Creativity in the Classroom

This piece aims to explore how creativity and teaching go hand in hand. The idea for the article came from a teacher training workshop that was given by the author earlier today.

Winning formula

If you are lucky enough to have freedom of expression where you work, in other words, if you are given carte blanche to create your own material, then you will be on the right track. There are different schools of thought on this of course as syllabi can give some centres control over what is taught, for example. It can be a godsend for those that lack structure or who are more junior in terms of experience. Arguably, it is still possible to leave your mark on a course when it is prescribed by the powers that be. A little creativity can go a long way, and, in some cases, only the most creative people can adapt to even the most rigid situations, and allow their personality to do the talking.

Add fuel to the fire

Imagination is a product of life experience, worldly knowledge and having the ability to construct scenarios. Only the other day, a dear friend and colleague made an interesting remark about how a sign of intelligence in children is curiosity. As a parallel, this wonderfully illustrates how adults with the right attitude are open to creativity. Provided with encouragement, an eagerness to learn and a rich canvas to draw from, the world is your oyster. Being artistic, cultured and well-read may give you an advantage, but it does not guarantee that you can improvise, for example. As you can see, psychology comes into it, as we are brought up in certain ways; some are read stories to, some can think ahead in games of chess, for example, while others have had a more passive upbringing. Extroverted types may be able to be animated, to act, to mime, to play charades, to tell jokes and to socialise in public with ease, whereas introverted types are more likely to be quiet, reserved and tend to keep to themselves. Confidence, charisma and enthusiasm cannot be learned, but being able to imagine is also a skill that not everybody has. Perhaps day dreamers and fans of fiction may find it easier to do so than others. One thing that is for sure is that the more you do something, the better you will become at it; practice makes perfect. When you train to become a teacher you take part in role-plays, then you start creating them, and eventually, you may end up training teachers in how to develop situations for activities.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

Inspiration is particularly important for those who struggle to improvise, to create their own material or be faced with challenges outside of their comfort zones. By seeing how others do something and appreciating, and learning how it is done, the inspirational factor cannot be understated. In some cases, teachers may depend on text books, and this can be dangerous. In one instance, an English teacher was told that a different book from the one she was used to was to be a part of the curriculum at a secondary school, and she flipped out; part of teaching is creating and learning. What shouldn’t happen is that somewhere along the line, laziness through a dependence upon copied material becomes the norm. It is always beneficial for a teacher to keep trying new things and adapting, editing and updating activities can all do the trick. It is certainly possible to use real life as inspiration. Anecdotal examples can be memorable and humorous, original and unexpected. For example, when discussing conflict resolution in business English, a real scenario that happened just before an in-company lesson at a big multinational beverage company was the order of the day; where the teacher had been told in no uncertain terms he could not have a bottle of water (which costs them 50 Euro cents), but only a glass with his free drinks voucher. This had been an ongoing thing when, on each occasion, he had had a lesson there, he would receive a bottle, but the person serving would make a fuss or grimace. This time around, the lady had been so rude to the teacher that he was all shaken up, and she did not stop there, as she also couldn’t help explaining the situation to the student in a brash, overbearing manner; as a result, the teacher had to vent his frustration for 10 minutes during the lesson. To cut a long story short, the solution was a simple one, as the most important thing was for the teacher to be able to quench his thirst after a 30-minute bike ride, so he decided to opt for tap water from now on, and, as an unconfrontational soul, he will avoid any further stress. This real-life situation and unfortunate incident has elements of humour, particularly when told in a dramatic way, and although unscripted, fitted in with the activity nicely.

What gets you all excited?

When creative types get inspired, let’s say by an activity; it can be the catalyst for bigger, better things. There is a cornucopia of material out there, which can push all the right buttons with creative characters; TV shows are but one of the very many avenues one can explore. Take The Apprentice UK starring Sir Alan Sugar. In the last round of the show, young people are grilled by two trusted associates of the multi-millionaire, and their CV’s and business plans are scrutinised during what seems like a job interview, though it feels more like an interrogation. One way to adapt the show for a nice interview role-play is to ask the student(s) to write a CV the lesson before, which will be corrected by the teacher at the beginning of the lesson. Next, bring a series of interview questions that are tailored for the situation of the student(s). It goes without saying that the questioning process should be far less severe than in the TV programme.

Next up is Dragon’s Den: a sales/ negotiations role-play need not rely on the student(s’) previous knowledge of the programme. The premise is that the student(s) play(s) an inventor type who pitches to a multi-millionaire (instead of a whole group of them as in the show) looking for investment and representation from a well-known personality. For the best results, the teacher should be familiar with the format, as this is integral to the activity’s success, and as the format has a rather particular structure that works wonderfully well. NB: certain financial terminology is intrinsic to the pitch activity such as competitors, equity, profit margins, patented, turnover for year 1,2 and 3, and unit price. It goes without saying that teachers can become familiar with the show either by watching it when it’s on BBC2 or viewing previous episodes via YouTube.

Say what?

Expressiveness comes easy to some, whereas it’s quite the opposite for others. Being articulate is often to do with confidence, being well-educated and other psychological factors, such as having received praise, receiving recognition and having a healthy social life.

Being playful with language can be a sign of playfulness and mischief making behaviour, which can be attributed to naughtiness, which may have manifested itself in the teacher when he/ she was a child, and, in some people, the child is still in them, so it can resurface at times. On the other side of the coin, there are also those who speak quietly, those who are shy or cautious and less sociable individuals. As a result, a great deal more effort is needed to become animated or to act out a situation. For those in the know who have the inclination; word puns, rhymes and combinations of sounds can all be fun and popular games in the classroom, and acting, charades, mime, mimicry and quizzes can all be ingenious techniques that allow creativity to flourish in the classroom. Finally, to leave you with an interesting set of facts while dispelling a myth: on 16 November 2013 a Guardian article by Anna Novotny called: ‘Despite what you’ve been told, you aren’t left brained or right brained’ was published: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/16/left-right-brain-distinction-myth

Interestingly, it is true that intonation and emphasis are controlled by the ‘right brain’. However, to summarise the relevant findings, the right cerebral hemisphere, which controls the left side of the body, is not responsible for creativity as commonly perceived, as scientific research at the University of Utah has shown that brain functions are split between hemispheres. In a 2013 study of 1000 patients aged between 7-29, with 7000 brain regions examined while calmly lying down and when reading, it was concluded that although by measuring functional laterilisation (where the tendency for some neural processes or cerebral functions are predominantly located in one hemisphere) patterns were evident as to why a brain could be strongly left or right-lateralised in some cases, though no clear-cut evidence demonstrated that personality traits could be attributed to brain hemispheres. Nevertheless, it may amuse you to discover that in self-help, business success books and corporate team-building exercises, the existence of the creative ‘right brain’ is still very much alive and well.

What does being creative in the classroom mean to you? Please feel free to share a creative activity. It would be good to hear from you.