Creativity
Creativity is a word that is often
used within my practice as a drama and LAMDA teacher. The art of getting things
done seems more pressing in our time constricted lives. “Stand there, say it
like this, move over here on this line.” Telling the children what to do it isn’t
creative at all. That, in my opinion, is just refining technique. It is how they develop a character and their own
way in which they perform it that is their moment to be creative.
I love nothing more when the
children go completely off topic, sometimes they really do create things that
are magic, funny and often bizarre. I reassure them there is no right or wrong
in drama and that fills them with confidence. Teaching within a private school
setting, we have a high standard of work expectation, a huge number of exams
and the children are sadly drowning in a testing as progress culture. It drives
me crazy, by the time they reach the top of the school, many pupils are robotic
and lacking in personality, having their ideas and creativity quite literally been
sucked out of them. It breaks my heart.
Cindy Foley is right, we all want
to teach children to cultivate creativity, but many of us have seemed to have missed
the point! Art education can “develop the capacity to think creatively and the capacity to make
connections” but only if it is taught correctly. Foley goes on to
say “I believe
that art education needs to focus on developing learners that think like
artists, learners that are creative, curious, seek questions, develop ideas and
play.” Not only a valuable lesson for our children, but a good
reminder of what we, as arts practitioners should also be doing.
I am so fortunate that the arts
allow us to play. Play with ideas or materials to generate something; the analogy
of Lego was brilliant. I think as educators, we can often find an easy route of
churning out data and copy and pasting with little thought to creativity at
all. We think it is creative, but
really a copycat project with some different words or pictures isn’t really
creative at all. Arguably it looks good for the display board, or it ticks a
box in the learning ladder or course syllabus. Is this where we have gone
wrong?
Later in the blog post, Cindy
Foley refers to 3 habits that she believes are essential for creativity, which are
as follows:
1. Comfort
with ambiguity
2. Idea
generation
3. Transdisciplinary
research
These had a particular resonance
with me. Module 1 and 2 has taught me that the discomfort of ambiguity is a
good thing. Ideas come from mapping connections and to have a driven curiosity
for research can lead to true creativity.
Reference: Online
Video, Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist? Cindy Foley, TEDxColumbus,
November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcFRfJb2ONk
Hi Jess,
ReplyDeleteIt's extremely refreshing to read your thoughts. I very much agree with your views and was extremely emotional watching Cindy Foley's TED Talk video. As a teacher myself, there is a beauty in exploration and developing creativity through this. I find it a very difficult thing to balance when their are high expectations within the education system and often feel it inhibits an inclusive experience.
I hope your study is going well and you've had a great start to Module Three!
Sometimes it feels impossible doesn't it? Finding the balance between creativity and educational "expectation". Interesting your thoughts on inclusivity. Do you not feel that our lessons plans have to ensure inclusivity?
DeleteHi Jess, I've loved reading your post! It has helped to realize that it is more advisable to embrace ambiguity rather than fighting it and I hope the course of Module 1 will aid me in fully understanding the process.
ReplyDeleteEdoardo
Thanks Edoardo, I still struggle with ambiguity, but I have learnt to live with it. Good luck in your studies!
DeleteHi Jess,
ReplyDeleteI agree that art education develops creativity only if it is delivered correctly. When discussing this subject I always recall my personal experience as a dance student within Fred Folke's sessions (he teaches Street dance styles popping and locking). In his lessons Fred emphasized that dancers should add their own style to each move and not just "copy and paste" what is being demonstrated by teacher.
Within my dance teaching practice I promote the same value within Street dance sessions. However, I find that this approach is not valued in classical ballet sessions. From my personal experience and from observing ballet teachers, the emphasis is on exact execution of what is being taught. Does this mean ballet lessons don't develop creativity? Would you call this teaching approach old fashioned? Does modelling have different values in different genres?
My observations are based on experiences with older generation teachers, so it would be interesting to hear whether younger teachers have a different approach?
All in all, I think your post raised a lot of questions for me which will assist in my inquiry on creativity development in dance.
I am really pleased that it raised a lot of questions for you. How do you think modern society has contributed to the approach of"modern" teaching?
DeleteI found Cindy Foleys talk very informative. It provides a reminder to us of what we need to do in a stressful atmosphere. I do hope your thoughts on classical ballet are reliant on the teacher and I would like to think I am not too 'old fashioned'. It is true that the restrictions of the classical technique and the stress of getting students to particular standard sometimes leads me into being exacting, however I do encourage creativity within my classical classes by allowing my younger students to do improvisation each week. With older students where technique comes even more into focus I encourage free expression and individuality through musicality, in the use of port de bras and quality of movement. I remind my students that they are all different so they will all look slightly different doing a movement and that is quite acceptable. Of course that may be because I am teaching a diverse range of physiques and abilities.
DeleteA great blog Jess, Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteKristine, I am also a dance teacher and was thinking the same thing. Graded Ballet lessons dont leave much room for creativity. I also feel that social media now effects creativity, most pupils just try replicate what they see on the latest Youtube or Instagram video instead of just expressing themselves.
Thanks for reading Charlie. Hope your studies are going well.
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