"If we want students to be creative thinkers, we need to make the rest of school more like kindergarten." #edchat
This was a tweet I saw from Dr Justin Tarte
He makes a great point. Walk into any Kindergarten classroom and you will see collaboration, creativity, cooperative learning, sharing of ideas, communication skills just to name a few. However to many thats fine in kindergarten because its ok to "play" and do all those things but once you get into elementary school and up thats when we need to focus on "real learning"
Who Says ?
Don't we want all of our students no matter what grade they are in to be creative and learn about collaboration etc.
Sir Ken Robinson on many occasion has said that "Schools Kill Creativity" ( see video below)
I would like to offer some possibilities as well:
- Teachers see creativity as extra and not part of the actual curriculum
- In a mode of standardized testing and teaching to the test creativity is hard to assess and often is not tested.
- Requires teachers to give up some control
- Requires risk taking
- It is harder to be creative and create creative assignments.
I would like to hear from you why we can be and are creative in Kindergarten and seem to loose that creativity once we enter Elementary school and beyond
In my opinion Akevy? Real learning can only happen with the promise of creativity & imagination.
ReplyDeleteI think there is something about the word play that somehow, over time, we have associated with immature. But I feel play is the most adept way to clarify & define the process of creativity.
We play as we problem solve, as we engage and innovate... play is a means of achieving a state of 'flow'. Some of my best and most effective thinking sessions have been when I gave myself permission to play... with words and ideas.
I am not sure I necessarily agree that kindergarten is the only place where we give ourselves permission...for any classroom where ideas are able to take shape and the environment is a safe place to make mistakes... that is a true opportunity to play.
Thank you... much to contemplate and of course... reflect on. I am sure I will have a blog post in reply very soon!
J
Jana
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment!
I think the point is that in general a lot of teachers see play and creativity as something done in pre school and not in elementary grades.
I think there are some you being one of them who sees the importance of play and knows that we can learn a lot from it. Have your read Angela Maiers Playground manifesto
Thanks always
Akevy
I have not... thank you:)
ReplyDeleteI will seek it out right away...
Today I watched students creating and making animals out of playdoh in Grade 2... It was a wonder to watch & enjoy.
Play is the foundation of creativity...