Dr Paul Martin Creativity Centre

The purpose of Higher Education Cultivating Humanity (Nussbaum 1997) - liberalis Continuity and fidelity discouraging critical reflection Produce free citizens not from wealth or birth but because they can call their minds their own (Seneca) Feinberg's (1993) models of the social function of education As mainly economic and vocational and concerned with the transmission of technically exploitable knowledge. As mainly political and cultural to further social participation through the development of interpretive understanding

A brief history of creativity Act of God – act of creation God inspired act of man Romantic belief in the inspired self as a reaction to the rationalism of the enlightenment Romantic belief in the spirituality of nature and the muse at a time of declining religious belief Zarathustra ‘God is dead’ Nietzsche – man (and woman) is at the centre of their own universe and all can be creative

A brief history of creativity Means to an end rationale for industrial capitalism The sublimation of the individual as a consumer in the global economy leads to devaluation of creativity as ultimately a means to purely economic ends. White western individualist male hegemony

What is Creativity? Originality Innovation Newness Novelty Inspired Self expression Search for truth Making meaning

Getzel’s model of creativity (psychologist 1960’s) First insight saturationincubationAh ha!verification

Ehrenzweig’s model of creativity (psychoanalytic model 1950’s) Initial state – fragmentation De-differentiation Attendant anxieties must be tolerated Third state – re-introjection or integration re-differentiation conscious awareness of new whole Second state – initiate unconscious scanning Integrate new structure through countless cross ties

Pressures on creativity in HE FOR Business & government see need for economy To thrive in a complex changing world one needs to re-create ones self constantly to transform understanding and make new meaning. New teaching methods AGAINST Business & govt. see potential challenge to existing power structures HE managerialist and performance culture Commodification of learners and learning Entrenched ‘ sage on the stage’

Learning teaching and creativity Dweck’s (1999) research on young learners found their performance goals were focussed around ‘winning positive judgement of your competence and avoiding negative ones’ while their learning goals showed a will to develop ‘new skills, master new tasks or understand new things’. These could be influenced externally. Clouder et al (2008) state that the growing performance culture in HE at odds with a creative environment. Commodification of learner and learning encourages transmission model of education & discourages risks inherent in creative / transformative learning.

Aims of the Creativity Centre To enhance creativity in learning To enhance creativity in the facilitation of learning To enhance knowledge and practice in the creative process

Research methods Interpretavist / constructivist Booking information Pedagogic reflection forms Time-line observations Interviews with facilitators Student/participant feedback Creativity centre staff experience

Creativity Centre experience The most important factor effecting learning has been the facilitators/teachers ability to engage learners in the act of learning. (transmission – facilitation) Also the attitude of learners to the offer made by the facilitator/teacher to be the passive learner or take responsibility for own learning. Support for L&T in space has helped challenge and develop teaching approaches Flexible space with potentials helps challenge L&T stereotypes

Creativity Centre experience The learning space Flexible and easily reconfigurable space enables the use of a wide variety of learning and teaching approaches including whole group / small group and individual work in on session. Write on walls encourage and enable sharing of ideas and thinking almost made visible Variety of seating allows formal to very informal layouts and can help change existing power dynamics Coloured lighting, smells and plants help change atmospheres.

Creativity Centre contacts Paul Martin – Creativity Centre website – Creativity Centre