Product Description

A long critical look at the role of creativity in schools today, setting out the main points of the current debates, contextualizing the key concepts, and examining the implications of the tensions and dilemmas surrounding the issue.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128839 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review

'Original, thoughtful and thorough' - The Times Educational Supplement

'Anna Craft has written an important and challenging book on the increasingly important topic of creativity in education.' - Youth and Policy 

'The book is well written and authoritative with sometimes difficult subject matter in a clear and accessible style.' - Youth and Policy 

'The editors present a concise and well researched theoretical background to each topic drawing on established perspectives and knowledge in a very readable style that will appeal to educators generally. Overall, I found the book a useful, informative and interesting scan of the field. It was also a most enjoyable read.' - British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 38 No 1 2007 171–183

‘Complex, controversial and comprehensive.’ – Teachers College Record

‘Engaging and provocative, insightful and stimulating…with a message for researchers and policy makers, teachers and students, experts and novices…highly recommended.’ – Thinking Skills and Creativity

'This thought-provoking treatment of the subject is well worth inclusion in teacher education programmes and debates for both primary and secondary teachers, as well as being a valuable addition to the literature on creativity in schools.' - Educational Review

From the Back Cover

‘Anna Craft combines a thorough mastery of the literature on creativity with a far-reaching reconceptualization of standard aspects of teaching as seen through the lens of creativity. She does not spurn controversy.

Whether or not one agrees with particular points, everyone will learn from this book.’

Professor Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Education and Cognition, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA.

'Finally, a book for teachers that recognises that creativity is

complicated. Anna Craft dares to question some of the soft platitudes

in which the wheels of liberal education have become stuck.'

Professor Guy Claxton, University of Bristol Graduate School of Education, England.

"In 'Creativity in Schools’Anna Craft has produced a coherent, deep, wise, scholarly and yet fully practical book that will, without doubt, be of immense value to the field of creativity studies as well as to those in education who hope to make schools and classrooms more creative places."

David Feldman, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Tufts University, USA.

The reflective reader will find much food for thought in this refreshing, provocative and stimulating book."

Ng Aik Kwang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

'Anna Craft herself has taken a creative risk - exposing and questioning the contradictions found throughout the creativity debate. It is a risk which succeeds. Whatever your perspective on creativity and Learning, this book will inform, challenge and inspire.’

Joe Hallgarten, Learning Director, Creative Partnerships, The Arts Council, England.

Creativity is experiencing a global revolution.  Since the 1990s, in many countries, it has assumed increasing importance in the school curriculum, contrasting strongly with previous approaches to creativity in education.  But whilst the tide of opportunities rises, there are questions to ask.  What is ‘creative learning?’ How does it relate to ‘creative teaching?’ How do we organise the curriculum to nurture creativity?  What pedagogical strategies support it?  How is creative learning different to effective learning?  And, more fundamentally, what dilemmas and tensions are raised for the curriculum, by these models of creativity?  What responsibilities do teachers and schools have for stimulating creativity with reference to the social and ethical framework, and the wider environment? 

This book looks hard at these and other questions.  Part One uses a number of lenses associated with the school, to discuss creativity and learning, the development of a creativity language, curriculum and pedagogy.  Part Two takes a broader view, which encompasses principles.  It explores creativity with reference to cultural specificity, environmental degradation and the destructive potential of creativity.  Finally, in Part Three, the implications of tensions and dilemmas in terms of pedagogy and principle are explored.

For teachers and schools who work with pupils who are pre-school age, through to those in post-compulsory education, this book synthesises practice, policy and research in order to critique some current assumptions, to lay out an agenda for further development, and suggests practical ways of taking forward pupils’ creative development, celebrating their unique generativity in a more thoughtful way.

Anna Craft is Senior Lecturer in Education at The Open University, Director of The Open Creativity Centre.