Teaching Creatively and Teaching for Creativity
In order to prepare today’s students to engage with tomorrow’s world, governments, schools and universities need to prioritise creativity in education – both creative teaching (teacher centred) and teaching for creativity (learner centred). Creativity is
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Abstract In order to prepare today’s students to engage with tomorrow’s world, governments, schools and universities need to prioritise creativity in education – both creative teaching (teacher centred) and teaching for creativity (learner centred). Creativity is a life skill; it can help students learn to live with uncertainty and use their personal creativity to thrive. This chapter examines students’ and lecturers’ conceptions of creativity, their creative engagement in teaching and learning, and the nature of creative pedagogical practice. In so doing, it argues for a fuller consideration of the possibilities and potential of teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. It highlights in particular the significance of motivation, passion, and recognizing one’s own creativity, and argues that increased attention urgently needs to be paid to creative teaching and learning in the academy. Keywords Creative teaching • Teaching for creativity • Conceptions of creativity • Passion • Motivation
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Introduction
In the context of the European University Association’s (2007) initiative on creativity in higher education, which sought to “promote a culture which is tolerant of failure and thus encourage the members of the university community to question established ideas, to go beyond conventional knowledge and to strive towards originality” (EUA 2007, p. 7), this chapter considers research evidence on the nature of creative teaching and teaching for creativity. Though closely interrelated, the former is arguably teacher centred whilst the latter focuses more on increasing creativity in general and fostering students’ creativity. In England, the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education suggests creative teaching encompasses teachers making learning both more interesting and more effective through
T. Cremin (*) Faculty of Education and Language Studies, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 R. Breeze, C. Sancho Guinda (eds.), Essential Competencies for English-medium University Teaching, Educational Linguistics 27, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40956-6_7
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using imaginative approaches in the classroom. They suggest teaching for creativity means teachers identifying the creative strengths of the learners in order to build on these and foster their creativity (NACCCE 1999, p. 90). In exploring the relationships between these foci, Jeffrey and Craft (2004) observe that teachers in all sectors may teach for creativity and also teach creatively in response to need, and sometimes do both simultaneously. Furthermore, teaching for creativity often arises spontaneously and is more likely to arise in contexts where teachers are teaching creatively. Thus it is feasible to argue that creative teaching includes attention to teaching for creativity. But to what extent does this describe teaching in Higher Education? In responding to this issue, Barnett and Coat (2005) question whether the emphasis on skills in Hi
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