Teaching and Learning for Creativity

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Teaching and Learning for Creativity

• Keith Sawyer
• Washington University in St. Louis

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(No Transcript)
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July 2005
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2005
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October 2005
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• Better K-12 education
• Better higher education
• Missing An understanding of how innovation
  works, how people learn for creativity, and how
  to redesign schools

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Research on Teaching Creativity

• Pretty much ended with Paul Torrance
• We need a renewed effort, grounded in the
  cognitive sciences and the learning sciences
• This effort should contribute to
• curriculum
• teacher education
• assessment

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1A Case StudyThe United Kingdom
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• U.S. Creative industries are over 11 of GDP

• U.K. Creative industries are over 8 of GDP

What are the U.S. and U.K. doing in schools to
leverage this competitive advantage?

• The U.S., not much.

• The U.K., on the other hand

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U.K. National Curriculum

• The curriculum should enable pupils to think
  creatively and critically. It should give them
  the opportunity to become creative, innovative,
  enterprising and capable of leadership.
• National Curriculum, pp. 11-12

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Definition of Creative Thinking and Behavior

• Imaginative
• Purposeful
• Original
• Of value, in relation to the goal

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Demonstrated Outcomes

• More interest in DISCOVERY
• More OPEN to new ideas
• More COLLABORATIVE
• More INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

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How Can Teachers Spot It?
When pupils are thinking and behaving creatively,
they are

• Questioning and challenging
• Making connections and seeing relationships
• Imagining what might be
• Exploring ideas, keeping options open
• Reflecting critically on ideas, actions and
  outcomes

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2Toward Research-BasedCreative Schools
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Instructionism

• Knowledge is a collection of static facts and
  procedures
• The goal of schooling is to get these facts and
  procedures into students heads
• Teachers know these facts and procedures their
  job is to transmit them
• Simple facts and procedures should be learned
  first
• To evaluate learning, assess how many facts and
  procedures have been acquired

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Creative Schools

• Knowledge Deeper conceptual understanding
• The goal of schooling Prepare students to build
  new knowledge
• Teachers Scaffold and facilitate collaborative
  knowledge building
• Curriculum Integrated and contextualized
  knowledge

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3The Vision is Taking Shape
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Exploratorium
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InvenTeams (Lemelson-MIT)
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Camp Invention
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Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory, UC
Boulder
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(No Transcript)
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Collaboration!
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What We Need
A national research program targeted at how to
teach and assess creativity This research will
transform STEM education

• Textbooks
• Curricular units
• Educational software
• Assessments