On creativity
It isn't teachable but it’s here to stay.
I've been thinking a lot about the ways that 21st Century learning is geared up to prepare students for the real world of work. It seems to me that a lot of the predictions about the workplaces of the future bear few similarities to industry, which is worrying when we notice that perceived workplace needs are driving a lot of the current education reform in Australia. Most well-paid careers that require creativity also rely on an incredible breadth of domain knowledge. When we think about the kinds of policy makers who project these visions of an imagined future into our curriculum reform, it's little surprise that individuals who have little industry experience are bound to give teachers nebulous mandates about the teaching of creativity.
David Didau points out in Making Kids Cleverer, "All the great minds throughout history that we celebrate as creative were already experts before they saw a new way of thinking or doing," and likewise tells us that "psychologist George Loewenstein defines (curiosity) as the gap 'between what we know and what we want to know.' In order to feel curiosity we have to know something." Creativity is therefore more accessible - some might say only accessible - in the presence of domain knowledge. How do we ensure that the promotion of discrete and teachable creativity in education doesn't just widen the advantage gap? Chasing 21st Century skills could lead to many ill-fated PBL (mis)adventures and valuable learning time lost.
Because 'creativity' in all its haziness seems to be here to stay, I thought I would try to reframe the discussion around what we can and should be doing in our classrooms. I have come to the conclusion that creativity is the product of vast domain knowledge, where experts can test the boundaries of a field precisely because they can see to its edges. However there are some practices that enable students to expand their thinking in their own fields of knowledge and potentially harness new ideas. I've been lucky enough in my role to have been part of several large scale problem-based Google Design Sprints and I have transferred some of these practices into my English teaching. Here are some strategies and tips from an essentially traditionalist teacher who is partial to the occasional post-it note.
Sequence your problem based projects with the understanding that students will start any project as a novice. The discovery phase, a research phase used in industry where subject matter experts are consulted, is the most important phase of project based learning. In place of subject matter experts, books, articles, teachers and structured internet research can be used, but give this the time it deserves. Scaffold this research phase if needed and with weaker groups, why not just provide the initial knowledge?
Harness divergent and convergent thinking. I have found the creative practices in the Google Design Sprints book especially handy for creative writing. They help to capture the quieter voices in a group and accustom students to the notion that some of their ideas will be rubbish, and that's ok. Silent voting on ideas and Crazy 8s brainstorming have been favourites of mine.
With 'real world' projects, use the double diamond approach pictured below. Students find it really difficult to apply empathy to problem solving, so if your school puts values at its core, it's worth challenging students on the needs of the end-user of their solution. Many tech companies put empathy at the centre of their design process and place a far higher value on this than on creativity. After all, creativity doesn't mean anything if the client's needs are not met.
My aim here is to re-frame creativity as design-thinking in context. To be sure, it's up to us as teachers to provide the context and knowledge base. Many teachers will be challenged to design and sequence problem based projects as they increase in popularity and just because we know that creativity is not discrete, teachable or transferable, that doesn't mean we can't set students up for a model of success in something we know to emulate real workplace practices.