As a part of the Scottish Teachers for a New Era project (STNE) - Arts as a Tool for Learning Across the Curriculum (ATLAC) - funded by the Scottish Arts Council was introduced as an action research initiative within the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in October 2007. This is a collaborative project in partnership with Aberdeen City Arts Education Team. Alongside other curriculum innovations within STNE, ATLAC created scope for the teacher-educators to investigate the impact of using various forms of expressive arts, with the aim of increasing creativity in the teaching and learning process through enhanced cross-curricular links. The approach of ATLAC is based on the theories of experiential (Smith,2001) and contextual learning (Hull,1993). Educational policies in many European countries including Ireland, England, Portugal, Denmark, Scotland and Sweden, emphasise the need for creative pedagogies in the classroom (Jeffrey,2005). According to the Scottish Executive Education Department Information paper on ‘Developing creativity in education’ (2006), promoting creativity involves the development of characteristics such as self-motivation, confidence, curiosity and flexibility. It can be argued that the development of the first three of these characteristics probably relies on the last, that of creating a ‘flexible context’. However, this flexibility cannot work without a structure which can be used as a scaffold (Vygotsky,1978) either to go beyond and enhance learning or to work within the framework which is flexible enough to accommodate individual learning styles. Pedagogy such as this is intricately related to the curriculum we use for teaching and learning. The Scottish education system is currently introducing a new curriculum -A Curriculum for Excellence (ACfE)– which focuses on the ‘holistic’ development of pupils (Scottish Executive,2004). It is anticipated that the aim of ATLAC to increase creativity in the teaching and learning process will in turn, impact on pupil learning gains in the 4capacities (confident individual, successful learner, effective contributor and responsible citizen), within this new curriculum.

The project began with the following queries: • What is the impact of incorporating the ATLAC approach within ITE programmes with regard to developing the four capacities of ACfE? • How can the ATLAC approach within ITE programmes contribute to exploring creative ways of learning and teaching through enhanced cross-curricular links? Primary evidence was gathered through interviews and observations. Thirty one interviews were conducted with undergraduate and postgraduate students, tutors and artists who were involved in the ATLAC workshops. During students’ field experience, 31semi-structured classroom observation data gathered by the tutors were used as a triangulated source of evidence. In addition, complementary data were gathered through examples of students’ lesson plans, pupils’ work, reflective notes and pupils’ views. Learning from the first year’s ATLAC research has informed the second year of the action research cycle.

Keeping the focus on the influencing factors, and acknowledging the complexity of a learning context, the emerging findings are discussed in the following areas. 1.Curriculum, pedagogy and creativity 2.Strengths and limitations of the ATLAC approach 3.ATLAC in relation to ACfE 4.ATLAC promoting inclusive practice 5.Learning in partnership While it is debatable whether creativity is an innate ability or a skill, neither notion denies the fact that ‘creativity’ can be nurtured. On the basis of this assumption, the paper examines how a generic interdisciplinary approach to pedagogy can nurture creative learners in the primary classrooms. Reporting on the findings of the ATLAC project the arguments will explore: what defines a creative learner, how is creativity promoted by pedagogical practices based on interconnected learning, what are the preconditions to shape such learning environments and the skills that are required to enable the student-teachers develop a creative learning environment in the classrooms.