Research Questions:
I have spent most of my 20-year career as an artist, producer, and director. My job has been defined by how quickly, inexpensively, and how creatively I could overcome a problem. These were all skills that were originally introduced via the arts, and I honed them via practice and trial and error. Since I’ve grown up and had kids, art education has slowly been depleted within the school systems and I worry that my kids won’t learn the basics of creativity that I did.
My quizzical itch… How can we cultivate creativity as a problem-solving action in art education in schools?
I searched for these articles using several key terms: Creativity, Creative, Art Education, Creative Problem-Solving, etc... I picked these 4 articles as they all speak to creativity as a problem-solving action amongst children, adults, and within the art education and education systems. They weave an interesting trail and have added more ideas for me to think about when approaching my own research.
With my research, I would like to build a case for the need for art education to be funded in public schools. In my years in a creative industry, I have seen too many students grow into adults who do not possess the creative problem-solving skills I learned in my art classes in grade school, high school, and college. Without sounding too pious, I believe that creating art is a human right and that everyone should practice it from a young age.
For my research, I will survey the most recent classes I taught and interview my students. My questions will center around how each student applies the creative tools that I teach them. Through the interviews, I will study how and where my students are using the transferable skills that I teach.
Collard, P. and Looney, J. (2014). Nurturing Creativity in Education. European Journal of Education, 49(3), 348-364
- The authors compiled various studies of classrooms where artists helped teachers
bring a level of creativity to learning and they found that creativity can taught in art education by example, i.e. allowing working artists into the classroom to show the students how they (the outside artists) make creative decisions in making art while working with the students to create something as a group
- They also use other people’s research to dispel the idea that creativity is a fixed trait in students who would be dubbed ‘gifted’
- Research question: “Can a greater focus on creativity change the dynamics of teaching and learning?”
- Methods: Secondary data analysis (Qualitative)
- Great list of recommendations for teachers, curriculums, and schools to better prepare their students by arming them with creative ways to teach
Quote: “Neither teachers nor learners are encouraged to develop their own sense of what counts as high-quality creative work.” (pp. 351)
Lucas, B. and Nordgren, L. (2020). The Creative Cliff Illusion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(33), 19830-19836
- The authors set out to prove that creativity doesn’t decline over periods of time and that the idea of a ‘Creativity Cliff’ is an illusion and their findings supported their hypothesis
- The study is important as people’s beliefs about creativity shape how people invest in the creative process
- Research Question: “Do people understand the time course of their creativity?”
- Method: Experimentation (quantitative) across 8 studies
Henriksen, D., Mishra, P., and Fisser, P. (2016). Infusing Creativity and Technology in 21st Century Education: A Systemic View for Change. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(3). 27-37
- The authors explore the idea of creativity, hand in hand with technology from an education standpoint and found that to be effective, technology and creativity must be ‘infused’ at three different levels in the education system: teacher education, assessment, and educational policy
- Methods: mixed, secondary data analysis / archival study
- Research Question: “Does creativity emerges and exists within a system, rather than only at the level of individual process?”
- Another great list of recommendations for teachers, curriculums, and schools to better prepare their students by arming them with creative ways to teach
Quote: “agree upon what that is and how to engage it. This can vary greatly across contexts and cultures. So essential challenges involve convincing policy makers, who often prefer clear answers and objectivity that it is important to infuse curricula with creativity, an area that does not have one “right” answer. Along these lines, policy must also” (pp. 34)
Pitri, E. (2013). Skills and Dispositions for Creative Problem Solving During the Artmaking Process. Art Education, 66(2). 41-46
- The author examined how a younger student used their creative problem solving in an afterschool art program across two years while assessing what measuring devices are in place to single out kids who would be ‘Creative Problem Solvers’ due to criteria that was ‘vague’
- Methods: Methods: mixed, secondary data analysis / archival study, experiments
- Research Question: “How can a teacher determine if a child is a creative problem-solver?”
Quote: “Creativity is essentially a special form of problem solving.” (pp. 42)