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BOOK REVIEW for The Creative Teaching and Learning Resource Book

THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMY - Subject Centre for ESCalate

Review of ‘The Creative Teaching and Learning Resource Book’ by Brin Best and Will ThomasReview by Margaret Simms ( ProCEEd), 1^st Oct 2009

A bright red toolbox brimming over with teaching resources appropriately illustrates the cover of Best and Thomas’ The Creative Teaching and Learning Resource Book. I would not recommend the toolbox for use by inexperienced enthusiasts. Rather for use by teachers who already manifest effective teaching and learning strategies, and who are keen to try out new practical strategies designed to enhance teaching and learning experiences.

The authors introduce their work with a detailed explanation to perceived challenges to teaching and strategies to overcome them. There are six Chapters: Chapter 1 - Vision; Chapter 2 - Climate for Learning; Chapter 3 - Teaching and Learning Strategies; Chapter 4 - Reflection; Chapter 5 - Teacher’s Professional and Personal Domain; and Chapter 6 - Sustaining Creative Practice.

Teachers will find that strategies aligned to each chapter are practical and resourceful, that intended outcomes are clear, and timings of application useful for embedding one or more strategies within overall lesson plans. Ingenuity of positioning each strategy within the National Curriculum thinking skills is a further supportive feature of this book.

A summary of the tools contained in each of the chapters encourages readers to rummage for appropriate tools, for example, the section on ‘Vision’ in Chapter 1 offers tools for understanding and resolving conflict between people and organisations, building vision in and beyond the classroom, and progressing out of a position of creative stagnation.

One highly recommended tool is ‘Storymaker’. This learning resource takes the form of a board game. It is useful for teachers and learners within and without the classroom. The aim is for individual players or teams to weave together ideas, events, characters, experiences and prompt cards, working their way along a story path at the throw of a dice. Ultimately ‘players’ reflect on what has been learned, how to go forward and what advice to offer others in similar situations.

There is so much practical and creative information oozing from this book that it’s worth the reader spending a while browsing through the chapters, this will facilitate familiarity of content and enable the teacher to make the best possible use of the resources for their specific purpose.

I recommend this book for teachers of primary and secondary school pupils. Teachers of older students may also find this creative approach to teaching invaluable.

A further, and potentially even more creative, use of The Creative Teaching and Learning Resource Book is to offer the resource to pupils. Through experiment, the experience of choosing tools to enhance their own learning may itself create new teaching strategies. One tool which may suit this purpose is ‘100 creative activities for keeping variety alive in the classroom’ in Chapter 3.

4CREATIVITY FOR MORE ABLE STUDENTS

Brin Best argues that we must actively teach creativity if our more able learners are to play their full role as decision-makers in the world of tomorrow. Click here for this article

4COACHING AND CREATIVITY

Will Thomas argues that creativity should play a central role in all high quality coaching. This article is below.

i Our latest article explores the theme of creativity and coaching

COACHING AND CREATIVITY

Will Thomas argues that creativity should play a central role in all high quality coaching

In this article I explore the links between creativity and the process of coaching. In recent years both of these areas of endeavour in education have received considerable press. A lack of creativity in classrooms is a frequent lament and the flag is being flown for the process of coaching in many schools and colleges. Coaching is also being steadily embedded in many aspects of school and college life. A helpful starting point in considering links between coaching and creativity might be to define each process:

Creativity can be defined as ‘the intentional and purposeful search for innovation in problem solving’Coaching can be defined as ‘facilitating the learning and development of another’

Exploring the connectionsOn the surface of it, one might argue that these two processes have little more in common than them being in vogue in education at present. Yet there are subtle ways in which coaching supports creative thinking. To explore this further it is necessary to understand a little more about the process of coaching. Coaching is not only used within a development or learning context but also to solve problems. It considers problem-solving to be a learning process and encourages transfer of problem-solving skills from one context to another. Coaching as distinct from mentoring, is a process of drawing out solutions from another person or group of people, through questioning. It is characterised by a non-judgmental and non-critical approach and by the recipient of coaching coming up with their own solutions. Mentoring, on the other hand, is more about offering ideas, strategies and approaches, usually from the personal experience of the mentor. By its very nature mentoring involves the mentor making judgements about what is needed and what is offered. There is much academic discourse about the meanings of these processes and for a more in depth account one could look to one of the books recommended at the end of this article. Suffice to say the meanings are unsettled and have some overlapping facets. What is key here is that coaching is non-judgmental, non-critical and is a process whereby the recipient of coaching does all the intellectual processing. Instead, the coach provides a framework of questioning that does a number of important things: 1. Seeks to generate and maintain people in a positive and resourceful state of mind

2. Uses linguistic patterns which support people to think around limitations to achieving their outcomes

3. Holds a view that there is always a way of achieving a given goal

4. Challenges beliefs that limit innovative thought5. Is purposeful and direct These factors help to both directly and indirectly challenge the mindsets that prevent creativity happening and encourage states of mind that generate innovative thoughts. Coaching has the potential to encourage people to re-evaluate personal constructs (beliefs) that may obstruct creativity. For example:

Some people are creative and some people are not – the coach might respond: ‘Who says this is true?’
Creative people are outside normality and might be regarded as weird – the coach might respond: ‘So how could you contradict that statement?’
Creativity is frivolous and undisciplined – to which the coaching might respond: ‘What is your evidence for this, specifically?’
I am not creative, never have been, never will be – to which the coach might respond ‘So you’ve never solved a problem by yourself before then?’

Such personal constructs can diminish a person’s ability to think in innovative ways in response to a challenge. What coaching can provide is the linguistic patterns and the processes to enable individuals to respond in innovative ways. Models of coachingThere are many coaching models available. I have developed the six-stage STRIDE model in an attempt to provide a comprehensive model for education settings. StrengthsPaying attention to strengths and maintaining people in a resourceful mindset which is important for creative thinking. TargetIdentifying the target to be achieved and exploring the motivation to achieve it. This step has people focus away from problems towards a desired positive outcome and encourages creative thinking. Real situationExploring the current situation in relation to the target and identifying limiting beliefs. This part of the model seeks to surface the personal constructs which prevent creativity and challenge them directly. IdeasSeeking ideas that might succeed in achieving the desired target and overcoming limiting beliefs. This part of the model is where creativity is directly called upon. DecisionSelecting the most appropriate option from the ideas generated. This part of the model encourages convergent thinking as a person reviews the creative options generated in the ‘Ideas’ stage. EvaluationThere are two parts to the evaluation phase:1. Evaluating the solution now – exploring commitment to agree decision.2. Evaluating later – agreeing a time to follow up on the actions taken arising from the decision.

STRIDE KEY QUESTIONS WITH THEIR CREATIVE POTENTIAL IN BRACKETSStrengths What strengths do you have that can support you here? (generates a resourceful state of mind)Target What would you prefer? (focuses people on positive future outcomes)Real situation What’s stopping you from achieving the target? Who says you can’t? How do you know that this is true? (identifies potential blocks and challenges the thinking around them)Ideas What might be some possible ways forward? If there were no barriers to achieving this, what would you do? (encourages possibility thinking rather than final solution thinking and seeks to lift barriers out of the way to allow innovative thoughts to occur)Decision What will you do? When will you do it? How do you know this is worthwhile? (encourages reflection on the suitability of creative ideas)Evaluation How committed are you right now? Later: How did you get on? (reviews progress to encourage reflection upon the effectiveness of creative outcomes)

The STRIDE model contains question-based language patterns which impact on the resourcefulness and thinking style of the recipient. Coaching can therefore be a core tool in promoting innovative approaches to problem-solving. In this sense it has a place in leadership, classrooms and in our lives away from work. Central to coaching is an understanding of the impact of questions upon those receiving them and in essence, respect for the power of language. Further reading

McLeod, A. (2004) Performance Coaching. Crown House.

Thomas W. and Smith A. (2004) Coaching Solutions. Network Educational Press.Whitworth, L. et al (1998) Co-active Coaching. Davies-Black. Training opportunitiesIf you would like further information on coaching and questioning for creativity contact us at info@visionforlearning.co.uk about our courses in these areas.