Contemporary Learning and Interdisciplinary Research discussion

What resonated with you from this book?

I choose this book:)

I, too, choose this book! I am excited to learn what the writers have to say about engaging children creatively and critically!

I also choose this book. I am always striving for creative ways to help ENL learners access curricula, and more importantly, accurately express who they are, what they know, and what they can do.

I chose this book too! I think creative activities and projects are great ways to get students to apply what they know.

Here is an idea for everyone interested in creativity and the future of learning. A teacher friend of mine runs the G Create Camp - check it out - it is an online camp - http://www.gcreatecamp.com/#!sign-up/...

I chose this book. Will begin reading as soon as it is delivered today but Im interested to find out how I can actively and effectively engage students I work with !

I chose this book and am looking to dive into it this week. I like that there are different articles too. From the introduction of the book I think it may pair nicely with Future Wise.

I like this book because I am always interested on how educators can keep their students engaged,

Hi CREATIVITY TEAM! In class on Wednesday, we discussed next steps for reading and posting about this book. Not everyone was in Wednesday's class so please let us know (here) if you are ok with our tentative plan:

Jaymie, Amanda, Ming and Maya all selected chapters to read (we will each read 2 chapters). Because each of us selected different chapters, the remaining members of our group can pick any 2 chapters you are interested in.

1. Read your chapters and prepare to post on GOODREADS by June 10th: What are the take aways or big ideas from your chapters? How was creativity explored in the chapters you read?

2. Read and respond to at least one peer's posting (different chapters from your own) by June 12th.

Ch 1: The socio-cultural influences on teachers’, parents’ and students’ perceptions of creativity

This chapter focuses on the implications that the Creative Education White Paper in Taiwan has had on Taipai City’s education system. Chiu (2013) suggests that creativity is in a sort of renaissance movement, the word and philosophy has experienced a resurgence in all fields.
Participants: 3 schools, four participants (3 head teachers & 1 teacher)
Chiu (2013) discusses the demographic and cultural differences within the schools
School D=achievement & progress-led school in affluent area
School E=research pioneer school, motivated teachers & parents
School A2=liberal & very different from other schools (p. 9)
Methodology: interviews and questionnaires
Results ("common values of creativity”):
-The high IQ students are NOT more creative than ordinary students
-Some people are just born creative
-Boys are more active than girls in taking risks
-Girls are NOT more imaginative than boys
-Creative students have more competitive advantage
-Creative people can find a good job
-In the current education system, school hinders children’s creativity (p. 9)

Ch. 3: Experiencing visual metaphors: The perception of theatre and imagery by children and youth in oppressive situations

This study looks at the visual world through theatre by using children’s experiences at the Theresienstadt Conceptration Camp as an example. Theatrical image is defined as the actual parts of a theatre performance (scenography, staging, feel of performance) as well as “the icon created in the minds of the participants, performers and audience” (p. 40)
Themes:
-Children experience theatre very differently from adults because it is much more real to them (p. 41)
-Visual imagery used in theatre conveys additional messages to viewers that cannot otherwise be conveyed (p. 42)
-When children experience trauma, their development path changes (e.g. concentration camp in this case)
-In Theresienstadt, the performers really tried to create different worlds (scenography) for the children to experience theatre. They made scenography based on pre-war objects that they loved as well as peacetime objects (life before war) (p. 45).

The theatre at Terezin created moments of freedom for victims in captivity. (p. 54)

Hey Everyone!
I read Chapter 4: A classroom case study of socio-emotional learning: The relationship between emotion and creative thinking. I completed Unit 2 in the Neuroscience in the Classroom Learner.org resource and felt this was a great complimentary reading.

Since this book makes the case that creativity is now becoming a skill that should be taught in and by schools, including policy mandates, I wanted to solidify my understanding of how creativity happens in the classroom. First, from my unit on learner.org I immediately realized that a significant part of achievement is the emotional response to students past experiences. Shame, embarrassment, anxiety surround students in spaces where they can feel put on the spot resulting in their retreat from the material and task. I think we've all seen and experienced that in our own learning and as educators. The conceptual presentation of emotional thinking as a process that impacts decision-making was something I hadn't considered because emotion has a negative connotation. Also, based on the lack of funding for the arts and other expressive subjects, creativity in the US from my own observations, has also been looked at as frivolous to the purpose of education we currently have. All these thoughts represent where I was before this week's assignments.

Prior to my reading a burning question was, what is creative thinking? From my reading of this chapter, creative thinking is defined as a blend of thoughts and mental images, across or within fields in unique and novel ways to problem solve or handle a situation (p. 63). Most of the tasks in 21st Century learning seem to be process-based and creativity is no different in that regard. I did find it interesting that novelty, ingenuity, and originality are components of creative thinking.

The first connection I made between emotion and creativity, based on unit 2 and my reading was the importance of emotional sensitivity and creativity. Although there is not much research on what can be considered emotional intelligence, I found Mark Brackett's RULER approach (therulerapproach.org) a powerful resource to helping increase emotional thinking skills which are related to creativity in the classroom.

Overall, Fitzsimmons and Lanphar found that emotional connections led to engagement with learning. The ability for students to explore and express emotions allowed students to increase personal awareness, articulate their emotions and be more comfortable in their own learning community with one another. The socio-emotional connections also fostered student establishments of their own emotional boundaries and standards of success.

In conclusion, emotion is necessary and supports learning and creativity as part of an environmental and cognitive tool. The socio-emotional connections allow students to be comfortable with one another so that the mind of freed up to be original without fear or anxiety. School can and is a scary place for many students and the way we teach as facilitators of the space heavily influence the products we get.

I tried an emotional thought question as a Do Now question in relation to the Cold War (How do you know when you are threatened? How would you know if you were being threatened? How do you react?) I got so many reactions and the students took it well! So I am definitely stretching my own creative emotional mind to better the learning outcomes for the students.

Chapter 4: A Classroom Case Study of Socio-Emotional Learning: The Relationship between Emotion and Creative Thinking

This study focused on one middle school classroom in Santa Barbara, CA over a 12 month period in order to maintain a natural classroom setting. In general, there is a lack of emphasis and focus on the role of emotion in learning in praxis-level classrooms. Teachers are fearful to get "too personal" with their students, (p. 62).
So far, very little research has been done on the role of emotion in classroom learning.

Previous to this study, it was already evident that students were exhibiting emotive body language and behavior, and were still able to refocus their thoughts to complete various learning activities.
While observing this middle school classroom, data was collected mostly by interviews and "purpose chats" with students, and student journals and reflections.

Themes presented by the data:
1. Socio-Emotional Constructions and Critical Thinking
2. " " Providing Multiple Understandings
3. " "Allowed for Reflection and Unpacking

Overall, the students felt that a safe and comfortable learning environment created by the teacher made them feel confident about themselves and comfortable sharing in front of their peers. As a result, they were more inclined to sharing their personal stories and feelings in class. Emotional experiences in the classroom helps to facilitate creativity in students.

I feel that reflection is an extremely important part of learning. Students focus on what works best for them and recognize that their peers are going through the same thing and gain a sense of "connective empathy," (p. 63). I think this idea connects to global competency and how students need to learn, recognize, and appreciate global perspectives.

Chapter 8: Enabling the Enablers of Creative Learning: Considering the Professional Development of Facilitators of Creativity

This study promotes the expansion of creative learning in schools by providing more opportunities for teachers/leaders to facilitate creativity. In general when talking about creativity and creative abilities, many people insist that not everyone has creative abilities when that is not necessarily true. A UK Creative Parnerships "All our Futures" report states that "all people are capable of creative achievement in some area of activity, provided the conditions are right and they have acquired the relevant knowledge and skills," (p. 132).

Currently, there are efforts being made to provide more creative learning training as part of professional development. Overall, there is a movement away from traditional training and more emphasis on constructivist learning models. An outlook that teachers should have in realizing their own potential to be facilitators of creativity is seeing themselves as an artisan of their craft. When these ideas for professional development are presented to schools, training is often turned down because of cost and because of difficulties in the implementation process of a school-wide effort.

Other concerns include:
-enabling partnership working across educational and creative/cultural sectors
-developing enquiry-based, reflective practice
-growing understandings with and across creative learning communities

How do we get schools to be "more creative"?
-Notions of creativity + translation into classroom practice
Many teachers already seek opportunities in creative learning by interacting with their colleagues inside and outside of school, parents, the school community, and students. The creative process is different for everyone which only increases the amount of different opportunities in creative learning.

"As a single idea, creative learning represents a very contemporary aspiration to fit young people for a vision of the future," (p. 132).

Using the creative process facilitates young people to have full voice and be reflective. This kind of thinking prepares young learners for the future.

Chapter 4 also emphasized the importance of reflection on learning. The way history is taught has changed a lot, from more traditional learning to more focus on social history. These social histories show a more personal side to history that allows students to connect emotionally to the content. Reflecting on these histories prompts students to really think about what they are learning, why it matters, and why it matters/what impact it has on them. An increase in professional development for facilitators of creativity would provide students with more classroom experiences to foster creative thinking and emotional connectivity.

Chapter 2 used a design research approach to explore how a digital storytelling workshop helped primary school, at-risk Singaporean youth foster multimodal literacies, engage in imaginative play, and express voice and agency in an after school program (p. 19). Participants were at-risk, Chinese speaking youth ages 8-10 (kids typically tracked and denied opportunities for the best jobs and life opportunities) who participated in Green Town, a community-based extracurricular tutoring program (p. 22).

Creativity was conceptualized as being crystal or prism-like in that light is shone on a variety of perspectives which an individual can use to explore multiple possibilities in a situation that needs a "fresh response" (p. 19). Creativity was also seen as "doing routine things creatively" (p. 29).

I didn't know what design research was, but it is described as a process of creating and refining a unit, curricular or education program plan via participant experiences and feedback (pp. 23-24). Researchers created a 6-session, 12 hour digital storytelling & drama workshop for kids and implemented it in the Green Town program.

The findings were that conflicting ideologies prevented common ground between the researchers and Green Town, with the researchers encouraging students to code-switch between Mandarin & English, engage in imaginative play, and create digital stories that explored taboo topics (like bathroom talk, sex, violence, death (p. 27)), while Green Town wanted an English-only environment, a focus on teaching proper English, and no value of imaginative play or the digital stories produced by students (pp. 24-29). Despite these conflicting ideologies, students did exercise voice and agency by engaging in creative play, subversively discussing and using taboo topics in play and in the digital stories produced, and not following adults' directions (pp. 26-28). The implications were that conflicting ideologies and views on creativity can limit how far researchers can take their work in certain contexts.


Chapter 7 was not a study, it is a framework for creativity, creative teachers, and creative teaching. It offers implications for what competencies teachers must develop to teach creatively and for creativity.

The author claims that an underlying theme of 21st century skills is creativity, as education shifts from focusing on what students learn to how they use what they learn (p. 116).

Creatively is broadly defined in 4 ways: a set of abilities, a cognitive process, affective factors, and interaction between a person, process, environment and a product. These factors in creativity interact as in complexity theory (p. 117).

The author also notes key distinctions between creative teaching vs. teaching creatively vs. teaching for creativity, with the former two focusing on what the teacher knows and does, and the latter focusing on what a student learns and does. In creative teaching, the teacher takes control and ownership over practice, innovating to make learning relevant to learners (p. 120). In teaching creatively, the teacher uses his/her capacity to use imaginative approaches to make learning interesting, exciting, and effective (p. 120). In teaching for creativity, the teacher gives students opportunities and choices to explore and experiment with new ideas in a safe, comfortable, creative classroom climate (pp. 121-122).

The author claims that to develop creativity in teaching and in students, teachers need to know and understand creativity, apply creativity in practice, be creative, and be reflexive by reflecting on action and in action (pp. 123-124). These 4 "need to's" are the implications for the professional development of teachers related to creativity.

Hi Jaymie, your post about Ch 1: The socio-cultural influences on teachers’, parents’ and students’ perceptions of creativity presents an interesting contrast to the Singaporean students featured in Ch 2. The schools featured in the Ch 1 study seemed to be affluent, progressive, and liberal, while the after school program featured in Ch 2 was very traditional and was geared toward helping students improve English skills and other school disciplines. I am wondering if/how these very different schooling contexts contributed to students' experiences with and perceptions of creativity. I would guess that the Ch 1 participating schools valued creativity more than Ch 2, but I see that school hindered creativity for them as well. I am also wondering whether this hindering effect actually promotes creativity in the more affluent, progressive and liberal schools.

Hi Maya,

Your post about Chapter 4: A Classroom Case Study of Socio-Emotional Learning: The Relationship between Emotion and Creative Thinking reminded me of chapter 7. Your explanation of the finding that students craved a safe and comfortable learning environment to be fostered by the teacher is echoed by the idea of a creative climate in the classroom described in chapter 7. Further, you explained that students craved this safe and comfortable environment in order to feel comfortable enough to share with peers. This also fits the creative classroom environment described in chapter 7. As Alvarado (2013) explains, "a creative climate in the classroom involves creating the conditions for everyone to feel included, respected and valued...involves the possibility...to interact and exchange knowledge, experiences and ideas in order to learn, solve problems, and create together" (p. 122). Without a creative climate, students will not have the comfort level to truly express who they are.

Chapter 5
The authors emphasized the values of narratives, helping us realize our potentials and those around us and “recognize how the impossible could in fact be possible” (p.75). The authors studied children three to six years old and how they utilized drawings as their narratives to express understandings of “inclusion” (p.77).

The authors created a list of “creativity”: emotional expressiveness, internal visualization, storytelling articulateness, extending or breaking boundaries, movement or action, humor, expressiveness of titles, richness of imagery, synthesis of incomplete figures, colorfulness of imagery, synthesis of lines or circles, fantasy, and unusual visualization.

The authors, through studying children three to six years old, found that “it is through the creative processes of narrative sense-making that a child evolves in ‘culture’” and that a good story teller needs to have a good listener (p.89).

Chapter 6
The goal of the authors was to examine “how developmental psychology has informed the philosophy of mind… and how this… might inform current educational practice” (p.94). Specifically, the author wanted to understand when and how children begin to understand how other people feel. In answering these questions, the authors first pointed out that there might be better explanations than the theories of the mind or the simulation theory.

The author introduced David Buttlemann and colleagues’ experiment where they found that children as young as 16 to 18 months started to understand others’ emotions through a variety of hints. The author then introduced the Interactionist perspective, which emphasized that the “thinking” aspect within a child is not as important as the “thinking with.” Through understanding that humans are thinking beings, children then learn to think.

My reflections
Both chapters even though talked about different aspects of a child’s development process, they have one thing in common, that is, a child needs someone that “grows” with them. Chapter 5 talked about how children’s creative narratives helped them understand and evolve in the culture and how children, the story tellers, need good listeners. Chapter 6 talked about how children learned how to think or act by first understanding other people’s thoughts and feelings and how they need someone to “think with.” The concept of “with” really fascinated me. Indeed, education is not a solitary process; it is through all the “withs” that children grow and develop their own sense of self.

Jaymie wrote: "Ch 1: The socio-cultural influences on teachers’, parents’ and students’ perceptions of creativity

This chapter focuses on the implications that the Creative Education White Paper in Taiwan has ha..."

I totally agree with what Chapter 1 says. The current educational system does not promote a sense of creativity at all. What wonders me the most is that if research already found that creative people have a easier time finding a job, then why not steer the system towards educating creative people... Especially the research in chapter 1 was conducted in Taiwai, where education is still focused more on testing rather than the education of the whole self. Huh...

Maya wrote: "Chapter 4: A Classroom Case Study of Socio-Emotional Learning: The Relationship between Emotion and Creative Thinking

This study focused on one middle school classroom in Santa Barbara, CA over a ..."

I agree. First of all, I'm not sure if it's possible to remove emotions in a classroom. Even though we might try to show no emotions in our classrooms, we are sharing our emotions subconsciously. Why not just share our feelings and emotions consciously and explicitly? A sense of openness and honesty could build a healthy and trusting relationship between teachers and students. This idea aligns with what I read in chapter 6 where children need someone to "think with" and "feel with." We all need someone, and so do our students.

Be ready to share the insights, ethics, opportunities, and actions your book calls for Contemporary Learning and/or an interdisciplinary problem outlined in your book on Monday, June 20th.

Jaymie,

I thought your findings from Chapter 1: The socio-cultural influences on teachers’, parents’ and students’ perceptions of creativity included a really interesting commentary on how creativity and creative abilities are looked at from the different schools involved in the study. After reading, the "common values of creativity," the last one struck me because I agreed with it. Some schools definitely hinder students' creativity because very few opportunities for creative thinking are provided. A lot of schools and teachers are more focused on covering content and as a result an effective learning experience is lost.
My students and I recently had our last day of school together and I usually ask for feedback about their learning experience, and more times than not they liked activities and assessments that involved creative thinking. Schools should praise and value creative thinking.

Ming,
I really like the idea you presented after reading chapter 6 about thinking "with" someone. I think there are classroom situations where students do feel on their own in the learning process. Education is definitely not a solitary process and that sometimes that idea needs to be presented to students so that they don't feel that it has to be. I have gotten resistance from students when they work collaboratively because they are so competitive with one another. Maybe it comes down to reframing collaboration/collaborative thinking for students where they don't feel threatened or alone.

The Embodied Brains, Social Minds video really resonated with me and reminded me of the Why We Talk chapter in our Interdisciplinary Research book. In the video, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang stated, “Our biological survival and our sociocultural survival are housed, or are controlled and felt by the very same neural systems in our brain...our social survival and our biological survival are totally intertwined with one another at this stage of our evolution” (3:30). This shows that our desire to connect with ours and understand their emotions and actions is tightly connected to our basic biological functions. In other words, trying to feel what others feel is part of being human, part of what keeps us alive, and communicating via talk helps us be human. It makes sense to me that language was invented for much more than tool use, it was for social worlds and connecting with and between social groups. This is also evident in the Mirror Neurons and Interrelated Forms of Self visuals in the Neuroscience module we did. To connect with others, we mimic their feelings and actions in our brains as if we are experiencing the same thing, and we activate different areas of our brain when feeling compassion for others physically and cognitively versus emotionally or psychologically. We use our brains and speech to experience others’ lives in our bodies but within their (and our own) brains.

Ok, what about Creativity? Although Chapter 2 was called “Compromised Creativity” because the researchers’ aims were at odds with the Singaporean extracurricular program, I don’t think creativity was compromised for participants. The children still engaged in creative play and explored subversive and even taboo topics in their collaborative digital stories, despite the adults disagreeing about the purpose of the program and how it should be run. I would guess that the children were delighted with the project and the possibilities of it, being allowed to explore forbidden topics and go against adult authority figures. They were, in a sense, truly inspired, and were not thwarted by adult efforts to control their fun. I think the adults in the after school program lacked the “embodied brain” needed to see things from participants’ perspectives, so they never understood or appreciated the actual purpose of the research project.

Book club notes
Insights- teachers need development teaching creatively
need to ensure connection between researcher and institution
need to listen to and think with students

Ethics-
creativity needs to be valued in education

Opportunities-
theatre can be used for sociocultural learning, constructivist
and/or Action- Professional Development is important to teach teachers to be creative so that they may be able to teach creatively.
need visual representation of creativity in 21st century skills

Hello All in the Creativity Book Club:

Chapter 1: The socio-cultural influences on teachers’, parents’ and students’ perceptions of creativity
and
Chapter 3: Experiencing visual metaphors: The perception of theatre and imagery by children and youth in oppressive situations

Since some of the other participants in our group have also read and reported on the concrete details of these chapters, my posting is going to be a bit more reflective in nature--rather than repeating what has already been explained about the chapters.

Chapter 1: The socio-cultural influences on teachers’, parents’ and students’ perceptions of creativity

One of the major ideas expressed through this study was that much of schooling can contribute to a diminishment of children's creativity, rather than an enhancement of their creative capacities. I think many of us feel this way about schooling in the United States. One of the things about contemporary learning that attracts me is its potential to change the way education impacts creative development in young people. Education must become an agent of creative development! This aspect is stressed is many conceptions of the 21st century skills movement.

Another finding in the study was that some of the participants suggested the idea that some people are simply born creative, while others may not be creative. I find this to be such a very sad belief--one that many people share. Hogwash! We are all capable of creativity! If one has the capacity to learn, one has the capacity to be creative. Learning is a creative act. Human development and growth are creative processes. We're born creative! No one teaches the flower to bloom into a burst of color. It simply does so. Suppression of creativity is a learned process. The numbing of imagination is a learned process. Creativity and imagination are part of our wiring. When we are nurtured and nourished properly, just like the flower, we can bloom.

Chapter 3: Experiencing visual metaphors: The perception of theatre and imagery by children and youth in oppressive situations

This study addressed the visual world created for and through the theatre and the perceptions of that world as understood by children imprisoned during the Holocaust in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. One of the most striking things about this study was that it brought to light the powerful social and emotional role that the arts can play in the development of young people--especially youth living in oppressive conditions. In many respects, in the case of Theresienstadt, the arts were employed as a way to provide a vision of the goodness and beauty that COULD be possible in the world, such that children living in horrific circumstances might experience--at least through art--some sense of safety, hope, and possibility. In this context, art played a role in helping to support and create a holding environment in which the children could survive and develop and learn--even in the worst of environments. The study raises the implication that the arts may be crucial to human development and learning.

Anne wrote: "Hey Everyone!
I read Chapter 4: A classroom case study of socio-emotional learning: The relationship between emotion and creative thinking. I completed Unit 2 in the Neuroscience in the Classroom L..."

Hi Anne,

I really appreciated your discussion of creativity, emotion, and learning. I think you are pointing out very important connections between these concepts! Your question exploring the nature of creative thinking is also important. Science is still trying to define exactly what creativity is and what defines it. Yet, it's easy to take for granted the notion that we know what creativity is, so it's vital to question our understandings and assumptions about creativity. I love that you tried out the creative/emotional questions with your students. The questions were great! And the response from your students is inspiring! Thank you!

Ming wrote: "Chapter 5
The authors emphasized the values of narratives, helping us realize our potentials and those around us and “recognize how the impossible could in fact be possible” (p.75). The authors stu..."

Hi Ming: Your presentation of the ideas presented in Chapter 5 & 6 is so clear and thoughtful. I loved your reflection about the notion that children need people to grow WITH and the important role that social dynamics and interrelationships play in children's development! This seems like such an important take-away! Additionally, I found the juxtaposition of these two articles very interesting--the constructs of creativity, narrative, and emotion seems to be in dialogue with one another in many places throughout this book. Narrative itself seems to be a way in which we create understandings of who we are, who others are, the relations between the two and the contexts in which our emotions occur. Thanks for your thoughtful posting!