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Introduction: What is
Creative Teaching?
“Pardon?” said the
schoolteacher, his eyebrows arching like little
horseshoes, “you want me to like the buggers?”
“No,” said the slightly
embattled education consultant, “I merely suggest that
you might like to give your pupils something other than
lots of writing to do.”
“What?” the school
teacher’s rather large, heavy looking moustache looked
as if it was about to take off, “what would be the point
of that?!”
“Well, they might learn
better and enjoy your subject more.” The education
consultant, in her naturally optimistic manner smiled a
tired smile.
“Good gracious, what
would be the point of that?!” grunted the
schoolteacher. As he marched down the corridor he
chuckled and mused to himself, “imagine if pupils
actually wanted to learn, how preposterous.” He entered
his classroom, slammed the door behind him, and began
ranting at his pupils about how lazy they were and how
they did not take his subject seriously enough.
Creative teaching is when
you appeal to the creative side of pupils’ brains. If
you would like to read some of the science, I’ve
explained it in fact box 1. Creative teaching can take
many forms. Pupils may be in or out of their seats,
they may be talking or working in silence, they may be
working with you, it teams or by themselves. Creative
teaching does not necessarily mean that you need to put
in hours of preparation to every single activity you do,
making up cards, activity packs and the like. This
would in fact be a bad plan, as the pressure would
remove any possibility of having a life outside of the
classroom. Whilst pupils might find it hard to believe
that such a life exists, we teachers know that it does
exist and that it is very precious to us!
The idea behind creative
teaching is to enhance the learning process, and as such
it should enhance your job too. It should be a
satisfying and enjoyable experience for you as well as
your pupils. It’s not selfish to want to enjoy your
job.
Creative teaching is a
mindset to enter into: consciously entering into what I
call a creative state. It’s about how you
present yourself as someone who cares and enjoys
teaching your subject; how you motivate your pupils to
participate and understand; how you go about making
learning more fun or engaging. It’s about spotting
opportunities to liven things up. It’s about encouraging
pupils to take responsibility for their work in a way
that doesn’t feel like a burden (to you or the pupil!).
It is very easy for a
teacher to get into a more protective, controlling
mindset whereby every pupil’s precise movement is
contrived and dictated. Pupils have to do exactly as the
teacher says, do the prescribed activities that are
designed to keep them in their seats and not talk to
anyone, and lack right-brain creative input. Often it’s
something we start when the pupils are young, and then
never changes as they grow up. Or it’s because the
class’ behaviour isn’t very good and we feel this is the
only way to achieve any form of coherent structure for
learning.
Creative teaching, done
right, will move you beyond such comfort zones into
areas of teaching that are far more rewarding for you
and pupil alike. It requires a certain amount of trust
between you and them. This is not possible, of course,
without a clear and well-enforced discipline structure
in place first, otherwise there’s chaos. Getting the
conditions right first is the most important factor when
teaching creatively.
Fact Box 1: Why teach
creatively?
Actively Noticing
Imagine that you’ve just
bought a new car. You think it’s an unusual car to
have because you haven’t seen too many of them about
town. So why is it that when you drive you car out
of the dealers, you notice at least half-a-dozen
cars identical to your own?
Well, it’s because your
mind is ‘actively noticing’. It sounds like a silly
thing to say, but that is what it is doing. Pretty
much at the hub of all your brain’s activity is the
Reticular Activating System, or RAS for short. It
is the filter for all of your internal thoughts and
for all the external information that comes through
your senses. It’s the bit of your brain that
decides what you will and won’t be conscious of. It
tends to give priority to things that are new or
surprising, and enables your mind to focus on things
you find relevant or interesting. Hence the reason
for being unable to stop yourself drifting off
during a particularly long and boring lecture. Or
finding it hard to concentrate when hungry or
thirsty.
Logic and
Creativity
One way to ensure a pupil’s RAS
doesn’t filter you and your lessons out is to tap in
to the different areas of their brains. We know
that different sections of the brain are responsible
for different tasks, and we know, broadly speaking,
that the brain operates in two halves: a creative
half and a logical half. However, creativity is no
good without order, and logic is not productive
without an imaginative spark; so the two halves need
to form neural connections between each other to
operate effectively and understand things fully.
Tasks that use both sides of the brain stimulate
neural connections and therefore tend to grab
students’ attention. Memory tends to also work best
when the mind is engaged with the topic and the
tasks. There are many ways to tap into the
left-right mix; the diagram highlights left and
right activities that could be easily combined to
make effective activities. Later in this book we
will look at preferred learning styles and multiple
intelligences which also tap into the left-right
brain mix.
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©
Learning Performance Training Ltd 2006 |
