{"id":2254,"date":"2016-09-30T12:51:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T02:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edte.ch\/blog\/?p=2254"},"modified":"2016-09-30T12:51:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T02:51:34","slug":"schools-want-students-creative-thursday-afternoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edte.ch\/blog\/schools-want-students-creative-thursday-afternoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools want students to be creative, but only on a Thursday afternoon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Right off the bat I just want to say, that this post will likely pose more questions than give you solid answers. In many ways though pursuing those questions on creativity and pondering on what they mean in our schools is a worthy call to action in itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fascinated by anything related to the research on creativity, I stumbled on this post<\/a> from Fast Company<\/a> about some of the pointers we can get from science.<\/p>\n

Admittedly there is some good stuff there amongst the usual mix of \u201cdaydreaming and trying new things is good\u201d. What struck me was the parting shot about the resistance to unconventional ideas and the public reaction to non-conformist concepts.<\/p>\n

Some of the best ideas are widely ridiculed before they\u2019re revered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My radar for this sort of stuff is heightened as I recently wrote about the bias against creative ideas we might hold if we are feeling high levels of uncertainty. Creativity bias as a real thing.<\/p>\n

The article elaborated further, but started to stray to a slightly different path to close:<\/p>\n

Research suggests that whatever nonconformist tendencies we may have as children are often driven out of us by the rote learning and direct instruction utilized in schools, which may counteract our more exploratory and creative modes of thinking and learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We are on different track now. These last comments are about the characteristics of those who are creative\u200a\u2014\u200anot the ideas themselves. It also, obviously, draws in the impact of how we learn and the environmental influence of school\u200a\u2014\u200anot the ideas themselves.<\/p>\n

A final reference to the resistance to those \u201ccreative types\u201d points the finger at teachers: \u201cteachers have been found to display a clear preference for students who show less creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which led me to a stream of questions:<\/p>\n