It actually worked! During my summer semester when I started to think about creativity in the classroom, I put some feelers out there for strangers to read and respond to. And this week I got a response! And it is a good one. He didn't say particularly much, but pointed me towards 2 articles he had read in newsweek.com. I found both articles stimulating and relevant towards my current inquiry of study. Woo Hoo!
How has it changed me? Well, I followed a few further links on these articles and kept expanding my definition of creativity. The one that really stood out to me this time was the capacity to work "outside the box." Do something unexpected, but relevant and useful.
The articles both supported the present movement towards "project based learning" or PBL as those of us in the know say. :) (Oh gag!) Those of you who know me personally know that I am struggling with the concept of PBL as I am a very linear person who needs things black and white. PBL often blurs those lines! And yet, in our present day and age, we need people who will be able to solve problems. There is no way we as teachers can fully teach and prepare students for specific jobs in the future simply because we don't know what those jobs will be. But we do know that whatever jobs they take, they will need to be creative, adaptive, global thinkers.
The articles portend that creativity is best when mixed with fact-finding, research and basic skill sets. Creativity emerges when "they alternate maximum divergent thinking with bouts of intense convergent thinking, through several stages." As I understand it, divergent thinking would be the creative part...brainstorming, experimenting, etc., and the convergent thinking would be finding out facts that affect the project.
Encouraging creativity in the classroom means no longer hoping kids get the right answer as soon as possible, but rather letting them wrestle for a while with the issue...trying to see it from all angles, coming up with all kinds of solutions and figuring out for themselves what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately for me, I've always looked for the easy right way and I'll need to be very deliberate about letting my students struggle...
till next time
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment