Teaching and Learning for Creativity

Keith Sawyer

Washington University in St. Louis

July 2005

2005

October 2005

• Better K-12 education

• Better higher education

Missing: An understanding of how innovation works, how people learn for creativity, and how to redesign schools

Research on Teaching Creativity

• Pretty much ended with Paul Torrance

• We need a renewed effort, grounded in the cognitive sciences and the learning sciences

• This effort should contribute to:– curriculum– teacher education– assessment

[1]A Case Study:

The United Kingdom

• U.S. Creative industries are over 11% of GDP

• U.K. Creative industries are over 8% of GDP

What are the U.S. and U.K. doing in schools to leverage this competitive advantage?

• The U.K., on the other hand…

• The U.S., not much.

U.K. National Curriculum

“The curriculum should enable pupils to think creatively and critically…. It should give them the opportunity to become creative, innovative, enterprising and capable of leadership.”

National Curriculum, pp. 11-12

Definition of Creative Thinking and Behavior

• Imaginative

• Purposeful

• Original

• Of value, in relation to the goal

Demonstrated Outcomes

• More interest in DISCOVERY

• More OPEN to new ideas

• More COLLABORATIVE

• More INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

How Can Teachers Spot It?

• Questioning and challenging• Making connections and seeing relationships• Imagining what might be• Exploring ideas, keeping options open• Reflecting critically on ideas, actions and

outcomes

When pupils are thinking and behaving creatively, they are:

[2]Toward Research-Based

Creative Schools

Instructionism

• Knowledge is a collection of static facts and procedures

• The goal of schooling is to get these facts and procedures into students’ heads

• Teachers know these facts and procedures; their job is to transmit them

• Simple facts and procedures should be learned first

• To evaluate learning, assess how many facts and procedures have been acquired

Creative Schools

• Knowledge: Deeper conceptual understanding

• The goal of schooling: Prepare students to build new knowledge

• Teachers: Scaffold and facilitate collaborative knowledge building

• Curriculum: Integrated and contextualized knowledge

[3]The Vision is Taking Shape

Exploratorium

InvenTeams (Lemelson-MIT)

Camp Invention

Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory, UC Boulder

Collaboration!

What We Need

– Textbooks– Curricular units– Educational software– Assessments

A national research program targeted at how to teach and assess creativity

This research will transform STEM education: