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Welcome to the Expansive Education Network
The Expansive Education Network
is a professional learning network for teachers - an approach to teaching
that focuses on developing dispositions that help young people to be fulfilled and successful in their lives
Putting creativity at the heart of schools Last month Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), launched the latest publication by Prof Bill Lucas, Creative thinking in schools across the world: a snapshot of progress across the world, at the OECD in Paris. The event was the first World Creativity in Education Summit and was coordinated by the Global Institute of Creative Thinking (GLoCT). Writing in the Foreword Andreas says: Creative thinking is not a magic power, though, it can be learned and it can be taught. Every individual, to a greater or smaller degree, has the potential to think creatively. It is therefore unsurprising that school curricula around the world seek to give creativity greater emphasis, both within and across subject disciplines. Over the last decade there have also been encouraging attempts to assess creativity in schools, looking to evidence progress in the development of creative skills. Key messages for teachers when designing curriculum Increasingly the teaching profession is realising that creativity can be learned and can be taught. But it is not a subject in the way that, say science or history are. It needs to be intentionally embedded in every aspect of the curriculum and calls for a different approach to curriculum design. Four key messages are emerging from schools across the world in this area. 1. Creative thinking starts from real problems and inevitably takes time There is growing evidence that the fundamental curriculum model for effective teaching of creative thinking is problem not subject-based, enabling the development of divergent thinking across subject disciplines. One strategy used by some secondary schools is block scheduling with fewer, longer lessons during any week. The report notes that problem-based learning needs especially careful planning with time given to teachers to plan together. 2. Creativity is largely social While it is possible for individuals to exercise their creative thinking alone, it is much more common that the creative act is a collaborative or group endeavour. It has been argued that, even, when we are alone, and especially in a world of the Internet, we are really exercising creative collaboration. In schools valuing collective acts by students has always been a challenge, except, perhaps, on the sports field or in artistic performances. For seen through the lens of public examinations which are based on individual performance, some will see only a thin line separating collaboration, sharing and cheating. 3. Creativity is interdisciplinary and is rarely contained within a single subject Creative thinking can be cultivated in a specific subject, but it frequently invites teachers and their students to look across disciplines. Few would dispute that the most pressing problems of our age such as climate change will require imaginative contributions from many disciplines if we are to make progress. 4. Creative thinking activities work best when they are co-designed with students Designing a curriculum to develop creative thinking is an opportunity, within appropriate bounds, to engage learners in planning and designing the curriculum. Co-design is increasingly seen as essential in both the business world and in healthcare but remains underused in schools. It is worth noting that, for many teachers, these four principles represent a significant shift away from current practices; they challenge the status quo. The principles are exactly the kinds of issues that the eight Creativity Collaboratives are currently exploring in England. |
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Creative leadership to develop creativity and creative thinking in English schools - part of a larger project on developing leadership in secondary schools
This review forms the initial foundation for a piece of work commissioned by the Mercers’ Company designed to help school leaders in secondary schools in England make creativity central to their students’ lives. Across the world the importance of creativity is increasingly acknowledged in education systems. But though leadership in schools is well-researched in general terms, leadership for creativity is not. In this review, we chart the establishment of a robust definition of creative leadership in schools, summarise the case for its importance today, and illustrate what it looks like in secondary schools. The review builds on the first report of the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education in 2019 and research by the OECD published in the same year by analysing the opportunities and challenges that secondary school leaders face if they truly wish to focus on developing the creativity of their students. From our reading of the literature, both scholarly and ‘grey’ sources, ‘creative leadership’ is the term we believe best encapsulates a kind of school leadership that explicitly develops the creativity of all of its members, staff and students alike. The concept of creative leadership and research relating to it is underdeveloped in education, while in other fields there is more consensus. Our understanding of ‘creative leadership’ in its broadest sense suggests that it is a helpful way of capturing the essence of school leaders’ role, and a starting point for considering how the sorts of challenges identified by the Durham Commission might best be met. Our review of the literature suggests that we need to reimagine the kind of leadership that will develop creative students (and creative staff) at a theoretical level, as well as clarifying the practical implications for leaders’ practices. Creative leadership will explicitly seek to cultivate creative habits in teaching staff who can, in turn, model these with their students. Creative leaders ensure that there are multiple opportunities for developing the creativity of all young people while at the same time recognising that for a school truly to be a creative organisation then developing the creativity of its leaders and staff is important both as a means to an end and as an end in itself. Leading for creativity is likely to mean setting an agenda for change that involves prioritising practices that develop creative leaders through collaboration within and across professional communities, that promote the development of creative cultures and structures and that utilise creative pedagogies....... |
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S1E4: Rethinking Assessment Edge Foundation is proudly supporting the Rethinking Assessment movement which brings together a wide coalition of state and independent schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, FE Colleges, academics and employers to push for change to our old-fashioned exam system. In this episode you will hear from:
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Welcome to The Creativity Exchange | ACE Curated by Bill Lucas, the site is full of useful ideas for expansive educators. The Creativity Exchange is a space for school leaders, teachers, those working in cultural organisations, scientists, researchers and parents to share ideas about how to teach for creativity and develop young people’s creativity at and beyond school. As part of the implementation of the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education a new online platform, #CreativityExchange has been launched https://www.creativityexchange.org.uk/
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