Pāvels Pestovs director of Riga 72nd Secondary School
There is a difference of opinion in society as to whether we should assess art and music subjects in schools, forgetting that assessment is about giving feedback to help students learn more, not just about giving a grade. At the same time, there is a trend that internationally STEM fields are increasingly linked with art subjects, and a new abbreviation STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) appears. It reflects the very important synergy between the natural sciences and creative thinking. If we take into account the results of international education research, we now increasingly see that creative thinking is a group of skills that is only partially transferable between different subjects, but to a large extent is still directly related to knowledge, skills and understanding in a specific field. We also see that there are differences between the search for solutions to various social, natural science and technological problems. It is hard to imagine that creative solutions in these areas arise in a vacuum.
Latvia is second after Singapore
The data of the OECD PISA creative thinking study[i], show that in Latvia, more than 90% of fifteen-year-old students reach a level in creative thinking where they demonstrate creative ideas and can complete relatively difficult tasks. As a result, we have relatively few students who struggle with creative thinking, surpassed only by Singapore among the OECD countries in the study. However, the data also show that we have relatively few students with highly developed creative thinking, especially when compared to the absolute leader of the study - Singapore, where almost two-thirds of students show high performance. The pupils of our neighboring country Estonia also show better performance in this respect.
We all understand that the education system is complex, but we continue to receive very clear signals that it is necessary to develop students' skills at the highest levels. We have invested a lot so that the majority of students acquire basic skills, and the study of creative thinking also shows that we have fantastic results in this regard - more than 90% of fifteen-year-old Latvian students have such. As an education system, it would be important for us to maintain these results in the future, but we should also strengthen our work with talented young people. We don't have to choose between raising underachieving students on the one hand and pushing for excellence on the other. Attention should be paid to both, because every country wants to see unicorn creators in their children in the near future. And there are often such on both sides, if it still makes sense to talk about "sides" at all.
How to define creativity?
When we discuss what creativity really is, everyone defines it differently and this makes it difficult to measure and evaluate this skill. If we remember Ken Robinson's popular book about how school kills creativity[ii], he had his own measure of creativity. Robinson offered the children to take a cardboard box and figure out how many ways it can be used. In his understanding, these children were very creative in the sense that they were able to offer many options for using the box. However, at the end of the school, when young people were given the same task, only five or six ways of using this box appeared. For Robinson, this data is an example to show that the school "puts in a box", reduces creativity, but in my opinion, everything is not so simple.
In its study, the OECD defines creativity not only as the diversity of ideas, but also the use and improvement of ideas. A child, developing his knowledge and skills, will already have a different quality of ideas in the 10th and 12th grades. This insight is also useful for teachers, as it provides an opportunity to talk on a practical level not only about the expression of creative ideas, but also about their usefulness, improvement and validity.
The bigger contribution, the more qualified ideas
What is sometimes forgotten is precisely the importance of input[iii] in the context of creativity and problem solving. It is important to teach not only thinking strategies and techniques, but also what to think with - knowledge, skills and understanding in the field. We tell the students - think about what you could do with this box, come up with a solution, write an essay. At the same time, there is no answer to the question - what can I do to explore this box that I need to write an essay. The more the teacher shows examples and gives ideas, the more the students will be able to create from what they have already learned. It should be understood practically - the more we give, the more we can generate based on it. It is also important not to lose sight of such areas of the educational microsystem as the classroom and school climate, where the student is open to new experiences and is not afraid to make mistakes.
The PISA data show that students whose teachers value creativity better do better with creative thinking, especially in tasks that require the evaluation and development of ideas. Therefore, a respectful classroom environment, or internal culture, which could also be called a growth mindset, or an environment where mistakes are seen as an opportunity for growth, rather than a punishment, is very important. It is essential to create confidence in students that creativity can be developed, changed and improved - it is not innate and unchangeable during life.
It is also very important that the teacher himself models creative skills in the classroom, assigns tasks that require creativity, and does not leave the student alone, but guides and provides various support tools in the process. It is necessary to understand whether I, as a teacher, am experimenting out loud myself, playing with combining ideas, offering different solutions and paths, unusually using available objects, playing, experimenting, showing my way of thinking. Because we can only teach students what we ourselves have!
Photo: publicity photo
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[i] OECD Program for International Student Assessment PISA 2022 Cycle Creative Thinking Study https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/pisa-2022-results-volume-iii_765ee8c2-en
[ii] Ken Robinson “Do schools kill creativity?” https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
[iii] Contribution - a stage of the learning process, during which students gain knowledge, new experience, information, examine already prepared examples.