Ideational Code-Switching Creativity In The Classroom

Negative impacts of an education system lacking creativity can be resolved, but only upon its encouraged return. Of course, this involves the obvious-tailoring activities to have an artistic aspect, even if it seems unneeded or irrelevant. But further expansion necessary to reach full potential in schools requires promotion of positive ideals regarding it along with supports for it. Involvement can benefit people in a classroom by serving the purposes of developing social skills and individualizing concepts. Ellen Skinner and Michael Belmont from the Journal of Educational Psychology wrote Motivation in the Classroom, an article analyzing behavioral effects on engagement to learning, in which they documented experience and motivation of
students being impacted by teacher involvement (Belmont and Skinner). Interactive classrooms have a way of making each concept personal to everyone in the room since it is their responsibility to apply the concept in real life, whether it be through a physical or mental process. Such vigor creates importance to the students since they rely on themselves to discover each topic and deeply investigate the details which interest or affect them.
Another way to develop feelings of importance is offering active response and engagement to students. Yatvin expressed further concern of standards not recognizing diversity of ability, background, and experience (Yatvin). Due to the unique traits of each student, a teacher would be able to reach out to them more effectively by giving everyone exclusive attention at one time or another. Understanding students and having compassion towards their weaknesses will guide the teacher to choose needed information rather than review familiar concepts and motivate students to work hard in order to not disappoint the caring supervisor. Belmont and Skinner add “behaviorally disengaged [students] receive teacher responses that should further undermine their motivation. The student–teacher relationship, especially interpersonal involvement, in optimizing student motivation is important” (Belmont and Skinner). Relationships between these people determine how willing they will be to work with together. A student who dislikes an educator naturally blocks out their lessons and does not care about the class they teach, so little to nothing is actually taken away from the course. Making excuses which accuse the teacher of inadequate instruction or saying their work only reflects such makes them believe it is the educator's problem. Likewise, a teacher who dislikes a student or sees no potential in them is not compelled to waste their time working with them to understand concepts since the student has already failed in their eyes and they feel it would be more exasperating rather than constructive.
Collaboration between culturally and developmentally different adolescents through group work can prove itself advantageous, too. Creative classrooms use this as a way to share thoughts, combine the best ones to find the most optimal solution, and challenge group members. Students of all ages have natural instinct drawing them to socially absorbing environments because it opens the door for new ideas as well as offering opportunities to learn without actually performing a formal assessment. Dr. JoAnne W. Putnam’s book Cooperative Learning and Strategies for Inclusion was published by the Institute of Education Sciences declared that “children of differing abilities and backgrounds will benefit both academically and socially from cooperative learning” (Putnam). Due to home life, personality, and taught morals and values, not all children can act the same way or have the same thoughts. Fun evolves through strong attention to these new characters who are unusual or unrealistic in some aspects as students develop greater appreciation for one another and can use the new knowledge and experience to enrich their own lives. While some teachers and parents may argue against encouraging creativity in school because they believe it accounts for misbehavior, this correlation does not truly exist.
Usage of creative assignments and activities bring students to be more expressive and outgoing, so they are comfortable with doing a variety of activities. In essence, incorporating creativity allows a student to push themselves academically, while simultaneously testing the teacher’s tolerance. Ronald A. Beghetto, assistant professor at the University of Oregon, wrote the article Ideational Code-Switching: Walking the talk about supporting student creativity in the classroom, which states “Negative stereotypes about creativity result in teachers believing creative expression represents disruptive, deviant, or otherwise undesirable classroom behavior, so it is critically important for teachers to recognize that creativity involves a combination of originality and appropriateness” (Beghetto). However, organized projects with set rules and goals help control the creativity to be acceptable. Also, with proper supervision, which is part of teachers’ classroom behavior management, recognizing any violations should come with ease, and allow them to maintain control by terminating them. A teacher’s choice to incorporate individuality into schoolwork as an alternative to chaotic, exploratory activities will make creativity available as a productive
option. Two of the main proven effects of teachers who implement creativity are the students in their class can think both critically and divergently.
Expanding their knowledge beyond the narrow pathways presented where following one repetitive step and checking their work always leads them to the correct answer leaves openings for complex learning with the same or fewer number of tasks. They discover multiple techniques to find there are many correct answers. Divergent Thinking, Creativity, and Giftedness by Mark A. Runco of California State University discusses use of divergent thinking tests as an estimate for potential creative thought and how this reflects giftedness (Runco). Students who are forced to find less obvious answers and leave their comfort zone will be more likely to succeed; by asking them to use creativity, this appears as a direct result. Without having an option to take the easy way out, they will be forced to think deeply over each topic studied in class. Using activities with creative learning points can accomplish this too because continuing the multiple versions of a lesson cannot occur unless students can distinguish the ideas they have for each. Organization through critical thinking can build understanding to
mastery. Creating an optimal environment for education that yields efficient knowledge for life skills rather than working to simply meet standards requires creativity. Truly, it cannot be certain that students fully understand even those unless they are given through a captivating method which inspires and motivates them. Intertwining experimentation with individualization heightens curiosity, and this leaves adolescents choosing to engross themselves in academics rather than being forced into it by a teacher. Creative classrooms achieve more than teaching memorization of fundamental concepts, they develop a lifelong love for learning and prepare students for success in their lives and careers.