Teaching for creativity using the five creative habits of mind at primary and secondary.

The North East Creativity Collaborative is one of eight cohorts in Art Council England’s three-year programme, testing practices in teaching for creativity. The initiative responds to the Durham Commission’s Creativity and Education report (Durham University, 2019), which suggested that knowledge and creativity shouldn’t be in conflict within our education system; rather, they are both equally imperative and, indeed, are synergetic. Creativity is a vital real-world capability but it’s also a bridge that supports learner curiosity, engagement and ability to leverage ownership over their learning.

Our research as a collaborative of eight schools began by agreeing a common understanding and definition of creativity, which led to us challenging our assumptions along the way, particularly around the ‘creative’ teacher. We realised that we had to move away from stereotypical thinking – we didn’t need to be artists or musicians to be able to teach for creativity. Through the five creative habits of mind model (Lucas et al., 2013), we were able to reflect on our practice and recognise our existing strengths across all subjects and age phases. The model has given us clarity and equipped us with a vocabulary around the dispositions of thinking creatively – being imaginative, inquisitive, persistent, collaborative and disciplined – that allows us to build on existing good practice and explore new approaches.

As a collaborative, we have invested as much time in building and powering our professional learning community (PLC) as we have in exploring creativity. The PLC offers us the opportunity to reflect, think, plan, discuss, share and debate the complexities of teaching for creativity. The fact that we all come from different types of schools and contexts adds a different and exciting dimension to our learning, where we work together with a sense of agency and shared purpose.

The full report can be accessed here:

Brown, R., Longstaff, R. and Richards, N. (2023) Teaching for creativity using the five creative habits of mind at primary and Secondary, My College.

Available at: https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/teaching-for-creativity-using-the-five-creative-habits-of-mind-at-primary-and-secondary/ (Accessed: 15 May 2023).