Creativity Introduction

Creativity is defined in the oxford dictionary as the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. ‘Inventiveness’. I however align my definition of creativity in a similar way in which Steve Jobs is quoted saying ““Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while”. I believe that being creative is the process of forming ideas and developing knowledge which uses prior knowledge as the foundation. This process formulates this new knowledge into a way that helps you retain that information or devise a way to understand it a way that suits you as the individual. According to Copper, H (2013) states that there is a consensus about the key components of the concept and agreement that creativity involves generating ideas, these ideas maybe new ideas to humanity or simple ideas which are new to a persons thinking.  

One of the first vision statements that is noted in the New Zealand curriculum (2007) expects students to aspire to become is ‘creative, energetic and enterprising’ and is reiterated in the vision goal of being a life long learner as critical and creative thinkers.

Although Creativity is commonly bound within an educational outlook as belonging with the arts but it is ultimately intertwined with in all areas and aspects of life. As stated above it is explicitly determined within the New Zealand curriculum as creative thinking which should integrated throughout the curriculum. ‘Creativity must not be seen as an add-on but integral… part of the normal teaching and learning process.’ (Feasey, 2005).

When I look back on my own personal education the stand out moments that I continue to carry with me are the opportunities that allowed me to learn in an alternative manner. Instead of being dictated to and told to do something a specific way, the teacher allowed the students to approach the subject in a way which was suited to the individual. One stand out moment in my education was the way a science teacher allowed us to record a song for the periodic table rather than route learning of all the elements and this song was played and sang along too. This method of creative learning was an echo of how the times tables were taught in my primary school. Creativity has always been something I am drawn to and find that children naturally use creative outlets to explore and make sense of their surroundings, as their knowledge widens, they gradually start to include more details and aspects that they pick up into their work.

Throughout this blog I will be exploring the alternative educational teaching models in relation to how they embrace creativity, the different elements and theories associated within creativity and why creativity is important to me as a teacher.

 References

Cooper, H. (2013). Teaching history creatively. New York, NY: Routledge.

Feasey, R. (2005). Creative science: Achieving the WOW factor with 5-11 year olds. London: David Fulton.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media Limited