Part One – What Do
We Care?
1.1) The Rule of
Creativity
Creativity and innovation are complex
concepts and widely used terms that are applied to different fields. And creativity is difficult to define and it is rarely articulated
as an explicit learning objective in the academic curriculum.
Craft (2005) viewed
creativity as the ability to see possibilities that others haven’t noticed. Creativity is a skill to make unforeseen
connections and generate new ideas and awareness. However, as European
Communities (2009) concluded that creativity is a product or process which is
both appropriate (or which has value) and new. A balance of originality and value is the main trait. And creativity has been understood as the source of innovation, and innovation has been understood as the implementation of creativity.
Moreover, fostering environment needs
to nurture creativity and to boost
intrinsic motivation.
1.2) Creativity and
Innovation in Education
It is useful to have a theory of learning in any aspect
of teaching to help create the conditions that will facilitate student
learning. We recognize the cognitive
approach which sees creativity as a cognitive and thinking skill or process (European
Communities, 2009). It seems creativity
as an ability that everyone can develop.
According to Sternberg and
Lubart (1999), there are 6 elements required for creativity and they are
intellectual abilities, knowledge, specific styles of thinking, personality and
motivation. Synthetic or creative (the ability to escape conventional thinking
and to see a problem in new ways); analytic (see which idea are worth
pursuing); and practical-contextual (persuading that the ideas are of value)
are three necessary intellectual abilities (Sternberg & Lubart, 1999). They
claim that creative people are those who buy
low and sell high in the domain of ideas. Japanese
prints inspired Vincent van Gogh’s drawing is an example.
Creativity
is very important to trigger knowledge and vice versa. Boden (2001) defines
three types of creativity:
I.
Exploratory Creativity:
entails a sort
of “play within the rules” and requires some specific and technical knowledge;
II. Combinational
Creativity: as
the ability to make connections between stored information and involves the
production of new ideas by combining old ones in new unfamiliar ways;
III. Transformational
Creativity: enables
the generation of ideas that could not have been thought of before and requires
a substantial amount of knowledge and self discipline.
Creativity involves the extended abstract (EA) outcomes
of learning (Biggs, 1999; 2002) like hypothesising, reflecting, generating
ideas, applying the known to ‘far’ domains,’ working with problems that do not
have unique solutions ‘EA outcomes are not just indicators of fluency or the
products of brainstorming for any old outcomes, the whackier the better….they
show the Torrance feature of flexibility, i.e. the categories have been
shifted. The outcome adds value to the information given. At the highest
academic levels creativity would be manifested by moving beyond the framework
given, a paradigm shift, and that is where originality comes in’ (John Biggs, imaginative
curriculum Biggs, imaginative curriculum network discussion July 2002).
1.3) Critical Factors for
an Innovative Curriculum
As European Communities (2009) stated that
teacher’ overloaded schedules are one of the barriers. The policies for creativity and innovation in education need to be in
line with other policies, with what is demanded from teachers and students and with a support mechanism, otherwise it
comes as a contradictory messages and increase uncertainty.
At the programme level, the current
assessment model with its atomised approach to assessing learning at
module/curriculum unit level is a major inhibitor of designs for creative learning
which may want to foster development over a longer period of time and a range
of contexts before assessing capability. Student
instrumentalism driven by the extrinsic motivator of assessment inhibits attempts
at promoting student creativity. The generally conflicting interests of stakeholders (parents, teachers,
government and etc.) come together on the issue of assessment (European Communities,
2009). Moreover,
as European Communities (2009) mentioned, student behavior was related to the dynamic and conflict between
duty/desire, learning/play, for school use/ for leisure use when students
interact with technologies.
On the other hands, as
European Communities (2009) stated, assessment, curriculum, individual skills,
teaching and learning format, teachers, technology and tools are major enablers
that for change. However, besides all enablers need to be presented, the
teachers and students also need to actively engage in the creative and
innovative process. Therefore, Students need to knowledge about creative learning processes. If students understand the ‘rules of the game’
and why the programme is as it is, then they are better placed to reflect and
enter into the spirit of the creativity game. Students who do not know the
rules are likely to try much harder to bargain it into familiar and safe shapes
(Doyle, 1983).
Part Two – What Is
our Methodology?
2.1) We Don’t Provide
Training; We Provide a Learning Journey
Having concluded the importance of Creativity and
Innovation in Education, as well as the critical success factor for an
innovative curriculum, we hereby would like to introduce a brand new teaching
methodology. The whole idea of our methodology as simple as creativity cannot be taught by classroom lecture; it is a
self-driven competence that students must experience and inspire themselves. Unlike
traditional classroom lecture teaching, we provide a wide variety of exercises for students to experience how creativity
can be groomed and developed by interacting with each other.
I.
Layer 1: Analysis: Before the training, we will first conduct a personality and competence
analysis by questionnaire and focus group interview. We will then conclude the
characteristics and creativity index (developed and patented by us) of the
group to determine the group combination and customize the training programs.
For example, if we figure the group is more introverted, we will introduce a
more humble discussion platform (say by notes) whereas for a extroverted group,
we will adopt a more open and outspoken discussion platform (say by group
debate)
II.
Layer 2: Theory & Case: At the beginning of the training, we will start by
introducing the theory. Theory is boring, and it is useless if it cannot be
well implemented. Therefore, we will only spend around 5-10 minutes to let the
students know what our focus and topics are, and spend much more time on case
study demonstrating how the theory works in real life situation.
III.
Layer 3: Experience: After the students have grabbed the basic ideas of the theory and how it
might work in real life situation, we will let the students to experience
themselves by a series of group games, simulation exercises and debriefing.
These series of games are developed by our in-house top psychologists and
widely adopted all over the world. The basic principle is to let students
experience how creativity is cultivated with fun and interaction. During the
debriefing session, we will show students how they have adopted the theory and
how it works by showing them the recorded video.
IV.
Layer 4: Coaching: After the training, we will provide on-site coaching to students and
pinpoint their pre-post training improvement and assist them to apply what they
learnt in a better sense. We will also ask them to form small working team to
develop a creative training program by themselves. During this session, we will
place more energy on observation and coaching, so as to indoctrinate the sense
of creativity to students in a deeper sense.
2.2) Effectiveness Measurement
In order to measure the effectiveness of our
training program, we will adopt the following mechanism to showcase how our
students improve after joining our training programs. We will assess how
student interpret and learn from our training program, and how they have
applied what they learnt into real life situation.
At stage one, we will assess the reaction of
students towards our training. This is the pre-requisite of all ongoing works
because if students don’t find our course interesting, they will simply not
able to convey the contents and apply the ideas. We target to achieve 90%
satisfaction rate from our course evaluation.
At stage two, we will assess the degree of learning
of students. They like the course do not mean they really have learnt. We will
conduct two test to assess students’ creativity index (as mentioned earlier, it
is the index developed and patented by us) after the training. We target to
achieve 30% increase after the training class, and another 40% increase after
the coaching session where students are guided to apply what they learnt in
simulation exercise. At the end of the coaching session, we will provide each
student an overall pre and post program report, indicating our observation,
areas of improvement for future development.
Part Three – What
Do We Provide?
3.1) We As the
Innovative Teachers
We rely on creativity to find problems, identify
alternatives and implement solutions. Designing for creativity at the program
level may also utilize students’ wider experiences outside the academic
curriculum. We would recognize that students make reasonable mistakes as part
of the creative process. So students should have the freedom to pursue novel
ideas under a trust and secure environment without being penalized.
Traditionally, education focuses on academic
performance, avoiding mistakes and encouraging students to be the best and
getting the highest grade. Teachers tend to prefer standard answers and
restrain their lesson to textbooks. However, if we want to teach creativity in
the classroom, teachers must become innovative. Everyone in the class has a say
and innovative teachers will welcome uniqueness of response and show that they
value pupils’ knowledge and creativity, as well as to show their appreciation
to creative expression.
3.2) Activities &
Games Encouraging Creativity
Providing an environment that supports creativity
is the cornerstone of a creative classroom. The second cornerstone consists of
various activities that help students think more creatively.
Play is an important activity in every ones’ life.
It is what children and teens do best and can do all day long. Students learn
best when they are given the opportunity to learn through on experimentation
that is afforded to them by play. Through play, students are welcome to use
their imagination, explore the world around them, develop creativity and
problem solving skills and also try new ideas. A well-planned and organized
play opportunities offer quality experiences to support each student’s journey
toward school readiness and success later in life.
Application: 9 dots games
Step 1: try to use 4 straight lines to connect the
dots without breaking the line
(i.e. lifting your pen off the paper)
Step 2: try to use 3 straight lines to connect the
dots without breaking the line
(i.e. lifting your pen off the paper)
Application: 6 Thinking Hats
The Six Thinking Hats is
the tool for group discussion and individual thinking. It is the idea of
parallel thinking which provides a means for groups to plan thinking processes
in a detailed and cohesive way.
We can’t just sit in the
room and devise hundreds of ideas. If we use the Six Thinking Hats techniques
to look at a problem or issue, we can solve it with different approaches and
view things in different dimensions.
Each hat represents a
different style of thinking, which is listed below:
- White Hat thinking – FACTS : Thinking is based on facts and data. We will try to look at the information we have or what information do we need to collect and try to see what we can learn from it.
- Red Hat thinking – FEELINGS : When we are wearing a red hat, we will try to look at problems using intuition and emotions. You will try to ask yourself how do you feel about this matter and try to think how other people react emotionally.
- Black Hat thinking – CAUTIONS : Black means bad! Using black hat thinking means you will try to look at all the bad points of the decision. You will keep on asking yourself, will is work? Can it be done? In the thinking process, you will eliminate the weak points and try to prepare the contingency plans to counter them.
- Yellow Hat thinking – BENEFITS : Yellow means positive. With yellow hat thinking, you will try to be optimistic and see all the bright side of a decision and looking for the benefits of an issue.
- Green Hat thinking – CREATIVITY : Green means new, the Green Hat stands for creativity. It is a freewheeling way of thinking and people with this is full of creativity and try to explore different ideas or possibilities.
- Blue Hat thinking – PROCESS : Blue
hat stand for process control. If people wear this hat are running with
difficulties, the Blue Hat person will direct activity to Green Hat or others
hat.
There are 6 hats that you
can put on or take off. Each group will be given a case to discuss. Try to
discuss a case from the thinking viewpoint of the hat that you are chose to
wear.
Brainstorming is a relax
and informal technique that helps you to generate creative solutions under a
constructive atmosphere. People are asked to come up with ideas and thoughts
that can at first seem to be a bit crazy with no criticism and judgment of
ideas. Using brainstorming, you can try to open up many possibilities.
Does some warm-up exercise to create a comfortable and safe environment?
Step 2:
Giving you
a minute to think of as many uses as possible for an object. 
Part Four - What Will Be The Outcome?
Creativity
can strengthen students when school environment supports a learning
orientation. By using the integrated curriculum approach and students learn
through play activities, they can increase their awareness of their strengths,
develop problem skills and be willing to undertake new challenges and be more
risk-taking. With the conclusion of our program, our students will be ready to
succeed in the school years that lie ahead.
