Significance of Creativity Education in School By Dr. Cheng Mo Yin, Vivian 29 Oct 2004

Aim of creativity education: To develop student to be a creative person A creative person is one who frequently produce novel and useful ideas (Sternberg & Lubart, 1996)

Creativity Divergent ThinkingConvergent Thinking Fluency Flexibility Novelty Elaboration Sensitivity Logical Analytical Critical Evaluative thinking Objectivity Accuracy Systematic Curiosity Imagination Challenge- taking Risk-taking Problem- solving Inquiry Multiple-intelligence domains Various subject contents

Developing Creativity in Daily lessons & assignments Informal learning (Project work, ECA, LWL, cyber)

Assessing Creativity In public exam In school-based assessment –Written test (Suggestion: 10%) –Performance-based assessment in class & project work

Written Tests Divergent thinking tests –Ask for many answers Product tests –Ask for one novel & appropriate answer

Divergent thinking Tests on Scientific Questioning Example, “ If you can take a spaceship to travel in the outer space and go to a planet, what scientific questions do you want to research? Please list as many as you can. ” (Hu & Adey, 2002)

Performance-based Assessment E.g. in creative problem-solving activities CPS StagesMarking Criteria Problem-findingD - A number of problems are defined C- one of them is first chosen for further consideration Idea-findingD - Focusing on each problem chosen, a number of possible solutions are suggested. Fluency, flexibility, novelty & elaboration of the answer are examined. Solution-findingD - A number of relevant criteria are suggested for evaluating the solutions. C - The suggested solutions are analyzed by each criterion; a few solutions are chosen for try-out.

Significance of Creativity Education Government curriculum reform Student benefits –Arouse great interest in learning (Cheng, 2004) –Better memory & understanding of subject content (Conti, 1995) –Develop creative mind & thinking skills. –Self-actualization

Student Responses (Cheng, 2004) 「很難 … 但很有趣。」 「幾得意，原來 Physics 可以咁玩法。」 「能更有效地連貫物理與日常生活，覺得物理比想像中實在、 好玩。」

Student Responses (Con ’ t) “This stimulates me think more deeply in physics and in things happening in daily lives.” “Physics is not just a subject to study, but practical and useful in daily lives. I feel my physics knowledge is too limited.

Student Responses (Con ’ t) 「今日我體會到原來人的創意是隨時可以建 立 …. 」 「可以從一些平日不曾嘗試的角度去看待一些 本認為習以為常的事，算幾新鮮。」 「和平時課堂所學到的相差甚遠。」

Significance of Creativity Education (Con ’ t) World trend –Japan: A major curriculum component, 1995 –Singapore: “ Thinking Schools, Learning Nations ”, 1998 –Taiwan: White paper on Creative Education - build a “ Republic of Creativity ” ( 創造力國度 ), 2001 –China: “ Guidelines of Curriculum Reforms in Foundation Education ”, 2001 –“ International Trend in Curriculum Frameworks ” (Le Metais, 2003) Creativity development is a major trend in curriculum reform of 18 countries

Significance of Teacher Development Lack of creative learning experience Teaching for thinking –New knowledge & skills –Metacognitive development (Feldhusen, 1995) –Shift in beliefs and teaching styles Develop teacher creativity, to be role-model of students, Teacher training: EDB, HKIEd, HKBU, CITYU, HKU