Creativity and Learning Videos

While watching the presentations of the five speakers, I was appreciative of the vision's they all have.  To have the potential to change the fabric of our educational system with new and exciting ideas is mind boggling.  John Seeley Brown gives us insight to the new culture of learning.  By creating new and not saving the old processes and pedagogy's.  Honoring the way students develop curiosity for a subject.  Let the students explore to their hearts content, without hindering their approach.  We participate, therefore we are.  Collaboration, group work, project based learning techniques work.
Howard Gardner's 7 Intelligences theory is still being studied and now his Five Minds for the Future concepts are just as important.  1)Disciplined mind-education for understanding, becoming an expert in some area, become a history, math, artistic, science thinker.  2)Synthesizing Mind- the what and why of facts that your mind holds onto.  3)Creative Mind- always comes up with something new.  4) Respectful Mind- concepts not upheld in the community but still is very important.  5)Ethical Mind- the obligations and responsibilities within your trade.
Ken Robinson talks about how Schools Kill Creativity and how creativity is just as important to our curriculum as literacy.   Rethinking the principals of why we are educating our children.  To what end does this education lead?  We are in a world of degrees, he calls it academic inflation.  One degree is not enough and each career is setting the standards higher requirements.
Daniel Pink discusses the science of motivation.  He feels that the if/then reward system of old is destroying creativity.  We should not allowing the extrinsic reward system to be guiding our students education but rather the intrinsic system.  Having the students do something because they want to and they feel it is important.  He furthers discusses his 21st Century plan for success-Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
And finally, Sebastian Seung ties all of the concepts together with a discussion of how the brain handles these various new ideas.  He talks about the working side of the ideas, the brain, a place where it is so true that if you do not use it, you lose it.
As I watched these videos and listened to the lectures, I came away with the possibility that we do have hope for the future if we radically change the way and what we teach.  We do have programs for middle school teachers that promotes creativity and many of the concepts that Gardner talks about.  I feel that we do not do a good enough job with these programs. We do not know how to incorporate these important lessons into our daily curriculum, or is it we do not have the time?  We need to make the time. I found that the common threads had to do with being able to form a whole child that is not only aware of his strengths and weaknesses, but is also compassionate and forward thinking using creativity as the guide.  In my case, allowing for this type of learning is much more difficult.  Difficult not do to the lesson plans, but from the behavior plans.  I just keep telling myself to breath!
All of these concepts along with the others that I have been introduced to are truly Innovative Learning Techniques.

Learning and Creative Minds

In the search for the creative mind among middle school students, I was drawn to the article, Can Creativity be Taught? by Louis R. Mobley.  He does a very good job of detailing what it takes to develop a creative mind.  It was telling for me to read that his first requirement was that "traditional teaching methodologies are useless".  What?  He is right of course, not all students are wired to learn in a traditional setting.  "To be creative, you have to unlearn."  Think of a box and now think outside of it.  "We don't learn to be creative, we must become creative people" Take a step out of your own body.  "The fastest way to be creative is to hang around creative people."  Yes, immerse yourself among like-minded people.  "Creativity is correlated with self-knowledge" Being able to open up those files inside your brain as needed.
As I look out at my 7th/8th grade class during the day, I only hope that what I do in class with them for those 6 hours a day creates a learning community that is working its way to being creative.  I know that it is not enough to learn the 3R's, but to embrace the questions that education poses.  To try to answer the questions that will never go away, the Whys and How's.  Being able to be their guide through their own creativity search is why I teach.