LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Creative Classroom Climate:
Chapter 2 of Creativity Rising by Gerard Puccio explains the skills that students need for living and working in the 21st century. It is not just technology that they need to understand, but how to work with people in a global economy. In the education setting, the 21 Century classroom's goals for students of the future states that the students need to develop "learning and thinking skills: critical thinking and problem solving skills, communications skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills and information and media literacy skills." In the elementary classroom, we can create a learning environment that will foster a climate that is conducive to creativity. We can create a creative environment by encouraging:
- a second right answer
- making mistakes
- asking important questions
- teaching students to critically review outside information
- posing and solving problems using creative problem solving tools
- having students communicate and work with each other
"We need to teach how to create new knowledge, and how to critically evaluate what we create." (Puccio, Mance, Switalski and Reali 25)
The slide show below has great questions to help teachers and students develop their creativity:
Chapter 2 of Creativity Rising by Gerard Puccio explains the skills that students need for living and working in the 21st century. It is not just technology that they need to understand, but how to work with people in a global economy. In the education setting, the 21 Century classroom's goals for students of the future states that the students need to develop "learning and thinking skills: critical thinking and problem solving skills, communications skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills and information and media literacy skills." In the elementary classroom, we can create a learning environment that will foster a climate that is conducive to creativity. We can create a creative environment by encouraging:
- a second right answer
- making mistakes
- asking important questions
- teaching students to critically review outside information
- posing and solving problems using creative problem solving tools
- having students communicate and work with each other
"We need to teach how to create new knowledge, and how to critically evaluate what we create." (Puccio, Mance, Switalski and Reali 25)
The slide show below has great questions to help teachers and students develop their creativity:
Because we need to teach students to create and evaluate what they create, we need to make sure that their learning environment is set up to do so. p21.org, a website for 21st century learning, states that we need to create areas that provide students opportunities to develop the skills that they will need in the future. The layout on the left show a classroom set up with areas for brainstorming, collaboration, and group work. The students move around the classroom to facilitate solving real word problems with each other. There are separate places for each step of the problem solving process with different materials at each area to help them carry out their solution. There is a place to assess the situation and gather data, clarify the data, transform by formulating solutions and exploring ideas, and then a place to formulate a plan to implement to solve their problem. This layout will provide a physical environment to allow students to grow their creativity and learn how use creative problem solving tools.
What is Creative Problem Solving?
Creative Problem Solving, CPS, is a conceptual framework that helps organize and improve thinking, for any context in which you apply your thinking. By learning and practicing CPS, not only do you learn the steps of a problem-solving process, but you also learn how to think and how to sharpen your thinking abilities, even when not engaged in problem solving. ... Simply put: when you learn CPS, you learn to be a better thinker." (Puccio, Mance, Switalski and Reali 72 )
It is not just brainstorming. It is not a mind map. It is not problem-based learning. It is not just writing down different ideas on your planning sheet to start writing. It is a deliberate process that diverges thinking, and then deliberately converges those ideas each step of the way to get to the best, useable idea to help solve a problem. Then coming up with ways to implement, or put to use, the plan.
Creative Problem Solving, CPS, is a conceptual framework that helps organize and improve thinking, for any context in which you apply your thinking. By learning and practicing CPS, not only do you learn the steps of a problem-solving process, but you also learn how to think and how to sharpen your thinking abilities, even when not engaged in problem solving. ... Simply put: when you learn CPS, you learn to be a better thinker." (Puccio, Mance, Switalski and Reali 72 )
It is not just brainstorming. It is not a mind map. It is not problem-based learning. It is not just writing down different ideas on your planning sheet to start writing. It is a deliberate process that diverges thinking, and then deliberately converges those ideas each step of the way to get to the best, useable idea to help solve a problem. Then coming up with ways to implement, or put to use, the plan.
As a facilitator of creative learning, I will urge students to make mistakes and arrive at as many different solutions as possible and then evaluate the best idea. It is said that Thomas Edison once remarked, "“I have not failed 700 times. I’ve succeeded in proving 700 ways how not to build a light bulb.” The ability to work through a problem and arrive at one good, useable idea will help students as they tackle their future. My job is to teach them the tools that they need to solve problems, the ability to critically evaluate the solutions presented to find the one best solution, and the ability to persevere through a failed solution to a problem . My job is to give them the tools they will need to be the most successful in the world ahead of them.
I can also teach them specific problem solving tools to successfully diverge to find new ideas or options that will be useable and unique to the situation. Then we will evaluate those options to converge on the best option that will help solve the problem. We will work through the entire process to then implement the idea. Last year, I worked through this problem with my Grade 2 students to plan a party. I do not believe in giving behavior reward parties. Finally they convinced me to have a party based on a learning activity. We then brainstormed how they could get their teacher next year to throw a party if she is like me. Next year, I will do this activity again, but we will work through the entire process to see if they could implement their solution to get me to throw another party. My role as a teacher and a facilitator of creative learning is to get the students to step out of the comfort zone of one right answer and to think! of different solutions and then get them to evaluate the effectiveness of those ideas.
I can also teach them specific problem solving tools to successfully diverge to find new ideas or options that will be useable and unique to the situation. Then we will evaluate those options to converge on the best option that will help solve the problem. We will work through the entire process to then implement the idea. Last year, I worked through this problem with my Grade 2 students to plan a party. I do not believe in giving behavior reward parties. Finally they convinced me to have a party based on a learning activity. We then brainstormed how they could get their teacher next year to throw a party if she is like me. Next year, I will do this activity again, but we will work through the entire process to see if they could implement their solution to get me to throw another party. My role as a teacher and a facilitator of creative learning is to get the students to step out of the comfort zone of one right answer and to think! of different solutions and then get them to evaluate the effectiveness of those ideas.