Description
Every workday at school can be full of ideas and inspirations but can also become repetitive and make teachers (and learners) struggle to maintain high energy.
After all, variety is the key! Everyone tends to lose motivation and enthusiasm when every day replicates the same didactic methods and strategies.
The course intends to explore the power of creativity in education by proposing different techniques and strategies to help teachers keep their teaching routines lively, meaningful, and regenerative.
The main tenet is that the inner nature of learning requires creativity and emotional intelligence. The latter offers opportunities to get to know and accept others’ perspectives, to value diversity, to express ourselves in different ways, and to get to walk in a path that brings us to embrace the complexity of reality.
As Loris Malaguzzi, the creator of the Reggio Emilia approach (Reggio Children) wrote:
“The child has a hundred languages,
a hundred hands,
a hundred thoughts,
a hundred ways of thinking,
of playing, of speaking […]
a hundred worlds to discover,
a hundred worlds to invent,
a hundred worlds to dream.”
Let’s explore the power of such variety and richness, and learn to speak such “100 words”, to see how this will energize learning!
Participants will experiment with how to use imagination in the classroom through the work of different artists and educators, who recognized creativity in crafting, sewing, painting, storytelling, and music, as the main door to learning.
The course will propose some techniques developed by the Italian artist Bruno Munari for facilitating children to develop fantasy. This is extremely important: imagination in children is often given for granted but it is actually a skill, and as such also needs a fertile environment to grow.
Participants will explore how musical experience can become a channel at school to increase listening skills, creativity, and socialization, and get inspired by the Orff-Schulwerk musical approach.
The course will also introduce participants to the role of empathy and emotions in education, by experiencing tools such as tales and storytelling, illustrated books – including the ones addressed to the youngest learners and created by the artist Hervé Tullet.
The course will favor work in small groups, to allow everyone to participate actively. There will be a session for participants to share their work and propose an activity focused on creativity in education, as a part of the best practices exchange which characterizes the richness of intercultural experiences.
Participants will also visit a place of interest during one day of the course. The particular nature of the visit will be defined close to the course start. A week is a short time for taking a step forward, but it is enough for getting inspired by new ideas and experiences!
Which channel for creativity that we feel is most suitable for our strings? Which is the one that challenges us the most? Getting to know it is a way to regenerate didactic techniques and create new projects able to respond to the classroom needs without giving up on fun and involvement.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Understand the role of empathy and emotions in the learning process;
- Understand how to use storytelling in their teaching and educational activities;
- Get to know different perspectives on why creativity matters in teaching and learning;
- Include more opportunities for involvement and life in everyday learning;
- Collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines;
- Become aware of oneself as a listener and listen with qualities of presence;
- Experiencing positive emotions through creativity;
- Get to know music as a tool for education.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Introduction to the course
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools;
- Creativity in learning: how does it produce positive outcomes for students?
- Creative strategies for regenerating classroom curriculum.
Day 2 – A creative life is an amplified life
- Activity: what do you see?
- One hundred languages: the experience of Reggio Children;
- Munari: playing with Art.
Day 3 – Empathy and storytelling
- Storytelling from daily life to the educational contexts;
- Group activity: creating stories;
- Can simple objects enrich our imagination: a reflection from Herve Tullet;
- Activity: The color factory.
Day 4 – Rhythm and listening as allies for learning
- Are you an active listener? Be all ears exercise;
- Music as a tool for education, from popular songs to the Orff-Schulwerk approach;
- Activity: singing images.
Day 5 – It’s your turn! Sharing activities for fostering
- Activities suitable for preschool and primary school;
- Activities and ideas for secondary school and adults;
- Group work: what I will bring back home from this exchange.
Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.