This week’s input highlighted the importance of ensuring art lessons are not constricted and controlled by teachers. This view can be supported by Csikszentmihalyi (1996) who believes schools can suppress children’s creative spark and curiosity.
Often, teachers can overexplain visual art lessons which forces pupils to make their teacher’s artistic vision, rather than their own. In visual art, this results in uniform pictures being created (see below). I have seen many similar displays in primary schools where each picture is almost identical and does not showcase pupil’s creativity.
In this week’s input we explored Room 13. Established in 1994 in Caol Primary School in Fort William, Scotland, Room 13 is an art studio run as a social enterprise by students within the school. Art lessons should be “learner-inclusive” and child-initiated (Craft, 2007). The studio understands the importance
of nurturing creativity and allowing children to initiate learning. It aims to give students creative autonomy and the freedom to focus their artwork on the things they like (Adams et al, 2008, Room 13 International, 2012). This concept has been adopted throughout the UK and the wider world. As of 2006, there were six Room 13’s in the UK: five in primary schools and one in a secondary school (Drummond, 2006).
In our visual art workshop, we adopted some of the ideas raised through the concept of Room 13. Every part of the lesson was designed to encourage creativity and avoid uniformity. Firstly, we each made our own paintbrush out of various types of material (see below). In the classroom, although this may raise some questions among children as to the logistics of using these paintbrushes, I believe children will enjoy the creative and imaginative freedom that this task brings.
We then had a picture described to us by Diarmuid verbally. We did not get to view the picture. Instead, we wrote down the pieces of information that he gave us and worked from there. This meant that we did not try to copy or replicate a picture we had already seen, instead we had to use our imagination and creativity. This part of the task allowed us to develop both our listening and creative skills simultaneously. Furthermore, we were only given four colours of paint to work with: white and the three primary colours: blue, red and yellow. This meant that any other colours we wanted to make, we had to mix together ourselves. In the classroom, this would allow children to experiment with paint and colour. Each of these factors meant that, despite everyone working from the same picture, we all created very unique pieces of art (see below).
Lessons in art and creativity should expand upon the concepts and topics that children already like and enjoy (QCA, 2004) and children enjoy having the freedom to choose what they would like to create (see quote to the right). As such, giving children as much creative freedom as possible within the constraints of education is vital. Thus, I believe using the lesson described above in primary schools would be extremely effective in building children’s engagement in and love for art.
In the case of drama, teachers often lack confidence (Russell-Bowie, 2013). As a result, in many instances drama inputs in primary schools do not stretch beyond annual Nativity Shows meaning children do not have the opportunity to use their creative skills to produce scenes from their own imagination. As a future practitioner, I am grateful for the drama inputs we have received in university as they have helped to build my confidence in teaching the subject.
In this week’s drama input we used drama to explore some historical and modern social and cultural issues. Some examples include: the Holocaust, the Grenfell Tower disaster, immigration and the Me Too movement. We used four drama conventions throughout the input: monologue, voices in the head, slow motion and miming. Monologuing and voices in the head sees characters stepping out of a drama scene for a moment to voice how they are feeling. These conventions encourage children to think beyond the dialogue spoken by their characters and explore their inner thoughts and feelings more deeply.
In all of our drama inputs, we have had free reign over the stories we choose to tell. Andrew will prompt us with overarching concepts and ideas as to the type of issues we could explore within those concepts. However, our imaginations are never restricted by the tasks we are given and we are free to be creative with our scenes. Similarly to the results of our visual arts input this means that, despite everyone starting with the same concept, no two scenes turn out the same. I believe that, like the visual arts lesson, children will respond well to drama lessons that allow them to explore issues that they are personally interested in.
Overall this input demonstrated the damaging impact that teachers can have on creativity in lessons in the arts. If lessons are too constricted, children are simply following a set of instructions rather than letting their imaginations run free. Thus, as a practitioner, I aim to avoid the production of monotony that is pictured above and instead ensure that my arts lessons harness rather than stifle children’s creativity.
Reference List
Adams et al. (2008) Teaching Through Contemporary Art: Report on Innovative Practices in the Classroom. London: Tate Publishing.
Craft, A. (2007) Creativity and Possibility in the Early Years. [Online] Available: www.tactyc.org.uk/pdfs/reflection-craft.pdf [Accessed: 29 September 2019]
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Perennial.
Drummond, M. J. (2006) Room 13 Case Study Report. [Online] Available: room13international.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Room13-Case-Study-Report-Nesta-2006.pdf [Accessed: 25 September 2019]
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it. London: QCA Publications.
Room 13 International. (2012) About Room 13. [Online] Available: room13international.org/about/ [Accessed: 25 September 2019]
Russell-Bowie, D. E. (2013) A Tale of Five Countries: Background and Confidence in Preservice Primary Teachers in Drama Education across Five Countries. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. [Online] Vol.38(7), pp.59-74. Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1016005.pdf [Accessed: 25 September 2019]
