2nd Global Conference
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Thursday 14th July - Saturday 16th July
2005
Mansfield College, Oxford
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session 5: Engagement and Intelligence
Chair: Sharon Lee
Developing Cooperative Contexts for Creativity
Lynda
Baloche
Department of Elementary Education, Recitation Hall,
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
West Chester, PA, USA
The purpose of this presentation is to examine
an interface of two large bodies of research—creativity and cooperation--and
to do so in a way that weaves theory and research with examples, simulations,
and collegial conversation.
Using a consensual definition of creativity,
as developed by Amabile, research suggests that creativity and intrinsic
motivation are more likely to develop when people work within an overall
context of cooperation. It seems that, when people work in cooperative
contexts, they are more likely to: (a) use contextual information--information
that is available in the “world around them” but has not
been given to them directly for their work; (b) choose harder, more
challenging projects and problems; (c) be better problem solvers with
problems that aren’t “simple” and
don’t have a simple and well-defined path to solution; and (d)
report greater satisfaction with their work.
The question then is: “How
does one build this context of cooperation while simultaneously designing
learning opportunities that allow for, and encourage, creative engagement?” The
cooperative learning movement, and the research associated with this
movement, has the potential to provide considerable insight into the
conditions for establishing (a) a climate of psychological safety;
(b) perceptions of equity amongst diverse group participants; (c) complex
learning opportunities that are manageable; (d) meaningful, student-centered
choices; (e) opportunities to develop and use productive interpersonal
skills; (f) a climate for productive conflicts; and (g) product and
process focused reflection and feedback. Each of these is, in turn,
related to the conditions for creative engagement and can be examined
in an effort to shed light on the focus areas of children creatively
engaging each other, effective strategies for promoting creativity
within and across curricula, and the potential of school as an enabler
of creativity.
SEED - Sparking Innovation and Enterprise through
Exploration and Discovery
Gurdial Kaur, Leng Sun Ee
Qihua Primary School , Singapore
This paper describes a week-long Innovation
Fair that was organized to showcase innovative projects. For this Fair, students
worked on school-based problems and came up with solutions such as a Chiming
Garbage Bin, a Water Conservation Instrument and Cool Hats. The objectives
of the Fair were to promote experiential learning, teamwork skills,
creative problem solving, presentation skills and build self confidence.
The SEED programme received school wide and community support from
adult volunteers such as parents and teachers who acted as mentors
to student project teams. The student teams were self directed and
met regularly to conceptualize and test trial their ideas which often
involved many rounds of refinement before the final product.
An evaluation
survey conducted to assess the impact of the Innovation Fair revealed
that the process had enhanced the joy of learning, helped students
apply skills learnt, provided a meaningful authentic learning environment
that encouraged students to engaged in creative thinking, problem-solving,
exploration and application, and heightened the level of confidence
in students when expressing their points of views.
Creativity and Engagement in Visual Art Education:
A Permanent Comparison between the Obtained and the Deserved
Beatriz
Cerkez and Tonka Tacol
Creativity is many times described as a romantic
concept linked to the ideas of progress, novelty and originality. It may
also be a sign of quality, even of cultural superiority. It is also possible
to focus on it from the point of view of the capacity to find accurate
strategies when combining data in order to solve problems. When trying
to define creativity in the context of the teaching-learning process
it reveals itself as a permanent comparison between the result we get
and the one we are convinced to deserve. Creativity is thus an individual
characteristic that is essentially relative as the results may be described
only in terms of engagement.
In the case of visual art education many
aspects combine when trying to describe the creativity of the pedagogical
process: teaching methods, individuality of the pupil and the teacher,
preference for three or two dimensional work, preference for certain
art materials, preference for specific motifs, teachers' and pupils'
specific characteristics, learning styles, expression style, psycho-physical
abilities of pupils as well as teacher, teaching style etc. In this
context the criteria to describe creative practices becomes a wide
question. In fact, the resulting art work is the basis for description.
It is the product of a dialectical process that connects the engagement
of the teacher and the engagement of the pupils and does not always
show a proportional relation. The pedagogic process is a social process
which depends on the individuality of the different actors taking part
in it and it is in essence relative: no process is universally original
or creative but can be defined as such taking into account the interaction
between teacher and pupil and the characteristics of their relationship
in the context of the group. So, to enable creativity it is necessary
to enable individuality (and all the aspects it can adopt as gender,
cultural background etc.) and to describe its values in the context
of the community.
However, many questions open: self-evaluation and
awareness of individuality, the reconceptualization of motivation,
recognizing that to be creative means to undertake the “effort” to
develop individual competencies, creating meaningful links between
the elements of a problem in order to solve it efficiently and independently
considering a holistic view of education.