Declining Creativity and Our Brains
Newsweek, “The Creativity Crisis” by Bronson and Merryman
July 10, 2010
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html
Is our focus on a standards-based education having a negative effect on our students’ ability to create and innovate? As our school has recently gone through the process of re-accreditation, we have focused intently on ensuring that we are following our standards. We have worked diligently on creating assessments that measure progress in standards acquisition. One of the struggles we face is that there appears to be more standards than what we are capable of addressing. In a recent study by Marzano and Kendall, it was speculated that if teachers devoted 30 minutes of instructional time to teach each benchmark, they would need an additional 15,465 hours (9 years) for students to learn them all! (Wiggins & McTigue). In all of our efforts to enhance instruction, improve learning and accountability, are we overlooking and perhaps fundamentally changing one of the strengths of American education. Is American creativity declining?
The Torrance creativity test created by Professor E. Paul Torrance over fifty years ago, may not measure creativity perfectly, but has proven more effective than IQ testing in predicting lifetime creative accomplishments. Therefore, the results of a recent study by Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary is particularly alarming. After analyzing nearly 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults, Kim found that creativity scores had been rising until 1990, but since then scores have begun to drop. The reasons for this remain unclear. But, there is some hope in developing solutions.
Many people feel that creativity is a right brain activity. As we focus on core subjects more and less on the arts, the argument is that we are favoring the left hemisphere over the right. But, this is not necessarily true. Although, I believe that the arts are essential in developing creativity, no learning occurs solely in one hemisphere. “Highly creative people are very good at marshaling their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual-activate.”(Bronson & Merryman). And, the good news is that creativity can be taught! Using creative problem solving programs and project based learning, educators can enable their students to alternate between divergent and convergent thinking.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills advocates for the teaching of core subjects (including arts) using learning and innovation skills. The 4Cs, as they are referred to, are critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. The first three are integral to developing the fourth C, creativity. As part of restructuring our curriculum, instruction and assessments to meet the changing needs of our students in the technological age, a focus on creativity and innovation must remain at the forefront if we are to prevent a creativity crisis.
Bronson, P., & Merryman, A. (July 10, 2010). The Creativity Crisis. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2004). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/
Wiggins, G.P. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for the Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Researched Based Instructional Strategies
Edutopia: The George Lucas Educational Foundation
This website is dedicated to innovation in education. It challenges traditional education with the benefits of project-based learning. Various links are dedicated specifically to brain-based research and its applications. Although each article promotes a particular point of view, the comments are open and allow for on-going analysis and discussion.
I have chosen two excellent articles for review.
(1) Brain-based research prompts innovative teaching techniques in the classroom
2/25/2003
The article focuses on Florida’s Key Largo School. The school uses a variety of innovative strategies based on brain research to improve student learning.
Teachers at the school provide a variety of ways for students to learn the subject matter. Students can choose which way works best for them. Some may choose to learn through the traditional textbook while others may check out a video. Many of them seem to favor interactive websites. One of the interactive websites featured is sponsored by the British Museum.
Technology is a part of the students’ daily lives. Students learn by doing and visualizing which are facilitated by technology. The focus Is not on learning lists of dislocated facts, but rather on the acquisition of knowledge that is organized in a variety of ways.
Instructional strategies include the use of brain “breaks” such as Brain Gym, a series 26 movements students engage in meant to improve concentration, memory and other brain skills.
(2) Brain Research May Point to Changes in Literacy Development
This article emphasizes student readiness for learning, with particular focus on reading/literacy. According to the article, there are neurological reasons for the difficulty many students encounter when learning to read. It implies that we often jump to conclusions too readily, assuming disability instead of learning difference.
What I found most interesting here were the comments below the article. Many comments focused on the power of the teacher and the fear that these types of findings would lead to a more inactive approach to teaching literacy.
Also of interest: Understanding How the Brain Thinks
ByJudy Willis MD 06/13/11
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/understanding-how-the-brain-thinks-judy-willis-md#comment-94506
No comments:
Post a Comment