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Are We Killing Our Children’s Creativity?
Posted by: Sonia Ahmed
Tags: Ahmed,creativity,critical,education,future generations,GCSE,league tables,schools,teacher training,Teaching Posted date:
May 21, 2012 |
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The British education system is stifling creativity in children and this requires a radical rethink in how and why children are taught
“All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist once he grows up.” Picasso.
During my training to become a teacher, I was determined to teach my future students to be creative in all of my lessons, to train them up to survive in the ever changing, globalising world. I see the need for this kind of approach now more than ever. However, the current education system leaves very little room to allow that to happen.
The US Department of Labor estimates that today’s learners will have had ten to fourteen jobs by the age of thirty eight. Our job, as educators, is to prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist, using technologies that have not yet been invented, in order to solve problems that we do not even know are problems yet. We are living in times of exponential growth. Most of what our children learn in school will be outdated by the time they leave.
We are currently teaching our students skills that they will need to use in the future, but the problem is, no one has any idea what the world will look like in five years time, let alone in sixteen years when today’s nursery children will graduate. So, more importantly than any subjects that students learn at school, in order for them to survive in tomorrow’s world, they must learn how to learn.
Endless research has been carried out on the importance of creativity in education. The new national curriculum has been adapted to some extent to incorporate higher order thinking skills into the curriculum. Unfortunately, in practice this has not been the case.
Schools struggle to incorporate thinking skills and creativity into lessons. This is because schools are under a lot of pressure to get students through examinations and deliver good GCSE exam results. Teachers are forced to teach their subjects in a rigid structure to get students successfully through their exams so that the school performs well in the league tables. Unfortunately for teachers, this gives them less freedom to teach creatively. As a result, our students are spoon-fed content based lessons, missing the vital skills that they will need later in life.
The school in which I work regularly tests pupils with end of year exams, end of term exams or end of topic tests. So much time is spent on testing the pupils and teaching towards the tests that seldom are there opportunities for students to express any creativity.
Group work is the main factor that affects the engagement and enjoyment of students in the lesson. It allows students to be involved in the lesson, to be challenged and stimulated. Furthermore, it empowers students by giving them some degree of control over their learning, giving them the opportunity to learn at their own pace and respond to their own needs. Group activities are implemented in most lessons, but unfortunately come to a halt when most students get to year 10 and start preparing for their GCSE examinations. Parts of this is because teachers feel pressure to deliver good GCSE results and are reluctant to do collaborative activities or discussion, which deviate from note-taking for the exams.
The introduction of league tables has been the most prominent cause of the plummeting focus on creativity in schools. League tables create competition amongst schools, where schools are ranked against each other based on GCSE exam results. The stiff competition between schools based on GCSE results have given head teachers a new priority: to be the number one school in the borough. As a result, head teachers are pressurising teachers to perform and obtain very good examination results from students. The emphasis has shifted from learning to learn, to delivering content-led lessons that ensure students pass their examinations with a good grade.
It is not as if there is no basis for creativity in modern education, quite the contrary in fact. Creativity in schools is fostered at an early age, but the emphasis on creativity disappears as students get older because of pressure to perform well in examinations. The competition between schools to uphold their reputation has lead to teachers being put under pressure to deliver good results, making them more reluctant to take risks to foster a student’s creativity. As a result, this leaves our children with more spoon-fed knowledge which they forget as soon as they leave the exam hall, and less useful, transferrable skills which they will need later on in life. This only harms the students by hindering the development of their creativity and thinking skills.
This type of competitive atmosphere increases anxiety in students and teachers, discouraging teachers from incorporating any creativity, discussion and group work within their lessons. In order for creativity to remain in a child once that child grows up, children need a non-competitive environment in education, without tests, exams and league tables. The priority needs to be focused on the students learning, not what grade they can achieve in their examinations. Only then will we have any chance of developing and maintaining creativity in children.
The globalising world and rapid technological development means that workers of the future need to be equipped now with skills which allow them to adapt and learn. To do this, students must be engaged in their learning and encouraged to think critically. However, instead of teaching our children the skills they will need to prepare them for the future, they are being taught how to pass exams. To make matters worse, most of what they learn will be outdated once they get to university. We are teaching our children to prepare for their exams, but are preparing them to fail when they start to live their own lives.
Image taken from: http://lemak.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/
About the author
Sonia Ahmed
Sonia is a Science teacher and deputy Head of Year at an inner London, mixed comprehensive school. She completed her PGCE thesis on the implementation of critical thinking skills in school and government policies.
Sonia is a Science teacher and deputy Head of Year at an inner London, mixed comprehensive school. She completed her PGCE thesis on the implementation of critical thinking skills in school and government policies.
6 Comments
Are We Killing Our Children’s Creativity? by Sonia Ahmed at The Platform | Creative Learning and Teaching
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A Menekse
Excellent article Sonia,
I am tired of seeing/hearing everyone blaming the teachers for the failure of the pupils and unemployment in the young generation. Recently there has been a lot of negative comments about education and teachers in the media. Everyone is quick to blame us as we do not have voice to answer back. Even bad behaviour outside schools, during work placements, failure in university studies are put on secondary teachers because we are at the end of the food chain. I agree that preparing pupils for the future is an enormous issue but perhaps someone in the government should take on responsibility and perhaps start with the providing training, jobs and opportunities for the parents to aspire so that they could encourage their children to seek a different future.
In a recent conference I have attended I am told by a high rank educator/policy maker that we as teachers should ballot to get what we want, unite and get heard. The funny thing is we did that with our pensions and work conditions ballots and strikes and we achieved what? Nothing? Angry media and parents perhaps!
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Ramesh
Excellent Article…..
The education system at present is only theoretical…. Elearning has come in a major way in to the classrooms. But E learning itself is a form of tool that is entertaining. More than the fact that learning is happening, the kids are entertained nicely with the e-learning material, so as a part of entertainment a portion of good learning is also happening. Which is to be appreciated.
The learning in real life happens through our surroundings. The best way a learning happening as far as I have seen is in the Vocational Stream of learning. If some one wants to learn cooking – There are theoretical classes and practical sessions, where they do hands on learning. There is an unwritten framework for cooking.
Than in theory the kids actually learn Cooking – learn in the kitchen with vegetables, spices and the Cooking environment.
Where there are
Standard Items that aid in cooking : Gas stove , Vessels, Spoons,Refrigerator, Cooker etc.,
Standards Consumables : Gas, Electricity, water etc.,
Main Ingredients : Vegetables, organic
Sub Ingredients : Spices, rice etc.,
The above form a system for practical learning. Along with the above there are
– Cooking Guide book – Best practices
– Cooking – Tips and Tricks
– Creative ways in cooking, display, expression
The above is a perfect system for a holistic learning experience.
But How is science thought in our schools ? How is history thought in our schools ? – If tips are taken from the above there can be a new model of teaching ……
The learning experience can be categorized from the above as :
1. Theoretical form of learning : From books and teaching in class
2. Application oriented learning : From our surroundings, getting knowledge on examples around us, sensitizing us to what goes in to a particular topic (in cooking scenario – for making good pasta – you need to add x, y, z and it tastes good)
3. Hands on learning: learning by doing – hands on experiential learning, with aided creativity – so learn with guidance, and if they are lost are brought back to the main track.
4. Explorative / Creative based learning : expressing their learning through projects or what ever the kids are more interested in like making toys, games etc.,
The above system will allow students to have a great experience. As as we get good Chefs, we get great students with great knowledge, which they could apply it further to grow.
Regards,
Ramesh Manickam, India
ramesh@centro-id.com
I absolutely agree.
We’re raised to believe that competition helps build character, and in some cases that’s true.
However, with regards to businesses, organisations and, in your case, educational facilities, competition can have a negative effect. As mentioned in your article, teachers are pressured into concentrating on “delivering content-led lessons that ensure students pass their examinations with a good grade”, as opposed to helping students develop skills that’s will help young students develop into successful adults with the ability to adapt and learn.
But the problem arises of how to fix this issue.
State schools rely on public funding, which are overseen by the government. The league table system has been structured so that schools that place higher on the league table receive better funding, and inversely, schools that are placed lower receive lower funding. Unfortunately, it is a faulty system. It will always ensure that the number one aim of state schools, and therefore teachers, are good grades.
Now, we could just abolish the league table system, taking away the benefits of schools achieving better grades than others and provide funding to all schools equally, but this is impractical. Some schools are placed in higher cost boroughs, some provide a wider range of courses, and some have higher maintenance costs, and they will need more funding than others. And with no incentives pressurising teachers into getting better grades, we run the risk of teachers becoming lazy. It’s unfortunate, but it is true that some teachers are lazier than others, and without incentives pushing these teachers to achieve better, their teaching standards will decrease, and the students come off worse.
Also, if we equalize funding, we run the risk of stifling the development of the schools themselves. Without increasing taxation every year, schools would receive the same amount of funding year after year. And whilst that will allow the schools to maintain its current level of service, it will not provide them with the means to develop.
Independent schools do not have this issue. They are funded by fees paid by parents and income from investments. They also set their own curriculum so teachers have the freedom to teach their students about creativity, without being pressurised to concentrate on better grades. So maybe that’s the fix. All schools could become independent.
However, this has its own issues. Although they don’t need public funding, they still need funding. In order to get funding, they must attract more students, which would require current students to get better grades. But then, this means we circle back to teachers being pressured into ensuring that their students get better grades, in order to get funding. We would also run the risk of excluding students from lower income families from schools completely, as their parents wouldn’t be able to cover the costs of tuition, books, equipment, etc.
I genuinely agree that a change is needed. But however that change is done, it will be a long a difficult process. There is no quick fix to this. But even so, we cannot let that deter us from trying. Its cliché, but our children are our future, and it’s up to us to do whatever we can to ensure they have a bright one.