The value of creativity in Primary Education.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Albert Einstein

Hello everyone, today I will be discussing the importance of creativity. This word is thrown around in primary education often relating to the arts, although it is an important part of all subjects. What is creativity and why is it valuable to encourage children to be creative? Creativity for Robinson is “the process of having original ideas that have value” (Robinson and Aronica, 2015: 118). We are born with this ability but whether this ability flourishes or is diminished can be affected by the way children are brought up. Creativity is observable in the actions of primates, other mammals and birds, but it holds a very special place in our own species (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2015) In animals, it seems confined to the actions associated with finding food, mates, status or shelter, but perhaps self-awareness and the knowledge of our own mortality gives creativity a greater importance for human beings. It has become associated with meaning (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997; Mithen, 2005; Harari, 2011). What does creativity mean to you? For me being creative is difficult as I’ve always been fearful of my ideas being too unusual and being laughed at. This is something that is conditioned into us and must stop happening.

So what makes us creative? Kabat-Zinn (2013), has claimed that positive emotions generate enhanced abilities to be creative, imaginative and to integrate past knowledge and present circumstances. Therefore children brought up in a positive home environment are more likely to show creativity when they start school. Children that have had negative experiences may struggle to focus on being in a creative mindset and dismiss ideas that they have. We have seen this from Fredrickson’s research (2009) that the damaging effects of prolonged negative feelings often show in poor resilience, deteriorating relationships, avoidance of risk-taking, limited ideation or creativity and a range of well-known negative physiological changes in blood pressure, inflammation, immune system and digestion (Fredrickson, 2009).
When negative emotions are prolonged, however, and particularly when they are unrelated to direct life-threats, our health, relationships, thinking, creating and even our lifespans can be damagingly affected (Fraser-Smith et al., 1994; Frasure-Smith et al., 1995; Seligman, 2005; Fredrickson, 2009). Therefore, it is important that we try to make a child’s experience in education positive and try to avoid these negative effects from happening in the future.
Although even a false expression of happiness or enquiry can ‘fool’ the brain into responding with a chemistry that provokes connecting, confident and collegiate behaviour (Damasio, 2003). I have seen this ‘false happiness’ in action, when I was working in a nursery. Before the children went off to build or paint or draw etc, we took part in an exercise where the children would all laugh at the same time and continue this forced laughter for 5 minutes. This experience tricked their minds into being positive and therefore more creative. When they went off to participate in activities they seemed to have more free will and express themselves more than previously. Even mild negative feelings like disinterest, boredom or discomfort tend to have narrowing effects on thought and action (Fredrickson, 2009). Children must stay engaged and have an interest in education to get the full benefits out of it. We must make sure the children in our care do not get bored and disinterested as this will stifle their creativity. Creativity can be placed in a virtuous cycle where feelings of well-being generate creative thought and action and creativity generates feelings of well-being (Hope et al., 2008). This is a cycle I hope all children can get stuck into and continue to grow creatively.

“We are too busy being judged on maths and English, we’re dominated by English and maths... Ofsted otherwise just make a general judgment on the whole curriculum” (Barnes and Scoffham, 2017.) This suggests that due to Ofsted, teachers don’t want to steer away from the core subjects and have more of a focus on creativity and the arts. Although the purpose of modern day education is very different to what it used to be like around the time of industrialisation, it is very similar to what it used to be like regarding what children are being taught. Educationalists have long expressed concerns about the decline of creativity in British and American schools (Alexander, 2010). Alexander even suggests that there has been a decline in creativity throughout schools. Since 2012, many have observed a rapid decline in creative opportunities in primary schools, particularly in England. Its National Curriculum of 2014 (DfE, 2014) maintained a trend towards closed, fact-led, rather than thinking-led, definitions of learning and didactic teaching approaches (Beetlestone, 1998, NACCCE, 1999; Craft, 2001, 2005; Jeffries and Woods, 2003; Abbs, 2003; Grainger et al., 2009; Robinson, 2010, 2017; Alexander, 2010; Claxton and Lucas, 2015). However, these sources were written before the Donaldson report in 2015 started to be put in place. This has made significant improvements in supporting creativity. The Report outlined the importance of creativity in children and the changes that should be made to foster creativity.

Every pupil will go to a school that promotes their health and wellbeing, where they have the chance to express their views and where they and their families are welcomed and valued. Every school should be a healthy school, and every child should receive personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) as part of their curriculum entitlement. (DCSF, 2009: 5) The DCSF here states that it is part of a child’s entitlement to express their views although it does not state that they should receive a creative education. This suggests that they have an allowance for creativity although at the time it was not the main focus for schools.


The Donaldson report states “developing all of its children and young people as: ambitious, capable learners; enterprising, creative individuals; ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world; and healthy, confident individuals” (Donaldson, 2015). The Successful Futures report has focus around what kind of children we should aim to get out of our education system. One being creative individuals, therefore it must be part of the curriculum to encourage this as well as test and observe this to ensure they are being successful.
Literacy and numeracy must mean more than basic competence and must acknowledge their central role in thinking and the ability to use language and number confidently and creatively.
(Donaldson, 2015). Here Donaldson suggests that even in our core curriculum it is important that creativity is encouraged and rewarded. Children and young people should learn how to work collaboratively and creatively, taking greater responsibility for their own learning and seeing the relevance of what they are doing to their present and future needs. (Donaldson, 2015) A child taking responsibility for their own learning is linked to creativity, as they have to have independent ideas and ways of learning to ensure they succeed. Hence, independent learning helps a child’s creativity grow. Young people’s experience at school should have stimulated their imaginations in ways that engender excitement, are personally fulfilling and foster creative thinking (Donaldson, 2015)

Donaldson outlines what kind of learners should come out of our education system. Enterprising, creative contributors who:
–  connect and apply their knowledge and skills to create ideas and products
–  think creatively to reframe and solve problems
–  identify and grasp opportunities
–  take measured risks
–  lead and play different roles in teams effectively and responsibly
–  express ideas and emotions through different media
–  give of their energy and skills so that other people will benefit
(Donaldson, 2015)

If a teacher is able to show children that they are creative, they act as a role model and inspire them to be creative themselves. Teachers identified as ‘creative’ by their colleagues appear skilled at promoting creative thinking in others, in touch with their own creativities, keen to share creativity and, significantly, also consistently report high degrees of job satisfaction (Grainger et al., 2009; Barnes, 2014). This means that more recently employers are more likely to hire teachers that show creative skills and pass these skills onto others. By being creative yourself, you have more of an understanding of the process of being creative. They are able to relay this information onto others to encourage them to do the same.
There are multiple reasons for the loss of well-being among so many teachers, but one cause is the perception of diminishing opportunities to express and develop their own creative strengths (NUT, 2001; PCAH, 2010). Now teachers are able to be creative with the way they teach which includes teaching children to be creative, this will have a positive effect on the well-being of both the teacher and the students. The environment will be happier in general and furthermore foster creativity. This suggests that the Donaldson reports ideas on creativity in the curriculum are extremely influential in ensuring that a change is made to support wonderful and creative children.

Overall, I have found this subject title very interesting as I have been able to look at sources from before the Donaldson report to look at how creativity was not catered for in our curriculum. It is very interesting to be in the midst of changes being made to our education as we will be able to observe how the changes will have an effect on children once they leave school and whether more changes will need to be made to our system to improve it even more. Intelligence is diverse and should not be limited to subject knowledge, people are now seeing the importance of the imagination and trying to gain as much as they can from it. Due to academic inflation, degrees are no longer a guarantee of employment as so many people have them. Other skills should be built in children other than academic ones to ensure they have as many prospects as possible.

Do you think that our current education system could make improvements still to encourage creativity?

Here Catherine Thimmesh discusses why creativity is an essential tool for students and how teachers can easily encourage and foster the development of creative thinking.

References

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