Memorandum submitted by Jill Jesson, Senior Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University

 

1.2 For the last two years at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), the BA 5-11 Primary Education with QTS course has run a module for students on developing the student's own creativity. By developing the student's creativity and understanding of the concepts involved, it was felt they would be better placed to develop the creativity of the children they would teach. This module had very positive results and I believe such modules should be available on all Initial teacher Training ( ITT) courses. The module did not place creativity in a box but showed how to embed it across the curriculum.

 

1.2 Small scale research projects run by Creative Partnerships can be very beneficial not only to the classes concerned but to the whole school involved. Creative partners bring new skills and fresh insights to a school.

 

1.3 Using ITT courses, school-based work and T V programmes, the government should promote both group and personal projects in a wide range of creative and artistic fields.

 

My Background

2.1 I have worked in primary education as a teacher for thirty years, including three years as an AST before joining Sheffield Hallam University, as a senior lecturer in Education. For the last two years I have worked with a team of SHU tutors on a Higher Education, the Arts and Schools (HEARTS) project which employed professional artists to help develop the creativity of students in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) so that they were better placed to develop the creativity of the children they would teach. Lessons learned on this project have influenced the revalidation of the Primary Education 3-7 and 5-11 degrees with qualified teacher status (QTS) currently offered by SHU. For the last two years I have acted as a mentor on Creative Partnership's (CP) Creative Action Research Award (CARA) projects.

 

Factual Information

3.1 For the past two years, 120 second year students on the BA in primary Education 5-11 with QTS, at Sheffield Hallam University, have been enrolled on an innovative module, 'Creativity across the Primary Curriculum'. It was felt by teaching staff that in order to help children develop their creative potential the student teachers themselves needed to develop their own creative skills. To this end a module was written which not only gave the students an introduction to some of the theories about creative development, but also gave them practical workshop experience with professional artists in the fields of writing, music, sculpture dance and drama, the latter two courses being run by Sheffield Theatres. Practical application of their learning was required on school placement. The results were dramatic.

 

3.2 Student understanding of the term Creativity

Seminar discussion at the start of the module showed that although the majority of students (87%) felt that they were creative, few could give examples of this attribute in their lives. Creativity was seen as end product orientated and clearly associated with the arts. Discussion revealed that students had little idea of how to develop creativity in their pupils other than to let them paint or write with a free choice on context and with out the constraints of time or technique, the latter being deemed to inhibit free expression. They were unaware of any literature on the subject and although creativity was felt to be 'a good thing' (student remark), for others it was also a term to be feared when associated with freedom of choice or expression. It was felt that the latter were likely to involve noise, mess and possibly loss of control. There was confusion over the terms creative teaching and creative learning. We therefore found the NACCCE definition of creativity to be a useful baseline for out project.

 

3.3 Results

Post module student surveys were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the module. All but two of the 120 students said they had developed some creative skills in specific areas taught. 100% said that some of the sessions were useful for developing children's creativity. A renewed understanding of the creative process, and an eagerness to teach in this way was reported, as well as many personal accounts of creative initiatives started such as learning to play instruments / writing poems / attending dance classes.

3.3.1 A staff survey revealed that tutors on other modules, particularly those teaching science geography, art and DT, noted improvements in student assignments, both in plans for teaching and in the provision for pupils to develop their creative response in lessons.

 

3.3.2 Feedback from schools. On a small scale survey of one tutorial group comprising 17 students, the summative teaching practice reports from the schools were checked for the terms creative, innovative or cross-curricular links although schools had not been asked to comment on these terms. 12 out of 17 students had one or more of these terms in their final reports, 10 of whom had been enrolled on the creativity module. The two who had not were especially able Early Years students who had heard about it but not been involved. 5 students did not have these terms mentioned and had not attended because they were either Early Years students who had not done the module or those who had returned after a year out and therefore missed the module. Only 2 who had attended the module did not have the terms in their summative reports.

 

3.3.14 Creative Partnerships is helping to fund a similar module in the next academic year, linked to a research project to discover the specific benefits of working with creative partners so that this aspect of ITT can be embedded more fully into the course.

 

3.4 CARA projects.

As a mentor on three CARA projects sponsored by Creative Partnerships over the last two years, I have seen renewed enthusiasm by staff and increased variety of work from pupils involved in partnership work with creative professionals. The quality of work from the artists has revitalised the teachers' approach and given a welcome relief from core subjects to pupils liberated to take risks and make cross-curricular links. Less emphasis on paperwork and a more flexible approach to the style of report required might be useful here. Improved pupil behavior, confidence, communication, motivation, and team work were all attributed by the teachers to this work. The influence of the projects often extended beyond the classes involved. The creative professionals on these projects demonstrated skills and expectations which differed from those of the teaching staff. They gave motivation and a fresh start to pupils who had not excelled before.

 

 

Recommendations

 

4.1 Primary school teachers still need more official approval to develop the creativity of the children they teach. While publications such as Creativity across the Curriculum' may appear to endorse this approach, as long as there is such a public emphasis on schools setting and gaining SATs targets, teachers will be under too much pressure to climb league tables to allow pupils to take risks, explore and innovate.

 

4.2 The emphasis when teaching for creativity needs to be more on the process rather than the product as it is quite easy to produce results which make a class appear creative when they are really just completing creative projects designed by school staff.

 

4.3 The arts are sometimes the bricks and at other times the mortar to creative projects. At all times they are vital to the building of new ideas and their expression. It should be possible to see them both ways and not just as an end in themselves.

 

4.4 Greater links could be encouraged between personalised learning and creativity perhaps in the form of personal projects.

 

4.5 Creative Partnership research projects can produce exciting, motivating and innovative work when there is whole school staff support and enough time allocated for planning and evaluation. These should be continued. Perhaps every school could have a creative partner from the arts/ science/ industry / cultural groups. These could be changed every two years to ensure variety and maintain interest.

 

4.6 Not only head teachers but classroom teachers really need an injection of continued professional development (CPD) to encourage creative teaching and creative learning in all classes. Time spent doing this could increase pupil motivation so that academic and behavioural standards would rise as well. Programmes for developing the creativity of student teachers and practicing teachers need to be set up. It is not really possible to develop someone else's creative potential, if you are not developing your own. Good teaching is by example. Only a creative teacher can develop the creativity of their class.

 

4.7 TV programmes could help with helping parents and carers to understand the value of creative skills and opportunities.

 

4.8 How can creative achievement among young people be acknowledged and assessed? Assessment needs to be very simple if it is to be useable. In my own practice, for a short time before joining the university I used to assess some of my pupil's work on a scale I devised: Copies / Modifies / Extends / Innovates. The results of such assessment, often told me as much about the potential in my teaching for creative response as it did about the creative development of the children I taught.

 

4.8.1. In terms of awards, research shows us that the best motivation is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. Teachers have enough tick boxes to fill without further assessment. The Artsmark awards might be promoted more widely. Exhibitions of ideas, whether on-line or in real space would be one way to acknowledge achievement.

 

4.9 To embed creativity across the curriculum and within the philosophy of schools we need the government rhetoric to match the government's standards. The new standards make no mention of three things close to the hearts of every teacher: excellence, enjoyment and creativity!

 

July 2007