we working toward) commitment to improving our creative skills and capacities as a learning community, including the leadership of the school? | |
The product (curriculum, assessment, timetabling) | ||
Individual creativity | ||
2.1 | Do we actively reward setting creative outcomes across the curriculum? | |
2.2 | Do all teachers in our community share equally in offering more creative modes of student demonstration of knowledge, and incorporating assessment criteria that assess the creativity component of all student work? | |
2.3 | Do our school leaders prioritise creative education here by adjusting the timetable to allow both students and staff time for practicing creative skills and capacities including: curriculum innovation, cognitive creative exercises and games, tolerance for ambiguity, peer- and student-led brainstorming and information-sharing? | |
Collective creativity | ||
2.4 | Do we reinforce the notion that creativity is nurtured in collaborative and collective endeavour? | |
2.5 | Do we provide opportunities for students and staff to work collectively in creative ways? | |
2.6 | Do we value the outputs of collective creativity in our school community, rather than ignore or discard the outputs? | |
Thinking creatively | ||
2.7 | Do we provide opportunities for our students and staff to demonstrate their creativity in class or outside of class time? | |
2.8 | Do creative products and efforts receive as much academic status or value in our community as other subjects and outputs do? | |
2.9 | Do we actively articulate the belief that creativity is a thinking capacity, and is not the same as artistic ability? | |
Doing creativity | ||
2.10 | Do we provide opportunities for our students and staff to demonstrate their creativity in class or outside of class time? | |
2.11 | Do students and staff ALL have opportunities (and an obligation) to practice creative thinking, doing and sharing in our school? | |
2.12 | Is creative endeavour reinforced as a core component of academic success at this school, not just a ‘time out’ of serious academic work? | |
The process | ||
Individual creativity | ||
3.1 | Do we actively work against test-like activities as often as possible, knowing this inhibits creative thinking? | |
3.2 | Do we actively work toward re-balancing our assessment structures toward measuring process rather than product? | |
3.3 | Do we prioritise collectivity and collaboration? | |
Collective creativity | ||
3.4 | Do we prioritise collectivity and collaboration in our timetable? | |
3.5 | Are we committed to timetable changes to enhance opportunities for collective creativity? | |
3.6 | Do we reward collective-developed original and innovative work at our school? | |
Thinking creatively | ||
3.7 | Do we encourage thinking creatively as a crucial skill for all students and staff? | |
3.8 | Do we reinforce the tangible value of process over product in the creative lifecycle? | |
3.9 | Do we explicitly teach creative thinking as part of all subject areas? | |
Doing creativity | ||
3.10 | Do we actively program whole-school activities that foreground creativity as artistry or innovation? | |
3.11 | Do we allow students to demonstrate creative thinking in non-arts-based areas of enquiry? | |
3.12 | Do we explicitly reward creative innovation as a workplace skill that this school champions? | |
The school environment | ||
In relationship with students | ||
4.1 | Are we prepared to give students more autonomy, emphasizing the need for self-discovery as a core creative skill, even as it impacts a change in the timetable, bells, or student movements throughout our school? | Yes/No/Review |
4.2 | Do we reinforce the importance of communication in creative idea-sharing? | |
4.3 | Do we actively reinforce the importance of risk-taking and nonconformity in problem-solving, for both academic, creative and real-world successes? | |
In relationship with staff | ||
4.4 | Do we make opportunities for staff to intermingle, talk informally, and share ideas? | |
4.5 | Do staff feel a sense of control and autonomy in their work? | |
4.6 | Do we encourage curiosity in our staff, or compliance? | |
The physical environment | ||
4.7 | Does the school site clearly provide collaborative spaces? | |
4.8 | Does the school site encourage both individual and collaborative brainstorming? | |
4.9 | Does the school layout work actively against centralizing the standardised subjects and marginalizing the creative subjects and practices? | |
4.10. | Does the school work to integrate a range of environments (e.g. outdoor, indoor, quiet, interactive)? | |
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Harris, A., de Bruin, L.R. Secondary school creativity, teacher practice and STEAM education: An international study. J Educ Change 19, 153–179 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9311-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9311-2