ISJ Internation Schools Journal Envisioning the K-Graduate Education Paradigm
ACS Athens

ISJ April 2014: 1+1=? Some thoughts on creativity

10,00

Patrick Newell

Abstract:

Thinkers: They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

IB Learner Profile

The IB Learner profile does not have ‘creativity’ as a separate skill, but it does encourage ‘creative thinking’, something all teachers would agree is an outcome they would like to achieve for their students. Indeed most contemporary curricula have somewhere in their aims the encouragement of creativity in some form. Yet there is still the cynical view that every child is creative until they attend school.

School, by its very process, its assessment systems and examinations, acts against the encouragement of creativity. As Davis put it (discussing TOK, possibly the most creative part of the IB Diploma): ‘the divide between creativity and conformity has not yet been resolved … real creativity has been driven underground’. (IS 2014)

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