Thursday 2nd February

When developing my understanding and competence needed for the classroom, reflection and analytical thinking are the most valuable skills needed during the inputs for this module. These are skills which I believe are developing most whilst taking part of this module.

Moving on from the printmaking which I took part in during last weeks session, we worked on developing this further as well as adding some literature into this.

Projects such as this bring creativity to the classroom – something which this current generation is lacking. A topic such as printmaking is something which is distinct and different. Exposure to new ideas and concepts is ‘particularly instrumental In provoking creative responses from young people’ (Halsey, Jones and Lord, 2006, p.6).

A task such as this would also help stimulate creativity amongst socially excluded young people as it was said that ‘young people’s creativity was more likely to be stimulated when they perceived that the task they were engaged in was relevance to them and aligned with their experience of the world’ (Halsey, Jones and Lord, 2006, p.9).  This, again, is a relevant topic to teach children such as these, as it is beneficial to all children. As the topic is based on an evocative object, it brings in relevance to each individual child.

Topics such as these are examples of what we, as teachers, should be interpreting into the classroom in order to ‘nurture creativity’. Nurturing creativity is crucial as ‘we should build our policies on success… to look at what more we can do to nurture young creative talent and also to look for a clear set of assumptions which will help to inform the basis of our future policy on creativity’ (Roberts, 2–6, p.5).

By bringing processes such as this to the classroom, we, as teachers, are demonstrating changing STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) into STEAM (science, technology, engineering, maths). ‘STEAM is a way to take the benefits of STEM and complete the package by integrating these principles in and through the arts’ (Education Closet, 2016).

 

References

• Halsey, K., Jones, M. and Lord, P. (2006). What works in stimulating creativity amongst socially excluded young people. 1st ed. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research, p.6-9.
• Roberts, P. (2006). Nurturing Creativity in Young People. 1st ed. London: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, p.5.
• •Education Closet, (2016). What is STEAM?. [online] STEAM Portal. Available at: http://educationcloset.com/steam/what-is-steam/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2017]