An investigation into the understanding and implementation of state guidance

and policy on creativity by intending and recently qualified teachers and to make recommendations for the improvement

of creative teaching

Sue Cronin Liverpool Hope UniversityBarbara Walsh Liverpool John Moores University

Teacher Education Research Network (TERN)

• The TERN project is piloting a strong and sustainable model for research capacity building in Teacher Education across a collaborative network of seven regional universities in the North West of England.

• The context for research capacity-building in teacher education in England has the following characteristics. There is growing differentiation between the small number of universities rated 4 or 5 in the Research Assessment Exercise of 2001 and universities with no QR funding (Pollard, 2008). Many of this latter group of institutions are in the post-1992 sector and have high numbers of teacher education students on pre- or in-service courses.

Project aims• To investigate what trainee and newly qualified teachers

understand by the National policy and guidelines on creativity• To identify how this understanding and perception change

over time, and if so in what ways• To know how trainee, newly and qualified teachers enact

creative practices in the classroom• To understand what are the institutional (schools and training

providers) conditions necessary to ensure trainee, newly and recently qualified teachers can be creative in their classroom teaching

• To know what steps schools and Universities need to take to ensure creative practices are sustained

METHODOLOGY

• Questionnaire developed to elicit quantitative and qualitative responses

• 4 Universities LJMU, Liverpool Hope, Chester, Cumbria• Large scale survey of 1105 responses (undergraduate and

postgraduate) across early years, primary and secondary education summer 2010

• Questionnaire was developed with reference to state guidance (first objective) consisting of 40 questions providing a snap shot of views and perceptions

Emerging themes A number of trainees chose to include a qualitative statement

when completing the questionnaire in the final phase of their ITE programme.

Through a process of open coding five themes emerged from this data as follows.

– Personal Qualities and levels of confidence among trainee teachers to deliver creativity within the curriculum.

– Significance of prior experience to trainee’s attitudes towards teaching for creativity

– Significance of ITE University experience on preparing trainees for teaching creativity within the curriculum.

– Significance of the ITE school placements on preparing trainees for teaching creativity within the curriculum

– Trainees’ expectations of their first teaching post in relation to creativity.

Personal Qualities Among the respondents there was a wide range of levels of confidence identified in their

statements ranging from the very confident (‘I feel exceptionally confident’) to the anxious (‘it is very scary though, to try and be creative all the time’).

“I am feeling confident and prepared for the new creative curriculum, having already put it into practice in my final placement.” Primary B.Ed

“Being prepared is knowing about yourself as being creative and knowing how the children are creative and which areas their strengths lie in (Early Years)

I feel I have good knowledge and understanding of using creativity and its purpose in learning Pri B Ed

I feel I am fully prepared and capable in providing opportunities for creativity throughout my

teaching. I believe these opportunities are vital to the long-term development of the children. Pri BEd

“Creativity is a high focus in my lesson planning. This occurs via my own creativity and because I enjoy it. I do not think it is something that can be taught to teachers” PGCE Sec

I am very keen to foster creativity within my lessons. I plan for open discussions and debates in all lessons to encourage the development of creative thinking Sec PGCE

Personal Qualities The over-riding number of responses, however, indicated that they

saw themselves at the beginning of a process of development and expected this to take time

“ I always try to approach teaching and learning from a creative point of view, but do sometimes feel that it’s difficult to apply it to all areas. I feel with more experience and the opportunity to teach more creativity I will gain more confidence in my own capabilities. Primary PGCE

“I feel far more confident than I did at the beginning of my teaching, however, I still do not feel entirely confident coming up with appropriate levels of creativity to enrich my lessons” PGCE Sec

“I feel prepared but I am always learning inside and outside of my specialism” Sec PGCE

Doubters! “I try to encourage students to be creative but if you allow

them too much freedom to allow creativity then disruption to others can result” PGCE Sec

“Creativity has a place in the classroom but it is not the key to

learning or understanding. There are many excellent students who are not naturally creative or imaginative and their achievements shouldn't be understated because of this.” PGCE Sec

I try to encourage students to be creative but if you allow them

too much freedom to allow creativity then disruption to others can result PGCE Sec

Prior experiences .Some respondents commented on their prior experiences; “Growing up with creativity around me seemed to give me an inherent creative edge

when planning lessons. With an open mind towards teaching, and high expectations of children, creativity can be achieved through various mediums” Primary PGCE

Many identified a strong connection between their subject specialist knowledge and experience and their preparedness to teach for creativity.

“ My specialism at university of history has helped me teach cross-curricular and more topic-based [projects] allowing for creative sessions.” Primary PGCE

“I feel that my previous experience as an artist and having completed a BTEC in Art and Design and a Fine Art degree has prepared me with the tools and capabilities for teaching and learning through creativity” Sec PGCE

My subject (D&T) is particularly 'prone' to creativity, and thinking outside of the box. Therefore pupils have a better than average chance of being allowed to be creative in any lessons. I like to encourage originality and the use of materials/objects in a way in which they were not originally designed. PGCE Sec

I have also read a lot of literature on creativity as I wrote my dissertation on creativity in Art and Design in schools in the 21st c. PGCE Sec

MFL is an extremely important subject with regards to creativity as it is essential to encourage students to voice their own opinions and ideas. Therefore, I always try to include elements of creativity and pupil led activities in my lessons PGCE Sec

MFL is a naturally creative subject that has fully prepared me to teach using my own sense of creativity. PGCE Sec

ITE ExperiencesThere was an equivalent level of disparity between trainees’ perceptions of their university-based

programme. On the one hand some felt unprepared; “I would like to teach creatively but I do not feel that university has prepared me for it. I am

also not sure how the head [teacher] at my new school feels about it yet.” Primary PGCEMore sessions concerning creativity need to take place throughout the training year. It needs to

be more explicit in training. You could also invite NQT's or Mentors to workshops focussed on creativity PGCE Sec

There were, never-the-less, some trainees who reported that they considered their preparation for creativity to be holistic and effective.

• I feel that I am very well prepared and cannot wait to begin my teaching career in September.

• I feel confident to take risks and allow different opportunities for creative teaching and learning. I do feel that modules at university have helped with this particularly a module entitled 'ICT and Creativity'

Interestingly, post-graduate students showed a higher level of dissatisfaction, citing the intense nature of the ITT programme as problematic.

• As a PGCE QTS [trainee] there is a large amount of information and lesson delivery to get on top of – to consider creative teaching at this point is to sandwich too much in at the same time.

School Placements This was the area that revealed the widest range of different responses, even where it

appeared the trainees had received similar experiences on his or her ITE programme. The two extracts below present vastly different levels of satisfaction with the course specific creativity experience.

“Following our creative placement (1 week) I felt more prepared to deliver a creative lesson. This placement was a valuable experience and allowed for confidence in my capabilities to grow. “

Contrasting with;“When I used creative thinking techniques (such as mind mapping) on placement the

class teacher took them off the wall and threw them away as she thought they were ‘scruffy’.”

Whilst, others felt the university-based programme had offered a good theoretical preparation but this was not integrated into school-based experience.

“Theoretically confident however final block did not allow creativity in its full glory.“ Primary BEd

Trainees’ expectations of their first teaching post in relation to creativity.

Trainee’s comments indicated that they expected to find barriers to incorporating creativity into their pedagogy in their first teaching post. Some were anxious about the attitudes of head teachers, suggesting that they expected this to be a significant factor in whether or not they would be able to develop creative learning strategies in their classroom.

“Some PE departments are set with their ways and only allow for so much creativity. Although they allow you to be creative at the start, sometimes feedback pushes you towards their methods (traditional). Also when you have a lot of lessons to plan for, being creative takes too long to plan and set up which prevents you from doing so.” Sec BEd

Others predicted that children’s behaviour and individual needs would potentially curtail their opportunities to teach creatively. Certainly there was an underlying consensus that they expected it would take time to establish creativity into their new settings.

“You can’t just expect children to think creatively straight away, experiences have to be available to allow children to understand the area in which creativity lies.” Early Years

• I do feel prepared to teach creatively, but I feel some objectives in numeracy are hard to create a creative lesson for. Primary B.Ed

• do feel prepared to some extent but often the creativity is viewed by schools differently and so I don't feel I could meet the expectations everywhere. Primary B.Ed

• Despite my (the teacher's) desire to foster and provide creativity, this is often constrained by the school/curriculum requirements Sec B.Ed.

Subject variations for Secondary students

Primary  Frequency % Cum %  Secondary Frequency

% Cum %

Strongly disagree

7 1.6 1.6

Strongly disagree

5 0.9 0.9

Disagree

21 6.4 8.0

Disagree

32 5.5 6.4

Neutral

102 21.5 29.5

Neutral

112 19.3 25.6

Agree

252 52.7 82.2

Agree

289 49.7 75.4

Strongly Agree

91 17.8 100.0

Strongly Agree

143 24.6 100

Total

473 100  

Total

581 100

Mean 3.84 Mean 3.91

Standard Dev 0.83

Standard Dev 0.85

Q1 My own experience of creativity at school was positive and valuable.

 Primary Frequency % Cum %

Strongly disagree 13 1.6 1.6

Disagree 88 6.4 8.0

Neutral 128 21.5 29.5

Agree 194 52.7 82.2

Strongly Agree 51 17.8 100.0

Total 474 100  

Mean 3.38

Standard Dev 0.99

Secondary Frequency % Cum %

Strongly disagree 31 5.3 5.3

Disagree 90 15.5 20.8

Neutral 139 23.9 44.7

Agree 230 39.5 84.2

Strongly Agree 92 15.8 100

Total 582 100

Mean 3.45

Standard Dev 1.09

Q2 My approach to teaching and learning has been

influenced by my own experience of creativity as a pupil.

Subject Mean Stand Dev

Eng 4.27 0.75

Arts 4.11 1.01

Soc Sci 4.06 0.95

MFL 4.04 0.8

Bus 3.93 0.8

PE 3.91 0.86

Maths 3.9 0.72

ICT 3.85 0.77

Sci 3.81 0.68

Average 3.99 0.81

Q1 My own experience of creativity at school was positive and valuable.

n= 602 1 = strongly disagree 2 = disagree 3 = neutral 4 = agree 5 = strongly agree.

Subject Mean Stand Dev

Bus 3.82 0.85

Arts 3.75 1.13

Eng 3.73 1.14

PE 3.67 1.02

Soc Sci 3.52 1.07

Sci 3.38 1.01

ICT 3.36 1.01

MFL 3.27 1.19

Maths 2.93 1.03

Average 3.492222 1.05

Q2 My approach to teaching and learning has been

influenced by my own experience of creativity as a pupil.

n= 602 1 = strongly disagree 2 = disagree 3 = neutral 4 = agree 5 = strongly agree.

Contact details

• Sue CRONIN cronins@hope.ac.uk

• Barbara Walsh b.walsh@ljmu.ac.uk