Creativity abounds.. more than just a cliche

Presumably in the beginning a cliche wasn't a cliche, but an observation of something that appeared to be true. It became a cliche because it seemed to be so true that people used it often, often as in a lot, and so it became over used, it became a cliche. Social media, and its tendency to cut every thought down to as few words as possible, has meant that a lot of our lives seems to be described in a series of cliches.

So something like 'If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got', was once someone's observation of what they thought they were seeing often  in the world around them., and so thought this was a wisdom about their world. I have come to the point where there is also another way of saying this: "If you think what you've always thought, you'll do what you've always done, and you'll get what you've always got". And in our mahi to improve learning and educational outcomes for learners, this has never been truer.

In this case however there is good research data to back this up. In a Manaiakalani wānanga yesterday I was reminded (as I often am) of Hattie's meta analyses that show (amongst a huge number of profound things) that teacher expectations have a very large effect size in terms of their impact on learners.

"With an average effect size of 0.4, Hattie finds the effect size of teacher estimates of achievement is 1.62 and the effect size of collective teacher efficacy is 1.57."

Reference: https://www.k12dive.com/news/teacher-expectations-top-list-of-effects-on-student-achievement/422029/

So its effect size is even greater than that of collective teacher efficacy, which I've written about before. So it should be no surprise that when you expect creativity, that's what you get. That ought to be exactly what you expect. That ought to be exactly what you get when a kura increasingly immerses itself in the Manaiakalani pedagogy 'Learn Create Share'.

And.. lo and behold (cue dramatic music, here!!), that seems to be what I am seeing at Hornby High School.  Over this term, our Year 10 and 11 students, as a part of their wānanga time, have been engaged in personalised passion projects (PPPs). Our aim here has been to improve student engagement with their learning, to harness their inner creativity, whatever that looks like. It's time for that reminder that we don't mean creativity in only the creative arts sense (although we definitely mean that too), but creativity across all learning areas for all learners. The PPP approach in wānanga has been an illustration of us not just expecting creativity, but also putting in place those systems, structures, and routines, that are necessary to support it. It offers student agency, it offers the possibility of doing just what Yong Zhao says we should.

He suggests that at the moment we do this:

Whereas we should be doing this:

This is a notion that sits at the centre of our Kāhui Ako plan and achievement challenges.

The net result? My feeling is that creativity is flourishing. I have dipped in to Year 10 and 11 blogs and gained an interesting insight into that flourishing creativity.

Here for example is the work of Lauren and Louise who set out to create a graphic book based around a story that Lauren had written.

Or here, the work of Johanna and Genica, who crated bubble tea, and designed a cafe in Minecraft.

There's Mya who designed and created a quilted blanket in the textiles room.

Or Tamsyn who looked at drawing as a means to improving wellbeing.

There are so many more, and my sample is purely random. I just jumped around on our list and 'browsed'.

And then outside of the PPPs, Nadia of Year 12 was chosen to be a "Member of the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand Young Shakespeare Company 2022 (SGCNZ YSC 2022)", for which she will travel to London.

Creativity everywhere. Is this happening by pure chance? I suspect not. It happens because we have clarity around our pedagogy, a pedagogy that places creativity at its centre. It happens when we place creativity at the centre of much of teachers' thinking, and I hope at the centre of their expectations.

You get what you expect, you see what you are looking for.. the cliches go on, but you get the meaning.

Random 'reckons' and wonderings about creativity

I'm a Sir Ken Robinson 'fan boy'. There, I've said it publicly!!! And his 2007 Ted talk 'Do schools kill creativity' (still one of the most watched clips on Youtube??? Or is it one of the most watched Ted talks on Youtube? You get the idea, anyway) had a significant impact on my thinking, and consequently on my work as an educator, and now as a leader in education.

My connection with Professor Peter O'Connor (University of Auckland) a year ago took my thinking forward into the more immediate area of my work in leadership in a secondary school context at Te Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka Hornby High School. All of that is by way of background to the fact that I end up doing a lot of thinking about creativity, creativity in kura, and creativity in life.

Much of my thinking is about what creativity looks like in everyday life, and in our kura for our rangatahi, and what deliberate acts of leadership might support its growth and development in our kura. A few days away from the office allows me to think without distraction about this stuff. Rather than a coherent line of reasoning and argument, this piece is more by way of some random 'reckons' and wonderings about the topic of creativity.

My first wondering is if in fact creativity sits along a huge continuum of possibility. I 'reckon' that even simple acts like phrasing a conversation (which words it use, what inflection to place on those words), or deciding which way to turn as we walk, are in fact acts of creativity. That sort of thing perhaps sits down one end of the continuum. At the other end (if my 'reckon' was anywhere near correct) might be the creation of a great painting, the writing a poem or a ballad, or performing a beautiful piece of song. If that 'reckon' were correct, then we could place everything in life somewhere along this continuum of creativity. 

Why is that significant"? My wondering is if that would allow us to open our eyes to the myriad of creativity that is all around us. If so, my 'reckon' might be that this idea might help us to see that creativity isn't something that resides only in the hearts and minds of the 'creatives'. That in fact creativity resides in the heads and hearts of all of us. If we were able to accept that, could it then open the floodgates to allowing us to better harness this wellspring of creativity that I 'reckon' we all represent? If so, I wonder, would that mean that we might be better equipped to address the multitude of problems that confront us today?

As I wandered the streets of the little Canterbury village of Akaroa taking those few vital days to unwind, here are just a few of the things I saw.

One of my fave arts and crafts galleries, called 'Lava'. Retail 'galleries' like this abound in Aotearoa (as they probably do everywhere), and they reveal a depth and breadth of creative talent. I wondered if they are also small 'shrines to creative talent, places of worship that not only reveal that depth and breadth, but also the incredibly low value that we place on creativity. How may of the 'creators' whose work is on sale in such places can actually eke a living from their creative talents?  Do we love to go into these galleries as an act of worship, and a yearning for more creativity in our lives?

There was this little stall selling knitted goods to fundraise for the local health centre. Each and every item was the product of creative endeavour ftom someone, somewhere.

And as I sit writing this, there are these dudes sitting outside the motel unit next door to ours, quietly 'jamming' on their guitars, and singing. I suspect that they are more than your usual 'beer and BBQ' guitar strummers. They are sitting there enjoying the sun, creating by simply performing together. That's creativity too.

 Back in the school context, on the last day of term I went for a wander (as I frequently try to do.. being connected with our learners continues to be the best professional feeling ever), and I came across a myriad of cool stuff going on. Here was Anaru finishing a card table he'd designed and built.

There were students using a gizzmo called a 'makey-makey' to create circuits, and hence code games.  There was a banana being used as a 'controller' for a game, along with copious amounts of blue tack. These were all signs of creativity. And they all seemed also to carry the common theme of play as the students went about their mahi. 

I use the word mahi with some caution, because the mere act of play tends to imply that there is no mahi involved. How could there be when we are having fun? I 'reckon' that's wrong!!! It was reassuring given that Playfulness' is identified as one of the 11 creativity dimensions on the CAST Creative Schools Index. My own personal creativity is often really well demonstrated in the context of 'play'. 

On the last day of term I also had the privilege and pleasure of taking our for morning tea our first two student who this year had gained their NCEA with an Excellence endorsement (that is of course before they have even entered an exam room.. pretty awesome eh!, and I do this every year.. shout those students a morning tea, that is). We were accompanied by their Dean who is also our Head of Science. They reminisced playfully and laughingly about creating hokey pokey as a science experiment. The memory was clearly a rich warm memory. I had the impression that the experience was associated more with play than 'mahi' or 'learning', that it had created a richer deeper memory than may that 'best lesson ever' that we think we have delivered.

I 'reckon' that play is an essential component of our mahi as educators at Te Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka as we travel our journey towards that aspiration as a 'centre of creative excellence he puna auaha'.

But in secondary education we dismiss play as a valid way of learning, we do so far too often, I 'reckon' we do so at our cost, and to the cost and detriment of our learners. We allow ourselves to be driven by assessment and qualifications frameworks, we assume that we have to be 'grown up' about this 'education thing' and that this means we are meant to 'look like a university'. After all that is what we are meant to be preparing our learners for, right? And that's what learners and their whānau want, right?' 

That of course raised a whole new question of what a modern university actually looks like, but that might be a topic for another day.