Being educated is less a matter of knowing, than it is a matter of being able to think. Some teachers may feel that creative thinking cannot be taught or learned. We all see that some students are more creative. Some assume that creative thinking is an enigma and a gift (or a curse). Some colleagues tell me that creative thinking cannot be taught. While I am thankful for all good gifts, I do not depend on them. I believe new thinking habits can nurtured in myself and in others. A change in student thinking habits and thinking modes is most apt to happen if new teaching habits are cultivated and learned. One approach is to change our questioning style. To encourage divergent thinking, I avoid questions with only one acceptable answer. Questions with only one answer are limiting and do not encourage imagination, they do not encourage divergent thinking, and they less likely to encourage self-confidence and self-esteem. Questions with only one answer are often too easy or too hard. The average student is either bored or frustrated. Motivation declines. What kind of questions encourage thinking, creativity, and awareness? This implies a creative teacher who senses the edge of student thinking ability. It implies a teacher that stretches student minds with open and relevant questions. Students in such a class become thinkers, not "monkey see monkey do" learners. Posting thinking questions Awareness is one of essential components of creative inspiration and problem solving. Noticing ceases when curiosity dies. Teachers who ask questions quickly realize the value of asking the right questions, but they also become aware of time passing. They may be spending time with one or a few students while the remainder of the class is not involved. By posting good questions at strategic locations in the classroom, a virtual cafeteria of thoughts can motivate thinking and awareness. Posted questions can be changed as needs, topics, abilities, and interests change. I have often found that when one student is stuck of experiencing a block, others may also be having similar problems. Posting the motivational and inspirational questions may be a very efficient way to help several students at once. Question difficulty Teachers all know that difficulty level is a key factor in good motivation. When a question is too easy or too hard the student will be bored or frustrated. When we ask a stupid with a self-evident answer, students feel we are wasting time. Sometimes we ask redundant questions to remind kids of discipline issues or to reinforce some idea, but we need to know that redundancy risks being dismissed as irrelevant to learning. When posting questions we can vary the difficulty. When making lists, we can begin with some easier questions and end with some questions that would challenge the teacher. Verbal spontaneous questions can be tailored to the student. We inspire learning when we manage to make the hard stuff easier and the easy stuff challenging. I need to remember that art of teaching creative thinking is not to profess, but to inspire thinking. Responding to STUDENT QUESTIONS Student questions often present teachable moments that catch us off guard. We tend to develop habits of response. It is amazing to me how variable different art teachers are in this regard. I was observing a student teacher who was teaching a painting lesson to a first grade class. I child asked, "How do I make pink?" Without a moment of reflection the student teacher said, "Put a little red in some white." This was a correct answer, but a wrong response. Do I satisfy my EGO or my student's brain? This student teacher missed an opportunity to teach thinking and problem solving. Instead of learning how to imagine, hypothesize, and experiment; this first grader learned to rely on somebody else for an expert answer. This is how children become less creative as they go through school. The derivative of the word Educate means to draw out Another important thing is happening to the child. Without saying it, the teacher is giving the child permission to be the creator, to be the scientist, and to be the artist. The child is given permission to use art making as a time to learn how to learn instead simply a time to produce an art object. When we draw out the student, the slave of ignorance is liberated to learn. A part of the brain that was alive and well two years earlier, before the child started formal education, is once again being vitalized with new neurons. If we refrain from giving answers, and teach children how to question, they soon learn to exercise their imaginations and ask these kinds of questions of their own minds. In time and with practice they become skilled in creative thinking, setting up their own experiments, and enjoying independent learning again. Even the creative habits of imagining, experimenting, questioning, and considering various options are learned by imitation. Good teaching provides good models to imitate. When teachers and parents model good questioning they nurture students that are habitually good questioners. It becomes part of their personalities. When teachers and parents give quick answers they model minds that jump to unconsidered and unverified conclusions. Frequently this leads to bad choices, not only in mixing pink, but in other off color scenarios as well. Changing habits of teaching MY SECRET RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: HOW Do Teachers RESPOND TO STUDENT QUESTIONS HOW TO CHANGE EDUCATION I needed a better way to make apprentice teachers more aware of learning and teaching styles that we discuss in theory class. I decided that they first needed to learn to notice and become aware of other methods. I had them do Secret Tally observation research. Now whenever they observe in an art class they are assigned to unobtrusively do research by keeping a secret TALLY of how the art teacher responds to student questions and requests for assistance. Many teachers tend to be art experts and answer nearly every question in a fairly knowing way. However, some teachers ask the student an open question that reassures the questioning student that the artwork is based on the student's choices. Still other teachers are especially good at getting students to experiment to find their own solutions. Some teachers use all of these approaches, depending on the situation and on how busy they were. It is not my intention nor my goal to change the teachers that are being observed. I have made a few attempts at this, but who am I to ask experienced teachers to change what is working fine for them? I have my students do this tally, not because I expect to change what the teachers are doing, but because I find that this SPY MISSION ASSIGNMENT is an effective way to get prospective teachers to rethink their role as educators--not just people who pass on expert facts and art skills. Maybe education really is to draw out rather then to pour in. This assignment is a way to get them to think about why these teachers do what they do. We all tend to teach in the same same ways we were taught. This Is a way to try to change this. It challenges them to rethink what they experienced as students. These students become student teachers the following fall. In some cases student teachers still revert to the habit of being an expert who wants to answer every student question. After a visit to one such student teacher, I asked her what she remembered about the previous year when she had kept a tally of the teacher she was observing. Two weeks later, at my second visit, she had completely retrained herself and was doing a beautiful job of fostering creative thinking. Transfer of learning is not automatic, but requires considerable nurture and encouragement before it become habitual. TEST questions THAT TEACH CREATIVE THINKING Many teachers and testing companies assume that tests, in order to be scored reliably, have to ask questions with only one correct answer. Not so. Of course essay tests can ask open questions, but they require more time to read and evaluate. Computer scoring is difficult. What if our tests would be written to expect multiple correct answers? What if we gave more credit for those who answered with the most innovative and unique correct answers? What if our tests would ask for the opposites of the correct answers? How would education change if we tested in ways that draw out many and original answers rather then certain single expected answers? Writing tests for art class and tests to foster learning how to think better. EXAMPLE QUESTIONS These examples are only a start. No yes/no questions are used. There are no questions in these examples that have only one correct answer. |
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photo © 2001, Marvin Bartel
The following portion about the use of questions is taken from "Teaching Creativity" Answering questions
with questions Art and science have many commonalities, but the one I often fail to use is probably the most basic and important of all - the scientific method. The scientific method says that questions must be answered experimentally and the results are repeatable. Art students have often asked me to give them a suggestion to improve a work in progress. Many times my ego and my pompous personality have simply prompted me to blurt out an answer. I have given my recommendation without even thinking that this was actually a teachable moment. Had I been thinking scientifically, I might have coached the student to set up a small experiment, to make a comparison, and select an effective alternative. Teaching habits are powerful and subtle. Answering questions in the studio class gives me such a feeling of power and is such a hard habit to break. As an artist, I am generally more clever than the student - what an ego trip! During the Dark Ages science was a set of teacher answers. Progress began when the scientific method began using questions and experiments to check on old answers and discover new answers. In science, nothing is assumed to be true because a teacher says so. Too often my art class was taught using Dark Ages dogmatism.
Some teachers feel that the visual elements and the principles of design are the basic structure of art. It is thought that if we teach the basic structure, art will happen. That was a modern art idea developed during the 1930's. Hmm? I'm sorry, but art has turned out to be a bit messier. The elements and principles are often useful. However, they can be too limiting and if they are understood too simplistically. The visual elements and the principles fail to acknowledge content, symbol, meaning, and untraditional ways of being artistic. As long there are imaginative and creative artists, we will keep seeing new scenarios in art that are based on new situations and experiences. Every artwork is different and there is no simple system that covers everything not yet imagined. If there are any final equations, computer programs, verbal pronouncements, or whatever, that give a final definition of art; we will have witnessed the final implosion of truth, beauty, and the human imagination. In the meantime, there is little harm in working at definitions and tentative rules so long as we also agree to live with uncertainty and change. As in life, if there are rules, they are more likely to be things like: pay attention, make comparisons, look before you leap, and so on. They can guide, but not determine the process, and they certainly do not determine art products and the outcomes. TIME for the CREATIVE PROCESS - HOMEWORK for the MIND? In organizing the sequence of lessons, are there ways to ritualize advance preparation, discussions, questions, practice sessions, and sketching sessions that promote thinking, looking, more sketching, dreaming, and idea development for lessons that are coming in the future. Are there ways to encourage and reward the keeping track of art ideas that come to mind at When I leave my studio my hands-on work is interrupted, but my mind keeps working - this is when my homework starts. When students leave class, are their ways to engage the mind so this habitual homework of the subconscious mind has been assigned? The creative process includes preparation, incubation, insight, elaboration, and evaluation. Classrooms that include preparation, incubation, and insight might need to juggle several projects at once. What are the class rituals and concept questions that get the wheels turning so that dreams and imaginations are ignited. I have often been tempted to use shortcuts such as showing examples of other art to get quick inspiration and information as a substitute for relevant self-referential thinking. But what are the ways to define artistic challenges in ways that to give the students the courage to develop and express their own ideas? This takes time.
It means practice sessions, question sessions, and list making
rituals.This means setting aside time days or weeks in advance of the
actual production to get students It means programming their minds to
do the subconscious incubation homework that helps bring insight to the
table when the production starts. We know that homework works best when
we develop rituals of accountability and when we make a point of
rewarding successes. What are our classroom rituals that give credit
and honor to the students when they show evidence of subliminal ideas
that have been recorded and brought to class and infused in their
creative work?
If you are an art teachers interested in doing some research on creativity, on learning to draw, or on the relationship of art and learning to think, or some other issue, send me a note. Click here for a list of issues of particular interest to the author. back to top of article Creativity Killers
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