Creativity through educational experience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5902/1983734897261Keywords:
Creativity, Visual arts education, Pre-service teachers, Arts-based educational researchAbstract
Creativity enhances the way we teach and learn. This study examines how to foster creativity in trainee teachers so that they can subsequently apply it with their own pupils, in the hope that it will become a central element of arts education. Through arts-based educational research and an ‘a/r/tographic’ approach, trainee teachers adopt a reflective, creative and inquisitive mindset as they engage in flexible, practical activities that incorporate art appreciation. This enables trainee teachers to design more meaningful learning experiences for their pupils. Classroom exercises on self-portraits, typography and paper folding become opportunities to connect with personal experiences, learn about artistic creation and understand that creative solutions can emerge from mistakes. As a result, their teaching practice evolves to place less emphasis on end products and more on the creative process. Students discover new ways of exploring their emerging identity as teachers, which opens up avenues for fostering creativity in their future classrooms through artistic exploration. The concepts and experiences arising from this work are used to design a study in which pupils explore how to portray themselves as teachers whilst developing their photography and drawing skills. This offers guidance to educators who wish to adopt more creative approaches to education.
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