Faculty Resources

Teaching Resources

Refining Your Teaching | Week 2: Apply Your Creative Sensibility in the Classroom—Part 2
Fall 2009

Faculty development has recently done a bit of research on how to foster a creative sensibility. We found literally thousands of articles and books related to creativity in the workplace, school and life. Below you’ll find a simple four-part strategy for keeping creative selves alive in the classroom that is based on some of the information we found.

"Have fun. Work hard. Take risks. Everything Counts."—P. Rachel Levin

Take risks

"When I’m being creative it feels risky and scary and often things collapse; but sometimes when you push through to the next level of skill you build new tools." —AAU student.

Consciously move outside your comfort zone to challenge conformity. Question your assumptions; change up your environment; reject your default behaviors. But don’t expect to find a definitive solution. Instead, with each new semester, be prepared for shifting constraints and adapt accordingly. Remember maxim #1: Have fun! Help your students take risks, too. They are often inhibited by their own apprenticeship of observation, which means two things: First, they expect archetypical behaviors of us as teachers. Second, they ‘perform’ archetypical behaviors of students—for better or for worse. As we know these behaviors are not always well suited to the situation or subject matter.

Try this in the classroom: Be explicit about your expectations. Let students know that you plan to depart from archetypical teacher behaviors, and ask them to challenge their own default behaviors, as well.

Everything counts

"When I’m being creative I am extremely passionate about the whole process and fired up about talking about it, sharing my ideas with others, etc. I think about all of the influences that led me to that moment, whether living abroad, traveling, something I read, a story I heard.” —AAU student.

"I am being creative in class when I participate in critiques. Telling my classmates what my ideas are so that they might incorporate it to their design. I like talking ideas out with peers and seeing their reactions to it. I see improvements when I'm given suggestions in my work." —AAU student.

Since we never know where good ideas will come from, we want to be open to everything that comes our way. The more ideas, the better. Allow connections to flow back and forth between your teaching and your professional lives. By broadening our knowledge, surrounding ourselves with ideas and making new connections, we enliven our creative sensibilities and expand our repertoire. And those mistakes you made while taking a risk…those count, too! Consider all your efforts part of the process. As part of broadening your knowledge, connect with your colleagues and faculty development. Drop in or make an appointment to chat in our offices.

Try this in your classroom: Invite a member of the Faculty Development team to visit your class on a day you try something new. We’ll help you troubleshoot the new approach.

For more on generating a creative sensibility:

Capturing, Challenging, Broadening, and Surrounding Epstein, R. (Jul/Aug 1996) “Capturing creativity” in Psychology Today.

Constraints:

Leth, J. & Von Trier, L. (2004) The five obstructions [DVD] NY: Koch Lorber Films Lars von Trier enters the world of documentary filmmaking and challenges his idol Jørgen Leth to remake his 1967 film The Perfect Human five times, each time with a new obstruction, hoping each time that he will fail! (This DVD is available to check out from the AAU library.)

Mathews, H. & Brotchie, A. (1998). Oulipo Compendium. London: Atlas. Oulipo (French pronunciation: [ulipo], short for French: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature") is a loose gathering founded in 1960 of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. Constraints are used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration. (Thank you Wikipedia!)

Flow

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. NY: Harper Collins.

Fluidity and Flexibility

Lowenfeld, V. (1968). Viktor Lowenfeld speaks on art and creativity. Brittain, W. L. (Ed.) National Art Education Association.