Literature: Reflection and Analysis of the Cross-Curriculum

When reading the literature, I was prompted to think about our own Curriculum, questioning why Music was not an exam-based subject with the mainstream Primary framework. I do know, however, of children that have a personal music teacher who visits my school to teach piano and brass lessons to the pupils. This made me consider that there may be places where children do not always have access to the arts because of their social surroundings and priorities. I know that in my own school, lessons in Maths and English are paramount and are viewed as top priorities within the school. They are the ‘core’ subjects closely followed by Science.

After analysing Grainger’s quotes about using multi-pedagogical processes, I noted down the times that I had taught in some creative form or another. This included the use of freeze frames, role-play scenarios, storytelling, audio-visual PowerPoints, videos and resources. Using creative methods during maths, such as drawing to create mathematical tables has shown me the everyday occurrence of cross-curricular links. After undertaking my literature review, I then had a discussion with the head of Wider Curriculum about my Religious Educational work. He was impressed with the way that I had incorporated Drama into my lessons and told me that I could make use of the cross-curricular opportunities given to me in the Not As We Know It Curriculum (below) for Religious Education. Within the curriculum, the cross-curricular links allow me to undertake tasks that might be seen in other lessons such as drawing tables and collecting data, which makes me reflect on the notion again of learning through an area or subject, because children are using maths within the Religious Education and therefore not just learning how to undertake mathematical tasks in just one lesson, but to continue putting their skills into practice. This is something that I recently used in my own lessons this upcoming term, including creating tally charts about each other’s religious beliefs within the class. By enabling them to undertake a data collection task, they are also learning about their own classroom community and perhaps learning more about themselves and their environment because of the process. 

Literature Further Reading: Classroom Observations

Personal Study of Classroom Observations

The way in which the arts can affect personal motivation and drive within a child and inspiring them to continue learning is also brought into question.

The significance of regular feedback in quality teaching is highlighted in Quality Teaching: A Sample of Cases.

‘The key point is that learners should be provided with precise information about the results of their actions so as to enable them to adjust their next responses if necessary to solve the problem they are currently tackling.’ (Stones, E. 1992, pg.97.)

Within my own school there are constant reminders by our leadership teams to praise and feedback to children when they are putting in effort and making the right choices. As a result, feedback is vital in being able to inspire young people and to help them grow. This helps us to reflect on the benefit of sharing opinions and encouraging open thinking within lessons. This can in turn let the child have knowledge of what they are accomplishing within each lesson and therefore making them take control of their own behaviour and learning. They consequently have a good knowledge of what is expected of them by the teacher. It provides a power to motivate students and inspire them to be more much self-aware and more able to think for themselves. It interests me that ‘solving problems’ comes into question and as a teacher I often see a link between a child not understanding a concept and not behaving in a manner that the school expects. This makes me think about the behaviour systems that we use within school and how the children move along a ‘traffic light’ system. The visual image of travelling from the ‘good green’ to the ‘bad red’ colours is a very clear image for the children to see when they choose to behave a certain way and is a constant colourful and visual reminder.

I now feel as though I now have a deeper insight into views of the United Kingdom and where it stands within its own creative teaching terms as a result of reviewing different types of literature. It makes me question not just what Creativity means, but also what teaching means. Is the role of a teacher to help someone learn something or is it facilitate something that already lies within them? Or is it both? It reminds me of one visual quote by Socrates that my English teacher had displayed on her wall, which said, “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”

In an observation within ‘Investigations and Inquiry-Based Learning in the Curriculums of Preschool Education’, there is a prominent need for the teacher.

“Nevertheless, curiosity does not automatically lead to learning. Children’s spontaneous desire to explore is reinforced by the teacher when she encourages the children to ask questions and think, providing them with opportunities to plan, observe, collect, process and interpret data, to reach and present conclusions.” (Michalopoulou, A. 2012, Pg.1-6)

This leads me to believe that for someone to truly be taught anything, they need to have access to a facilitator as well as explore independently. It is viewing a teacher as someone who encourages yet channels the child's curiosity and encourages the belief in the need for both independence and guidance. In other words, it is one thing to wonder, bit it is another thing to learn. Not only do I feel it beneficial to look at lesson plans themselves, but I also think it beneficial to consider the way in which teachers present a topic through their own instrument in my observations. 

“In the category of teaching style, multi modal pedagogic practices, pace, tutor’s confidence and the ability to inspire and value students were identified as core themes. In relation to the learning experience, the emerging themes included, involving the students affectively and physically and challenging them to engage and reflect. Taken together, it is argued these represent some of the critical features of creative teaching which combine to support new thinking” (Grainger, T, Barnes. J, & Scoffham, S , A creative cocktail: creative teaching in initial teacher education, 2004, pg.7.)

‘Support’ is one word used to describe the role of a teacher. The facilitating of ideas in which a pupil has will enable them grow and have the courage to inquire further. The fact that the use of multi-modal approaches was considered a core them of teaching style, as well as the pace and tutor’s confidence to inspire makes me reflect on the importance of HOW you present a lesson. This encourages me now to really look at the opportunities teachers give pupils within their classes to access as many creative elements within a lesson as possible. There are elements such as pace, timing, vocal use and self-confidence that would be elements to consider in this inquiry and I would be interested to see how different teachers use these elements to affect and influence their pupils. Consequently, one of my main sources of investigation would involve the consideration of the structure of lessons and the time taken in teacher planning to ensure that pupils receive as many creative opportunities as possible within the compulsory mainstream framework.

Bibliography

Grainger, T, Barnes. J, & Scoffham, S , A creative cocktail: creative teaching in initial teacher education, 2004, pg.7.

Stones, E. (1992), Pg. 97, Quality Teaching: A sample of cases (London: Routledge)

Michalopoulou, A. (2-4 July 2012) Investigations and Inquiry-Based Learning in the Curriculums of Preschool Education. Proceedings of EDULEARN12 Conference, Barcelona, Pg.1-6.

Possible Interview Questions for Teachers

What are the ways you are creative within your lessons?

Do you find any creative methods that really work well or engage the children you teach?

What is the process you undertake when you plan lessons? (Is it a collaborative process or individual? Are you given a set structure?)

What would you say is important for teachers to remember when they are teaching?

What skills are important to have as a teacher?

How do you feel about the National Curriculum and is there anything you would change about it?

Would you say schools are killing creativity?

I would really like to know more about the creative process in terms of lesson planning and how teachers go about creative such plans. As a result, I have compiled these questions which I plan to possibly ask teachers of a 'creative' background as well as teachers who specialise in more academic subjects. 

Skype with Helen, Adesola and course members

Today we had a Skype conversation about where we were all at in the course.

I wanted to talk about the way in which people were going about their investigation including how they were going about creating the documents for observations and how they were going about the methods of collecting and analysing their data. 

I spoke to Jen about how she was going about her interviews and observations and she told me that her 'web-based interviews' were also on Survey Hero, which is the survey I had used. 

Jen reiterated the use she had from making a triangle considering three important aspects of analysing elements of her practice.

Experience

Literature

Data

Matt spoke about the views of Michael Gove and Nikki Morgan within our current government with some articles in the Independent that would highlight their views on the Arts within our mainstream schools, as determining current attitudes within Education can inform me even more about my current educational practice within a UK mainstream school.

Matt also mentioned looking into Steiner Schools and how they provide a very specialist Education. Helen then mentioned Finland and the holistic learning that Finnish schools provide. These educational opportunities are aspects that I believe would help inform me of the other opportunities out there, other than mainstream schools.

Jen mentioned the Human element and told us that when undertaking our inquiry, we should remember that elements can affect the data that we have ie. people not being in the best of moods when undertaking an interview.

The question we asked was 'is it about the method of learning rather than having subjects of dance and drama? Is it more about learning through dance and drama?'

This is something I have been analysing recently too and asking constantly since looking at different literature and what teachers use within their lessons already. 

This Skype was more food for thought.

Saturday Skype with Jennifer and Lauren

Last Saturday I had a Skype with Jen and Lauren who are also undertaking Module Three.

We had a really honest, in-depth discussion about our findings so far and what stages we were at. 

We discussed literature that had really helped us look deeper into the analysis of our practice and seeing as we were all teaching in a creative field, it was useful for us to share our findings in a truly 'Special Interest Group.'

We also ended up discussing teaching the Creative Arts, as Lauren wanted to run a few questions past us about the importance of the arts, something that I had included within my own survey questions.

This led us to talk about performing and how the Creative Arts can be an escape for someone and an outlet for somebody to learn. We discussed a video that I had shared to the group before on the Facebook group, where Irish actor, John Connors, had been saved literally by acting and performing (below.) 

However, Jen also shared a story about a performer she knew of who became someone completely different when they appeared on stage, but who would rush to escape being greeted by people at the stage door, because in the real world they would shy away. It made us questions whether the Arts is always beneficial, or whether it sometimes helps people to not confront how they really feel.

This was a great chat encouraging us to look at both sides of the Arts, which is what we should be doing with our literature. Weighing up the pros and cons with each other enables us all to have a deeper understanding of what our practice entails. I think it was beneficial that we were considering both points of view, despite us all naturally being biased because we are all from a creative background. These are skills that I am developing throughout this process, seeing all different viewpoints and weighing up everything.

Data Collection Methods - What am I using and what am I planning to use?

Questionnaires

I have already sent out my survey to teachers within my practice in order to establish their views on Creativity and what it means to them. When undertaking the formation process of my survey, I decided to use both open and closed questions to do this. From my research, it appeared that a balance of these types of questions was a much more productive way of approaching the survey, mainly due to the fact that if every answer is closed, the answers may not mean as much as a teacher's opinion and if all the questions are open there may be a point where teachers feel slightly intimidates by blank boxes and my research will then not be very specific.

There was also a lot of thought that I had to put into creating the questions, because the whole way through I was thinking 'am I putting my bias into the questions?' 'Does this sound neutral?' Just like we mentioned in the Skype chat, you have to be creative and open even in a data collection process!

Observations

At this moment, I am planning to research and then collate an observation sheet so I can note down specifically what I see within lessons that I observe. I have realised that one of my main points of interest is the creative methods that teachers use within their lessons and I want to find this out through surveys, noting down on my observation sheet each time I observe a creative element and also use teacher's lesson plans to analyse so I can highlight the times in which they have scheduled in a creative task. 

Interviews and Focus Groups 

I also want to interview particular teachers that have a Creative Arts background or specialism (eg. Drama Club Assistant, Art Teacher etc) compared to teachers that may not have have a Creative or Theatre Arts specialism (Eg. Geography Teacher) and see what their views are on creativity within the classroom and their creative teaching methods. I am still deciding whether to do this all through individual interviews or whether to look at using a focus group to gather viewpoints so that I gather a variety of viewpoints through discussion rather than just simply one viewpoint from one person at a time. 

Reflective Journal and Blogging

I always write in my reflective journal whenever I can to write down things that I haven't before realised and to reflect on what skills I am developing. This is a great way to track progress. I will continue to write in this throughout the process. 

"Don't Look for the Answers, look for the Meaning."

Write as you see it...

On this Snowy day, I decided to look back through my Literature Review and start researching books to note down interesting quotes and ideas that might shed some more light on my inquiry. 

I really enjoyed this quoting exercise, because it consolidated all other people's thoughts about teaching in a broken-down and selective manner, which meant I could then reflect on the main points of a particular book.

This helped me edit my Literature Review so that I could really pinpoint the points of interest within my practice.

My Pen and Notebook. Highlighting the word 'connection.'

I then decided to look back at Sir Ken Robinson's definition of Creativity so I could compare it to what other literary scholars have been saying, as well as the definitions that teachers have been giving me within their surveys. 

 

As a result of this, I came up with a quote to summarise my inquiry process so far:

"Don't look for the answers, look for the meaning."