Perspectives
December 2016 | Youth Hong Kong
Collectively creative
C
an anyone be creative? In this dialogue, Professors Allan Owens and Jeff Adams, Co-directors of RECAP (Research into Education, Creativity and Arts through Practice) at the University of Chester, say it is possible given the right environment.
After working in over a dozen countries including Japan, Finland and South Korea, the writers discuss creative approaches to teaching and learning. They say creativity is “a means to perceive differently, just as much as it is a means to do things differently. The type and means of creativity varies from practice to practice and from culture to culture.”
Are we all naturally creative? The most popular current thinking is that creativity can be systematically developed, but actually most school systems in the world are educating us out of creativity rather than into it. We think that conducive teaching approaches let creativity flourish through unplanned activity whereas traditional teaching tends to provide a highly regulated environment focusing on individual attainment. Allan Owens
The kind of creativity we are interested in results more from interaction than individual practice. It’s quite different from the creativity one associates with the concept of singular genius. Jeff Adams
One important distinction is between creative “high culture” and spontaneous or democratic forms of creativity. This is important for us because we reject associations with exclusive elitism that reserve creativity for the exceptional and the gifted. Instead, we explore the concept of creativity that includes the imaginative events and productions of all pupils and ordinary people. Allan Owens
Most school systems in the world are educating us out of creativity rather than into it.
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