A synthesis of research concerning creative teachers in a Canadian context

Effective teachers are often creative ones, yet an examination of creative teaching is largely invisible in the North American creativity literature. Even within education there is little about teachers’ own creative practice. Nonetheless, there are benefits to studying creative teachers: in education it can explicate ways of enhancing teachers’ creativity and enriching praxis; and in psychology it can extend our understanding of social and interpersonal creativity, as well as everyday creativity. This paper reviews 12 Canadian case studies of creative teaching conducted by a creative teaching research group. An in-depth elaboration of two themes, creative person and community, is presented.     

Teacher learning as boundary crossing: a case study of Master Teacher Studios in China

ABSTRACT

Teacher professional learning is shaped by multiple contexts in a complex way. Previous studies mainly focused on teacher learning in school-based contexts, and rarely explored how teachers learn across schools and in other situations. Adopting the framework of boundary crossing learning, this study examined the processes of teachers’ professional learning when they participated in Master Teacher Studios in mainland China. Through the qualitative case study approach, this study summarised four learning mechanisms: seeking common ground and reserving differences, growing through formal and informal coordination, exposing the gap and reflecting one’s limits, and transforming practices that incorporate one’s teaching ‘soul’. Further, intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional factors that contribute to teacher learning as boundary crossing are discussed.     

孔子创新学习方法寻绎

作为春秋之际社会变革的产物,孔子的学习思想具有明显的创新性特征,对于实施素质教育和建设学习型社会具有重要价值。在创新学习方法方面,它主要包括:采取"侍坐言志"、"切磋琢磨"等措施,营造有利于创新学习的环境;"为仁由己",强调学习者的主体性;"学思结合",注意学习者创新思维的训练。     

Teacher learning in the context of a continuing professional development programme: A case study

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into characteristics of teacher learning in the context of a successful continuing professional development programme (CPD programme). An in-depth case study of the learning activities of two teachers, the problems they encountered and the way they regulated their learning was conducted. Results show that these teachers differed greatly from each other: one teacher showed a meaning directed learning pattern, while the other teacher's learning pattern was undirected. Still, positive effects of the PDP on classroom behaviour were observed for both teachers. It appeared that the trainer could compensate for a lack of self-regulation.     

Teacher learning in collaborative curriculum design

The Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) was used to identify processes of teacher learning during the collaborative design of curriculum materials in the context of curriculum innovation. Nine published studies from six different countries about teachers’ collaborative curriculum design were analyzed to identify the learning processes that collaborative curriculum design fosters. It was concluded that the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth, although initially developed to recognize learning processes in individual teachers, can also be used to identify learning processes that are fostered by collaborative curriculum design in teams of teachers.     

Teacher,team, and school change through reciprocal learning

This paper documents the first year of a qualitative case study investigating the experiences of reciprocal learning teams of teachers within a small, rural secondary school. The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers experienced collaborative professional development (PD) and how their experiences contributed to developing the culture and structure of their school. Collected data were analyzed using an iterative process of coding, categorizing, and abstracting data. Three themes emerged: (a) self- and co-regulated learning in teams invigorated collegial relationships and contributed to a sense of agency toward change at the school level; (b) differentiating support for collaborative inquiry among teachers and within teams is critical; and (c) creating structures to support collaborative inquiry among teachers engages teachers in their ongoing professional learning. This case study of a rural secondary school demonstrates how deep and substantial school change can happen when teachers co-construct and co-regulate their PD.     

The resources and obstacles of creative collaboration in a long-term learning community

In the framework of a subject-centred socio-cultural approach, this study investigates creative collaboration and the resources for and obstacles to it in a long-term learning community of ten teacher students. The study focuses on five different learning situations over a 2-year period. The data were taken from teacher students’ evaluations and accounts (on given criteria) of their videotaped group-learning sessions, and their reports of the obstacles to creative collaboration. Using the students’ evaluations of the five videotaped group learning situations, the sessions they assessed as the least and most creative were compared, the aim being to discover the most important situation-specific contextual resources for collaborative creativity in the learning settings addressed. The findings showed that creative collaboration was manifested by the presentation of alternative views, and in most situations also by the production of new ideas. However, it was less evident that group discussion would in every session reveal contradictions or lead to the disclosure of opposing views concerning different meanings; nor would it necessarily create an elaborated understanding of the learning topic. The main obstacles to creative collaboration were related to the emotional atmosphere and power relations of the group. A comparison of the contextual conditions of the least and most creative evaluated situation illustrates that the least creative situation was characterised by participants’ disputational talk, aimed at invalidating opposing opinions. Here, the group atmosphere was emotionally charged in a negative sense, and mutual care taking was lacking. The unsafe atmosphere made group members afraid of being emotionally bruised by other members. The most creative situation was characterised by complementarity in participants’ talk and by inclusive utilisation of each other's views. The shared history of the group was an extremely important resource for group dialogue, allowing alternative future scenarios to be constructed reflectively. The emotional scaffolding between students was rich, and the tutor's resources were utilised. Results are discussed in terms of complementarity, emotions and power relations.     

Action learning and the creative industries: the efficacy of an action learning set in building collaboration between a university and creative industries

In the UK, the creative sector has been identified as a key strand in the economic recovery strategy. Composed of mostly micro and small enterprises often grouping together for particular commissions and projects, there is a tendency to operate primarily through a series of networks made up of peers. This paper presents the outcomes of a ‘peer-to-peer business programme’, or action learning set, involving 10 participants from the creative sector over a period of 6 months. The programme was based on a ‘Six-Squared’ model where participants would address their own needs alongside participating in, and developing further understanding of, action learning sets in order to establish sets with others. Assessment of outcomes indicated that the programme allowed participants to develop new skills with peers, network and strengthen relationships and collaborate in a university programme. The paper concludes by suggesting that, within the context of a growing and vibrant creative industries sector and increasing pressures on universities to engage with the business community, it is essential to develop flexible, peer-led and innovative models of collaboration.     

Structured creative processes in learning playwriting: invoking imaginative pedagogies

The concept of the ‘creative’ in creative writing has a vexed history. This article explores the myths surrounding creativity and how they have influenced the way teachers have approached playwriting pedagogy. It reports on research into the teaching and learning experiences of students and teachers in secondary schools, focusing on the participants’ understanding of creativity and the impact this had on the pedagogical process. The research found that a counterproductive idealist view of creativity persists in classrooms: the teachers and students were operating on a conception of creativity and creative practice that reflected a belief in a mystical and unknowable creative process. This article explores the experiences of creativity through systems theory and argues that this approach can inform teaching and learning for creative processes and products. The article concludes that the teaching and learning practices were unnecessarily tentative and that knowledge of creativity theory would improve the students’ development of both playwriting proficiency as well as creativity-relevant skills. It suggests that demystifying the creative process should result in greater student proficiency and improved teaching and learning experiences for teachers and students.     

Rethinking creativity: Present in expression in creative learning communities*

Often defined as originality and innovation and desired for the economic profits it can produce for both individuals and their societies, creativity has been examined in order to find ways in which it can be promoted through various instructional practices in and beyond schools. Nonetheless, creativity as a fundamental basis of human existence and learning in a shared world is largely understudied. In this article, I examine the commonly held assumptions of creativity as it is incorporated into educational practices—that is, the notion of creativity as developable and achievable, and often as measurable and evaluable. I explore some of the (negative) consequences of understanding creativity in this way and assert the need to reclaim the notion of creativity in order to recognize the ways in which creativity is a part of our everyday lived experiences, always including interactions with the bodily self, co-existing others, and the phenomenal world. Understanding creativity as an expressive mode and way of being in the world encourages a rethinking of creativity in education, positioning creativity as implicitly interwoven in the act of expression as it is undertaken in a community and advocating that this expression ought to be encouraged in both processes and products of learning.     

Teacher students’ meaningful learning in widening learning worlds

ABSTRACT

This qualitative metasynthesis investigated students’ meaningful learning experiences amid andragogical teacher education programmes. The programmes catered to the specific learning needs of adult students in the context of university-based teacher education. This study aimed to provide a wider picture of the frames of students’ meaningful learning in andragogical teacher education programmes. The findings revealed three major learning worlds of adult students’ meaningful learning, which formed a common system widening from the professional awakening to the transformative community and agency in society. Based on the findings, this study argues that in andragogical teacher education, which emphasises collaboration and networking in accordance with the current trend in higher education, teacher students may become empowered participants and active agents in society. The findings can be used in planning curricula, and developing programmes of higher education in general and teacher education in particular.     

A place for informal learning in teaching about religion: The story of an experienced non-Muslim teacher and her learning about Islam

Teacher learning about religion has remained an under-researched topic in spite of the professional accountability placed on teachers to teach about religion in a constitutionally permissible and pedagogically sound way. Using data collected from interviews, the purpose of this study is to describe and examine how and what an experienced Non-Muslim teacher of the world’s religions learned about Islam in today’s climate of accountability and negative imagery of Islam. The findings of this study suggest that informal learning through independent reading and interaction with a local Muslim community can be a means to enculturate teachers of world religions into ways of learning about Islam.     

Teacher attrition: a review of literature

Teacher attrition is generally positioned within research addressing teacher shortage, the wastage of resources and expertise, as well as that concerning teachers’ lowly status and poor working conditions. As such the research is fragmented and diverse. This paper attempts to draw together contemporary international attrition research in order to consider: how teacher attrition may be defined; patterns of attrition; influences upon attrition; the impact of attrition; and strategies employed for decreasing attrition. It concludes that research concerning teacher attrition requires the development of more comprehensive databases on teaching personnel and increased clarity of how attrition is being framed and investigated.     

Virtual praxis: Constraints,approaches, and innovations of online creative arts teacher educators

Higher education, and in particular, initial teacher education, has been significantly transformed through the introduction of e-learning. However, online teacher education presents particular challenges in the creative arts, which has traditionally developed student understanding through embodied and collaborative learning experiences. In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight online arts educators in teacher education programs to understand their perspectives and pedagogy in online arts coursework. Using Engeström’s Activity Theory as an analytical lens, the findings highlight how these academics navigated challenges and opportunities to facilitate authentic, praxis-focused arts experiences to prepare pre-service teachers for the classroom.     

The role of teachers’ orientation to learning in professional development and change: A national study of teachers in England

This paper uses results from a national survey of teachers in England to test a hypothesised model of teacher orientation to learning (consisting of beliefs, practice and experiences about learning) and its relationship to teacher learning change. Results from a structural equation modeling process of 1126 teacher survey responses show that teachers bring an internal, external and collaborative orientation to their professional learning. The beliefs and practices associated with these orientations are also shown to have a moderate influence, via path analysis, on teacher learning change defined as a composite outcome of change in beliefs, practices and students.     

Teacher self-efficacy and teacher burnout: A study of relations

The purpose of this study was partly to test the factor structure of a recently developed Norwegian scale for measuring teacher self-efficacy and partly to explore relations between teachers' perception of the school context, teacher self-efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, teacher burnout, teacher job satisfaction, and teachers' beliefs that factors external to teaching puts limitations to what they can accomplish. Participants were 2249 Norwegian teachers in elementary school and middle school. The data were analyzed by means of structural equation modelling using the AMOS 7 program. Teacher self-efficacy, collective efficacy and two dimensions of burnout were differently related both to school context variables and to teacher job satisfaction.     

Informal learning of primary school teachers: Considering the role of teaching experience and school culture

Teacher learning does not solely occur within formal professional development activities; in fact, the majority of learning occurs through daily practice. The current study focuses on this everyday learning and examines primary teachers' informal learning. Results showed that teachers learn through a variety of learning activities including ‘experimenting’, ‘reflection’, ‘learning from others without interaction’ and ‘collaboration’. In addition, differences between novice and more experienced teachers were identified. More experienced teachers learn as much as their novice colleagues, however they undertake different learning activities. Finally, results reveal that although collaboration is an important source of learning, primary teachers value their autonomy.     

缄默知识:教师教育的独特视角

缄默知识是相对于显性知识而言的,也就是"只可意会、不可言传"的经验知识。在人类的整个知识世界中,缄默知识要比显性知识显得更为根本。教师教育活动中存在大量的缄默知识,但是在具体的教师教育活动中大量的缄默知识往往被忽视,这也是导致教师教育活动低效问题的一个重要原因。基于缄默知识理论,要实现教师教育效率的提高,我们必须实现缄默知识与外显知识的协同,必须重新审视实践性教学的重要价值。     

Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong

This study examined how teacher agency shaped professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts. Interviews with 14 Chinese language teachers showed that teacher agency varied in different dimensions of professional learning. Social suggestions, power relations, teachers' professional and social positioning and the imposed identity and social roles in the school contexts interacted to shape teacher agency. The findings suggest both creating school cultures and structures that value and share diverse discursive and pedagogical practices and managing teachers' professional identity and self-positioning to enhance teachers' agency to engage in mutual learning and remaking of their work practices.     

Great expectations: Teacher learning in a national professional development programme

This paper reports findings from an evaluation of a national continuing professional development (CPD) programme for teachers in England. Data showed that the localised implementation, opportunities for interactive learning, and ‘collective participation’ were positive factors. Research participants reported difficulties, however, in ‘cascading’ knowledge to colleagues and in sustaining and developing their learning. It is argued that these limitations were rooted in an inconsistent theory of learning that underpinned the programme and a failure to conceptualise teachers as ‘lead learners’ in schools. Wider implications for the design of teachers’ professional development are considered.