Meaningful creative learning –ECER-04 Meaningful Creative Learning: Learners’ perspectives Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University of Crete, 22-25 September 2004 Please do not quote without permission Bob Jeffrey The Open University Milton Keynes England Email: [email protected]http://opencreativity.open.ac.uk 0
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count, explode with excitement, laugh, shift from seriousness to delight and then focus
intently with eyeball engagements.
Their collaborations involved ‘negotiation, working with two people, and some of that
negotiation will be about making choices’, (Dance Teacher). In collaborative groups they
constantly negotiated fabrications without rancour ‘You want to go at the top of the fist pile
and at other times you want to go here and there. You just work it out between you. We just
talk and don’t shout to get our way (Mazie- V). Their creativity was seen as part of the
process of interactive engagement and not just a means to an end, ‘One person could be doing
twirls and one person could be doing jumps and back flips, you’ve got to be creative to make
the sort of moves we wanted to have (Issaka- V).
They debated and argued.
How you do it is you work with someone you know you’re going to be good with, who
has ideas similar to you but if they disagree with you, you have to start talking to each
other. Most of the time people do agree with you. Sometimes, if they don’t agree you
have to put different ideas together and then you make a sequence. It feels good because
then you know you’ve done something well and you haven’t just told them to do what
you wanted to do. You used their ideas as well (Lottie).
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The interactions were often more dynamic when different contexts were experienced,
‘Usually we work with the same people and we know what they’re going to do but when
you’re with different people you can see the different way they do things (Maryanne- V).
The process of fabricating an expression, sequence or narrative collectively or collaboratively
was seen as providing more opportunities to innovate because self reflective debates are less
appropriate for young participants (Wegerif, R. 2002)
I think that, at this stage, working with a partner or in a trio, is actually much more
effective because it allows them to debate their work as they’re going along with
another person. I think having that debate with themselves is a more sophisticated thing
to deal with, that maybe they’re not ready for it yet. It allows them to have a debate
about choices with another real live person (Dance teacher).
A co-participative culture as that provided by these dance educators and the teachers in the
other projects was an innovative one due to the fact that both teachers and the young
participants could draw upon the storm of ideas and interactions and gain support from it as
well as imbibing a culture of appreciation and creativity.
Learnicians – Pedagogic analysts and evaluators
We have already established that young participants see learning as intellectual organization
and how ‘fitness for purpose’ solutions (Alexander, R. et al. 1992) should be applied for
effective learning, that assessment policy and procedures should include the introduction of
graded tests (Jeffrey, B. 2003a; Jeffrey, B. and Craft, A. 2003b; Jeffrey, B. and Woods, P.
2003). We have examples of their ideal learning models, their grappling with contemporary
discourses such as school competitive league tables, their awareness of their team
responsibilities for school success and their ability to debate ethical issues such as inspection
and inspection roles (Jeffrey, B. 2003a).
As they craft their learning experiences (Jeffrey, B. 2004b) and labour to make them
meaningful they build up knowledge of teaching and learning. They develop knowledge of its
defining features, its technology and its uses. They learn how to analyze and evaluate it and
when given the opportunity they offer advice and are willing to become pedagogic
participants reflecting upon teaching and learning strategies and developing pedagogic
practices. They are going through a process of becoming a learnician as well as identifying
themselves as participants in the learning process through meaningful engagement and the
effects on the self-identity.
It was clear from many conversations with the young participants that they were able to
discuss what constituted learning.
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We discussed the difference between ‘natural’/unintentional learning – how to be untidy
and school/intentional learning: ‘You just do it.’; ‘Learning at school is learning how’;
‘Natural learning is easy, this learning is also easy’; ‘It includes failure and practice and
thinking’; ‘It includes strategies, different skills and different ways of doing things’;
‘We need to think about what we are trying to do’; ‘We are conscious of something in
our minds’; ‘Learning is a step towards something. I am learning that you make
mistakes and then practice’; Learning involves planning like experimenting and being
briefed first’. (Field Note 20/5/2003).
The young participants also understood the relationship between learning and achievement.
When asked if there are subjects that they liked but in which they are not so competent said, ‘I
like Literacy because of the writing. I’m not good at science but I like the experiments,
however I struggle to understand it sometimes’ (Sophie Yr. 3 - S). ‘I don’t like writing stories.
I like bike riding and football but I am not good at them’ (David Yr. 3 -S).
Creative learning analysts
Some young participants’ defined creative learning and evaluated it in a discussion with the
researcher during their construction of cuboids as part of an Aztec topic. They exhibited
Woods (1990) features of relevance, ownership, control and innovation but they also included
the meaningful aspects of creative learning for self-identity.
‘Becoming your own teacher, teaching yourself’; ‘Choosing the way you want to do it’;
‘Choosing is important because you choose the best way of doing it. You know yourself
better than others’; you can choose your own level, less challenging and more
challenging. Some of us want harder things. I am proud of not being like everyone else.
It belongs to you. You own it’; ‘You can do what you want to do. You achieve
something that was good’.
The young participants defined creative teaching and learning as ‘fun’ learning and they see it
as effective learning, ‘Just listening and repeating is just boring. They want you to learn about
the Tudors but the current project also wants you to have fun. People say it’s the best way to
get something into your minds is to have fun’ (Zizzi - T). Being creative was fun if it drew on
experience and was co-participative:
Alice takes an art lesson. She refers to an artist they have looked at in the past and she
gives them each a large flower which they have to draw. As the children look at it they
discuss what they know about flowers. ‘That’s the pollen. I remember when it fell over
me, it stains the clothes’. ‘If you put it on yourself these will come after you for that is
what they want’. ‘It makes a scent, which is what they really want’. ‘My mum’s friend
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Meaningful creative learning –ECER-04
owns a gallery and we threw flowers in a pond. I have seen giant daises in my
neighbour’s garden’. ‘Creativity stands for art and cooking’. ‘Flowers, trees and bushes
can be used by people to be creative’. ‘Creativity is creating more things, poems and
stories’. Nadia says to Emmanuel ‘Why don’t you rub the pastel with your finger. I
prefer that look because the shade of the colour comes out’. He says thank you
gratefully.’ Creativity is my hobby’ (Field Note – 12 November 2003)
Although it could be stressful:
It can be sometimes because we’re making hats at the moment and we have to weave
and it’s really hard and you do something wrong and you go, ‘oh no I shouldn’t have’
and then you have to start at the beginning and then you do it all wrong again and your
just like ‘oh I do not want to do this even though it’s creative’ (Daisy-T).
Creative learning involved
Trying different things, instead of sticking to one thing you’re trying different things
you’re opening your mind, being more creative. It lets your thoughts run wild (Abdul –
T). It opens up your mind, so you’re using the whole brain instead of half of it, you’re
not sticking to one thing, you’re going to the other thing and it gives you better
understanding’ (Lara – T). It’s quite easy to do, you do it at playtime when you’ve done
all your work, you just let your mind run wild (Daisy – T). Being artistic means that
you’re mind is running wild’ (Daisy – T). ‘I think that Creative Partnerships are making
us creative because you have to think of opening your mind like the winner of the recent
sculpture competition was a bowl of fruit in the playground for sitting on, (Lara –T)
The construction of a creative vocabulary in the classroom (Jeffrey, B. 2004b) provided
opportunities for learners to inhabit and appropriate the discourse. It seeped into everyday
conversation just as it would in a community of artists.
I talk to a group of girls during their reading session, Nadia, Julia and Nidha. ‘Reading
stories is about using my imagination and creativity ‘. ‘Creativity is about our texture
and creating things and sculpting’. ‘It’s mainly about art and colours and creating from
the imagination’. ‘We argue when we work together but we also put our minds together
to make a creative thing’. ‘If we were talking to younger children about reading we
would ask them for details of the character’. (Field Note 12/11/03)
Even revising for a science Standard Assessment Task was considered fun if the right kind of
engagement was sought, ‘I think science was made fun when we were doing mind maps.
They showed us what we knew and what we’ve learned and it shows you a way to remember
things and it makes it more fun to revise’ (Naomi – T).
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Fun itself was ‘smiling’ (Amandeep -T), being friendly (Emma-T), being co-operative,
(Didier –T), helping one another (Emma -T). It was also a form of labour:
When you’re properly into the thing you’re making or doing, you’re concentrating and
you’re liking what you’re building, you just keep on, you can’t get out of it, you’re just
stuck with the thing you’re doing, thinking what you’re doing and you’re enjoying it
because you are making more. If you weren’t concentrating you would just go ‘I don’t
want to do this any more, I can’t be bothered’. But you can tell they’re enjoying it
because they’re concentrating. They’re stuck into it, they can’t do something else, they
can’t start walking around; they’re building what they think (Anton –T).
It became meaningful when it was a real event, a purposeful really worthwhile activity,
When we were doing the cardboard seat for the playground I really did feel quite
grown-up because we had a deadline and you had to say what it was going to be built
out of. All the hard work paid off. It was really fun to think that it’s my chair here in
the playground, the one I designed. It was fun designing it and making it out of
cardboard and wood and painting it and being able to actually help with the final
construction. It’s actually fun (Usha-T)
Creative learning Evaluators
They had knowledge of what it meant to be a consumer of education but due to their
experience of creative learning this was not limited to instrumental teaching and learning. ‘I
think we like to learn different things. We’ve got different minds and we like to learn
different things’ (Mazie - V) and how learning could be more effective,
The dance project helped because the teacher didn’t actually show us the working of the
planets through their movement but when we used dance we understood what the
teacher was telling us about it. You remember because you think of the movements and
you remember that that the earth goes round slowly (Victoria -V).
They were sensitive to the necessity for curriculum and pedagogic balance, a recommendation
of the PACE project (Pollard, A. et al. 2000) and the QCA literature (Lord, P. and J, H. 2000)
survey of pupil perspectives,
It’s good because it ain’t the teacher telling you what to do; you’re making up your own
movements and dances. It gets kind of boring if the teacher is always telling you what to
do. It makes you independent. It’s good to make up your own dance although
sometimes it’s good for the teacher to tell you what to do. That can be fun too (Ronnie -
V)
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Meaningful creative learning –ECER-04
Their awareness of teaching objectives enhanced their role of evaluator, ‘The teacher is
working very hard at trying to get us get down to business. They are trying their hardest to
make sure we do it in the time he’s got so that when we do the dance we will have
remembered it by heart’ (Mazie V) and they used this knowledge to evaluate teaching
strategies,
The teacher shows us in a very slow way and if it looks like we’re a bit confused then
they do it again, and they make sure we get it right rather than just sitting there and
doing nothing (Lottie - V). I think the teacher is strict, which is good because when
people are strict they get you to work faster and you get more into it (Carl). What I like
about the dance teacher is that they repeat things for about three seconds and then move
on to something new (Corin - V). What I like about the teacher is that they don’t give up
when people can’t do it, either they go over there and help or they get someone who
knows how to do it to help (Mazie - V).
and they used their evaluations to make recommendations, ‘I don’t think the teacher should
have had a go at her like that. I would have asked them why they had done it wrong and not
just shouted at her straight away. The teacher didn’t know whether she was hurt or something’
(Will). Their advice is steeped in knowledge of teaching and learning,
I would break it up a bit sometimes. I would make them work by themselves to help
them when they were going to go up stage and they had to be independent. I would also
like them to go out and have the courage to do something by themselves and use their
ideas as well using other peoples. But I would also like them to be able to work with
other people (Lottie - V).
They were able to give advice as to how to transfer the experience of dance to other domains.
When you’re writing the story in English you could use your body to explain it,
showing the story instead of writing it. You could use dance to show what it used to be
like in olden times and how they felt, and how they used to dance, or you could
compare theirs with modern dance (Opie - V). You could show how they felt in school
in the Victorian times or how they worked for money as an orphan. You would show
them crowded in a corner and thinking about things that are going to happen later in
life. You can imagine you are them and you can express yourself like them. You could
do a scrunch roll, showing that you are sad and you just want to be in one corner’
(Sheera - V).
The young participants used all their inventiveness to explain how to use dance in maths,
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You could pretend to be numbers and dance something like a sum. Some one could lie
down on the floor; some one could curl his self or her self. Some one could be on top of
someone. Somebody should be the add sign. And you would get more interested in the
subject (Jordan - V),
and other areas of the curriculum.
This might sound a bit silly, but sometimes in literacy you could dance the stories and in
geography, you could be the plain going up and down, or you could do the splash of
water or a tidal wave or something. I think singing and dance could help you do the
rhythm. You’d learn spelling through the shape of the letter - Mrs D, Mrs I. (Gemma -
V).
A sample of some Year 6 learners evaluated national assessment procedures and concluded
that, in general, they were mostly unruffled by national tests but they recommended that other
forms of assessments should be used, for example, communicative competencies,
collaborative qualities and management of knowledge, e.g.: individual project folders.
The third of Breakwell’s (1986) principles for individuality is the self esteem and feeling of
personal worth they develop in the community they inhabit. Within educational institutions
this will more often than not be bounded by their academic and social status (Pollard and
Filer). However, we have shown that young participants develop considerable knowledge of
the methodology of teaching and learning, the pedagogy. They were aware of the techniques
and strategies of teaching and learning and they were able to make contributions to the
understanding of the experience of learning and to evaluate those experiences.
Conclusion
Ensuring that creative learning was meaningful meant ensuring that young participants took
part in an engagement with learning that generated joy and opportunities for authentic labour.
It meant ensuring that their experiences were meaningful in terms of their self-identity
characterized by identity play, a sense of achievement and of place and belonging. Lastly, it
meant the taking on a meaningful role as a learnician. This was developed through co-
participation and acting as analysts and evaluators of creative learning.
Creative learning assists the development of a meaningful learning identity in contrast to
those who experienced more constrained and conforming teaching programmes, ‘The children
we interviewed over the six-year period were consistently pragmatic and instrumental about
their schooling and poorly informed and non reflexive about their learning. (Pollard, A. et al.
2000)(p.290). Those identities reflect a career path in which home, playground and school
play an integral part but they also reflect the young participants agency in redefining (Pollard, 32
Meaningful creative learning –ECER-04
A. and Filer, A. 1999) their situation and personal identity. The meaningfulness for them is
one that involves a visceral experience, a reflective personal one concerned with self-identity
and one that gives them an opportunity to take up a social role as learnician alongside that of
teacher/pedagog.
There are two issues here. Firstly, as Pollard and Triggs (2000) argue, development of
knowledge, learning skills and self confidence of a learner is built on the entire accumulation
of a child's previous experiences. Each of these characteristics is subtle and multi-faceted,
requiring empathy, understanding and judgment from teachers. The child in the classroom is
working through a pupil career, is developing physically as well as personally, is engaged in a
process of becoming. While this is much less tangible to assess than standardized scores, it is
no less important. Indeed, the reality is that these two major sets of factors interact together
to produce both educational and personal outcomes. Pollard and Triggs (ibid.) view this
suggests a need for balance. Sustained attention to curricular instruction should be
complemented by a provision for the development of pupils learning skills and self
confidence (ibid: p.305)
The second issue is concerned with the incorporation of the role of learnician expertise into
the pedagogic process. This was not wholly called upon by the teachers in this research in any
significant way. Their ideas and contributions were welcomed and in some cases they were
acted upon and incorporated into the programme. However, in many cases this was carried
out in such a way as to neuter their participation, for example, ideas, suggestions and
observations by the young participants were frequently accepted without question and without
using them as an opportunity to develop further discussion. By acceptance we mean that they
were given praise for contributing but the value of the contributions were rarely examined by
their peers nor were they incorporated into teaching programmes seriously. The aim of
encouraging participation for the sake of the child’s self esteem was achieved but the
contributions themselves were mainly allowed to wither away. They were rarely asked for any
pedagogic evaluation.
This appears to be the case across the research literature in the UK if the last QCA review of
published literature on research into learner’s perspectives on the National Curriculum is
accurate. Pupil’s own suggestions for effective curriculum delivery are less researched: such
recommendations are emphasized more by researcher influence than the pupil voice itself.
(Lord 2003, p1). Themes such as coherence, breadth and balance and manageability remain
little researched from pupil’s perspectives. (Lord 2003, p1). However, it should be noted that
a major project from the ESRC, Teaching and Learning Programme has published a range of
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handbooks about Consulting Pupils about Teaching and Learning, (Rudduck, J. et al. 2004).
Although there are some case studies from primary schools within this project, this is still an
under-researched area and one that is relatively unknown in practice in primary schools.
Woods (1995) sees engagement in learning for primary learners as child meaningful,
suggesting that pupils make sense of learning on their own terms, based on their interests. He
argues that learning takes place best when a mutually shared understanding between teachers
and pupils is built through negotiative discussion. Central to meaningful learning is a sharing
by teachers of the processes of exploring knowledge and the institution of pedagogy relevant
to their experiences and interests. It is this area of research that needs to be filled out with
examples and analysis from current and future research, if there is to be any development of a
learner inclusive (Jeffrey, B. and Craft, A. 2003a) approach in schools.
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