Pedagogies in Teacher Education

As understandings of teacher professionalism develop, it has been argued that not only do teachers need to be able to demonstrate routine expertise, they also need to show ‘adaptive expertise’ where efficient knowledge interacts with innovative uses of knowledge enabling teachers to respond creatively to novel challenges in the classroom (Hammerness in Darling-Hammond and Bransford 2005). This paper explores how key ideas about creativity as an innovative pedagogy in teacher education forms teachers who can motivate and facilitate pupil learning as well as transmit information. We will look at what we mean by creativity and the historical context of the ‘creativity’ debate. We will consider why it is important to encourage creativity in education and how teachers can nurture a creative environment. It will also be important to look at how a creative environment would look, feel and sound. The language of creativity has been a feature of the educational landscape for the past half century. As teachers, we are still encouraged to engage young people in the creative process and to teach creatively. If asked, many newly qualified teachers throughout the UK might include creativity on a list of desired pedagogical characteristics for teachers today. Teaching Scotland’s Future (Donaldson, 2011), the most recent review to date of teacher education in Scotland, reported that teachers cited ‘creativity’ as one of the key characteristics of a twenty-first century teacher. But what exactly is meant by creativity and why does it continue to feature in current educational discourses? Equally importantly, what does this preoccupation with creativity mean for us as educators and how can creative teaching and learning be made manifest in and beyond the classroom? This paper begins by offering a brief examination of the historical and contemporary understandings and definitions of creativity in education. We attend here to policies that carved out a path for creativity and led to its current prominence. We then explore why creativity should be such a significant aspect of the educational framework and ask what a creative learning environment might mean in practice. Finally, we explore one or two ways of approaching creativity in teacher education