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Improving Creativity in Australian Schools
- 1. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has highlighted five main challenges in Australian school education that must be addressed. One of those challenges forms the basis and motivation for this research design proposal: Preparing students for life and work in the 21st century. Moreover, the issue in focus is a need to foster creativity and develop problem-solving skills necessary to address innovative solutions to new problems. Applying a grounded theory research strategy and analysis, classroom interactions between teachers and Year 10 secondary school students will be observed and noted during lessons specially designed to elicit creative-thinking approaches and innovative solutions to problem-solving tasks and scenarios. Using constant comparisons, emerging categories of theoretical elements in the data will be identified and form the basis for preliminary interview etiquettes. Open coding will precede data collected from interviews conducted with consenting teachers and students, followed by axial coding to establish further relationships between any emerging categories of theoretical elements in the data collection. Three sets of data collection events of classroom observations and interviews will be conducted in this study. The aim of this research proposal is to generate qualitative theory or theories of teachers’ and students’ perceptions of how classroom teaching and learning practices can be improved to promote creativity—creative thinking skills—and apply those skills to innovative solutions to problem-solving scenarios. Preparing Students for Life and Work in the 21st Century Brendan Hambly Abstract
- 2. Research Questions • What are the perceptions teachers hold regarding the most appropriate teaching practices that foster creativity in students’ problem-solving skills? • What improvements to learning content delivery do students believe will further their skills in creative approaches to problem-solving?
- 3. Background to Research Proposal • Equipping students for life and work in the 21st century a major ongoing challenge for Australian school education “School curricula often emphasise passive, reproductive learning and the solution of standard problem types, at a time when there is a growing need to promote creativity and the ability to develop innovative solutions to entirely new problems” (Masters, 2016, p. 6)
- 4. Gap in the Literature • Not only has Masters (2016) stressed that one of the main school education challenges today is to develop students’ creativity and apply it to problem- solving scenarios in order to promote innovative solutions to 21st century workplace problems that will exist in the future • Other researchers (Azzam, 2009; Robinson, 2005; Sandeen & Hutchinson, 2010) particularly Sir Ken Robinson, have emphasised the importance of instilling creativity in schools because it is an important trait that contributes to innovation in all areas of 21st century employment
- 5. Research Purposes • Personal: Encouraging viewpoints of creativity in subject content • Practical: • Apply grounded theory in classroom settings • Develop students’ skills in creative problem-solving though improved classroom teaching and learning practices • Address gap in literature • Ethical guidelines governing class observations and consent to interviews • Generate qualitative theory or theories of teachers’ and students’ perceptions of how classroom teaching and learning practices can be improved in order to promote creativity—creative thinking skills—and apply those skills to innovative solutions to problem-solving scenarios
- 6. My Research • Applies a qualitative methods approach—the grounded theory—that will generate a theory or theories that can provide an explanation of phenomena—research design is adopted and modified from Kennedy (2011) 70 min classroom observation 1 70 min classroom observation 2 70 min classroom observation 3 Note-taking, constant comparative method, identify emerging categories, develop preliminary interview etiquettes Open coding: identify categories freely & independently of their relationships to each other Collect interview data: axial coding: try to establish relationships between categories x 3 data collection events Selective coding: look for data that might saturate categories & establish relationships between them
- 7. Research Purposes Intellectual goals suited to this qualitative research: • Understanding the meaning for participants in the study • Understanding the particular contexts within which the participants act, and the influence that this context has on their actions • Understanding the process by which events and actions take place • Identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences, and generating new ‘grounded’ theories
- 8. Summary and Conclusion • Grounded theory applied as qualitative methodology to generate theory or theories of teachers’ and students’ perceptions of how classroom teaching and learning practices can be improved in order to promote creativity—creative thinking skills— and apply those skills to innovative solutions to problem- solving scenarios • Research purpose is to address declining levels of Australian school students’ essential skills required to equip them for 21st century workplace and life demands • Level of abstraction: Induction is employed—from a more specific to a more general level (Punch & Oancea, 2014) • Theoretical sampling is limited to three data collection events so saturation will not be reached • Future research would benefit from larger sample sizes and additional data collection events in order to reach theory saturation and acquire more robust results
- 9. References Azzam, A. M. (2009). Why creativity now? A conversation with Sir Ken Robinson. Educational Leadership, 67(1), 22–26. Retrieved from http://blogs.sch.gr/mariamoschou/files/2012/02/Sir-Ken-Robinson-Why-Creativity-Now.pdf Kennedy, B. L. (2011). The importance of student and teacher interactions for disaffected middle school students: A grounded theory study of community day schools. Urban Education, 46(1), 4–33. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085910377305 Masters, G. N. (2016). Five challenges in Australian school education. Policy Insights (5). Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Retrieved from https://www.aisnsw.edu.au/Services/EducationResearch/Latest%20Research%20Documents/Policy%20insights%20-%20%20Challenges%20for%20Education.pdf Punch, K. F. & Oancea, A. (2014). Introduction to research methods in education (2nd ed.). London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd. Robinson, K. (2005). How creativity, education and the arts shape a modern economy. Conversations About the Arts in Education. Retrieved from https://maa.missouri.edu/~maa/sites/default/files/docents/educationandthearts.pdf Sandeen, C. A. & Hutchinson, S. (2010). Putting creativity and innovation to work: Continuing higher education’s role in shifting the educational paradigm. Continuing Higher Education Review, 74, 81–92. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ907252.pdf
Editor's Notes
- My research questions aim to elucidate the perceptions and opinions by teachers and students on how innovative problem-solving skills can be developed by students, by focussing on promoting creativity.
- The 2016 Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) federal report highlighted five main challenges in Australian school education today. One of those five challenges that I will be addressing in my research proposal concerns preparing school students for life and work in the 21st century by equipping them with the required skills. This is an ongoing educational challenge. There are several reasons for questioning how well schools are currently equipping students for life beyond school. First, there has been a long-term decline in the ability of Australian 15 year-olds to apply what they are learning to everyday problems. This decline is evident in performances in PISA. Over the first 12 years of this century, Australian students completed their compulsory study of mathematics and science with declining levels of ‘literacy’ – that is, declining abilities to apply fundamental concepts and principles in real-world contexts. These declines are occurring at a time when literacy levels in a number of other countries are improving and when Australia requires a more literate citizenry. As a nation we require adults who can engage in a discerning way with sophisticated information about a growing number of complex societal and environmental challenges. My focus in this research proposal is what do teachers and students alike believe are the best teaching and learning approaches, or how can these approaches be improved, in order to promote students’ creativity or creative-thinking skills that will develop innovative solutions to problem-solving scenarios.
- What I have gleaned from the literature is that there is a lack of focused research on how creativity can contribute to and drive students’ problem-solving skills, skills that can be later transferred into the 21st century workplace and help drive innovation in all areas on employment.
- I am personally passionate about encouraging students to apply creative and innovative solutions to problem-solving scenarios, especially to think outside the box. Practical purposes: Apply the grounded theory method to generate a theory, or theories, that will develop explanations of what are teachers’ perceptions on the most appropriate classroom teaching practices that will foster students’ creative-thinking skills and apply them to problem-solving tasks—and also what are students’ opinions on how methods of classroom content delivery can be improved to further their skills in creative approaches to problem-solving. Aim is to contribute new knowledge to an area of educational research that has been highlighted as lacking.
- My research design will aim to obtain data from classroom observations, whereby teacher and student interactions will be recorded by hand notes during specially prepared lessons that will deliver varied types of problem-solving scenarios and learning tasks. The aim of these tasks is to elicit creative and innovative solutions to problem-solving, thereby students’ levels of applied creativity can be observed and noted within qualitative data frameworks. Thereafter consenting teachers and students will be interviewed after emerging categories of theoretical elements in data analysis have been identified. Data collection begins with first round of observations in all three classrooms. Each observation will be 70 min in length, and the nature of different types of interactions between students and teachers will be noted. Categories that emerge from these notes will be identified using Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) constant comparative method. Significant elements of categories that should contribute to the theory can then be refined while additional data are collected. After generating the first round of categories, preliminary interview etiquettes for both teachers and students can be prepared. Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) open coding will then be applied to those categories identified freely and independently of their relationships to each other. When data is collected from interviews, axial coding will be applied where relationships between categories will be try to be established. This will be followed by the second and third periods of classroom observations, followed by identification of any relationships between categories. Thereafter, selective coding will begin and the potential for any saturation of categories that might establish further relationships between them will be checked. The aim of this research proposal is to generate qualitative theory or theories of teachers’ and students’ perceptions of how classroom teaching and learning practices can be improved in order to promote creativity—creative thinking skills— and apply those skills to innovative solutions to problem-solving scenarios.