Classrooms need to be places for teaching creativity, as well as basic competence. Can it be done?
Gabriel Saada is a typical high school student in many ways, except that he happens to attend one of Paris’s best and most prestigious lycées. The halls of his school were once walked by the likes of Honoré de Balzac and Lionel Jospin, the former French prime minister.
When I ask him about school, he tells me his teachers and his guidance counsellor all stress the importance of getting into one of France’s elite grandes écoles by mastering the classwork. Listening to him describe his high school education, it strikes me that the overarching emphasis is on what is referred to as cognitive intelligence, or the ability to reason and analyse–what renowned American psychologist and academic Robert Sternberg has called “memorisationbased”, or “analytical”, intelligence.
With the results of the OECD’s latest worldwide PISA testing of 15-year-olds just in, it is worth asking whether education in the 21st century needs to complement the primacy given to cognitive skills with a greater focus on creativity. To be sure, the skills and knowledge PISA tests among 15-year-olds across the globe form a solid base on which youngsters can build in order to thrive and flourish in their lives and careers.
If the coming generations are to overcome the grave economic, social and environmental problems that are certain to be our legacy, there is a general consensus that they will need to possess one thing above all: the ability to innovate and create.
The word “innovation” is bandied about widely today. But what does it really mean in its simplest form? Combining existing elements of knowledge or understanding in brand new ways is one definition. It rests on an individual’s capability to come up with original and valuable ideas to solve problems. For the influential British educationalist Ken Robinson, this is the very essence of creativity.
Classrooms are places for building knowledge, memorising and interacting, but do they generate the kind of creativity that will be needed? How can creativity be fostered in the classroom at all levels? Clearly, creativity is a prime concern. According to a global study carried out by Adobe in 2012, 80% of working adults in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US agreed that creativity is the key to driving economic growth. Yet more than half felt their education systems stifle creativity.
Gabriel Saada is a typical high school student in many ways, except that he happens to attend one of Paris’s best and most prestigious lycées. The halls of his school were once walked by the likes of Honoré de Balzac and Lionel Jospin, the former French prime minister.
When I ask him about school, he tells me his teachers and his guidance counsellor all stress the importance of getting into one of France’s elite grandes écoles by mastering the classwork. Listening to him describe his high school education, it strikes me that the overarching emphasis is on what is referred to as cognitive intelligence, or the ability to reason and analyse–what renowned American psychologist and academic Robert Sternberg has called “memorisationbased”, or “analytical”, intelligence.
With the results of the OECD’s latest worldwide PISA testing of 15-year-olds just in, it is worth asking whether education in the 21st century needs to complement the primacy given to cognitive skills with a greater focus on creativity. To be sure, the skills and knowledge PISA tests among 15-year-olds across the globe form a solid base on which youngsters can build in order to thrive and flourish in their lives and careers.
If the coming generations are to overcome the grave economic, social and environmental problems that are certain to be our legacy, there is a general consensus that they will need to possess one thing above all: the ability to innovate and create.
The word “innovation” is bandied about widely today. But what does it really mean in its simplest form? Combining existing elements of knowledge or understanding in brand new ways is one definition. It rests on an individual’s capability to come up with original and valuable ideas to solve problems. For the influential British educationalist Ken Robinson, this is the very essence of creativity.
Classrooms are places for building knowledge, memorising and interacting, but do they generate the kind of creativity that will be needed? How can creativity be fostered in the classroom at all levels? Clearly, creativity is a prime concern. According to a global study carried out by Adobe in 2012, 80% of working adults in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US agreed that creativity is the key to driving economic growth. Yet more than half felt their education systems stifle creativity.
