Reading “Killing the Goose: Conflicts between Pedagogy and Politics in the Delivery of a Creative Education” by Ruth Dineen and Elspeth Collins
I was inspired to read this article from the reading list provided for our introductory workshop, as I am preparing a teaching session for the Research Season 2023 The Value of Creativity. I thought that the theme of the event corresponds well with the subject of the article.
The article defined creativity and the creative process first. It offered a comprehensive definition by Osche (1968) which states that creativity involves ‘bringing something into being that is original (new, unusual, novel, unexpected) and also valuable (useful, good, adaptive, appropriate)’. I was surprised that the outcome of the creative process must be judged as ‘valuable’ by the definition. The explanation that this judgement should be carried out by individual, or a group of experts clarified this bit for me further (still leaving me thinking how many issues it can pose).
Further in the article the authors highlight the importance of the creative process itself and the fact that assessment of the outcome and time constraints present in the higher education can restrain creativity itself. .
Within education the most salient factors affecting creativity are:
- the environment and atmosphere
- teaching styles, methods and strategies
- project types and outcomes
- the use of rewards, assessment and evaluation
- learner motivation and learning styles
- personality traits of the learner
What a huge responsibility we have as teachers! To repeat after the article: “The biggest single influence on the atmosphere in any classroom is the teacher/lecturer. Successful lecturers (in terms of fostering creativity) are themselves self-motivated, creative thinkers, acting as models for their students.”
I agree with the authors that diversity, ambiguity, and uncertainty may support creativity, but it can be increasingly difficult within a target-driven culture of the current education system. However, my reading focus remained on the place of creativity in learning and teaching part of the article.
I found the research about creativity itself and how we can influence it within education, presented here, highly informative and inspiring. It provided me with some ideas for the session: focus on the atmosphere, leave space for speculation and fantasy and provide/facilitate for active or even playful participation. I think that an OBL session using special collections items would give me an opportunity to use and test the above ideas. It would also fit well The Value of Creativity theme of the research season.