I have two great passions, mountaineering and education. I am privileged to be both an international mountain guide and a qualified teacher. In my opinion both of these vocations are redolent in creativity. Thinking about these two domains helps, I believe, to capture some of the central features of creativity. Doing that helps us understand better how to promote it.
What do we know about highly creative people?
First take rock climbing. The very best in the sport have a clear view of the future of rock-climbing, are excited by challenge, and are prepared to commit to projects that others regard as seemingly impossible. Similarly, the highly creative teachers that I know have a clear and positive view of human potential, are excited by learning and teaching and will do all it takes to ensure a child succeeds.
Highly creative rock climbers persevere and are not afraid to fail; have a balanced perspective on their own abilities, are not defensive and cope positively with a range of experiences. In the same way outstanding teachers 'stick with the knitting,' they are confident that they can make a difference and believe that all children can learn and that they can teach all children. More pertinently, they convey this message to their students.
These reflections help us to understand that true creativity entails four key elements: imagination, purposiveness, originality, and 'fitness for purpose' (or value). This is the position taken by the report of the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education entitled 'All Our Futures: Creativity and Culture in Education' (1999). Let me highlight in particular three aspects of this definition which particularly strike me:
- first, creative behaviour is essentially about imagination, discovery and problem solving
- second, it enables the individual to exert more control over their world and to become more powerful, autonomous, and emancipated
- third, at some level the outcomes of creativity are original at least for the individual, creativity is never about imitation.
This is why I believe that creativity is a vital outcome of education and why I am such a strong advocate. This is not just to promote the spread of rock climbing - although that may be no bad thing - but because creativity is at the heart of the educative process. This being so, we should have a holistic view of what 'creative' pupils do and what 'creative' schools look like. We should also understand the role of the 'creative' teacher.
What do creative pupils do?
Drawing on the work of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) project on Creativity ('Creativity: Find it, Promote it'), published this year, we know there are some clear characteristics of creative pupil behaviour. In this mode, learners -
- question and challenge - they are curious
- acquire and use a range of learning skills - they think laterally
- make significant connections - they envisage what might be
- play with ideas, keeping options open - they can live with uncertainty
- apply learning in new ways - they are flexible
- evaluate ideas and actions - they are self aware and know their strengths and weaknesses.
Students develop these dispositions and skills within creative environments.
Creative schools
We must remember that a school teaches in three ways: by what it teaches, by how it teaches and by the kind of place it is. It is the ethos of the school that promotes creativity. Therefore there needs to be a whole school approach: there is no blueprint. It requires leadership with vision. That leadership needs to develop a physical and social environment that excites pupils' curiosity, challenges thinking and gives them opportunities to explore, reflect, discuss and review. Pupils' creative contributions need to be valued and celebrated. And the work, which is done in classrooms, can be enhanced enormously if teachers are enabled to work collaboratively with creative individuals and groups and build creative partnerships.
Creative teachers
But however powerful the environment, it is the teacher who links together content and process within a humanising social context. Reflecting on the work of teachers we know to be creative suggests there are some behaviours, which are critical. Such teachers -
- stimulate pupils' imaginations, exploit serendipity and make significant connections to other learning and experiences
- 'Model' creative thinking and behaviours and encourage problem solving individually and in groups
- use their subject specialism to induce students to construct knowledge and to inquire creatively into subjects
- realise that the most effective models of teaching are also models of learning that increase the intellectual capacity of all students
- set high expectations and ask open-ended questions, thereby encouraging pupils to be open to ideas and critical reflection
- provide constructive feedback to enable pupils to learn from success and failure.
All these are sterling qualities and provide a comprehensive description of the creative teacher, but importantly they also mirror the characteristics of outstanding teaching. It is no secret and it's not rocket science - excellent teaching is creative teaching.
If we succeed in combining the kind of pedagogic repertoire I have described above with a rich and stimulating curriculum, and if we empower learners through utilising assessment for learning techniques which are rigorous and customised, then pupils will, I believe, have access to powerful creative learning.
How is DfES supporting this work?
The approach we are taking in the Department, as we try to build capacity and innovation throughout the system, is to focus on building teaching excellence and creativity into the full range of our policies. We are aiming to make creativity commonplace - to make it the centrepiece of a social democratic education settlement.
A key set of policies now in place, taken together, will I believe significantly contribute to building capacity for creativity and innovation. Briefly, these are:
- the New Primary Strategy, which stresses a rich curriculum, enjoyment as well as rigour
- KS3 Strategy, supporting teachers in developing their pedagogic excellence
- specialist Schools and Leading Edge Programme, which are promoting innovative teaching and learning
- networked Learning Communities, where collaborative approaches to professional enquiry and improvement is releasing energy within participant schools
- innovation Unit, dedicated to making teachers the agents, not the objects, of change
- advanced Skills Teachers, including 60 dedicated to creativity, supporting the Creative Partnerships programme
- integrating creativity into the Principles of Teaching and Learning, School Improvement and System-Wide Reform, which give a clear framework for transforming our system.
'Towards the creative class'
I began with an allegory of rock climbing as a creative act and conclude by explaining the pun contained in my title, 'Towards the Creative Class'. The pun is based on the title of Richard Florida's recent book The Rise of the Creative Class (2002).
The power and importance of creativity for young people (and adults) lies in making sense of who they are. Richard Florida happens to be an economist. In his book he shows, most compellingly, how the key drivers in economic and societal change derive not from the availability of natural resources or conformist hard work, but from the power of creativity. 'The rise of creativity is the key factor in our economy and our society,' Florida writes. 'Both at work and in other spheres of our lives, we value creativity more highly than ever, and cultivate it more intensely. The creative impulse - that attribute which distinguishes us from other species - is now being let loose on an unprecedented scale...
It needs a social and economic environment that can nurture its many forms.'
It is here where our arguments combine. The wider social environment needed to nurture creativity must include our classrooms and schools, and we must all work hard to enable that.
Professor David Hopkins, head of standards in education unit, for the Department for Education and Skills can be contacted by emailing david-prof.hopkins@dfes.gsi.gov.uk