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Researching Creative Learning

Methods and Issues

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It is a common ambition in society and government to make young people more creative. These aspirations are motivated by two key concerns: to make experience at school more exciting, relevant, challenging and dynamic; and to ensure that young people are able and fit to leave education and contribute to the creative economy that will underpin growth in the twenty-first century.

Transforming these common aspirations into informed practice is not easy. It can mean making many changes:

  • turning classrooms into more exciting experiences;
  • introducing more thoughtful challenges into the curriculum;
  • making teachers into different kinds of instructors;
  • finding more authentic assessment processes;
  • putting young people’s voices at the heart of learning.

There are programmes, projects and initiatives that have consistently attempted to offer such change and transformation. The UK programme Creative Partnerships is the largest of these, but there are significant initiatives in many other parts of the world today, including France, Norway, Canada and the United States. This book not only draws on this body of expertise but also consolidates it, making it the first methodological text exploring creativity.

Creative teaching and learning is often used as a site for research and action research, and this volume is intended to act as a textbook for this range of courses and initiatives. The book will be a key text for research in creative teaching and learning and is specifically directed at ITE, CPD, Masters and doctoral students.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Pat Thomson and Julian Sefton Green Section I: What are the Practices of Creative Learning? 2. Capturing the ‘Plaid’ Moment John Churchley 3. From the Other Side of the Fence Interview with Tony Lyng 4. What’s with the Artist? Emily Pringle 5. Supporting Schools to do Action Research into Creative Learning Interview with Pat Cochrane and Pete McGuigan 6. Towards the Creative Teaching of Mathematics Malcolm Swan Section II: Can Researchers ‘See’ Creative Learning and Can Their Research Help Others to 'See' It? 7. A Conversation with Kathleen Gallagher 8. The Promise of Ethnography for Exploring Creative Learning Geoff Troman and Bob Jeffrey 9. "Now it’s up to us to interpret it": ‘Youth Voice’ and Visual Methods Sara Bragg 10. When Only the Visual Will Do Pat Thomson 11. Less Elusive, More Explicit Erica McWilliam, Shane Dawson and Jennifer Tan 12. Snapshots and Portraits Christine Hall, Ken Jones and Pat Thomson Section III: Can Creative Learning Be Measured and Evaluated? 13. Interview with John Harland 14. Quantitative Research on Creativity Mark Runco, Nur Cayirdag and Selcuk Acar 15. From Voice to Choice Tony Cotton 16. Research Methods for Web Two Dot Whoah Elizabeth Soep 17. Baselines and Mosaics David Parker and Naranee Ruthra-Rajan

Reviews

"This book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on research methodology, providing insightful and productive guidance on how creative learning might be studied and documented with diverse educational aims in mind." - International Journal of Education & the Arts, August 2011.

Author/Editor Biography

Pat Thomson is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK, an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia and a Visiting Professor at Deakin University, Australia.

Julian Sefton-Green is an independent consultant and researcher working in education and the cultural and creative industries. He is Special Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK.

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