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Expert updates from NACE: National Association for Able Children in Education
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G&T Now! Issue 7 article
CHOCOLATEY FOOD FOR THOUGHT IN PLANNING
by Ann Bridgland
In the last issue you will have read the article (below) 'What if Door Handles Were Made Out of Chocolate', which I hope tickled your brain cells about creative thinking
Click here to download an extended example of how chocolate could be made into a 'bloomin’ brilliant' lesson/topic plan to challenge your pupils’ wider thinking capabilities... what do YOU think?
G&T Now! Issue 6 article
WHAT IF DOOR HANDLES WERE MADE OUT OF CHOCOLATE?
by Ann Bridgland
Were you ever asked that kind of question when you were a pupil at school? For readers over a certain age, the answer could be a resounding NO!
What 'certain age' might that be? 50, 40, 30, even 20? Maybe all of the above.
It has only been relatively recently that creative thinking has started to become nearly as important as the three Rs; only started ... I think there is still quite a way to go!
Do schools always get the best out of children? Did your school get the best out of you?
There is a strong argument that we have been ... indeed are being ... educated to become just good workers, rather than creative thinkers.
Children with restless minds and bodies, far from being cultivated for their curiosity and encouraged for their energy, can be ignored, even criticised, with potentially scary consequences: are we in schools, in families and even in society educating people out of their creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson* relates the following story:
A primary school teacher was teaching drawing to some 6 year olds, among whom was a little girl who usually didn’t pay attention in school. Except in drawing. For 20 minutes, she had her arms around her paper, totally oblivious to everyone else.
Fascinated, the teacher asked what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl replied, 'I’m drawing a picture of God.” The startled teacher said, 'I didn’t think anyone knew what God looks like.'The little girl said, 'Just hang on, they will in a minute!'
* Ken Robinson The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
This makes me think of how imaginative children can be. Do you think that some children lose such creative confidence as they grow up? Did you? Like Sir Ken, I wonder whether 'too many people never connect with their true talents ... and ironically, one of the main reasons this happens is education.'
As you know, over recent years, a great educational revolution has started to coax the curriculum out of the 19th century and into the 21st. Part of that revolution has been our focus on 'able, gifted and talented' children, in the context of 'stretch, challenge and opportunity' for all children and young people, which includes the development of creative thinking skills.
From an increasingly younger age, children have the skills to access more and more information. BUT do they have the skills to use that information effectively? Many communicate online ... but find it difficult to collaborate. Many can get loads of information ... but find it difficult to sift, sort and ‘suss’ it out. Many soak up information, yet thinking about not only what, but why and how they are learning can be scary. Especially if there’s an exam or test approaching! And what if there isn’t a right or wrong ‘answer’ to a question?
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet said 'thus thinking doth make cowards of us all.' Yet I think that there has never been a more important time to engage with what I call the ‘teabag’ movement ... infusing the teaching of thinking not only within and across schools and across subjects but across conversations with our pupils’ family and friends. How are you rising to the challenge?
And talking of challenge - I love ‘challenge corners’ ... as you might have guessed with the ‘G&T Now!’ Challenge Corner in each issue! Do you have them in your classroom, on the electronic whiteboard, in an email, in a corner of a pupil’s piece of work that you’re marking, on a school news bulletin, at the end of a letter to parents, in the school entrance hall, even in your staffroom on the fridge door?
Anyway ... back to the chocolate door handles! No right or wrong answer there! How many different things can your imagination come up with? How many different ideas can your pupils think of? Try it and see. It’s fun. You might be astonished!
And finally ... working with teachers in a school in the spring term, I asked them: 'What if plants had legs?'
(It was Lent at the time, so we were avoiding chocolate!)
It certainly brought a whole new meaning to ‘heavy plant crossing’, as you can see!
Teachers at Trafalgar Infants School, Horsham
Ann Bridgland is a leading expert on teaching the more able, having previously been a Senior Adviser for able, gifted and talented pupils and Lead Professional on the national G&T Programme. Find out more at www.annbridgland.com.