Bring Back Creativity!

         So I was reflecting on my blog from last week and I realized why I found it so difficult to write…there was no structure, no guidance, and it was open-ended.  In my entire educational experience this was a first.  I have NEVER been assigned something where I can take the lead on, never has an assignment had so much freedom and I realized I did not know what to do with all my freedom.  Where would I start? Is this what the teacher would like? Does this meet the criteria?  The way the curriculum is structured it does not allow for creativity and open ended writing and this is why I feel so many of us had trouble with it.  I had no idea how to approach it.  Structure was gone and chaos came in.  I began to wonder exactly where in my educational career I lost my creativity, I used to thrive on free journal writing as it was a chance to be stress free and really write about anything I felt like.  The opposite occurred when writing my blog- I had more stress then I did writing a lab report or even a test.  I felt even worse when she mentioned genius hour-this did not have to connect to the readings in any way- which meant even less structure.  This led me to conclude that the way education is structured-rubrics, outlines, marks etc, sucks the creativity out of people and creates robots who cannot think for themselves.

photo retrieved from http://ambience.ca/blog/?p=136

            Since lack of creativity seems to be an issue in education I think it is an intelligent proposal to move from Bloom’s taxonomy to Bloom’s revised taxonomy.  

        This revised version applies more to the 21^st century skills and higher order thinking skills.  This involves analysis, evaluation, creation, problem solving, creative thinking and creativity.  Students will learn the ‘basic’ skills such as multiplication and division as well as give students the opportunity to approach questions in a creative way through discussion with peers.  Higher order thinking involves critiquing the information you are given through critical thinking and this will allow students to think outside the box which I feel inspires creativity.  I feel like this is so important because great ideas were not comprised from memorization of multiplication problems or memorizing a reading.  Great ideas came to be though innovation and inspiration, which stems from creativity.  Advancements are made when someone has an idea and takes a risk and I think this should be encouraged in the classroom as it could lead to something profound such as a discovery in science. 

photo retrieved from http://hniforum-room13-mr-stove.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+Taxonomy

            In order to allow creativity to come into the classroom we as teachers must be on board with it and encourage it.  This would involve giving options to readings, or open-ended assignments, or things such as genius hour, which we will be doing in this class.  A science class does not have to solely be sitting in a desk listening to a teacher lecture, to encourage creativity students can be asked to come up with an experiment based on the information they learned that week.  Then at the end of the week the teacher could help the students to perform the experiment that they created.  For creativity to be in the classroom the curriculum is going to need to have a little bit of “wiggle room” to allow time for these activities that are open ended.  I understand that it may be a difficult to grade students on creativity but it is already being done in some schools.  In chapter 2 there was a story about a grade 10 class and the teacher incorporated creativity into the curriculum by assigning his class the task of writing their own song and perform it for guitar class.  The project involved planning, reflecting, deciding on tools, techniques etc and it was graded by formative assessment which was effective because the students co-constructed the assessment rubric with him so they understood and agreed with the expectations.

            That example was just one way to incorporate creativity in the classroom.  I feel there needs to be a balance between structured activities as well as open ended ones in education which goes back to the theme of last week’s blog- the new story.  Finding a balance between the old story as well as the new ideas and theories will create a balance that will ensure students receive the necessary information to advance in education as well as be creative and have fun with learning.

Moving Forward with Education

New year, new story

This week in lecture I saw a little bit of insight to what education is becoming- technologically based.  Instead of being asked to hand in papers weekly we are asked to blog weekly, or follow our professor on twitter and I think the curriculum needs to move into a new story to match the advances of technology.  It has become clear that test scores are dropping, students are not interested in learning nor do they want to do the work.  So how does one engage a student and motivate them to want to learn?  A teacher that can connect to students is a good start, but how does a teacher do that with the “old school” methods that the curriculum still implements?

Old to new

            The current version of school is what we consider the old story.  Student’s sit in desks that face the teacher and the teacher delivers the information.  Students are passive learners and fall victim to the hidden curriculum and top down learning.  Top down learning is when a teacher moves from topic to topic without any order which I believe is similar to a high school setting, students learn math one period then English the next without any connection to each other or a real life scenario.    

The extreme new story of education would have bottom up learning which relies on direct experience and repeated practice of the new activity in a systematic way however I feel that the story will fall in between the two and it will incorporate sideways learning which is a combination of bottom up and top down learning.  Sideways learning aims at maintaining a mindful state, which makes us receptive to openness and change in an ongoing situation.  This type of learning allows us to learn the basics that the old curriculum values while also allowing creativity and seeing that there is more than one approach to a problem.  This type of learning can be taken outside of the classroom and be used in the real world.

Incorporating technology

            It is one thing to change the content of the curriculum so that it is more applicable for students to use daily however I do not feel that is enough.  The next step would be to change how the curriculum is delivered so that students are interested in hearing and learning what the teacher is teaching.  I feel that the lecturing and memorization method of teaching is not serving students well and it needs to go.  Teachers need to “get with the times” and incorporate technology and hands on learning in the classroom.  One way to do this would be to acquire smartboards in the classroom so students can engage and actually get out of their chair to learn as opposed to sitting in one for 6 hours everyday.

            When teachers are delivering information to a student they need to replace “this is a...” to “this could be a…” to encourage creativity and allow students to take charge of their learning.  This is a shift from an unconditional form of giving information, which means the material is presented from a single perspective to conditional form, which allows for creativity and alternatives.  Mistakes should be encouraged in the classroom, as this is how we learn and grow.  Students should be allowed to question the material being delivered and perhaps investigate using trial and error to confirm the information is true.  For example, if the teacher says adding NaOH makes a solution more basic they should allow the student to try this in an experiment so they can see for themselves as opposed to just accepting the information as true.

The link to this video shows how technology in the classroom would allow such trial and error of an experiment to happen in the classroom.  The student is able to make mistakes think critically and see the results of adding NaOH. (watch 7:29-7:51) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzahyTMq8u4

            

Nearing the end

            In conclusion I feel that the new story of education will include technology to spark interest in each student.  The classroom will shift from teacher based to collaborative based so the students have a responsibility and a say in their learning which will encourage them to engage in their learning.  The new story will be full of creativity and the dark cloud stigma above making mistakes will be gone.