Creativity in Education and Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators

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The World Economic Forum Future Jobs Report of 2020 has suggested fifteen skills that will be most needed between now and 2025. At least 10 of these are direct outputs of developing independent learners through creativity such as: The Commission was convened to look at our education system and how learning can nurture the capacity for creativity inchildren. Stokes, P. D. (2010). Using constraints to develop creativity in the classroom. In R. A. Beghetto & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), Nurturing creativity in the classroom (pp. 88–112). New York: Cambridge University Press. Beghetto, R. A. (2020). Creative learning and the possible. In V. P. Glăveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible (pp. 1–8). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_57-1. Alexander, P. A., Schallert, D. L., & Reynolds, R. E. (2009). What is learning anyway? A topographical perspective considered. Educational Psychologist, 44, 176–192.

Beghetto, R. A. (2017b). Creativity in teaching. In J. C. Kaufman, J. Baer, & V. P. Glăveanu (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of creativity across different domains (pp. 549–556). New York: Cambridge University Press. Nano Technician, Vertical Farmer, Big Data Architect and Meme Archivist are just four roles today that we hadn’t heard of ten years ago; meaning that students will be entering jobs that currently don’t exist. Just a few months into the project, the OECD released an invitation to tender, entitled Teaching, assessing and learning creative and critical thinking skills in primary and secondary education, in which they freely admitted “…it is not clear how creativity can be visibly and tangibly articulated by teachers orWorking out the passions in addition to excelling in academics is important for a student to come up successful in life. Beghetto, R. A. (2019a). Structured uncertainty: How creativity thrives under constraints and uncertainty. In C. A. Mullen (Ed.), Creativity under duress in education? (Vol. 3, pp. 27–40). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90272-2_2. Durham Commission (2019). Durham Commission on Creativity and Education. London: Arts Council England.

Sawyer, R. K. (2012). Explaining creativity: The science of human innovation (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. At its core, creativity is the expression of our most essential human qualities: our curiosity, our inventiveness, and our desire to explore the unknown. Using creativity, we are able to push the boundaries of what is possible, imagine new worlds, and find solutions to the most pressing problems facing our society. The latest Ofsted Education Inspection Framework has a greater emphasis on offering a broad curriculum. School leaders are required to describe the quality of the education they are offering young people in terms of ‘Intent’ (what they are trying to achieve), ‘Implementation’ (how it will be taught and assessed) and ‘Impact’ (the effect on pupils).Unlike standardized tests, which (arguably) provide a clear measure of students' knowledge and understanding, creativity is more difficult to assess. This prompts some educators to dismiss its importance. However, there are ways to measure creativity, such as through creative projects and assessments focusing on problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Typically, teachers attempt to remove uncertainty from learning activities by predefining all four aspects of a learning activity. This is understandable as teachers may feel that introducing or allowing for uncertainty to be included in the activity may result curricular chaos, resulting in their own (and their students) frustration and confusion (Kennedy, 2015). Consequently, most teachers learn to plan (or select pre-planned) lessons that provide students with a predetermined problem or task to solve, which has a predetermined process or procedure for solving it, an already established criteria for determining successful performance, and a clearly defined outcome. It offered a framework for the further development of creativity for children and young people and introduced the concept of an individual creative portfolio as a way of bridging formal and informal education. 2007 - Joint memorandum submitted to Education Select Committee Beghetto, R. A., Karwowski, M., & Reiter-Palmon, R. (2020). Intellectual Risk taking: A moderating link between creative confidence and creative behavior? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000323. A stimulating classroom can have charts that visualize the goals with timelines that help students to have a look on the go. Schuh, K. L. (2017). Making meaning by making connections. Cham, Switerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0993-2.

Innovation might keep us afloat

What are the most promising intersections among efforts aimed at promoting creative learning and student wellbeing? What are the key complementary areas of overlap and where might there be potential points of tension? Renzulli, J. (2017). Developing creativity across all areas of the curriculum. In R. A. Beghetto & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), Nurturing creativity in the classroom (2nd ed., pp. 23–44). New York: Cambridge University Press. The World Economic Forum states that by 2025, the top five skills employers will be looking for include innovation, complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and originality. Creativity is one of our most essential skills. One key finding of the Commission is that other countries in the UK, notably Wales with its new National Curriculum, are further advanced in their inclusion of creativity as a desired goal of education 2021 - PISA Creative Thinking

How might researchers across different research traditions in positive education and creativity studies collaborate to develop and explore broader models of wellbeing? What are the best methodological approaches for testing and refining these models? How might such work promote student and teacher wellbeing in and beyond the classroom? Beghetto, R. A. (2018b). What if?: Building students’ problem-solving skills through complex challenges. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.Creativity researchers have identified at least three interrelated student factors that seem to play a role in determining students’ willingness to share their conceptions with others: creative confidence, valuing creativity, and intellectual risk- taking. Creative confidence beliefs refer to a somewhat broad category of creative self-beliefs that pertain to one’s confidence in the ability to think and act creatively (Beghetto & Karwowski, 2017). Creative confidence beliefs can range from more situationally and domain-specific beliefs (e.g., I am confident I can creatively solve this particular problem in this particular situation) to more general and global confidence beliefs (e.g., I am confident in my creative ability). Much like other confidence beliefs (Bandura, 2012), creative confidence beliefs are likely influenced by a variety of personal (e.g., physiological state), social (e.g., who is present, whether people are being supportive), and situational (e.g., specific nature of the task, including constraints like time and materials) factors. Recent research has indicated that creative confidence beliefs mediate the link between creative potential and creative behaviour (Beghetto, Karwowski, Reiter-Palmon, 2020; Karwowski & Beghetto, 2019). Whether it is debate or classroom discussions or field trips, students have the chance to come out of their shelves and become a part of it. This freedom of expression gives them a sense of goodness and happiness. I’ve worked with young people throughout my career and have seen first-hand the impact that creativity and imagination can have on children. I was therefore delighted to be tasked with helping to bring together the Durham Commission on Creativity andEducation.