This week’s focus in integrated arts was creativity. The definition of creativity is “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness”. In the lecture we were asked the question ‘are schools killing creativity?’ In schools, the focus is moving away from the creative subjects and moving towards the academic subjects. However, this should not be the case as it is essential for pupils to express their creativity and the arts is the best way to do this. Czikszentmihalyi was a psychologist who believed that schools do not encourage their pupils to be creative. He stated “it seems schools do not have much impact on the lives of creative people. Schools seem to extinguish the interest and curiosity that the child had discovered outside its walls.” This shows that schools try to create critical thinkers rather than encourage creativity.
Firstly, in art we got the chance to make our own paintbrushes using multiple materials such as wool, thread and wooden sticks. This can be seen in the above picture on the right. The purpose of this task was to allow us to be creative by not using a regular paintbrush. We were allowed to use our imaginations and create our own idea of what a paintbrush should look like. We were then told to use our paintbrushes to paint a picture. A story was read out to us describing a scene which we had to remember and then paint. This encourages creativity as everyone’s pictures ended up looking different. We were able to imagine what the scene looked like and from memory, try to paint it, which can be seen in the above picture on the left. No one felt nervous about this task as everyone knew their picture would not turn out perfect as we used our homemade paintbrushes. This took the anxiety away from the task and everyone ended up enjoying themselves. Therefore, creativity is essential in the classroom. Children should be given the opportunity to use their imagination without the fear of looking bad in front of their peers. Tasks like the one we carried out would be great in the classroom as children would be free to express themselves without any embarrassment.
During the music input we were discussing improvisation. In order for children to be creative during a music lesson they must have the opportunity to improvise. We were asked to play a solo on the xylophone. A tune was played in the background to assist us. Each person played a different tune. The point of this task is for us to show our creativity. It was also to teach us to that children need to be given the chance to use their imagination in schools and they do not always have to follow a guide or set of instructions. Teachers do not always have to plan lessons for pupils and give them step-by-step instructions, by letting children guide their own learning they are free to be creative and independent.
Overall, creativity is vital for children and their education. Teachers need to be aware that they must teach creativity to a certain extent but also, they must let their pupils learn to be creative on their own. Both are important, and children must be allowed both within their education. Schools must encourage creativity rather than kill it. This does not have to be difficult, teachers can encourage creativity by allowing children to ask more questions and work collaboratively. By incorporating this into lessons we will be encouraging children to expressive themselves more. Curriculum for Excellence believes that creative learning is important within education and it can have a massive impact on children. They have stated “Creativity is a process which generates ideas that have value to the individual. It involves looking at familiar things with a fresh eye, examining problems with an open mind, making connections, learning from mistakes and using imagination to explore new possibilities.” This means that children will have the chance to come up with their own ideas and thoughts on things, this encourages them to be expressive. The more children learn how to be creative the more their confidence will grow.
References
Creativity Across Learning 3-18 (2013) [online] Education Scotland. Available: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/18518/7/Creativity3to18_tcm4-814361_Redacted.pdf [Accessed: 02 October 2018]
Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi (n.d) Creativity Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. Available: http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/45629/mod_resource/content/1/creativity-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.pdf [Accessed: 02 October 2018]
Oxford dictionaries (n.d) [online] Available: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/creativity [Accessed: 02 October 2018]
