Thinking out of the box:

putting creativity into the curriculum

 My name is Danielle Veilleux
IB MYP curriculum and assessment manager (CAM)
Arts, Humanities and MYP Personal project

Objectives:
 To develop an understanding of creativity
 To enrich teaching strategies with creative approaches

http://stacyennis.com/2013/08/02/rethinking-creativity-
why-new-moms-need-to-find-new-ways-to-be-creative/
 What is Creativity?
Ideational fluency........the ability to generate many different ideas.
Possibility thinking......the ability to see many ways of doing things.
Scenario thinking........the ability to conceive of a range of future
possibilities.
Combinational ability...the ability to see relationships among
seemingly unrelated objects or ideas.
Provocation skill..........the ability and will to challenge traditional
ways of thinking or doing things.
Disruptive tendency.....the ability to disassemble familiar ways of
doing things and reassemble them in new
ways.
Paradigm flexibility......the ability to change one’s frame of reference
from prevailing ideas and beliefs.

Reference: de Bono, Edward (1992) Serious creativity: Using the power of lateral thinking
to create new ideas. New York, Harper Business
 What is creativity?
What? Where?

Insight IB Learner Profile

Imagination with a purpose Objectives &
Creative thinking + Critical thinking Assessment criteria
Play Approaches to Learning
Transfer, connect, action Interdisciplinarity

How? Why?

(Structured) Inquiry Adaptability

Teaching strategies Life-long learning
Experimental learning Independence
Experiential learning Innovation
Fostering creative behaviours Problem solving ability
Solution-focussed thinking
Personal What is creativity?
Societal

Ideas: Ideas:
Is having an idea always If an idea is not original, is it still creative?
creative?
Is developing that idea creative? If an idea doesn’t work, is it still creative?

Play: Play :
Why do we play? Do we grow out of play?
Is play always creative?
Explore, experiment, embellish,
improvise, experience, try, What about performing set pieces,
entertain, compete Chinese calligraphy or mimicry?

Action Action
Using creative thought and critical Innovation, change, discovery
thought to apply discoveries in action Development, growth
 What is creativity?
 All the literature that has ever been written in the modern English
language consists of patterns of only 26 letters

 All of the paintings ever made are patterns of only three primary colours

 All the music ever written consists of patterns of no more than 12 notes

 All the arithmetical expressions we know consist of only 10 symbols

 And for the vast computations of digital computers, everything is made up

of patterns of only 2 components

 Thus when we speak of something as being “new” we are really talking

about original patterns of existing components

Don Fabun Three Roads to Awareness Published by Glencoe Press, Beverly Hills, California.
www.facebook.com/landfillharmonicmovie
 Motivation

Teaching for creativity in an era of content standards and accountability by John Baer and Tracey Garrett
a contribution to Nurturing Creativity in the classroom by Beghetto & Kaufman: Cambridge University Press, 2010
 Motivation

“The bottom line is, if you’re not the one

controlling your learning, you’re not going to
learn as well.”

Joel Voss, now a neuroscientist at Northwestern University,

formerly involved in square tests of 2011 U of Illinois
 Life-long learning

“The struggle of maturity is to recover

the seriousness of a child at play.”
-Friedrich Nietzshe

• Familiarity and fear of failure (comfort zones and fear of unknown)

• Self-censure and inhibition (I’ll look or sound silly)

• Expertise (I know what I’m doing)

 Case study
In 2009, scientists from the University of Louisville and MIT’s
department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences conducted a study
of 48 children between the ages of 3 and 6.

• one toy Teaching of one attribute

• 2 groups of 3-6 year olds =4 discoveries
• One ‘surprised’ scientist No instruction at all
• One ‘teacher’ scientist = 6 discoveries

“According to the psychologists, [the] different reactions were caused by

the act of teaching. When students are given explicit instructions, when
they are told what they need to know, they become less likely to explore
on their own. Curiosity is a fragile thing.” Imagine p236 J. Lehrer
Bloom’s taxonomy (revised)
Personal creativity characteristics
Listening to
one’s “inner
voice”

Digging
deeper into
ideas
Openness
and courage
to explore
ideas

Generating
ideas

2002 Center for Creative Learning,

published in Assessing Creativity: A guide for Educators
The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented
 Ideational fluency
INDIVIDUALLY, using only brain
power:

List all the modes of transport

that you can think of.
Context expands ideational fluency (even fictionally)

Consider these:

• Rome, Dubai, Hawaii, Philippines

• mountains, sea, space
• air, fire, water, earth
• vertical, horizontal, diagonal, spiral
• fantasy, reality, past, future

Add any more modes of transport you can think of.

 Concepts deepen understanding
Consider the concept:
Identity
Discuss the statement of
inquiry:
A mode of transport can be
a ‘vehicle’ for expressing
personal and cultural
identity.
What other statements could
you use to inquire into?
 Some teaching strategies for any classroom
• Discovery through inquiry
• Hypothetical situations/challenges
• Inventing (imagination with purpose*)
• Innovating (connection and use of prior knowledge)
• Creating (manipulation of materials and resources)
• Experimental (without fear of failure)
• Experiential (outside the classroom or in fictitious
surroundings)

*Coined by Creative Partnerships on The Creativity wheel.

 Role play for any classroom
Why? How?
– Experiential
– Active o Teacher in role
– Authentic (collaboration and co-
– Shifting perspectives construction)
– Interdisciplinary
– Student-centered o Communal role
– Real life (multiple perspectives)
– Engaging
– Holistic o Mantle of the expert
– Concrete (student-centered
– Collaborative investigation)
 Mantle of the Expert
“Re-frames the teacher and student in fictional roles in which
the students are “endowed” as experts in a specific field.
Students are more than passive receivers of knowledge, rather
they are the ones constructing it.” (Wikipedia)

• Expertise
• Belief
• Context
• Professional register and manner

Dorothy Heathcote MBE

 Mantle of the expert
MYP 5 Transport: Museum of learning

• Each floor will be dedicated to a subject area’s dedication

to learning about transport
• Each group contains experts in the field
• Unlimited budget
• Approximately 6 large exhibits each
• (optional reporters)

Formulate a pitch for the board of directors with visual aids

 Creative behaviours
• questioning
• responding in a surprising way
• challenging conventions assumptions
• thinking independently
• seeing challenges positively
• visualizing alternatives
• using imagination
• considering other perspectives
• playing with ideas and experimenting
• trusting one’s intuition
• modifying ideas through the process
• recognizing when an idea has value
and pursuing it
• seeking unusual solutions
 Allowing the demonstration of creativity
Differ the modes of presentation:
Vary the task types regularly and
where possible provide students with
choices in their modes of presentation:

• Process journal/recording tools

• Experiment
• Practical activity
• Use of technology
• Individual inquiry
• Experiential learning
• Site-specific learning
 Assessing creativity
MYP Arts 2014
Assessment criterion C: Thinking creatively
7–8
The student:
develops an excellent artistic intention, which is consistently
feasible, clear, imaginative and coherent
demonstrates an excellent range and depth of creative-thinking
behaviours
demonstrates excellent exploration of ideas to effectively shape
artistic intention through to a point of realization.
 Assessing creativity
MYP Arts 2014
Assessment criterion C: Thinking creatively
7–8
The student:
develops an excellent artistic intention, which is consistently
feasible, clear, imaginative and coherent IDEA
demonstrates an excellent range and depth of creative-thinking
behaviours PLAY
demonstrates excellent exploration of ideas to effectively shape
artistic intention through to a point of realization. ACTION
 My name is Danielle

Thank you for listening and sharing your time with me.