Memorandum submitted by Fi Benson, Freelance Artist, Education Consultant, Community and Education Officer for the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust

 

 

1. How should we define creativity in the context of education and childcare:

The acknowledgment, value and development of multiple intelligences and right-brain thinking to provide a balanced and enriched curriculum aiming to promote higher order learning and problem-solving skills.

 

3. What are the implications of a curriculum shift in favour of creativity for the training of heads, teachers and cultural animators:

 

Curriculum priorities, systems and processes have emphasized left-brain thinking and approaches and traditionally and conventionally illustrated a perception of right-brain thinking and approaches as 'add on' rather than in an integrated way, with its own values for teaching and learning. In a similar way, traditional education has valued and supported primarily logical-mathematical intelligences, even in artistic curriculum subjects. The shift 'in favour of creativity' is merely a long-needed shift towards a balanced curriculum, and will give substance to the token concept of 'education for all'.

Teacher-training/LSW/TA and similar-purposed programmes need to be developed which in themselves have whole-brain and multiple-intelligence perspectives, systems and processes so that educators and cultural animators will be able to plan, deliver, assess, reflect and evaluate the balanced and holistic educational experience/gain and be effective role models for learners.

We have a massive and increasing skills gap because our education system follows limited and narrow paths through the potentials of individuals and groups.

Our education system (and therefore the agents of that system) needs to develop teaching and assessment tools that acknowledge and value the existence and potentials of diverse intelligences.

 

Because educators and cultural animators are individuals with their own multiple intelligences and need for whole-brain activities, there is likely to be huge implications for stress-relief, increased morale and better health for the education system's staffing.

 

5. What special contribution do the arts have to make to creative education:

 

{I'm assuming here a definition of the term 'creative education' as 'education which is creative' rather than a definition which sees 'creativity' as a separate entity to 'the rest of' education}

Processes within, and practitioners of, the arts have significant historical traditions and contemporary developments of right-brain manners of thinking and learning - clearly, the right hand to pair with the left ...

 

6. To what degree should creative education be structured to accommodate the needs of the creative industries

 

AND

11. How can creativity in schools best be linked to the real world of work and leisure:

 

Both of these questions seem to be missing the significant point - 'creativity' is not an optional add-on, it's an integral part of every individual's skills/understanding development.

 

The creative industries are growing because of individuals' and groups' increasing realisation of the potentials and benefits of creativity for economic (professional/vocational) and leisure pursuits, and for improvements in health and well-being. Some individuals going through the statutory and voluntary education systems have specific strengths, abilities and potentials that make them particularly appropriate for the creative industries per se, and educational systems need to acknowledge and serve those individuals' needs, but education needs to be 'creative', ie to acknowledge and value creativity (holistic integration of right-brain activity and diverse intelligences) to be balanced education per se, for everyone, whether they are, at any point in their lives**, within an industry categorised as 'creative' or not. **And, increasingly, people are engaged in 'lifelong learning' and multiple-careers/portfolio careers.

 

In the real world (!) of work and leisure - corporate training and development programmes are beginning to recognise the importance of 'creativity' to economic success and to the welfare of an organisation's human resource - evidenced by the growth in demand for leaders of creative problem-solving workshops and creative leadership programmes, and by the amount of funding that corporations are happy to pay for such workshops and programmes ...

 

 

 

7. What evidence is there that a creative curriculum assists achievement in other areas?

AND

8. What is the impact of a creative curriculum on - a) pupil confidence, motivation, behaviour and team-work b) literacy, numeracy, ICT and communication skills?

 

Please refer to my covering letter where there is some address of these questions.

 

Further - There is a massive impact (Q8) on all of these things, and there is much qualitative and anecdotal evidence (Q7) that we all (creative practitioners who have been involved in delivering creative curriculum workshops and initiatives) could list. (For egs, in my expressive arts tutoring with offender-juveniles: one girl sang in public for the first time, huge gain in self-confidence and altered her demeanour towards other members of the group (less aggression); one girl started to join in and read out as part of a script-reading activity and went from loud claims of 'I can't read, I'm too thick' to being a regular library-book borrower; on a regular basis, girls who had never dramatised/devised stories in their lives and initially had no intention of doing so were joining in with group improvisations and building communication and team-work skills, and stress-release which had an impact on the effects of the institutional regime).

However, funding has been rarely sufficient to cover the type of detailed and specific evaluation processes that would provide what's needed to address the above questions effectively (see my covering letter for suggested recommendations).

I believe that there are initiatives in the health and social care realms that are beginning to address this need for greater and more detailed evaluation of impact - for eg, the Artlift project in Gloucestershire, where a 'Paint Yourself Better' initiative started in a gp's surgery had so much impact that further and greater funding was acquired to put 15 artists into a range of health-care environments and to fund a large evaluation process as a significant aspect to the initiative.

 

9. How can creative achievement among young people be acknowledged and assessed

AND

10. How can creativity be embedded across the curriculum and within the philosophy of schools

 

The answers to both of these questions depends on a pre-requisite shift in perspective that sees creativity as integral to the curriculum. The first steps for this altered perspective are to acknowledge whole-brain manners of thinking and diverse intelligences, and to value the introduction of creative practitioners into the educational process in a holistic rather than 'added-on' way.

 

July 2007