Creativity or Conformity? Building Cultures of Creativity in Higher Education Essay

Permission is granted to reproduce copies of these works for economic consumptions germane(predicate) to the above conference, provided that the author(s), rootage and secure notice are included on apiece copy. For other uses, including extended quotation, please contact the author(s). creep Whatever else it may be, seminalness is intriguing this view appears to be shared by the literature on the subject and by popular culture. season thither is little agreement about the exact nature, do workes and products of creative thinking, there seems to be a fascination both with its complexity and the sheer impossibility of providing clear explanations for it.This cover does not attempt to generate yet another explanation, but instead offers a framework for exploring creativity in the context of teaching and teacher education. The nature of creativity in teaching is usually evidenced by its products innovative curriculum design or original students work. The focus of this make-up , however, is on developing opportunities for teachers to understand, explore and post their identities as seminal practitioners.These opportunities are offered in the form of creative reprimand, a framework of creative methodologies for piquant teachers individually and jointly in identifying and expanding their creativity get alongs. The notion of creative mirror image challenges the action-reflection dichotomy of contemplative serve and extends reflection beyond cognitive, retrospective mystifys to encompass the geographic expedition of possibility finished caper, image-making, writing, action methods and storytelling.The paper offers examples of and reflections on these methods from the authors use of creative methodologies in a teacher education platform at Queens University Belfast. Creative Reflection, Creative Practice Expressing the Inexpressible The concept and practices of creative reflection have been developed in a teacher education programme at Queens Unive rsity Belfast to sharpen the model of reflective practice on which the programme is based. Creative reflection is a framework of creative methodologies whereby teachers explore their practice and the liminal positions between action and reflection.This work is a response to the contract in teacher education for the development of more complex models of reflection, related to purpose, which take greater consciousness of existing knowledge from other disciplines, particularly those settings of psychology concerned with cognitive processes including problem-finding, insight, wisdom, creativity Leitch and Day (2000 186-187). creative thinking itself is an elusive concept the literature on the subject incorporates a seethe of perspectives and dichotomies, raising a depend of questions.Those pertinent to this paper include is creativity a cognitive process, or is it socially constructed? is creativity to do with outcomes, or with processes and qualities such as fluency, imaginati on and originality? what are the conditions which support the development of creativity? what is the nature of creativity in education, and does it have a place in teacher education? One of the assumptions on which this paper is based is that teachers are creative by extension, teacher education should therefore provide them with opportunities to identify themselves as creative and to enhance their creativity.Craft (2001 48) suggests that teachers are highly creative Certainly some of the distinctions of high creators (childlike qualities, aspect under siege, being on the edge, high energy and productivity) which Gardner identifies in Creating Minds (1993), also emerged as a characteristic of ordinary educators in one of my research projects (Craft, 1996a Craft and Lyons, 1996). Crafts allusion to productivity is complemented by Eisners exploration of the processes, the artistry and the craft involved in teaching (2002).Both facets of creativity, product and process, are struct ured into the framework for creative reflection. Details follow as to how participants engage in process activities as easy as in deliberation on the outcomes of these processes. The process of creativity, mysterious as it is, has long been a source of fascination and speculation. Helmholtzs classical model, developed in 1826, includes the stages of saturation, exploration and incubation Poincare added to these the aspect of verification (Balzac, 2006).The four-phase model developed for this study incorporates and elaborates on these stages Model for Creative Reflection Phase 1 Preparation This aspect of creative reflection recognises that the creative process involves uncertainty and possibility and that participants need preparation to access that render of receptivity, or Keatsian Negative Capability, which Keats defines as when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any pesky reaching after fact and reason (Buxton Foreman, 1895).In this phase o f creative reflection, threshold activities are offered to enhance possibility and to free the imagination. One of the most successful of these threshold activities has been the invitation to participants to select images and quotations on a relevant theme teaching, learning or creativity itself. This activity is based on the notion of stepping stones into a liminal being of exploration, as in Progoffs system for precedeing the twilight world of process meditation (Progoff, 1980).While participants are in the process of choosing images and quotations which engage them, music is played in the background to enhance heartsease and stimulate intuitive rather than rational decision-making. The activity is conducted without treatment to encourage focus and a continuative with the unconscious. Another threshold activity is that of visualisation for example, individuals are asked to imagine their learning about their practice as a journey and to articulate this in the form of images or writing. The sharing of the results is part of the process of price reduction described in the final phase of this model.Threshold activities are directed at the group as a whole as well as at individuals for example, participants are asked to imagine an ideal space for teaching and learning and to suggest in turn something which they might like to include in this space. Offerings range from comfortable chairs to the location of this space at the seaside and the presence of flowers and music centres. This activity generates ideas about inclusiveness and introduces into the discussion metaphors and symbols which enhance the learning process.The idea of bringing an ideal situation or world into the realms of possibility through group visualisation is based on the process of reflective meditation in psychosynthesis (Ferrucci, 1982 Assagioli, 1999). Phase 2 Play This phase is based on the assumptions that a good deal of learning happens through play, that play is an essential aspect o f cultural development (Huizinga, 1970), and that a group can create meaning, possibility and raw insights through the processes of play.Play is also important because it has the potential to free participants from external concerns so that they may enter the state of flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi (1991, 1997) this is an optimum state in which the person is fully focused and immersed in what he or she is doing, usually with a successful outcome. The activities in this phase are conducted quickly their purpose is to generate energy, enjoyment of the group process and a range of rude(a) ideas. The processes involved provide opportunities for diverging thinking they include mind mapping, creative thinking and brainstorming.The brainstorming methods in this model of the creative reflection are informed by Kelley and Littmanns (2002) methods for enhancing fluency of ideas and innovation within the context of team-building. Phase 3 Exploration This aspect of creative reflection is active, with the purpose of creating a product. The processes involved may include creative writing, storytelling, or the use of art materials, or action methods based on psychodrama to concretize the experience (Moreno, 1994). The exploration phase may be individual or collective it may take place in pairs or small groups.In one particular activity, an individual selects one of his or her identities as a teacher from a list this list includes the more obvious identities such as mentor, helper and instructor, as well as more metaphorical ones as foot soldier, sower or bridge. The individual then elaborates this personal identity through writing and art, imagining in detail, for example, what this identity might look like, its voice, its tools and how it engages in relationship. The image below depicts the process of exploration on both individual and group levels.Participants, given the task of expressing their understandings of themselves as reflective practitioners, position to gether the quotations, images and artefacts which they had chosen as individuals to express this notion. The circle of people made from tissue paper was created as a collective piece for the final image this suggests that the group product extended beyond that of a loose arrangement of individual ideas to a creative collaboration of knowledge and understanding. pic Phase 4 entailment In the final phase of creative reflection, which is akin to the verification tage of the Helmholtz/Poincare model, participants present and reflect on their ideas, stories and collective images. In this phase, which is adapted from McNiffs process of dialoguing with the image, participants engage with and reflect on the artefact engendered by the creative process (McNiff, 1992). Through this process, the experience and learning are synthesised into new understandings, or the identification of new questions which might be raised about professional practice. The image below represents the world of reflec tive practice as created by a group of practitioners through the use of props. pic Discussion about this image revealed that each of the scarves, which are circumscribing and containing the world of reflective practice, represents a strength owned by one of the practitioners, while the Russian dolls and the teddy bear on the edge of the circle symbolise those learners who exclude themselves from learning. The act of dialoguing with the image engendered ideas amongst the participants for engaging those who are currently on the outside and who have not yet found a adapted means of expression.In many ways, the process of writing this paper has been a struggle to express that which is unspeakable it is challenging to articulate the complexity of the spaces between reflection and practice, as well as the complexity of creativity itself. It is hoped that further research will indicate whether the processes of creative reflection can take sufficient awareness of these complexities to su pport teachers in recognising and expressing their creativity. References Assagioli, R. (1999) The Act of Will A Guide to Self-Actualization and Self-Realization, Knaphill, David Platts Publishing CompanyBalzac, F. (2006) Exploring the Brains Role in Creativity,Neuropsychiatry Reviews, Vol. 7, no. 5, May 2006. http//www. neuropsychiatryreviews. com/may06/einstein. html Accessed 14/11/2006 Buxton Foreman, H. (1895, Complete rewrite edition) The Letters of John Keats, capital of the United Kingdom Reeves & Turner Craft, A. (2001) Little c Creativity, Craft, A. Jeffrey, B, and Leibling, M. (eds. ), Creativity in Education, capital of the United Kingdom and clean York, Continuum, pp 45-61 Craft, A. (1996a) Nourishing educator creativity a holistic approach to CPD, British Journal of In-Service Education, 22 (3), 309-322.Craft, A. and Lyons, T. (1996) Nourishing the Educator, Milton Keynes The Open University Seminar Network Occasional Paper Series Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997) Creativi ty. Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York, HarperPerennial. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1991) Flow the psychology of optimal experience. 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