Integrated Arts Blog 18/09/18

Creativity is something that is vital within the curriculum. It can be used in any subject and offers huge benefits to a child’s learning as it allows them to add their own personality and view on things which lets there be some individuality added to all aspects of their education.

This lecture was based around “Creativity Across Learning 3-18”. Various things were looked at during the lecture in terms of creativity however one thing mentioned was psychologist Csikszentmihalyi views on the topic. “So, the first step towards a more creative life is the cultivation of curiosity and interest” Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins. If a child wants to be successful while being creative, there should be an initial want to be different and to step away from the ordinary. This linked in well with our first workshop of the day which was music.

In this workshop, we were shown a music website for schools called Charanga. (https://charanga.com/site/) This website provides different teachings of music for each level of school and comes with different activities and instructions to help give pupils the best learning. After this we were all given glockenspiels and were told to do an improvisation solo for 32 counts. This meant we had to be creative. This linked in well with the theme of the lecture and Csikszentmihalyi’s quote. There was curiosity towards the task and interest to make your own solo different compared to everyone else’s. The task made everyone a bit apprehensive to performing individually in front of the full class but nevertheless, it was a chance to be creative and add some individuality to the song.

This also linked well the art workshop we had afterwards. In this workshop, we created our own paintbrushes with various materials like wool and straw. This could be a very creative task to do with primary aged pupils as it allows them to do anything they want to an originally very basic item. The next activity was painting with the brush we had just made. We were told a scene and had to paint it how we imagined it in our minds using only 4 colours; red, blue, yellow and white. This meant we could make a variety of colours with just a small selection to begin with. The task also meant we had to be imaginative and creative which led to everyone’s paintings to be very different. Individuality and creativity were key parts of the lecture and both the workshops and provided a different perspective on how to teach children the arts. Everything does not need to be restricted to black and white and the rules do not always need to be followed, especially when teaching such a diverse subject. However, it is important that other subjects receive the same amount of creativity as it will aid the children’s learning and help them become more interested in education.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins.