Creative Learning and Teaching

Author(s):

Robyn GibsonJohn Hughes

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 04B, Research on Accountability Processes in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-10

16:00-17:30

Room:

A1 334

Chair:

Martin Kunz

Contribution

Creative Learning and Teaching: Creative Assessment and Evaluation of Strategies in Tertiary Contexts Innovative, arts-informed research and teaching are significant and emerging concerns in the development of pre-service teachers in Europe, North America and Australia. However, the area of creative, arts-informed assessment approaches and strategies in educational settings has often proved problematic. This paper will review such approaches in Europe, North America and Australia. Further, the paper describes how, in developing units of study such as Integrating the Creative Arts, in primary and secondary teacher education, a move ‘outside the traditional academic square’ allowed student teachers spaces to evaluate their own learning as a precursor to their work in future classrooms. This presentation examines the importance of developing imaginative evaluation and assessment strategies in tertiary units of study, once again in the hope that future teachers would be able to transcend the technical and often reductive assessment measures advocated through the current testing regime of neo-liberal governments across the western world. A range of innovative evaluation strategies used in such units are discussed. Reconnecting pre-service teacher education students with their own creative potential, through two final year elective Creative Arts units, enhanced their understanding of how the Creative Arts can be used to promote imaginative ways of learning in their future classrooms. Finally, data from interviews with a number of former student teachers is used to demonstrate how the imaginative use of arts practice and pedagogy has provided spaces for them to explore what it means to teach creatively in various educational contexts as well as to reflect on their own beliefs about teaching, learning and assessment.

Method

A variety of qualitative research methods have been utilised including case study analysis, structured and unstructured interviews and arts-informed inquiry in order to provide rich data regarding the effectiveness of creative teaching within a tertiary context.

Expected Outcomes

Findings demonstrated the significant impact of creative teaching including evaluation and assessment that was student-centred, collaboratively negotiated, peer and teacher assessed. The inclusion of artforms and other creative works in both the evaluation and assessment tasks with such units of study enabled and enhanced students' beliefs about their own teaching and learning.

References

Alexander, H.A. (2003). Aesthetic Inquiry in Education: Community, Transcendence, and the Meaning of Pedagogy. Journal of Aesthetic Education. 37(2), 1 – 17. Barone, T.E. & Eisner, E. (1997). Arts-based educational research. In R.M. Jaeger (Ed.) Complementary methods of research in education. (pp.73-116). Washington: AREA. Butler-Kisber, L. (2005). Inquiry through poetry: the genesis of self-study. In C. Mitchell, K. O’Reilly Scanlon & S. Weber.(Eds.), Just Who Do We Think We Are? Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in teaching (pp. 95-110) London: Routledge Falmer. Connelly, M., & Clandinin, J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14. Diamond, C.T.P. & Mullen, C.A. (1999). The Postmodern educator: Arts-based inquiries and teacher development. New York: Peter Lang. Eisner, E.W. (1996). Should a novel count as a dissertation in education? Research in the Teaching of English, 30(4), 403-427. Ewing, R. & Smith, D. (2004). Locating New Epiphanies. In A. Cole, L. Neilsen, J.G. Knowles & T. Luciani (Eds.), Provoked by Art: Theorizing Arts-informed research. (pp.147–158). Halifax: Backalong Books. Greene, M.(1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Grumet, M. (1995). Somewhere under the rainbow: The postmodern politics of art education in Educational Theory. Winter 1995, 35-42. Hamilton, M.L. (2005). Using pictures at an exhibition to explore my teaching practices. In C. Mitchell, K. O’Reilly Scanlon & S. Weber.(Eds.), Just Who Do We Think We Are? Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in teaching. (pp. 58-68) London: Routledge Falmer. Haanstra, F. & Scholeau, D. (2007). Evaluation Research in Visual Arts Education. (pp. 427-442). In L. Bresler (Ed.), International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. McNiff, S. (1998). Arts-based research. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd. Mishler, E. (1990). Validation in inquiry-based research: The role of exemplars in narrative studies. Harvard Educational Review, 60(4), 415-442. Phillips, D.C. (1995) Art as research, Research as art. Educational Theory. 45(1), 71-84. Simons, H. & Hicks, J. (2006). Opening Doors. Using the creative arts in learning and teaching. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, Vol. 5 (1), 77-90. Taylor, P. (1996). Ed. Researching Drama and Arts Education – Paradigms and Possibilities. London: Falmer Press.

Author Information

Robyn Gibson

University of sydney

Faculty of Education & Social Work

Sydney

John Hughes

University of Sydney, Australia

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