Inquiry Proposal by Laura Gutri

Big Question

How can I structure the learning process to foster children’s curiosity and creativity?

Sub questions

• What factors influence the development of students motivation?
• How can I setup my classroom so that it welcomes curiosity and creativity?
• How can the arts be integrated into other curriculum areas, making this material more engaging and creative?
• How can we use technology as a resource for creativity of students?
• How will students curiosity and engagement influence their understanding of material?
• Would activities that are more related to real life situations allow students to be more creative?
• What teaching methods motivate children’s curiosity about material?

Question Genesis

I have always been very interested in why children lose their curiosity over time. When a student is curious, they enjoy the learning process and are much more engaged. When you ask a five year old if they are excited to go back to school after the summer break, a huge percentage will say yes because at that age, school is “play time”. In the younger grades, students are exposed to more creative resources in learning and for some reason as material gets more difficult, learning through creative output seems to be abandoned.

There is no reason why the curriculum can’t be taught in a way that is more fun than reading out of the textbook. It wasn’t until grade five where I was really able to express my understanding of material in a creative way. I was given the choice of presenting a unit in some kind of creative way. I chose music as I was terrified of doing an oral presentation since I had a bad stutter at that age. I chose to sing a song with the material as the lyrics and I was confident and excited about doing the presentation. I never really realized the impact this teacher had on me until many years later, but he allowed students in many ways to express their creativity outside of the traditional curriculum.

I truly believe when students are more engaged their memory of material is better. When they are more curious about the material being taught, I believe they are more open minded resulting in a more creative mind.
Significance

The significance is very important. There are so many opportunities for material to become creative such as science or math. I have learnt this in my practicum class, watching how every activity has some sort of open creativity aspect, still following an outline but many opportunities for different creative minds.

Academic resources

Adams, W. K., & Willis, C. (2015). Sparking Curiosity: How Do You Know What Your Students Are Thinking?. Physics Teacher, 53(8)’ 469-472

Chen, C., & Chiu, C. c. (2016). Employing intergroup competition in multitouch design-based learning to foster student engagement, learning achievement, and creativity. Computers & Education, 10399-113. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.09.007

Cress, S.s., & Holm, D (2016). Creative Endeavours: Inspiring Creativity in a First Grade Classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(3), 235-243. doi: 10.1007/s10643-015-0704-7

Kim, H.J., Park, J. H., Yoo, S., & Kim, H. (2016). Fostering Creativity in Tablet- Based Interactive Classrooms. Educational Technology & Society, 19(3), 207-220.

Lumsden, L. S. (1994). Student Motivation To Learn. ERIC Digest, Number 92.
Other resources

• Speak to school advisor and ask how she sets up her classroom and activities to foster children’s curiosity and creativity.
• Speak to teachers and students in the invention program and figure out how this is connected to the curriculum. The invention program is where students develop ideas for inventions and send them into a company where they actually make their inventions.
• Speak with classmates/ colleagues and ask their experiences with being creative in the classroom.
• Research other companies connecting to schools for creative opportunities.

Expectations

I expect to find that there is a direct connection with students curiosity and creativity levels. When students are curious, they ask questions resulting in being more open when being creative. I expect that I will find that students will want to learn the material more often if it is presented in a creative way and be more engaged while learning this content. I also expect that group work will allow students to feel more comfortable to be curious and creative.

Integrating the arts

There is an obvious connection with integrating the arts and being creative. I am interested how the arts such as music, drama, visual arts and photography could be implemented with the material to make the content more engaging. For example, maybe doing a photography project based on an environmental unit. I have always thought about ways in incorporating music in the classroom but have to educate myself more on the other areas of creative outlet to promote students curiosity and creativity.