Why don't students pay attention in class? Why don't they do their work? Why are they falling asleep or leaving the room or on their phones? Why do they hate school???

It's all boring! We are living in a highly stimulating technological society. Students have access to television, computers, video games, etc. and we expect them to sit in school for six hours a day, five days a week, and listen attentively to a lecture. What's wrong with this picture?! And how do we change it?

Mostly everyone in the world agrees that education is important, and that it's function ultimately should be to prepare children and adolescents for the wider world - so they can achieve success both socially and economically. But how can it do that if the bore of it persists and continues to get in the way?
Here's a favorite talk of mine by creativity expert Ken Robinson, who talks about these issues.



One of the things Robinson talks about is "academic ability." There's a very narrow view in the system of education about what constitutes intelligence. In short there's typically only one type of intelligence being recognized and valued - particularly focused on memory and analyzation. According to Robert J. Sternberg however, "creative and practical skills are at least as important to success in life as are memory and analytical skills, and may even be more important, especially after formal schooling ends."

This makes sense coming back to Robinson, who explains the difference between divergent and convergent thinking. Outside of formal education, it's not difficult to see that divergent thinking would be the more useful skill since it offers multiple solutions to a problem - it's more versatile, adaptive even. Furthermore Sternberg suggests, based on results from a study, that teaching to include these creative and practical skills leads to better memorization. This is because the students were encouraged to explore the material in a variety of ways that were interesting and relevant to them.

In other words they were allowed to be active participants in their own learning, rather than passive audience members (Sternberg, 325).

"If students are encouraged to be creative, enjoy the arts, think for themselves and be self-reliant, their natural thinking ability will grow and flourish. If they are told to sit quietly and do repetitive, uninteresting, premade art projects and worksheets that have no relevance to their lives and which demand memorization, rule following and recitation rather than creativity and divergent thinking, they will begin to see school as a very boring place." (Geist and Hohn, 148)

On the topic of relevance: another interesting point made in Robinson's speech is that although we've evolved past an industrialized economy, we haven't yet shifted the way we educate students to fit that evolution. Cornell calls for a shift from a model fitting an industrial economy to one fitting a "knowledge economy." Here are some of the important differences noted in Cornell's theory that I think are worth noting:

From an Industrial Model --> To a Knowledge Model

• passive learners --> active learners
• directed learning --> facilitated learning
• knowledge revealed --> knowledge discovered
• single assessment --> multiple assessments
• single intelligence --> multiple intelligence
• content --> content and process

These changes relate to another point Robinson makes, regarding the difference between aesthetic vs. anaesthetic experiences - basically, engaging vs. boring experiences. Of course students are going to learn better when they're engaged and interested and enthusiastic versus when they're disengaged and disinterested and bored. The kind of learning aspects listed for a knowledge model play a part in making learning fun. And it comes down to creativity, I think, to be the foundation of this model (Warner and Myers, 28).



You can tell by what Sarah and Alexander have to say about creativity in the classroom that they find it "more meaningful than simple rote learning." Creativity is shown to increase interest in subject matter, as well as boost cognition, motivation, performance, and achievement. Encouraging imagination instead of memorization, and exploration instead of concentration leads to better, more engaged learning (Rinkevich, 219). Students enjoy a more sensory learning experience and are even able to incorporate their emotions into the creative process. Creativity enhances analytical and critical thinking, as well as problem solving abilities - and it bolsters self-esteem, increases communication and other social skills, and encourages lifelong learning (Geist and Hohn, 143-144).

So, now that we know all the wonderful benefits creativity has on learning, the next and most important question is: How do we use and apply that knowledge?

The first thing we may need to do, is UN-educate ourselves about creativity - as many of us believe that creativity is something innate, something you either have or you don't. And that misbelief stands in the way of facilitating creative teaching and learning. We need to stop thinking of creativity as an "extra." Everyone has the need, and the capacity for creativity. In fact, according to Sternberg, "creative people are creative, in large part, because they have decided to be creative."In other words - creativity isn't a talent, it's a choice! Here are what Sternberg considers "the 12 key decisions that underlie creative thinking:"

1. Redefine problems. Redefining a problem means taking a problem that most people see in one way and allowing and even prodding oneself to see it in another way. It means not simply accepting things because other people accept them.

2. Analyse your own ideas. No one has only good ideas. Even the most creative psychologists sometimes make mistakes. Students need to learn to critique their own ideas; to be the first to decide which of their ideas are really worth pursuing and, later, to admit when they have made a mistake. Everyone should retain a healthy degree of scepticism about any idea he or she has. No one is right all the time, and people who lose their scepticism about their own ideas may quickly reach dead ends because they may believe they have all the answers.

3. Sell your ideas. When we are young we may believe that creative ideas sell themselves. They don’t. The creative process does not end with their generation or even with their being critiqued. Because creative ideas challenge existing ways of doing things, they must be ‘sold’ to the public, whether scientific or lay.

4. Knowledge is a double-edged sword. To be creative one has to be knowledge- able: one cannot go beyond what is known without knowing it. However, knowledge can also impede creativity (Frensch & Sternberg, 1989). Experts can become entrenched in ways of seeing things and lose sight of other perspectives or points of view. It becomes important, therefore, for teachers to impress upon students that students have as much to teach teachers as teachers have to teach students. The teachers have the advan- tage of knowledge, the students of flexibility. Working together, they can accomplish more than either can on their own. Teachers have to be especially careful that they not dismiss students’ views simply because the views happen not to fit into their own views of the world. On the one hand, one cannot be creative without knowledge. Quite simply, one cannot go beyond the existing state of knowledge if one does not know what that state is. Many children have ideas that are creative with respect to themselves, but not with respect to the field because others have had the same ideas before. Those with a greater knowledge base can be creative in ways that those who are still learning about the basics of the field cannot be. At the same time, those who have an expert level of knowledge can experience tunnel vision, narrow thinking and entrenchment. Experts can become so stuck in a way of thinking that they become unable to extricate themselves from it. Such narrowing does not just happen to others. It happens to everyone. Learning must be a lifelong process, not one that terminates when a person achieves some measure of recognition. When a person believes that he or she knows everything there is to know, he or she is unlikely to ever show truly meaningful creativity again.

5. Surmount obstacles. Because creative people ‘defy the crowd’, they inevitably confront obstacles. The question is not whether they will confront obsta- cles, but whether they will have the guts to surmount them.

6. Take sensible risks. Our educational system often encourages students to play it safe. On tests they give safe answers. When they write papers they try to second-guess what their professors want to hear. But creative people always are people who are willing to risk something and, in the process, fail some of the time in order to succeed other times. Teachers need to encourage such risk taking.

7. Willingness to grow. Many people have one creative idea early in their careerand then spend the rest of their life unfolding that idea. They become unwilling or even afraid to go beyond that idea. Perhaps early on they fought the scientific or other establishment to win acceptance of that idea. Later, they become that establishment, fighting against the new ideas that threaten their own self-perceived monopoly on truth.

8. Believe in yourself. Creative people often find that their ideas get a poor reception. I suspect that all truly creative people come to believe, at some time or another, that they have lost most or all their external sources of intellectual and even emotional support. At these times, in particular, it is particularly important that they maintain their belief in themselves, to maintain a sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1996). If they lose this belief, they will find themselves with nothing.

9. Tolerance of ambiguity. When we try creative things we often find that in their early or even sometimes late stages they do not work out the way they seemingly should. We go through prolonged, uncomfortable stages of ambiguity where things just do not quite fall into place. Yet, in order to be creative, we need to tolerate ambiguity long enough to get our ideas right.

10. Find what you love to do and do it. If research about creativity shows anything, it is that people are at their most creative when they are doing what they love to do (see, for example, Amabile, 1996). As teachers, therefore, we need to encourage students to find their own niche, their own love of psychology or anything else, and not to try to turn them into disciples or ‘intellectual clones’ who will do ‘our thing’ rather than their own.

11. Allowing time. Being creative takes time (Gruber & Wallace, 1999). The view that most creative inspirations come in an isolated flash simply is not correct. Students need to learn to allow time for incubation, reflection and selection among alternative ideas. If they always rush, or are rushed, they will have difficulty producing creative work.

12. Allowing mistakes. People learn from their mistakes. However if children become afraid to make mistakes, they will have trouble being creative. Creative people often have many failed ideas or products along the way to their successful ones. Had they not had the opportunities to make these mistakes, they perhaps never would have generated the idea or product for which they became well known. (Sternberg, 333-335)

Adopt these 12 elements into your mindset. Then you'll want to focus on incorporating creativity into your classroom. You should note that an essential for this is that you weave it into not just your lesson planning, but your instruction as well. A simple yet affective way to do this is by inserting verbal cues into your vocabulary. Just telling your students to "be creative," and using words like "create, invent, discover, explore, imagine, and suppose" (Sternberg, 333), can result in more creativity in your classroom (Rinkevich, 221). Wow, really? That's so easy! I know.

Before I get into detail about curriculum, I'd like to discuss the element of space. Numerous psychological studies show that we are affected by our environment. Food establishments use red, orange, and yellow in combination with low lighting to increase appetite. Hospitals use blues and greens to promote calm. Many people are even familiar with the art of feng shui - an ancient Chinese form of exterior and interior design meant to improve energy flows. Unfortunately, many schools still suffer from the "warehouse paradigm." The rooms all look "drab and institutional," which may be a contributing factor in the "emotional detachment" kids feel from school (Warner and Myers, 29). Here are ways to make your classroom space conducive to creativity:

Lighting: fluorescent lighting can cause hyperactivity and agitation in students. It's best to replace it with natural lighting whenever possible. If not, switch to full-spectrum bulbs - which mimic natural light and "can improve visual performance and decrease fatigue."

Color: Blank walls are no good. Paint them in pastels of yellow, green, or blue, as these are shown to "reduce agitation, apprehension, and promote a sense of well-being." Avoid bright, or "loud" colors, as they can make your class loud.

Decorations: These can serve as prompts for creativity and should include student work.

Furniture: Most classroom furniture is uncomfortable and unappealing aesthetically. Try to reverse this if you can.

Resources: These should be abundant and readily available for students as they "serve as the infrastructure for creativity."

Sensory Variables: Rooms that are warm can put students to sleep. Slightly cooler rooms keep them energized and active. Let fresh air in, and use appropriate music to influence mood.

Space Configurations: Put machines, benches, and cabinets on wheels to make reconfiguration easy. You may want to change your room around to fit the changing needs of certain lessons and activities. Make your room as open as possible. Students should be able to move freely and comfortably around the room.

Class Size: Smaller class sizes are best for a multitude of reasons. Hope to have a class of no more than 25 students. (Warner and Myers, 30-32)

Now that your kitchen is ready, some ingredients to spice up your curriculum:

Add an element of surprise! Dress in character for a lesson, get a colleague to help you perform a skit, plan for a bit of spontaneity here and there. Another thing you can do is start class with a fact of the day, even if it doesn't relate to your subject matter - it encourages lifelong learning because it shows students that you can have interests in a variety of subject matters. For assignments, define outcomes but offer students different options for reaching those outcomes (Rinkevich, 221). 

Assist your students with being creative by first modeling it yourself. Then provide scaffolding as students need it. Accept and encourage risk-taking in your classroom. Think outside the box when it comes to designing assignments and assessments. Try replacing traditional paper resources with graphic ones, for instance, which include visuals (Lamb, 2 & 5). Use technology! Find YouTube videos that relate to your lesson and show them to the class. Have students create facebook accounts for figures from history or literature: they assume the character, filling out profile information and posting statuses from the viewpoints of whoever they're assigned to portray. They can "like" things that their character would have, and join groups that their character would have. Adapt you curriculum to utilize what students already have an interest in.

Finally, pretend that instead of "writing across the curriculum," you have "arts across the curriculum." 

Incorporate "music, acting, constructing, painting, drawing, dancing, and sculpture," as well as writing into your curriculum (Geist and Hohn, 148). Make learning hands-on. Make it "hard fun."

Works Cited

Geist, Eugene, and Jennifer Hohn. "Encouraging Creativity in the Face of Administrative Convenience: How Our Schools Discourage Divergent Thinking." Education 130.1 (2009): 141-50. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

Lamb, Annette, and Larry Johnson. "Bring Back the Joy: Creative Teaching, Learning, and Librarianship." Teacher Librarian 38.2 (2010): 61-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

Rinkevich, Jennifer L. "Creative Teaching: Why It Matters and Where to Begin." The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies 84.5 (2011): 219-23. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

Robinson, Ken. "Changing Education Paradigms." Lecture. YouTube. TheRSAorg, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. .

Sternberg, Robert J. "Creative Thinking in the Classroom." Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 47.3 (2003): 325-38. Print.

Warner, Scott A., and Kerri Myers. "The Creative Classroom: The Role of Space and Place Toward Facilitating Creativity." The Technology Teacher (2010): 28-34. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.