Where does creativity start? With an assignment? With a lesson? What about the idea? I think that if we expect our students to be creative and to teach them how to be creative, we must first teach them how to think. What does it even mean to teach someone how to think? Teaching Children to Think by Robert Fisher outlines the ways in which teaching children how to think is one of the most beneficial skills anyone can learn. In order to funnel our thoughts and pin point our ideas, we need to know the process. There are many types of thinking, such as creative thinking, critical thinking, problem solving. In school we are taught many of the basic skills, math, english, social studies and the like, we are focus on how to achieve these skills rather than on the potential that can be achieved. This book presents ideas regarding how to get people to be more effective thinkers which might even lead to increased intelligence.

What does thinking have to do with creativity? For me, it all begins with a thought… but what is it? The best way for me to describe what it might be is to say that it is potential. In order to teach our kids how to find their creativity and harness it in their learning, we need to teach them how to think of those creative, innovative ideas and how to pursue them. This takes all types of thought, creative though, critical thought and of course, problem solving (because what ever works out the first time?).

Reference:

Fisher, R. (1990). Teaching children to think (2nd ed.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Retrieved February 4, 2016, from https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0az0JYM_pHMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=how to get kids to think&ots=UlpALjqkJu&sig=pYEKkKGxw_DRAHYOjD_K3d2C5XA#v=onepage&q=DOI&f=false.

Pre-reading: My reaction to the title of this weeks article Does Assessment Kill Creativity? by Ronald A. Beghetto was pretty straight forward – “Not if we are doing our job right”. In my opinion, if a student does not feel that they are able to express their creativities then we have failed them. We have failed to create a supportive environment and we have failed to see their process. Not all creative undertakings need to result in flawless work, students are limited by time, resources and understanding, it is our duty to help them through the process and allow them to create. If our assessment practices are causing students to avoid being creative, then we need new practices. Our assessments should strive to encourage and foster creativity, not ‘kill’ it.

During Reading: While reading this article, a few things struck me, the idea of goal setting in particular. Students should be involved in the setting of their own goals. A teacher may have goals for students, but those goals should be “what can I help this student improve on..?” and then take into account what the student strives for as well. Teachers should be talking with their students and understanding what their goals are, how they plan to achieve the goals and what we can to do help. Teachers are educational guides, we are along for the ride, children are the most creative when they feel their ideas are valid. Students need to be able to make their own conclusions, feel what it is to be successful and also to fail, as long as the process is there and a lesson is learned, who are we to assess if what they learned was right or wrong. In the end, it is up to the student to determine if they have reached their end goals, they should not be compared with their peers when it comes to creativity, creativity is an individual venture, an expression of ones-self and ideas.

After reading the article Does Assessment Kill Student Creativity? a few things come to mind. The idea that there is so much emphasis placed on the assessment of a students creative work (to the point of ‘killing creativity’) frankly should not happen. If and when a students creative work is to be assessed, it should be done throughout the process and not based solely (if at all) on the final product. Teachers should be conducting regular check in’s with their students in order to understand the individuals process of creativity. Regardless if the final product results in objectively successful results, it is the process that needs to count. As teachers, it is our job to foster an environment where students can work confidently and feel free to show their individuality and creativity. If a student does not feel comfortable enough to be creative, then we have failed them with our assessments. Students should be encouraged to explore and think outside of the box, and we should not place a rubric on that process, it is not fair to our students and is not fair to the creative process.

References:

Beghetto, R.A., (2005). Does assessment kill student creativity? The Educational Forum, (69) 2 p254-263