fostering and assessing creativity and critical thinking in education by andy penaluna (university...

Andy Penaluna

International Institute for Creative Entrepreneurial Development (IICED), UWTSD

Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)

Fostering and Assessing Creativity and Critical thinking in Education International Meeting, 20-21 June 2016

OECD Headquarters Paris, France

2

Creative Capacities encompass the capabilities and dispositions needed to

generate new ideas and turn them into action.

Spencer, Lucas and Claxton (2012) Progression in Creativity: Developing new forms of assessment.

Creative thinking skills

Motivation Expertise

Identifying Creative Capacities

An Education System fit for an Entrepreneur, 2014

Understanding fundamental aspects

Enterprising

mind

With personal motivation

there is energy, with energy

there is resilience, with

resilience, success is likely...

Creativity, innovation and

opportunity recognition are

key intrinsic motivational

drivers, they are central to

the enterprising mindset

Understanding fundamental aspects

Enterprising Angels © A Penaluna, 2010

Enterprising

mindset

Entrepreneur

The ‘business

developer and

enhancer’

Social entrepreneur

‘The society

developer and

enhancer’

Overall aim - learning to

learn; they use harvested

knowledge to societal and

economic advantage

Research suggests US lost 20%

creativity ability over 20 years.

U.S. educational system has implemented

standardized testing to pursue measurable

outcomes... achieved according to measures of IQ

and SAT, but they fail according to TTCT creative

thinking test scores... Standardization should be

resisted.

Kim, 2011

The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance Tests of

Creative Thinking

Role of the teacher

Nature of activities

Organisation of time

Organisation of space

Approach to tasks

Visibility of processes

Guided Contrived Bellbound Classroom Individual Hidden Static Ignored Some Directed

Challenging

Authentic

Flexible

Workshop

Group

High

Mobile

Central

All

Self managing

Location of activities

Self as learning resource

Inclusiveness

Role of learner

Spencer, Lucas and Claxton (2013)

Is new thinking on pedagogy already making progress?

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2012) Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education: Guidance for UK Higher Education

providers, p 25.

Is new thinking on pedagogy already making progress?

• from case studies to emerging situations • from abstract problems to innovation • from passive learning to active learning • from objective analysis to subjective experience • from text-heavy communication to multimedia

communication • from neutrality to personal perspectives • from formal activities to authentic activities • from fearing failure to learning from failure • from dependency to self-reliance and resilience.

Understanding adolescence

Time of transition, involving multi-dimensional changes: physical, psychological

(including cognitive) and socio-emotional.

Physical Changes

Psychological

Development

Social-Emotional

Development

Personal identity

Body image

Sexual identity

Biological

Hormonal

Neural

Strong peer

identification

Increasing autonomy

from parents

Moral Reasoning

Spiritual values

Political views

Cognitive &

meta-cognitive

development

Experimental

behaviours

Impulse control

Sense of Self

Changes occur simultaneously and at different paces within each gender and

are impacted by structural and environmental factors.

Late Adolescent

Development

Late puberty (Boys)

Complex moral reasoning

Strong sense of self

Social autonomy

Intimate relationships

Self-regulation

Early Adolescent

Development

Early puberty

Concrete thinking

Exploring identity

Strong peer influences

Emotional withdrawal

from parents

Mid Adolescent

Development

Mid-late puberty (Girls)

Abstract thinking

Growing personal identity

Strong peer identification

Experimental behaviours

Low impulse control

Infant & Child

Development

Physical/Biological

Psychological/Cogn.

Social-Emotional/

Behavioural

Source: Adapted from Christie, D. and Viner, R. (2005) ‘Adolescent development’, British Medical Journal, 330: 301.

(ages 0-9) (ages 10-13) (ages 14-16) (age 17-19) (age 20+)

Epigenetics helps us understand the lasting physiological effects of high-stress environments.

Evolutionary insights help explain the motivations & illuminate the adaptive functions of ‘risky’ behaviours.

Historical, sociological and comparative perspectives help clarify what is really distinctive (or not) about the experiences & challenges of current vs past generations.

Transition Demands

1. Formal Education

2. Paid employment

3. Independent living

4. Life Partner

5. Parenthood

Neuroscience informs us that far from being ‘set’ in early childhood, the brain does not fully mature until the 20s - and retains plasticity and lifelong capacity for learning.

Understanding adolescence Emerging Research

Not knowing the ‘correct’ answer is important… because learners have to think… and harvest new

knowledge

Seek out

freshly

identified

problems /

solutions

Deadline =

solution

proposal

Reflect and

analyze –

use time

thoughtfully

Look for

inspiration,

contextual

materials

and links

Discard

irrelevant or

non

beneficial

information

Divergent - Convergent thinking Penaluna & Penaluna 2006

Bridging the thinking styles (how?)

DISRUPT

KILLS BUGS FAST

I asked my nephew if he liked fast food

Hindsight, Insight or Foresight?

“Talent hits a target no-one else can hit

genius hits a target no-one else can see.”

Arthur Schopenhauer 1788 - 1860

Gestalt - what do you really ‘know’?

Limens, Soma, Dendrites and connections

Understanding Cognitive Styles

Penaluna & Penaluna 2009

The innovative thinking brain structure

Key point – Developing synapse potential through learning

Left Cortex

dominance

Right Cortex

dominance

Micro molecular structure images

courtesy of Mark Jung Beeman and

John Kounios, Mid Western and Drexel

Universities

Detail of Pyramid neuron from the amygdala / hippocampus

Divergent - Convergent thinking

Penaluna & Penaluna 2006

Understanding creative thinking

Thoughtful

and

conscious

‘step by step’

thinking

Often

Subconscious

thinking with

‘Aha’ moments

of

enlightenment


Extract Courtesy of John Kounios - Drexel and UWTSD ‘Learning for Innovation Week’

DOG


Understanding creative thinking – errors of omission or areas of commission

Penaluna, Penaluna & Diego, 2015

Understanding creative thinking – errors of omission or areas of commission - in practice

Penaluna, Penaluna, 2013

Understanding creative thinking – errors of omission or areas of commission - in practice

‘Two I’ Lenses of Assessment (OECD / Macedonian Schooling

Making distinction between the two I’s

Implementation Doing things that are determined by others and matching against their expectations

Innovation Producing multiple and varied solutions that respond to change and often surprise


Implementation Can the student come up with a good idea?

Innovation Can the student come up with multiple ideas that respond to changing circumstances?


Implementation Can the solution be easily compared and contrasted to previous work and understandings?

Innovation Does the solution offer new insights and potentially challenge accepted understandings?

A New Skills Agenda for Europe: Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness

Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social .

CREATIVE EDUCATORS

“The creativity of an education system

cannot surpass the creativity of its

teachers… We need a disciplined creativity,

informed by and generating the best

possible evidence.”

https://www.thersa.org/action-and-research/creative-learning-and-

development/creative-educators/

THE BIGGER PICTURE IICED / RSA

http://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/iiced https://www.thersa.org

Creative Mindsets. Entrepreneurial Futures – EXTRA EXTRA READ IT ALL ABOUT IT…

Penaluna, A. and Penaluna, K. 2015. Entrepreneurial Education in Practice, Part, 2 – Building Motivations and Competencies, Entrepreneurship 360 Thematic Paper, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission (DG Education and Culture). Penaluna, A., Penaluna, K and Diago, I., 2014. The Role of Creativity in Entrepreneurship Education. Chapter 13, “Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship and Creativity” Sternberg, R & Krauss, G. (Eds) Cheltenham / Northampton MA: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited Penaluna, K. Penaluna, A., Usei, C. and Griffiths, D. 2015. Enterprise Education Needs Enterprising Educators: A Case Study on Teacher Training Provision, Education +Training, Emerald, Vol 57, 8/9, 948-963 Penaluna K., Penaluna A., Jones C. and Matlay H., 2014. When did you last predict a good idea? Exploring the case of assessing creativity through learning outcomes. Industry & Higher Education, Vol. 28, No 6, December 2014, pp. 399-410.

How education can build creative and entrepreneurial mindsets