Tag Archives: creativity

Careers and Pathways, Creativity Portal

Creativity at Work films on the Creativity Portal

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Creativity at work films are now available on the Creativity Portal.

So far these include eight interviews with scientists, designers, a space exploration engineer, an architect, a ballet dancer, a cameraman and a baker on how creativity is vital to their work and what that process feels like.

The films demonstrate how professionals generate ideas, formulate questions, improvise, make connections and allow ideas to evolve. This is a useful cross-curricular resource, with a focus on careers and skills for life.  It is perfect support for any design challenge, poster competition, or creative problem that you may be offering your learners, as well as supporting careers and pathways across all subjects.

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=creativity+at+work

CfE, CPD, Creativity Portal

Creativity in the Classroom films on the Creativity Portal

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Visit the Creativity Portal to view 13 examples of how teachers and community learning staff have used creative teaching in the classroom and community setting to deliver Curriculum for Excellence. From games design to storytelling, whole school strategy to pizza boxes these are small moments of creative inspiration that can be used to inform practitioners’ own work.  They provide CPD in how to take the challenges that Curriculum for Excellence poses and run with them.  The Creativity in the Classroom films are available now on the Creativity Portal.

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=creativity+in+the+classroom&c=%2Cvideos

Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, CLN News, Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh, Events, Fife, Highland, NCLN, Scottish Borders, Stirling

National Creative Learning Network at SLF 2012

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National Creative Learning Network at SLF 2012

The National Creative Learning Network (NCLN) is a community of practice which has a leadership role in championing and advocating creativity in both formal and informal learning contexts. The Network is well represented at this year’s SLF, with members from local authorities across Scotland leading workshops and seminars throughout the two days of the festival.

Seminar Programme

Find out about the benefits of being involved in a Creative Learning Network at Fife’s CLN Showcase seminar, or find out what being creative means to Edinburgh’s young apprentices.

  • Creative Learners, Creative Thinkers, Creative Careers (Edinburgh)
  • Showcasing Fife’s Creative Learning Network (Fife)
  • What’s the Past got to do with us? (Aberdeenshire)

Visit the SLF website to view the full seminar programme

Education Showcase

The Showcase programme features demonstrations, experiments, drama and music making with NCLN contributions from a number of authorities:

  • Arts and Culture as a Catalyst for Learning: The Aberdeen Arts Across Learning Festival (Aberdeen City)
  • Inspiring Creativity, Highland’s Creativity Conference (Highland)
  • Supporting Drama through Literacy – Learners with Mild to Severe and Complex Needs (Dumfries & Galloway)
  • Challenging Creativity Creatively (Edinburgh)
  • The Big Drum Experiment (Scottish Borders)
  • Little Rabbit: drama for early years (Angus)
  • Teachers Realising their Creative Potential (Aberdeen City)
  • Write a Song in 30 Minutes (Stirling)

To view the full Education Showcase programme click here

The NCLN consists of the the group of coordinators who lead each local authority’s Creative Learning Network. Visit the Creativity Portal to find out who your local Creative Learning Network contact is: http://bit.ly/Creative_Learning_Contacts

Find out more about the Creative Learning Networks by watching one of the short films on the Creativity Portal: http://bit.ly/CLN_Creativity_Portal

Early Years, Events

Early Years Creative Network for Scotland

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Starcatchers is carrying out some research into the potential of an Early Years Creative Network for Scotland.

Director of Starcatchers, Rhona Matheson, has kindly provided some contextual information for the Creative Learning Networks:

“How do organisations working with early years connect with creativity?  As Starcatchers has evolved over the last 6 years I have been aware that there are a wide range of creative and arts experiences available to parents, families and child care settings in Scotland, however there seems to be a gap in how people communicate about this work – for example we have been working in East Glasgow for more than 2 years with a fairly high profile through our work with Platform, however there are still settings and organisations who don’t know what we do and vice versa.

When Starcatchers was part of Imaginate, we created a ‘Starcatchers Network’ to try and give people opportunities to come together and share practice – this wasn’t just about sharing the Starcatchers experience but also about sharing the practice that other organisations or nurseries were delivering and there seemed to be demand from the people engaging with us for access these kinds of activities. I always felt that there was a way that an early years creative network could be more cohesive and respond to the policy and funding context in Scotland and with the needs of those engaging with it.

The consultation and research we are undertaking at the moment is a means of exploring this.  Through individual conversations, consultation events and an online questionnaire, we are trying to engage with a wide group of people in Scotland to understand what potential there might be for this kind of network.  We want to engage with arts and education sectors as well as play, health and social work and get a really good understanding of the landscape and need.”

There are clear links between the NCLN, CLNs and an Early Years Creative Network for Scotland. If you are interested in contributing to this discussion, please sign up for one of the consultation events – you can download the invitation here:  Consultation Invitation.

Artists, Drama

Artworks Scotland: October Symposium

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Sharing practice across artforms – a future possible theatre

10am – 4pm, 3 Oct, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, G5 9DS

In July this year, Artworks Scotland commissioned five of Scotland’s most active artists working in participatory settings, to take part in a peer mentoring exchange as part of a National Theatre of Scotland programme in Philadelphia. Working with People’s Light, the “devising lab” explored techniques to develop high quality theatre across a professional and community context.
Artworks Scotland and Citizens Theatre are now hosting a small symposium with three of these artists, to share their learning and engage with other artists interested in exploring the challenges and opportunities for peer learning whilst actively delivering a project.

Catrin Evans, director and activist will lead an exploration of the director’s role in the creation of a site specific piece of theatre and international collaborations.

MJ McCarthy, musician and sound designer, will present his thoughts and some of the soundscapes made during the Lab.
Simon Sharkey, Associate Director of National Theatre of Scotland will present his learning about commissioning and leading cross artform collaboration in community and professional contexts on an international scale.
Places at this free event are limited to 30. Book your place here.

The artists who took part in the Philadelphia project also kept a blog of their experiences. View the blog here.

More About ArtWorks

ArtWorks: Developing Practice in Participatory Settings is a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Special Initiative with funding and support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Creativity Culture & Education (supported by Arts Council England) and the Cultural Leadership Programme. ArtWorks Scotland is partner funded by Creative Scotland.

Events, Funding, Young People

Money for Life Challenge

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The Money for Life Challenge offers young people (aged 16-24) the opportunity to develop a money management/financial information themed project which will have an impact in their community.

This presents an excellent opportunity for encouraging young people to take ownership of their learning, to develop their confidence and make an effective contribution.

There are Scottish prizes to be won as well as UK National prizes, all awarded at inspirational events.

For more information on what happened in 2011/12 visit http://www.moneyforlifechallenge.org.uk

How You Can Get Involved!

The following events will explain how to get involved, provide information about the funding available to enable people to get involved and showcase the excellent work developed by participants in 2011/2012.

For further information and to book online click on the dates below:

CfE, Education News

Creativity’s Place in Building the Curriculum 4: new online resource

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Education Scotland has recently published a practical guide to support the development of the key messages surrounding Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for Learning, Life and Work. It will provide teachers and other practitioners with support to help them ensure that skills development is an integral part of learning throughout the broad general education stage of Curriculum for Excellence.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/s/skillsinpractice/introduction.asp?strReferringChannel=educationscotland&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-615801-64

Creativity as a Thinking Skill –

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/s/skillsinpracticethinkingskills/creativity.asp

Research

Assessing Creativity

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In Spring 2011, Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) commissioned the Centre for Real-World Learning (CRL) at The University of Winchester to undertake research to establish the viability of creating an assessment framework for tracking the development of young people’s creativity in schools.

After reviewing the literature on creativity and its assessment, and consulting expert practitioners, CRL created a framework for developing creativity in schools, and derived an assessment tool to trial in schools.

This tool comprised of 5 habits and 15 sub-habits of creativity:

  1. Inquisitive (wondering and questioning, exploring and investigating, challenging assumptions)
  2. Persistent (sticking with difficulty, daring to be different, tolerating uncertainty)
  3. Imaginative (playing with possibilities, making connections, using intuition)
  4. Collaborative (sharing the product, giving and sharing feedback, cooperating appropriately)
  5. Disciplined (developing techniques, reflecting critically, crafting and improving)

Through two separate field trials the research suggested that the framework was sufficiently distinct from existing approaches to creativity to be useful and that from a teacher point of view, the framework was both rigorous and plausible.

The principal findings were that:

  1. The concept of an assessment framework for creativity in schools is valid and relevant. There was a strong sense among teachers that our framework encompassed a learnable set of dispositions. There are strong grounds for now seeking to develop a more sophisticated prototype, of use to teachers and learners, to track the development of creativity in schools.
  2. The framework should initially focus on the 5-14 age range, although some practitioners may find it useful with younger and older pupils.
  3. The evidence suggests that the primary use of any assessment framework will be formative, supporting pupils to harness more of their creativity and helping teachers more effectively to cultivate creative dispositions in the young people they teach.

To find out more and to download the full report click here:

http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/progression-in-creativity-developing-new-forms-of-assessment

CPD, Events

Festival of Politics 17-25 August 2012

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Politics. Culture. Creativity – A Force for Positive Change

Can  politics  be  creative?    Can  creativity  be  used  as  a  means  of  making   a  real  difference  to  our  culture?    The  2012  Festival  of  Politics  seeks  to   explore  some  of  these  issues  through  debate,  discussion,  drama  and  art.

A rich and varied programme includes sessions on ‘Creativity and Social Change’ and ‘Untangling Article 31 – Children’s Right to Play, Culture and the Arts’, and explores questions such as ‘What has been the most creative force in Scottish politics?

Download the Festival brochure here2012_Festival_of_Politics_Programme