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Nurturing Creativity in the Visual Arts Classroom

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Creative skill-building is a major focus of educational systems around the world. Tiina Kukkonen and Benjamin Bolden discuss pedagogical strategies used to support students’ creative development.

Image courtesy of interviewee. July 11, 2024

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This video discusses the increasing emphasis on creative skills in the workforce over the past 20 to 30 years, driven by the growth of creative tech-based and knowledge-based economies. Educational systems have responded by focusing on nurturing creative skills, particularly in arts education, though challenges remain in fostering abilities like risk-taking and improvisation within structured curricula.

The authors highlight the importance of creativity as a 21st-century learning objective, linking it to student success in uncertain futures and overall well-being. They reference Theresa A. Malay's Confidential Theory of Creativity, which identifies key components essential for fostering creativity: task motivation, domain-specific skills, and creativity-relevant processes.

The study at hand examined how visual arts teachers support creativity in the classroom. Interviews with four teachers revealed strategies they used to nurture creativity, including connecting curriculum to student interests, hands-on skill development demonstrations, and encouraging independent work and risk-taking. Teachers emphasized their role as "creativity cheerleaders," helping students recognize their own potential for creativity.

Overall, the study aims to empower arts educators by identifying effective practices they may already be utilizing to support creativity, underscoring that fostering creativity does not have to be a daunting task and can be achieved through straightforward, integrated approaches in the classroom.

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Here are several articles that share similar themes and discussions regarding creativity in education, the role of teachers in nurturing creative skills, and the importance of creativity in the workforce:

1. **"Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom: Methods and Strategies"**
- This article explores various methods teachers can adopt to foster creativity in students, highlighting hands-on approaches, collaborative projects, and curriculum connections to student interests.

2. **"The Role of Creativity in Education: Preparing Students for the Future"**
- This piece discusses how educational systems can evolve to prioritize creativity as a core competency. It examines the need for curricula that go beyond traditional subjects to include creative problem-solving and innovative thinking.

3. **"Creativity and Innovation in a Knowledge Economy"**
- This article analyzes the impact of the creative economy on educational practices, emphasizing the importance of developing creative skills to navigate an increasingly complex job market.

4. **"Teaching for Creativity: The Importance of Risk-Taking in Learning"**
- Focusing on the significance of risk-taking in the creative process, this article provides insight into how educators can create an environment that encourages students to take intellectual risks.

5. **"21st Century Skills: Learning, Creativity, and Innovation"**
- This report outlines essential 21st-century skills, including creativity, and discusses how educators can integrate these skills into their teaching methodologies to enhance student engagement and success.

6. **"Empowering Educators: Supporting Creativity in Arts Education"**
- The article discusses the unique challenges and opportunities arts educators face in promoting creativity, providing practical tips and testimonials from teachers on how they can motivate their students.

7. **"Confidential Theory of Creativity: A Framework for Educators"**
- This academic paper dives into Theresa A. Malay's Confidential Theory of Creativity, elaborating on the key components necessary for fostering a creative environment in educational settings.

These articles collectively reinforce the importance of creativity in education and provide valuable insights into effective teaching practices that can foster creative skills among students.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.000 --> 00:02.605
Well, kind of from an economic standpoint, for the last 20

00:02.605 --> 00:05.125
to 30 years, there's been an emphasis on creative

00:05.125 --> 00:06.445
skills in the workforce.

00:06.705 --> 00:07.805
And this is mostly because

00:07.865 --> 00:09.965
of the rapid growth in creative tech-based

00:10.305 --> 00:12.205
and sort of knowledge-based economies.

00:12.665 --> 00:14.325
So since these economic values

00:14.625 --> 00:17.205
and needs tend to trickle down into education systems,

00:17.275 --> 00:20.565
schools have also turned their attention to this sort

00:20.565 --> 00:22.885
of creative skill building to better prepare students

00:23.345 --> 00:26.005
for their workforce and also to be sort of consumers

00:26.005 --> 00:27.205
of these creative products.

00:27.865 --> 00:30.125
Um, but with that, traditionally it is kind

00:30.125 --> 00:32.565
of been difficult for educators in K to 12 systems

00:32.785 --> 00:34.965
to encourage skills like risk taking

00:35.105 --> 00:37.765
and improvisation within these highly

00:38.045 --> 00:39.205
structured school curricula.

00:39.625 --> 00:42.285
So for example, you know, kids aren't usually tested on

00:42.505 --> 00:44.885
how well they take risks or how well they improvise.

00:44.885 --> 00:46.565
You know, they're tested on the knowledge

00:46.565 --> 00:48.205
and content that's been presented to them.

00:48.905 --> 00:51.165
But for us, you know, we're both arts educators.

00:51.265 --> 00:53.325
Uh, so we know that arts education is an area

00:53.335 --> 00:56.685
where creative skills are typically nurtured, such

00:56.765 --> 00:58.365
as imagination, problem solving,

00:58.785 --> 01:01.325
and the ability to communicate through different mediums.

01:02.105 --> 01:03.845
So within our context of Canada,

01:04.115 --> 01:06.925
it's expected within most arts curricula

01:07.035 --> 01:08.765
that students exercise this type

01:08.765 --> 01:10.445
of creativity in making artworks.

01:10.745 --> 01:12.725
But there's sometimes a lack of support for

01:13.285 --> 01:14.885
teachers in terms of identifying

01:15.075 --> 01:17.565
what creativity looks like in the classroom, how

01:17.565 --> 01:19.605
to consciously design learning activities

01:19.605 --> 01:20.925
that support creative development,

01:21.545 --> 01:25.085
and how to assess creative processes within the confines

01:25.105 --> 01:26.645
of their curriculum expectations.

01:26.705 --> 01:29.365
And I find this particularly true at the elementary level.

01:29.855 --> 01:33.485
Creativity is a key 21st century learning objective

01:33.525 --> 01:35.645
for students across educational systems.

01:36.625 --> 01:38.245
And, Tina referenced this,

01:38.305 --> 01:40.965
but, creativity is the number one predictor

01:40.965 --> 01:44.485
of success within the knowledge based di economy that we,

01:44.485 --> 01:46.045
that we're experiencing these days.

01:46.705 --> 01:49.045
And, it's also valuable.

01:49.045 --> 01:52.125
Creativity is valuable in helping young people negotiate

01:52.285 --> 01:53.445
uncertain futures.

01:54.545 --> 01:57.525
And, maybe my favorite rationale is

01:57.555 --> 02:00.525
that creativity has been convincingly linked

02:00.665 --> 02:02.405
to enhanced wellbeing.

02:02.705 --> 02:05.245
Our work is based, or this article in particular is based

02:05.305 --> 02:07.125
on a Malays theory of creativity.

02:07.225 --> 02:11.325
So Theresa a Malay is a very well-known scholar in the realm

02:11.325 --> 02:12.805
of creativity and has been writing

02:12.805 --> 02:13.925
about this for many years.

02:14.465 --> 02:16.125
So she developed this theory

02:16.125 --> 02:18.685
that's called the Confidential Theory of Creativity.

02:19.505 --> 02:21.525
And within that theory, she suggests

02:21.525 --> 02:24.125
that creativity requires four different components.

02:24.505 --> 02:26.085
So there are three internal components

02:26.185 --> 02:27.725
and one external component.

02:28.185 --> 02:30.685
Um, so we focused on these three internal components,

02:30.685 --> 02:33.245
which are task motivation, domain specific skills

02:33.465 --> 02:36.925
and creativity relevant processes, which according

02:36.925 --> 02:39.005
to this theory form the basis of creativity.

02:39.385 --> 02:42.405
And that is then influenced by this fourth component was,

02:42.415 --> 02:44.285
which is the social or work environment.

02:44.745 --> 02:47.645
So we didn't focus on that fourth component as much.

02:47.665 --> 02:50.045
So we focused mainly on the three internal components

02:50.045 --> 02:51.885
because our data just didn't really allow us

02:51.885 --> 02:54.805
to meaningfully address that fourth social component

02:54.865 --> 02:56.125
or work environment component.

02:56.865 --> 02:58.965
Um, so just to give a brief definition

02:59.225 --> 03:00.805
of these three internal components

03:00.805 --> 03:02.165
that were the focus of our work.

03:02.905 --> 03:05.405
So task motivation is basically just the motivation

03:05.505 --> 03:07.245
to engage in creative tasks,

03:07.455 --> 03:09.165
which is particularly important at the

03:09.165 --> 03:10.285
start of a creative process.

03:11.105 --> 03:13.285
Um, and then domain specific skills refer

03:13.285 --> 03:15.165
to specific knowledge, technical skills

03:15.625 --> 03:19.045
and experience within any given domain,

03:19.235 --> 03:20.365
that people can draw from

03:20.365 --> 03:22.565
and then synthesize in order to form new ideas.

03:23.265 --> 03:26.325
And then creativity relevant processes are kind of

03:26.325 --> 03:28.685
that extra something that,

03:28.685 --> 03:29.925
or that extra something quality

03:30.195 --> 03:32.525
that creative products have or creative ideas have.

03:33.025 --> 03:34.765
So a Malay suggests that this sort

03:34.765 --> 03:37.365
of something extra results from a combination

03:37.505 --> 03:40.645
of personality traits like self-discipline, perseverance,

03:41.065 --> 03:43.325
and also cognitive styles that are conducive

03:43.325 --> 03:45.365
to pre creative problem solving, such

03:45.365 --> 03:46.605
as flexible planning style,

03:46.705 --> 03:47.885
and also the ability

03:47.945 --> 03:50.565
to explore different pathways to problems.

03:51.095 --> 03:55.605
Going back a bit to 2007, Hetland

03:55.625 --> 03:59.125
and colleagues developed a framework based on empirical

03:59.365 --> 04:01.765
research of visual arts education practices

04:02.225 --> 04:04.685
of eight studio habits of mind.

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And I think, arts educators have found this very helpful

04:09.785 --> 04:13.805
as a way of thinking about, supporting creativity

04:13.825 --> 04:15.645
and supporting creative development.

04:16.345 --> 04:19.085
So our study in some ways builds on that work.

04:19.585 --> 04:24.205
Uh, it, it's also, building on ideas presented by,

04:24.385 --> 04:27.685
Keith Sawyer in 2015 who pointed out

04:27.685 --> 04:32.125
that arts education does not equal creativity education.

04:32.555 --> 04:35.845
Tina spoke a bit about this earlier, the idea that,

04:36.375 --> 04:38.365
often there's an assumption made that

04:38.365 --> 04:41.325
because people are in the arts,

04:41.325 --> 04:42.845
they're automatically creative

04:42.845 --> 04:45.405
because people are teaching in the area of the arts.

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They're teaching people to be creative,

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but that's not the case.

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It's not necessarily the case.

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Uh, we can think of an example of, a very fine,

04:57.755 --> 05:00.325
technical visual artist who might,

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might not be doing anything innovative,

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who might just be copying existing works.

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So, we wanted to really focus in on

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how arts teachers can support creativity,

05:13.905 --> 05:15.325
not just arts more broadly.

05:16.105 --> 05:19.005
Um, there's also some interesting work

05:19.075 --> 05:22.085
that we build on in terms of the role

05:22.145 --> 05:25.445
of constraints in supporting creativity.

05:26.025 --> 05:29.565
Um, a lot of research has identified that

05:30.355 --> 05:33.045
constraints hinder creativity.

05:33.145 --> 05:35.125
In other words, if people expose

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or if, if whatever context exposes

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or sorry, imposes constraints on people's creativity,

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they won't be successful, they won't be as creative,

05:44.545 --> 05:47.445
rather if there are constraints in place.

05:47.955 --> 05:50.245
However, more recently,

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there's been research done that has more

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or less debunked this idea.

05:56.835 --> 06:01.365
Akar and colleagues in 2019 found that individuals teams

06:01.665 --> 06:05.325
and organizations actually benefit from constraints.

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As long as those constraints are moderate,

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the constraints can actually be very helpful for

06:11.325 --> 06:15.365
focusing work and ideas and therefore supporting creativity.

06:15.915 --> 06:18.885
It's key to remember that, the constraints

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must not harm the creator's sense of self-determination,

06:23.185 --> 06:24.685
but as long as they don't do that,

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they're actually very helpful to creativity.

06:27.985 --> 06:32.005
So that's some of the work that we, use

06:32.005 --> 06:33.685
to inform our own understandings

06:33.685 --> 06:36.285
and that we're aiming to build on. With our study,

06:36.505 --> 06:38.965
We interviewed four visual arts teachers,

06:39.175 --> 06:40.605
three high school teachers

06:40.605 --> 06:42.405
and one elementary teacher using a

06:42.405 --> 06:43.765
semi-structured interview approach.

06:44.265 --> 06:46.365
Um, and we purposely recruited these teachers

06:46.365 --> 06:49.445
because they had an interest in an experienced nurturing

06:49.445 --> 06:51.525
creativity in visual arts classrooms

06:51.665 --> 06:54.165
and spanning a range of age levels, again,

06:54.165 --> 06:55.725
from high school elementary to high school.

06:56.345 --> 06:58.565
Um, the interviews themselves were about 30

06:58.565 --> 06:59.725
to 45 minutes long

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and focused on what these teachers actually do in the

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classroom to support students' creative development.

07:05.225 --> 07:07.485
So this included how they designed learning tasks

07:07.625 --> 07:10.325
and assignments as well as the types of feedback they

07:10.725 --> 07:13.685
provided to students and how they supported opportunities

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for self and peer assessment in the classroom.

07:16.425 --> 07:18.205
Um, and then from there, using kind

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of a combined deductive inductive approach,

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we analyzed the interview data using a model A three

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internal components as our lens for looking at that.

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Um, but we also remained open to any sort

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of new subcategories that might emerge

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that were perhaps more specific

07:32.985 --> 07:35.845
to the arts education context that we're looking at.

07:36.025 --> 07:38.285
So in the article, I mean, you can read that there are a lot

07:38.285 --> 07:39.645
of specific examples of

07:39.665 --> 07:41.885
how these teachers nurture task motivation,

07:41.885 --> 07:44.885
domain specific skills and creativity, relevant process

07:44.985 --> 07:47.125
or creative creativity relevant processes.

07:47.625 --> 07:49.445
Um, but in general, we found

07:49.445 --> 07:52.045
that task motivation was encouraged by the teachers

07:52.045 --> 07:53.525
by connecting curriculum content

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to students' interests, which was really important.

07:56.025 --> 07:59.045
And also by leveraging external motivation tools such

07:59.045 --> 08:01.445
as project checklists that would keep students on task.

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Um, they foster domain specific skills

08:04.385 --> 08:07.205
and visual arts through hands-on demonstrations

08:07.345 --> 08:09.405
of techniques, which is pretty common in

08:09.405 --> 08:10.485
visual arts classrooms.

08:10.995 --> 08:13.365
Also explicitly outlining process steps

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and also helping students make informed

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judgements about their work.

08:18.185 --> 08:20.645
And then finally, they, in terms

08:20.645 --> 08:22.125
of creativity relevant processes,

08:22.425 --> 08:24.885
the teachers encourage personality traits like

08:24.885 --> 08:28.085
self-discipline and independence by designing activities

08:28.085 --> 08:30.245
that would allow students to work independently

08:30.425 --> 08:31.965
or independently with their peers.

08:33.345 --> 08:36.205
Um, and also by celebrating student achievements,

08:36.205 --> 08:37.445
whether those were big achievements

08:37.445 --> 08:38.685
or small achievements, you know,

08:38.685 --> 08:40.485
if they accomplished a small step,

08:40.505 --> 08:41.725
you know, really celebrating that.

08:41.785 --> 08:44.725
So that would encourage them to continue on to persevere

08:45.425 --> 08:47.485
and they nurtured then cognitive styles

08:47.485 --> 08:49.405
by encouraging students to sort

08:49.405 --> 08:51.165
of push boundaries of assignments.

08:51.265 --> 08:53.365
So if a student wanted to do something

08:53.365 --> 08:54.605
that was a little bit different from

08:54.605 --> 08:56.170
what was was described in the assignment,

08:56.170 --> 08:57.925
the teachers would be encouraging of

08:57.925 --> 08:59.045
that and would allow for that.

08:59.865 --> 09:01.525
Um, and also allowing students

09:01.525 --> 09:03.005
to be more flexible in their planning.

09:03.185 --> 09:04.685
And they also, I found,

09:04.785 --> 09:07.605
or we found that they modeled risk taking within the

09:07.605 --> 09:10.165
projects and also how to learn from failure,

09:10.175 --> 09:11.325
which can be really important.

09:11.805 --> 09:14.205
I think something that was really significant

09:14.385 --> 09:18.765
to me in this data, was a strong sense

09:19.955 --> 09:21.775
we got from all of the teachers

09:21.805 --> 09:25.815
that they saw their role a bit as, a,

09:26.015 --> 09:28.735
a creativity cheerleader within their work,

09:29.315 --> 09:31.855
as in they really felt they need

09:32.095 --> 09:35.455
to make their students believe that they could be,

09:35.675 --> 09:36.935
ch could be creative.

09:37.515 --> 09:39.615
And, and this is borne out a little bit in the,

09:39.955 --> 09:42.495
the literature as well, the importance of,

09:44.415 --> 09:47.015
students really believing they have the capacity

09:47.075 --> 09:50.615
to be creative and that's, they often don't think that,

09:51.255 --> 09:53.135
I think there's a bit of a default feeling

09:53.245 --> 09:55.735
that only special people are creative.

09:56.315 --> 09:58.975
And so the teachers, all the ones we spoke

09:58.975 --> 10:03.015
to were really very intentional about making sure

10:03.015 --> 10:05.655
that the students believed that they could be creative.

10:05.915 --> 10:07.775
That's something that came across very,

10:08.005 --> 10:10.175
very strongly in the data for us. Yeah,

10:10.395 --> 10:12.535
And they use that word cheerleader, that they really need

10:12.535 --> 10:14.495
to be creativity cheerleaders in the classroom.

10:14.835 --> 10:17.255
We find that this work recognizes that teachers play, again,

10:17.375 --> 10:19.855
a major role in students' creative development

10:20.195 --> 10:21.695
and that there are a lot of strategies

10:21.695 --> 10:23.815
that teachers use within their everyday practices

10:23.815 --> 10:26.975
that support creativity, whether they consciously realize it

10:27.075 --> 10:28.135
or not, right?

10:28.235 --> 10:29.015
So these are things that

10:29.175 --> 10:30.255
teachers are doing every day in the class.

10:30.435 --> 10:31.855
Um, so we're hoping that

10:31.885 --> 10:35.495
with this work we can help teachers identify these

10:35.495 --> 10:37.695
strategies that they're already using in their everyday

10:37.935 --> 10:39.855
practice that align with existing

10:39.855 --> 10:41.415
and respected creativity research.

10:41.795 --> 10:43.215
One of the things we really hope that,

10:43.245 --> 10:46.815
that teachers might get from this article is not that

10:48.095 --> 10:51.415
teaching somebody how to be creativity is hard work

10:51.515 --> 10:53.415
or is something that they don't know how to do.

10:53.875 --> 10:57.295
We really believe that there are a lot of practices

10:57.325 --> 11:01.455
that arts teachers are likely already engaged in

11:01.565 --> 11:03.175
that things they're already doing,

11:03.765 --> 11:06.455
that work towards supporting creativity.

11:06.835 --> 11:11.015
And our hope is that by helping teachers identify some

11:11.015 --> 11:12.895
of the things they're already doing

11:13.155 --> 11:16.415
and how those things are in particular supporting

11:16.415 --> 11:19.015
creativity, I, that's what we think will be helpful.

11:19.075 --> 11:22.335
And that's our ultimate goal with this paper, was

11:22.395 --> 11:26.895
to help teachers see the straightforward, not too,

11:27.435 --> 11:31.335
bizarre things that they could do,

11:31.355 --> 11:33.615
and in fact they probably already are doing,

11:33.835 --> 11:36.175
but things that are really meaningful to support

11:36.695 --> 11:37.455
students' creativity.

00:00 - Well, kind of from an economic standpoint, for the last 20 to 30 years, there's been an emphasis on creative skills in the workforce. And this is mostly because of the rapid growth in creative tech-based and sort of knowledge-based economies.

00:12 - So since these economic values and needs tend to trickle down into education systems, schools have also turned their attention to this sort of creative skill building to better prepare students for their workforce and also to be sort of consumers of these creative products. but with that, traditionally it is kind of been difficult for educators in K to 12 systems to encourage skills like risk taking and improvisation within these highly

00:38 - structured school curricula. So for example, you know, kids aren't usually tested on how well they take risks or how well they improvise. You know, they're tested on the knowledge and content that's been presented to them. But for us, you know, we're both arts educators. so we know that arts education is an area where creative skills are typically nurtured, such as imagination, problem solving, and the ability to communicate through different mediums.

01:02 - So within our context of Canada, it's expected within most arts curricula that students exercise this type of creativity in making artworks. But there's sometimes a lack of support for teachers in terms of identifying what creativity looks like in the classroom, how to consciously design learning activities that support creative development, and how to assess creative processes within the confines

01:25 - of their curriculum expectations. And I find this particularly true at the elementary level. Creativity is a key 21st century learning objective for students across educational systems. And, Tina referenced this, but, creativity is the number one predictor of success within the knowledge based di economy that we, that we're experiencing these days. And, it's also valuable. Creativity is valuable in helping young people negotiate

01:52 - uncertain futures. And, maybe my favorite rationale is that creativity has been convincingly linked to enhanced wellbeing. Our work is based, or this article in particular is based on a Malays theory of creativity. So Theresa a Malay is a very well-known scholar in the realm of creativity and has been writing about this for many years. So she developed this theory

02:16 - that's called the Confidential Theory of Creativity. And within that theory, she suggests that creativity requires four different components. So there are three internal components and one external component. so we focused on these three internal components, which are task motivation, domain specific skills and creativity relevant processes, which according to this theory form the basis of creativity. And that is then influenced by this fourth component was,

02:42 - which is the social or work environment. So we didn't focus on that fourth component as much. So we focused mainly on the three internal components because our data just didn't really allow us to meaningfully address that fourth social component or work environment component. so just to give a brief definition of these three internal components that were the focus of our work. So task motivation is basically just the motivation

03:05 - to engage in creative tasks, which is particularly important at the start of a creative process. and then domain specific skills refer to specific knowledge, technical skills and experience within any given domain, that people can draw from and then synthesize in order to form new ideas. And then creativity relevant processes are kind of that extra something that,

03:28 - or that extra something quality that creative products have or creative ideas have. So a Malay suggests that this sort of something extra results from a combination of personality traits like self-discipline, perseverance, and also cognitive styles that are conducive to pre creative problem solving, such as flexible planning style, and also the ability to explore different pathways to problems.

03:51 - Going back a bit to 2007, Hetland and colleagues developed a framework based on empirical research of visual arts education practices of eight studio habits of mind. And I think, arts educators have found this very helpful as a way of thinking about, supporting creativity and supporting creative development. So our study in some ways builds on that work. it, it's also, building on ideas presented by, Keith Sawyer in 2015 who pointed out

04:27 - that arts education does not equal creativity education. Tina spoke a bit about this earlier, the idea that, often there's an assumption made that because people are in the arts, they're automatically creative because people are teaching in the area of the arts. They're teaching people to be creative, but that's not the case. It's not necessarily the case. we can think of an example of, a very fine,

04:57 - technical visual artist who might, might not be doing anything innovative, who might just be copying existing works. So, we wanted to really focus in on how arts teachers can support creativity, not just arts more broadly. there's also some interesting work that we build on in terms of the role of constraints in supporting creativity. a lot of research has identified that

05:30 - constraints hinder creativity. In other words, if people expose or if, if whatever context exposes or sorry, imposes constraints on people's creativity, they won't be successful, they won't be as creative, rather if there are constraints in place. However, more recently, there's been research done that has more or less debunked this idea. Akar and colleagues in 2019 found that individuals teams

06:01 - and organizations actually benefit from constraints. As long as those constraints are moderate, the constraints can actually be very helpful for focusing work and ideas and therefore supporting creativity. It's key to remember that, the constraints must not harm the creator's sense of self-determination, but as long as they don't do that, they're actually very helpful to creativity. So that's some of the work that we, use to inform our own understandings

06:33 - and that we're aiming to build on. With our study, We interviewed four visual arts teachers, three high school teachers and one elementary teacher using a semi-structured interview approach. and we purposely recruited these teachers because they had an interest in an experienced nurturing creativity in visual arts classrooms and spanning a range of age levels, again, from high school elementary to high school.

06:56 - the interviews themselves were about 30 to 45 minutes long and focused on what these teachers actually do in the classroom to support students' creative development. So this included how they designed learning tasks and assignments as well as the types of feedback they provided to students and how they supported opportunities for self and peer assessment in the classroom. and then from there, using kind of a combined deductive inductive approach,

07:20 - we analyzed the interview data using a model A three internal components as our lens for looking at that. but we also remained open to any sort of new subcategories that might emerge that were perhaps more specific to the arts education context that we're looking at. So in the article, I mean, you can read that there are a lot of specific examples of how these teachers nurture task motivation, domain specific skills and creativity, relevant process

07:44 - or creative creativity relevant processes. but in general, we found that task motivation was encouraged by the teachers by connecting curriculum content to students' interests, which was really important. And also by leveraging external motivation tools such as project checklists that would keep students on task. they foster domain specific skills and visual arts through hands-on demonstrations of techniques, which is pretty common in

08:09 - visual arts classrooms. Also explicitly outlining process steps and also helping students make informed judgements about their work. And then finally, they, in terms of creativity relevant processes, the teachers encourage personality traits like self-discipline and independence by designing activities that would allow students to work independently or independently with their peers.

08:33 - and also by celebrating student achievements, whether those were big achievements or small achievements, you know, if they accomplished a small step, you know, really celebrating that. So that would encourage them to continue on to persevere and they nurtured then cognitive styles by encouraging students to sort of push boundaries of assignments. So if a student wanted to do something

08:53 - that was a little bit different from what was was described in the assignment, the teachers would be encouraging of that and would allow for that. and also allowing students to be more flexible in their planning. And they also, I found, or we found that they modeled risk taking within the projects and also how to learn from failure, which can be really important.

09:11 - I think something that was really significant to me in this data, was a strong sense we got from all of the teachers that they saw their role a bit as, a, a creativity cheerleader within their work, as in they really felt they need to make their students believe that they could be, ch could be creative. And, and this is borne out a little bit in the, the literature as well, the importance of,

09:44 - students really believing they have the capacity to be creative and that's, they often don't think that, I think there's a bit of a default feeling that only special people are creative. And so the teachers, all the ones we spoke to were really very intentional about making sure that the students believed that they could be creative. That's something that came across very, very strongly in the data for us. Yeah, And they use that word cheerleader, that they really need

10:12 - to be creativity cheerleaders in the classroom. We find that this work recognizes that teachers play, again, a major role in students' creative development and that there are a lot of strategies that teachers use within their everyday practices that support creativity, whether they consciously realize it or not, right? So these are things that teachers are doing every day in the class. so we're hoping that

10:31 - with this work we can help teachers identify these strategies that they're already using in their everyday practice that align with existing and respected creativity research. One of the things we really hope that, that teachers might get from this article is not that teaching somebody how to be creativity is hard work or is something that they don't know how to do. We really believe that there are a lot of practices that arts teachers are likely already engaged in

11:01 - that things they're already doing, that work towards supporting creativity. And our hope is that by helping teachers identify some of the things they're already doing and how those things are in particular supporting creativity, I, that's what we think will be helpful. And that's our ultimate goal with this paper, was to help teachers see the straightforward, not too, bizarre things that they could do, and in fact they probably already are doing,

11:33 - but things that are really meaningful to support students' creativity.

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