I haven't updated this blog in a long time as I've been debating where to go from here. In December and January I met with a few people who have offered me food for thought on the place of creativity in the education system at the moment. I want to thank them all for their help so far. I've also come across a worrying development in the form of the new Dept. of Education draft plan for Literacy and Numeracy (available at: www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/pr_literacy_numeracy_national_plan_2010.pdf). I've come to the conclusion that action research would be more beneficial than just observation, so I'm making the leap to the last paragraph of my 'about me' section: developing methodologies for integrating the arts into the curriculum and ways of assessing the results.
To do this I've come up with my own working definition: Creativity is the ability to come up with novel, valuable solutions to a problem. (Solutions may take the form of thoughts, ideas, processes or products). It is characterised by a set of behaviours that involve questioning (finding problems), making unusual connections (transfering knowledge between disciplines), imagining possibilities (generating ideas) and reflecting (evaluating outcomes).
I've used this as the starting point for the integrated visual art programme that I've been developing. The idea is to promote these creative behaviours and hopefully help the child develop a creative approach to learning and life in general.
I've focused my reading on assessment lately, especially assessing creative learning. Here are a few of the most useful weblinks, articles and books I've found so far:
Barnes, Rob 1993 Getting the Act Together: It may be Cross-curricular, but is it Really Art? in Journal of Art and Design Education Vol 12 No 1 pp 63-72
Craft, Anna; Cremin, Teresa & Burnard, Pamela 2008 Creative Learning 3-11 and how we document it Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books
Didaskalou, Eleni & Millward, Alan 2007 Rethinking Assessment: Managing Behaviour and Reducing Disaffection in Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Vol 12 No 3 pp 191-203
Douglas, Katherine M. & Jaquith, Diane B. 2009 Engaging Learners Through Artmaking: Choice-Based Art Education in the Classroom New York: Teachers College Press
INTO 2009 Creativity and the Arts in the Primary School: Discussion Paper Dublin (available at: www.into.ie/publications/)
Lindström, Lars 2006 Creativity:What Is It? Can You Assess It? Can It Be Taught? in International Journal of Art & Design Education Vol 25 No 1 pp 53-66
Sefton-Green, Julian & Sinker, Rebecca 2000 Evaluating creativity: making and learning by young people London: Routledge
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