Memorandum submitted by TAP (Teacher Artist Partnership)

 

What are the implications of a curriculum shift in favour of creativity for the training of heads, teachers and cultural animateurs?

 

Tapp, established in 2005, is a substantial year long joint CPD programme offering both teachers and artists (from nursery, primary to FE and across arts and subject disciplines) a sustained collaborative arts based learning experience. It is a research initiative which seeks to advance knowledge of what makes for successful and sustainable creative partnerships in school settings.

 

Genuine creative learning requires the ability to move away from the constraints of a curriculum/knowledge-based approach  and a focus on "outcome" to  one which appears at first sight to be more risky. Heads and teachers need assistance with working creatively in a process and to understand how a partnership with a creative practitioner can support them in learning to do so.  The practitioner may need support in learning how to work in a collaborative way with the teacher and head so that all parties in the triangle benefit from each other's knowledge and expertise. A CPD programme like TAPP, or other collaborative interdisciplinary CPD, can assist with the development of these critical partnership skills and provide a model for the process which emphasises the critical role of planning and reflection as well as delivery and evaluation.

 

What effect have existing creative initiatives had on teachers' skills and ability to work with creative partners in classrooms?

 

The effects of existing creative initiatives have been well documented both through evidence from Creative Partnerships (Ofsted and other evaluative processes and survey results) and also through the ongoing evaluation of programmes like TAPP and feedback from artist and teacher participants.  As far as TAPP is concerned the following comments are typical:

 

"The TAPP programme has had a great effect on my practice as a teacher.

It has been a transformative experience developing a project with an artist in school and has provided me with a lot of flexibility and resilience in countering red tape and conservatism".

 

PLEY, have been evaluating the TAPP programme from its inception and the following extracts from their interim evaluation provide evidence of the effects of such creative partnerships. They found that:

 

"teachers developed new skills and extended their own knowledge through working alongside artists, enabling them to gain experience of ways of working and thinking which could be added to an existing teaching repertoire. The presence of artists offered teachers opportunities to see children from a different perspective thus enriching their ways of learning".

 

In addition TAPP tutors identified that "teachers benefit from professional development undertaken with artists and artists benefit from working with teachers. Their shared professional development provides opportunities for artists to learn about the nature of teaching and learning as well as for teachers to understand the 'discipline' of the artist."

 

Note: The full evaluation report, including evidence of the effect of such creative initiatives, will be available on the TAPP website (www.tapprogramme.org) in the Autumn.

 

 

July 2007