Special Post #12

Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts
         I totally agree with the quote, “Curiosity Gave Life to Creativity”. Curiosity is the match (most of the time) that lights the fire of creativity. I used to think that you had to be born with a “creative” gene but I have learned over the years that creativity can be developed like a skill. It has not been my experience that schools think this is a priority. Most of my education has been memorizing facts and doing repetitive skills. Although some teachers have encouraged my curiosity and gave some freedom of creativity, it has not been the norm. Taking this class has exposed me to many creative ideas that I didn’t even know existed in the classroom.
          I think a curriculum could be developed to better intrigue the curiosity of students and allow them to be creative in their learning. I certainly see now that technology would have to be a key component. I think the curriculum should focus more with the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy (evaluation, analysis, synthesis, application) instead of concentrating so much at the bottom with knowledge and comprehension. Questions should be more important than rote answers. If the way we question students sparked their curiosity, with the help of technology, they could creatively express their findings. In a way, this helps give them “ownership” of their knowledge instead of just giving them answers to memorize.
          I think Elli expressed one of the problems that I often face as a student and that is the fear of failure or that my teachers would not like my ideas. I am always comparing my work to others and sometimes don’t feel my work is as good. I think we as teachers need to work hard to make our students to feel confident with their ideas and encourage them to ask questions! We need to give them more freedom to explore things that interest them. I think students would value learning more if their curiosity could be explored and their findings be revealed in a creative way. I think it would be great to have a classroom where there were no “wrong” answers. A wrong answer would be just another stepping stone on the way to the discovery of the right one.