Students’ experiences of creativity, Martin Oliver et al

Follow-up to Creativity and curricula in higher education: academics’ perspectives, Margaret Edwards et al from Inspires Learning - Robert O'Toole

A report on research carried out by Martin Oliver, Bharat Shah, Chris McGoldrick and Margaret Edwards, based upon interviews with 25 students from a wide range of disciplines at UCL and LJMU. This investigation of student views accompanies a chapter on those of academics³.

Again the results are rich, deep and wide ranging. I have selected points most relevant to my own research (my notes in square brackets or bold).

Notes

Defining creativity

“Rather than giving one coherent, integrated account, they typically drew on a number of different discourses, often presenting contrasting or even inconsistent positions at different points in the interviews.” p.44

[People most usually define creativity by emphasising its supposed antithesis - rigidity, dogma, lack of spontaneity; or by referring to complete works that are deemed to be ‘creative’ - typically artistic acts or acts of perceived genius.]

Students lack time and energy for creativity

“Other comments were concerned with things students felt helped with creativity. These included physical exercise (as a way of reducing stress), being with creative people and reading or watching something inspiring. Some students suggested that study pressure was squeezing activities such as these out, either because it took up too much time or left students feeling tired.” p.48

“As one student summarised: ‘you need time and space in your mind to be creative and if your mind is full of studying and this and that and the other then there’s no space for it’.” p.51 [Note the opposition between creativity and studying. Also creativity time is referred to as being spatial - often people spatialise time when it is under threat and needs to be protected.]

Creative teaching

“Examples of techniques included role playing (by the teacher, not the students), debates and creating posters that were then presented to the class or displayed in a public place.” p.49

“Some conventional forms of teaching were also felt to support creativity. These were inevitably dialogic, and focussed on opportunities for discussion that addressed students’ current understanding or beliefs.” p.50 [Conversational framework]

Academia perceived to be in opposition to creativity

“In many students’ comments there was a sense of frustration at a perceived conflict between being creative and being ‘academic’. Many of the students experienced academic values as being controlling, conformist and inflexible, more concerned with producing ‘clones’ than supporting new ideas. These students framed their experience in terms of rote learning, spoon feeding and regurgitation.” p.54

“…students identified many things that limited or inhibited creativity. As before, some of these point to a perceived contrast between creativity and acceptable academic work.” p.50

“Some comments were simple suggestions for teaching techniques that could be used to provide a contrast to current teaching. (Such contrasts typically portrayed current teaching  as transmissive and dull; however, in context, it seems likely that this is a rhetorical description rather than a judgement about their courses.)” p.49

“Students on vocational courses pointed to work placements, often as an explicit contrast to their academic study. They identified the people they encountered and the problems that arose in that situation as requiring the new solutions to be created, or existing ones to be adapted; it was also suggested that personal style could be expressed in such situations in a way that was not always possible within the formal educational component of the course.” p.50

[Perhaps questioning the relevance of academic work and modes of assessment]

“There’s an infinite amount of possibilities, it’s really, really daunting. […], I’ll do whatever I want and it might be something completely different, which is incredibly satisfying but it’s terrifying as well.” p.49

[Some students might actually need creativity to be controlled and bounded by a discipline, as they might feel to challenged by risk and unpredictability]

Academia perceived as allowing bounded creativity

“It is important to point out that not all students were dissatisfied with their experience of academia. Indeed some came to appreciate the creative endeavour of academic work, even if they tempered this with the suggestion that is was somehow not for them…” p.55

Assessment styles opposed to creativity - essays, exams - but essays seen as more creative

[exams] “It’s also about spontaneity isn’t it? So you can be creative and you’ve spent a month revising and your head is full of crap.” p.54

Creative study

“…even within ‘uncreative’ disciplines, some students admitted they found ways to be creative, such as developing short-cuts or quicker approaches that helped them in their work.” p.55 [students use creative techniques to subvert academia]

“Just as students described creativity in their teachers’ practices, they also discussed their own. They deemed this to be particularly important, since they felt it was learning, not teaching, that was central to their academic success; bad teaching might not inspire, but it did not prevent learning.” p.51

Specific techniques identified

“making links across different contexts” p.51 [cross-pollinating]

“interpreting texts” p.52

“case studies”, “videos”, ‘the Internet” p.52

LEARNING SPACE

“The environment in which study took place was felt to be important. Several students stressed the importance of comfort (‘a big, comfortable chair or something’), and many identified ‘distractions’ such as music, exercise or a window to look out of as being important….However, other participants spoke of exactly the same distractions in negative ways; the key to this was in whether the student had the choice to distract themselves in such ways.” p.52 [Do students understand how different spaces are used in different ways?]

Conclusions

“…there seemed to be a desire for spaces within the course that were open to risk-taking, free from the need to justify decisions and where failure was an opportunity for learning rather than a problem.” p.57

[That students see creativity as being an important part of how they achieve (or survive), regardless of whether it is sanctioned or not, or whether it is used for legitimate or subversive purposes, it is important].

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¹ Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum, Norman Jackson, Martin Oliver, Malcolm Shaw and James Wisdom, Routledge 2006
² Students’ experiences of creativity, Martin Oliver, Bharat Shah, Chris McGoldrick and Margaret Edwards, in Jackson et al 2006.
³ Creativity and curricula in higher education: academics’ perspectives, Margaret Edwards, Chris McGoldrick and Martin Oliver, in Jackson et al 2006, p.60-73

Robert O'Toole : 17 Oct 2009 20:34 |  Tags: Academic Book Chapter Creative Spaces Creativity Inspiration |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem