We now identify some other key factors that need to be considered when plan- ning experiences which aim to develop children’s creative abilities. However, no Figure 4.1 Creative design process model
checklist, model or package can create the truly creative experience. This requires the discernment, reflection and insight of ‘reflective practitioners’, which are features of a good match between pupil needs and teacher practice.
As Marks-Tarlow (1996: 10) points out, ‘creativity is a maturational process’
which unfolds through the inborn ability and (crucially in our view) ‘exposure to encouragement, opportunities and respected role models’.
Recognising creative children
Children who bring a high level of creative capability to a task do not always realise that they have particular ability. Highly creative children can often seem awkward or difficult as they may appear to be challenging the norm of the class- room. It also has to be recognised that all children are creative in some way and that it may not be just those children who have common creative traits or who are good at the conventionally creative subjects.
Generally, creative children may have a sense of curiosity and wonder, are inventive (even with excuses!), flexible, imaginative and original. Creative chil- dren are also often willing to take risks, can tolerate ambiguity and may occa- sionally break boundaries. Occasionally, creative children may be considered difficult because they can be independent and nonconformist, are knowledge- able of social rules and can operate close to the edge. This should be considered as a strength rather than as a weakness.
When judging creative capability the teacher needs to consider both the indi- vidual and the environment in which the individual is working. A child may come up with ideas that are unique to them, for which they should be praised, but are well-known to others, which may detract from the novelty of the ideas.
Prior learning and environment always have to be considered when recognising and rewarding the creative individual. Above all, it is important to keep in mind that ‘All children are born with creative ability but it is up to us to provide a climate to support the child’s creative efforts’ (Fisher 1990: 34).
Creative children may not always be high achievers in terms of statutory tests as they may be easily distracted or bored. There is some evidence that it may even be a disadvantage to be creative in secondary schooling as creativity is not assessed by examination boards, and therefore children can become frustrated by their lack of success when they feel they should be achieving much more.
Risk-taking
Pupils must be able to manage risks and to learn from mistakes. Opportun- ities for exploration and play without fear of making mistakes within a non- threatening environment provide the optimum creative learning experience.
This approach does not promote recklessness but recognises that highly
Creativity in the Primary Curriculum Factors influencing creativity in the classroom
constrained, predetermined activities with little opportunity for pupil ‘owner- ship’ are unlikely to foster creative capability. Too often the attempt to produce
‘quality products’ is at the expense of quality thinking, uncertainty and risk:
The central feature of designers’ thinking is the recursive relationship between projective thinking (into the future) with reflective thinking (on the impact of the projection). Designing involves creative exploration of the new and unknown and (at the same time) reflection on this new state, in terms of how we got there, why we got there, whether or not we have been successful.
(Kimbell 2000b: 3)
By purely focusing upon outcomes (quality products), the value of exploring, designing, innovating, communicating and taking risks can be lost. It has to be remembered that there is real validity in not finishing a project. How else do children learn about time-management skills or the consequences of over- ambition? There is also genuine value in not being sure if something is going to work and whether an idea is possible (even though this may be uncomfortable for the teacher and the pupil). Experimenting and notional ‘failure’ are essential features of a positive creative experience.
Persistence and determination to find new ideas
A willingness to take on what appear to be difficult tasks characterises creative learning. Smith (2001) identifies how the brain responds best to conditions of high challenge together with low stress where there is learner choice and regular feedback. In order for children to develop the ability to explore new ideas and to constantly ask themselves the question ‘what if?’ they must be allowed the time for reflection and the space to explore new ideas, to add value to their thinking and to work this through into tangible outcomes that might be further evalu- ated. Predetermined outcomes merely deny opportunities for the child to develop their creative capability.
The mark of the critical thinker is the readiness to challenge the ideas of others. This means that if we wish our children to be critical thinkers then we should try to encourage their challenges to our ideas and ways of thinking.
(Fisher 1990: 67)
There are many ways in which children can be encouraged to re-work their ideas and visualise solutions to design problems in different ways. Edward de Bono employs a technique which he calls PMI (plus, minus and interesting), which when used with children encourages them to push back the boundaries of their thinking and to add value to their ideas.
Approaches like this facilitate an ‘internalised dialogue’ or what we frequently describe to our own students as a ‘dialogue with oneself’ which can also be
D&T and ICT
Creativity in the Primary Curriculum
replicated as a dialogue between learners and their teacher and/or peers. This opportunity to talk (internally or externally) and to explore ideas is an essential prerequisite to the development of new and novel solutions to problems.
Talking – especially the type which helps young people to handle new ideas, deal with uncertainty, develop reasoned arguments and internalise experiences in order to find personal expression for them – is a critical and often undervalued activity in the D&T and ICT environment. Such talk facilitates problem-solving and enables children to explore cause and effect and to evaluate their options.
Playfulness
A key condition of creativity is the opportunity for the incubation of new and novel ideas. This implies recognising play or playfulness as integral to develop- ing new ideas and is consistent with the promotion of risk-taking. If we recog- nise that failure is part of the process then it must be accepted that time has to be allocated to playing with ideas in order to reject some and develop others.
The notion of play need not be completely unstructured as there are a range of methods which can be employed to structure play, such as the example of ‘walk- ing on the wild side’ (see Figure 4.4).
Factors influencing creativity in the classroom
Figure 4.2 Edward de Bono’s Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) technique
Figure 4.3 Worked example of PMI
D&T and ICT
‘Walking on the Wild Side’ makes sense out of random associations and is a way of deconstructing conventional thinking while facilitating idea generation.
Themes, which may be chosen by the teacher or the learner, have words randomly associated to them and then links are made between the two discrete themes to come up with unusual associations which form the basis of the next design itera- tion. Many of these methods exist (including SCAMPER, Six Hats, 50 circles, etc.) which can be used to free up thinking while providing structured playfulness. The adoption of these methodologies is ideally suited to the respective D&T and ICT strands of ‘Designing’ and ‘Developing ideas and making things happen’.
Recent software developments in ICT and D&T also provide real opportunities for playfulness through modelling, simulating, exploring and monitoring ideas which previously were often inaccessible to children due to cost and technical requirements. Primary school children can now speculate and take risks with computer-aided design (CAD) or modelling software without fear of damage or without fear of constraint by limiting factors such as size, cost or space.