Introduction
The national advisory committee on creative and cultural education published a report entitled “all out futures: creativity, culture and in education,” its main agenda was to enhance and initiate the development and establishment of creative learning and teaching in school curricula (Tobias, 2015). Although its impact was minimal at the time, the key message has remained at the heart of vibrant education systems worldwide. Creativity involves imaging or coming up with something out of the ordinary (Miller, 2015). The activity is a process of thinking or behaving. This mode of thought expands the possibilities of a given situation and looks at it in a fresh perspective, envisaging alternatives to the normal routine. Creative insights typically emerge when new ideas are reinterpreted or applied in unexpected areas, leading to unusual connections (Tegon et al., 2015). This essay involves a critical analysis of the creative approaches to learning and teaching in schools.
Creative partnerships
The formation of creative partnerships was first introduced in 2002 to help the disadvantaged in England and give them an opportunity to develop their creativity by forming partnerships involving schools and creative organisations, firms, and individuals. The Ofsted foundation found that schools participating in the initiative fostered student creativity and established conditions in which students were able to develop their creativity skills (Benton, 2016). Children benefited from working alongside creative people such as actors, writers, artists, and designers. This is enhanced innovation and created high drama. Additionally, it was not just the creativity of children and students that benefited, but also there were significant improvements in literacy, information technology, numeracy, and language (Cremin, 2016). The main agenda behind this initiative was to foster relationships between schools, appropriate organisations, and create people to change:
· The approach and attitudes in teaching
· The creativity and aspirations of learners
· The practice of organisations and the performance of individual students.
This initiative involves a huge number of organisations and schools coming together to train children; this project was based on the definition that creativity refers to the imagination of activities fashioned to bring about results that are both original and of good value. Also, it is seeing what no one else has seen, thinking what no one has thought, and doing what no one has ever done. Some of the creative individuals in the project are scientists, engineers, geographers, and artists. However, critics such as Sharp & Kendall (2016) argued that creative partnerships serve mainly to develop and enrich the school curriculum rather than assist the whole learning institution. Benton (2016) compared young children who attended creative partnerships with other students nationally and found that those who attended creative partnerships were more creative and performed better in national curriculum assessments. Those known to have attended creative partnerships outperformed those who did not by a small but statistically significant extent.
Linked to the role of creative partnerships evaluation in schools is the work of teachers I enhancing creativity among their learners. Writers such as Tegano et al. (2016) have highlighted the role of teachers in providing the optimum balance the freedom of expression among children and the school structure. Tegano (2016) suggested that teachers and other school stakeholders can encourage creativity in a class by creating a physical environment with a wide choice of objects and facilities that encourage creativity. There should be wide opportunities for open-ended activities with enough time allocated to in-depth exploration, supported by the school staff who can assist in learning.
Tegano et al. (2016) specifically suggested that children and teachers can engage in creative activities by:
· Asking open-ended questions
· Modelling creative habits and thinking
· Praising children who give creative answers
· Encouraging research and experimentation
Creative teaching in mathematics and science
Mathematics and science are subjects with stereotypical images. Thus, they require a well-designed approach in teaching to overcome these stereotypes. Thus, instead of thinking about specific concepts of these subjects, it would be more effective to look at what makes good mathematics and science education (Fisher & Williams, 2014). This should involve approaches that enrich and stimulate creativity for all learners, and some would argue that the teacher should too, to stimulate their interest in learning. The ENRICH strategy contains creative learning and teaching methods designed for:
· Development and use of problem-solving skills
· Growing the appreciation of science and mathematics
· Developing conceptual structures
According to Tobias (2015), there should be the development of modeling, stimulation, and reward of creativity, and above all, not punishing creativity.
A common challenge is taking place I some countries worldwide is a combination of creativity and the gifted pupil or student. In America, the focus is clearly gifted, as suggested by Miller (2015): although mathematically talented students show mathematical creativity when dealing with these subjects, this is not always the case when dealing with creativity tests. Nonetheless, high creativity tests, along with significantly clear indications of keen interest in mathematics and sciences, show mathematical talent.
For many years, maths education has been wary of technology, with much emphasis on the use of the mind and writing to do calculations instead of a calculator. Reaching for a calculator showed a lack of ability in the subject. The same calculators have released children from routines, to put more focus on other development areas (Fraser, 2016). Instances include the use of graphical calculators to stimulate the construction of mental imagery associated directly with arithmetic symbols, as opposed to analogical transformation. The imagery of better achievers tended to be symbolic and was widely used by learners to support the production of known facts. The lower achievers tended towards analogical representations (Block et al., 2014). For instance, Emily was a low achiever who worked with a graphical calculator to change her imagery. The results of this research revealed that she used to build a wide range of meanings related to numbers and numerical symbolism. Thus, the program was developed by use of the calculator. As she progressed, Emily gradually moved away from procedures in counting. This research revealed the creative use of calculators to effect changes in an individual’s mental imagery. Thu, she achieved success in her arithmetic.
Pratt (2015) described the graphing work of 8 and 9-year-olds who have immediate and continued access to computers across the education divides. These children used graphs and charts to generate data. He used two distinct uses of graphs in the spreadsheet software: one is the passive graphing, in which children used graphs in an experiment, and the graphs generated to represent data. Finally, information is collated using pseudo-code mathematical connections between graphs and the data. The second is active graphing; this is where children use graphs in making decisions on the next move in the procedure. They are encouraged to generate the graph after the collection of a few data pieces; in the process of collecting the data, more graphs are generated and interpretations made. Graphing is another significant tool used by children to study mathematics and sciences. “A child who sees charts as analytical instruments has already made a significant stride in math and sciences and has widened their ability to think creatively (Pratt, 2015).
Teaching English creatively
Teaching literacy involves developing knowledge and skills about a language in creative contexts that wholly invite students to engage imaginatively and which stretch their generative and evaluative capacities. Creative teachers work on extending their children’s abilities as readers, speakers, and writers and assist them in expressing their views effectively, to create and also evaluate their works (Miller, 2015). Creativity takes place while children are involved in exploring new ideas, initiating their learning, and being able to make choices on how to express themselves using different media and language styles. In responding to what they view, hear, experience, and read, children use their literacy skills to increase their knowledge and understanding.
In an environment filled with many possibilities, and in which people's agency and self-determination are created, and children’s views and emotions are valued, discussed, and celebrated depends upon the class climate created by the teacher's support and trust (Pratt, 2015). Creativity in the classroom is developed when teachers show confidence and surety in their subject knowledge and creative practices. They help create a culture of creative opportunities.
A creative approach to teaching English encompasses some core features that enable teachers to decide prudently, both at the planning level and moment-to-moment interactions during classroom sessions. These elements include:
· Fostering play and engagement
· Harnessing curiosity and profiling agency
· Profiling meaning and purpose
· Integration of reflection, feedback, review, and celebration
1. Profile meaning and purpose
The UK teaching agency researched effective teachers of literacy; the results revealed that effective tutors believe that it is fundamental to create meaning in literacy (Wray et al., 2012). Consequently, they highlight the purpose of reading and writing in their lessons. They give explicit and undivided attention to linguistics, which is taught through practice, and illustrate two children. In a separate survey by Fraster (2016), active tutors foregrounded the construction of meaning in literacy and creatively extended the NLS model of goals. Also, work in the United States where professionals give much attention to the most important components in any learning process (Block et al., 2014). This element connects to the results sought, which include a poetry anthology, a website, or a newspaper.
2. Fostering play and engagement
Engagement and play are widely known for fostering creativity in different divides. The spontaneous nature of play, its generative orientatioareis vital. A close relationship also exists in ways through which real-world literacy is used and the literature in play, since both have similar characteristics, such as purpose, meaning, and offer a range of choices (Sharp & Kendall, 2016). The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum in England is led by recognising the critical role played by play and playful approaches I learning through exploration and evaluation of scenarios. Such playful activities need to be practiced in the primary phase of a child’s education stages, perhaps by experimenting with different poetic presentations and creating play scripts for performance before an audience comprising teachers or students, or both.
If the spirit of engagement and play is encouraged, teachers and students will be more willing to open up to new learning opportunities, try new routines and methods less practiced (Fisher & Williams, 2014). Creative English learning should be a highly interactive session involving a certain degree of playfulness and engagement in different contexts. In such, creativity will not be an event or a product; rather, it will involve a series of ideas and possibilities leading towards creative learning and thinking. For instance, while conducting an in-depth study of literature, the time for deep immersion into the setting and engagement will be provided, thus engaging mental and physical play with textual puzzles, ideas, and patterns (Cremin, 2016). During this time, children experienced explicit instruction and tailored learning. Through drama, art, discussion, and drawing, students are encouraged to imagine and develop flexible thinking with language and ideas.
3. Harnessing curiosity
At the center of creativity is a deep sense of wonder, imagination, fantasy, and curiosity, a desire to question; teachers need to model this imagination. It is vital to develop children’s opportunity for desired thinking (Wray et al., 2012). This involves immersing their minds in an issue in class and helping them question certain aspects, explore the facts, and take certain risks in the process. On this journey, knowledge about language and literacy skills is developed by involving them as readers, speakers, and listeners.
Crucial to this context is developing their self-determination and agency. Their ability to work as independent and creative thinkers will be impacted by the degree to which the tutors engage them in the classroom learning activities (Cremin, 2016). For instance, learners can build their interest by offering them elements of reading and choice in literature.
Conclusion
A creative approach to teaching and learning offers students a chance to make their own decisions and direct their work together with others in interactive class sessions. Consequently, learners can come up with new ideas, different perspectives, and develop imaginative skills in class through research, exploration, play, interaction with teachers and their fellow stustudentsnd data analysis. In mathematics and science, the use of graphs is the interpretation and representation of data is a creative method of fostering creative learning and expanding the research and analytical abilities of students in the class. The environment needed to foster creative teaching and learning should be engaging, interactive, playful, and should involve critical thinking for learners to fully immerse their thinking in the particular context and thus come up with new ideas, questions, a nd knowledge perspectives.
References
Benton, D., 2016. Teaching Literacy Across the Primary Curriculum Exeter: Learning Matters
Block, G.S., Winograd, K., and Lange, D., 2014. You can teach online: Building a creative learning environment. McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages.
Coles, D. and Copeland, T., 2013. Numeracy and Mathematics at the Primary School. London: David Fulton.
Cremin, T., 2016. Teaching English Creatively Oxford: Routledge
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Fraster, A., 2016. Creativity in Schools: Tensions and Dilemmas. London: Routledge
Miller, E., 2015. Differently Literate. London: Falmer Press
Pratt, A (Ed.) 2015. Creativity in Primary Education (2nd Edition) Exeter: Learning Matters
Sharp, D. & Kendall, M., 2016. Extending Literacy. Children Reading And Writing Non-Fiction. London: Routledge.
Tobias, A., 2015. Creativity across the Primary Curriculum: Framing and Developing Practice. London Routledge
Tegano, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P. and Howe, A., 2015. Creative learning environments in education—A systematic literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, pp.80-91.
Wray, D.J., Isaksen, S.G., and Firestein, R.L., 2012. Theoretical perspectives on creative learning and its facilitation: An overview. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 17(1), pp.9-17.
