Creative Pedagogy
Encyclopedia
Creative Pedagogy is the science and art of creative teaching. It is a sub-field of Pedagogy
, opposed to Critical pedagogy
(just as creative thinking for example in Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking is opposed to critical thinking
). Creative Pedagogy teaches learners how to learn creatively, become creators of themselves and creators of their future.
). Creative Pedagogy, on the contrary, can be applied to ANY subject, whether it is Math, Science, Language, or Economics and Finance. To some extent, one can state that subject does not matter, methodology (type of pedagogy) does: that’s why the introduction of creative methodologies changes the process of teaching/learning.
The concept of Creative Pedagogy got noticed and cited by numerous educators - see external links below. The authors of Encyclopedic Dictionary not only included an article on Creative Pedagogy, but also commented on its unusual form – the formula of invention.
Despite the slogans and inspiring practices of the great educators of the past like Jan Amos Komensky, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
, Rudolf Steiner
, Lev Vygotsky
, Maria Montessori
, Anton Makarenko
, etc.), despite the wishes of parents and guardians, the type of pedagogy depends on the requirements of the society.
All these types of pedagogy exist and co-exist in contemporary Pedagogy, but this century has been many times called the Century of Creativity and Innovation. Society needs more and more creative people. The emergence and growth of the Creative Class
is a reality. That’s why there appeared Creative Pedagogy as pedagogy aiming at the upbringing of a creator (a creative person) capable of meeting the constantly growing complexity and accelerating development of the society.
Creative Pedagogy embraced the research in the field of creativity (Graham Wallas
, Alex Osborn, J.P. Guilford, Sid Parnes
, Ellis Paul Torrance
, etc.) and put it into the classroom to improve the teaching/learning process. Creative Pedagogy is the result of applying the studies of creative process to the education process itself.
As The Encyclopedia of Creativity article on Humane Creativity states, "Creative Pedagogy, as a trend in science, generalizes and explains everything from music and art classes to creatively-oriented courses so thoroughly gathered and precisely described by Alex Osborn." Creative Pedagogy generalizes:
The next natural step after the creation of Creative Pedagogy was to check whether the theory and practice of creative teaching is teachable. Creative MetaPedagogy – the science and art of teaching teachers how to teach creatively appeared in 1990-1992.
By 2006, Creative Pedagogy and Creative MetaPedagogy in the form of numerous programs for teachers, managers, educational and business leaders, spread from the U.S.A. to Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand. In Russia, where it was published first, it also received further development as "collective creative pedagogy" by I.P. Ivanov
. A very interesting statement about the goal of creative pedagogy can be found in the work of TRIZ
specialists B. Zlotin and A. Zusman, "Creative pedagogy is an attempt to replace the battle between the teacher and students with the child's struggle for self-perfection. The teacher is the child's assistant and ally in this struggle." Creative pedagogy borrowed from TRIZ
one of its most powerful methods - Ideal Final Result
(IFR) to create the model of Ideal Education, Ideal Teacher and Ideal Learner.
The term Creative pedagogy becomes well spread - it is used for monograph titles and programs names. The concept is studied and taught at the university level (see further reading list).
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
, opposed to Critical pedagogy
Critical pedagogy
Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education described by Henry Giroux as an "educational movement, guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive...
(just as creative thinking for example in Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking is opposed to critical thinking
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
). Creative Pedagogy teaches learners how to learn creatively, become creators of themselves and creators of their future.
Disambiguation
Creative Pedagogy should be differentiated (disambiguated) from Creative Education that is usually associated with teaching creativity as a subject (see Creative Education FoundationCreative Education Foundation
The Creative Education Foundation is an independent, nonprofit membership organization of leaders in the field of creativity theory and practice...
). Creative Pedagogy, on the contrary, can be applied to ANY subject, whether it is Math, Science, Language, or Economics and Finance. To some extent, one can state that subject does not matter, methodology (type of pedagogy) does: that’s why the introduction of creative methodologies changes the process of teaching/learning.
Definition
The founder of Creative Pedagogy, Dr. Andrei Aleinikov, defined it in the form of formula of invention – a strict word pattern used to describe inventions for patenting in technology:- “Creative pedagogy that includes educational influence on the learner for acquisition of certain study material (subject) [as pedagogy in general] and differing from the above by the fact that in order to achieve higher efficiency of learning, the pedagogical influence is provided on the background of centrifugal above-the-criticism mutual activity in which the learner is raised from the object of [pedagogical] influence to the rank of a creative person, while the traditional (basic) study material is transformed from the subject to learn into the means of achieving some creative goal, and the extra study material includes the description and demonstration of the heuristic methods and techniques.”
The concept of Creative Pedagogy got noticed and cited by numerous educators - see external links below. The authors of Encyclopedic Dictionary not only included an article on Creative Pedagogy, but also commented on its unusual form – the formula of invention.
Goal (Mission)
The goal of Creative Pedagogy is to transform ANY subject class (course, program, school) into a creative teaching process that would produce creative learners (life learners) – much more efficient learners than those produced by traditional school. This transformation of the traditional class (course, program, school) is called “creative orientation.”Discussion
A typical objection to the introduction of Creative Pedagogy is the following, “Every pedagogy is creative.” A good answer to this is, “Yes, to some extent. But what is the rate of creativity?”Despite the slogans and inspiring practices of the great educators of the past like Jan Amos Komensky, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach....
, Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
, Lev Vygotsky
Lev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of cultural-historical psychology, and the leader of the Vygotsky Circle.-Biography:...
, Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name...
, Anton Makarenko
Anton Makarenko
Anton Semenovych Makarenko was a Ukrainian and Soviet educator and writer, who promoted democratic ideas and principles in educational theory and practice. As one of the founders of Soviet pedagogy, he elaborated the theory and methodology of upbringing in self-governing child collectives and...
, etc.), despite the wishes of parents and guardians, the type of pedagogy depends on the requirements of the society.
- When society needed a follower (in ancient times), there existed methods (pre-pedagogy) to train followers (“Do after me! Do as I do!”). It was good enough to produce hunters, fishermen, gatherers, warriors, etc.
- When society needed speakers (Ancient Greek studios), there existed pedagogy oriented at the upbringing of a speaker in rhetoric classes, in public discussions (and when SocratesSocratesSocrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
introduced a new methodology, now known as Socratic methodSocratic methodThe Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...
of teaching, he was sentenced to death). - When society needed more craftsmen or workers, there appeared technical schools and pedagogies for technical teaching.
- When society needed more knowledgeable professionals, like engineers, doctors, and teachers, there appeared pedagogy of knowledge acquisition (schools, colleges).
- When in the XX century it turned out that existing ways of teaching and problem solving were not sufficient for the needs of society, there appeared problem-oriented education and schools for Creative problem solvingCreative problem solvingCreative problem solving is the mental process of creating a solution to a problem. It is a special form of problem solving in which the solution is independently created rather than learned with assistance.Creative problem solving always involves creativity....
. Creative Pedagogy grew out of them.
All these types of pedagogy exist and co-exist in contemporary Pedagogy, but this century has been many times called the Century of Creativity and Innovation. Society needs more and more creative people. The emergence and growth of the Creative Class
Creative class
The Creative Class is a socioeconomic class that economist and social scientist Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, identifies as a key driving force for economic development of post-industrial...
is a reality. That’s why there appeared Creative Pedagogy as pedagogy aiming at the upbringing of a creator (a creative person) capable of meeting the constantly growing complexity and accelerating development of the society.
Creative Pedagogy embraced the research in the field of creativity (Graham Wallas
Graham Wallas
Graham Wallas was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics....
, Alex Osborn, J.P. Guilford, Sid Parnes
Sid Parnes
Dr. Sidney J. Parnes is a retired professor at Buffalo State College and the co-founder of the International Center for Studies in Creativity. The Center is housed within Dr. Sidney J...
, Ellis Paul Torrance
Ellis Paul Torrance
Ellis Paul Torrance was an American psychologist from Milledgeville, Georgia.After completing his undergraduate degree at Mercer University, he went on to complete a Master's degree at the University of Minnesota, and then a doctorate from the University of Michigan...
, etc.) and put it into the classroom to improve the teaching/learning process. Creative Pedagogy is the result of applying the studies of creative process to the education process itself.
As The Encyclopedia of Creativity article on Humane Creativity states, "Creative Pedagogy, as a trend in science, generalizes and explains everything from music and art classes to creatively-oriented courses so thoroughly gathered and precisely described by Alex Osborn." Creative Pedagogy generalizes:
- art (creativity) classes
- technical creativity
- psychology of creativity
- Creative Problem Solving
- creatively-oriented courses
The next natural step after the creation of Creative Pedagogy was to check whether the theory and practice of creative teaching is teachable. Creative MetaPedagogy – the science and art of teaching teachers how to teach creatively appeared in 1990-1992.
Some examples of the first Creative Pedagogy applications
- Creatively-oriented Linguistics, Military Institute, Moscow, Russia, 1984-92
- Creative Management, Center for Creative Research, Russian Academy of SciencesRussian Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, Moscow, Russia, 1990-1992 - Word Origins and Usage (ENG2210), Effective Communication (COM1110), Psychology of Creativity (PSY3390), Foundations of Creative Education (EDU6625), Troy UniversityTroy UniversityTroy University is a public university that is located in Troy, Alabama, United States. It was originally founded in 1887 as Troy Normal School. Its main campus enrollment is 7,194 students. The total enrollment of all Troy University campuses is 29,689...
, Montgomery, Alabama, 1994-2006.
By 2006, Creative Pedagogy and Creative MetaPedagogy in the form of numerous programs for teachers, managers, educational and business leaders, spread from the U.S.A. to Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand. In Russia, where it was published first, it also received further development as "collective creative pedagogy" by I.P. Ivanov
I.P. Ivanov
Igor Petrovich Ivanov was a Soviet pedagogue, initiator and founder of the "social-pedagogical youth movement" known in Russia as the Communard movement. He was a member of the Soviet Academy of Pedagogy, full professor of the Herzen Pedagogical State University, author of several books, laureate...
. A very interesting statement about the goal of creative pedagogy can be found in the work of TRIZ
TRIZ
TRIZ is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature". It was developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues, beginning in 1946...
specialists B. Zlotin and A. Zusman, "Creative pedagogy is an attempt to replace the battle between the teacher and students with the child's struggle for self-perfection. The teacher is the child's assistant and ally in this struggle." Creative pedagogy borrowed from TRIZ
TRIZ
TRIZ is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature". It was developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues, beginning in 1946...
one of its most powerful methods - Ideal Final Result
Ideal Final Result
Ideal final result is a description of the best possible solution for the problem situation , regardless of the resources or constraints of the original problem...
(IFR) to create the model of Ideal Education, Ideal Teacher and Ideal Learner.
The term Creative pedagogy becomes well spread - it is used for monograph titles and programs names. The concept is studied and taught at the university level (see further reading list).
Further reading
- Creative Pedagogy: methodology, theory, practice (2002). Ju.G. Kruglov (Ed.), Moscow: Center "Alfa" (russ. Креативная педагогика: методология, теория, практика (2002). Под ред. Ю.Г. Круглова. – М.: МГОПУ им. М.А. Шолохова, изд. центр «Альфа»).
- Morozov, A.V. and Chernilevsky, D.V. (2004). Creative pedagogy and psychology. Academic Project (russ. Морозов А.В. Чернилевский Д.В. (2004). Креативная педагогика и психология, Академический проект).