FLEX 1
Visit to the Ancient Woodland at Cheshire Campus as part of I Love Learning campaign.
During Creativity for Learning CELT course ‘Sell Your Bargains Game’ I was able to explore new environments for learning, such as the Royal Exchange Theatre, an inspirational location for our discussion about the potential of using creative approaches in the enhancement of our practice. This experience helped me to realise the potential of alternative learning environments and led to collaboration with other staff at MMU ( two Academic and two Support Staff from 3 faculties), on a funded scholarship of teaching and learning I Love Learning (ILL). The project explored how the use of creative techniques in learning support and teaching, can enhance motivation and engagement of students. The project used action research methodology, particularly extended ways of knowing and cycles of action and reflection. Through cooperative inquiries, project engaged staff across different faculties at Manchester Metropolitan University, with the discussion about the purpose of creativity within teaching and learning and led to enhancement of practice.
Inspired by the idea of using an alternative setting for learning, I suggested to run the third cooperative inquiry at Cheshire campus and to invite staff and students to experience the ancient woodland. I liaised with staff from the Faculty of Education: Technician Antony Tibbets who helped with required resources and an academic Karen Williams took me on a personal trip to the Woodlands to explain the concept of the Forest School, run there with the local schools and the concept is being taught to trainee teachers. ‘Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees’ (Forest School Association: no date). This concept and its principles: promotion of the holistic development and fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners and providing an opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and the person, are relevant to the concept of using creativity in Higher Education. They also link to the key competencies such as learning to learn: wanting to learn more, being aware of their learning process and continue to find opportunities for expanding knowledge; and being able to find creative solutions individually and in groups and learned from gathered experiences (Official Journal of the European Union, 2006). Such attributes are essential for future employment who look for people who are innovative, use initiative and creative skills to solve problems and are motivated to take on challenges (Roberts,2006; MMU, 2015). The good practice of using experimental learning and using outdoor environment in Higher Education is illustrated by the Benefit of Outdoor Learning, CELT Good Practice Video, where Outdoor Studies learn the curriculum through real outdoors experience. http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/good_practice/gpentry.php?id=11
I was keen to explore the possibility of using outdoors within other subject areas. I have decided to use the Forest School model to design the session aiming to explore how outdoor environment of the woodland would serve as a playground of creative ideas and the potential of using such environment to enhance engagement motivation and curiosity in learning. The workshop invited students and staff to experience and explore the environment to see how they respond to such environment. Jackson (2005:17) suggest that ‘learning processes to foster creativity must develop self- efficacy, encourage risk-taking in safe environments and help students to engage with messy/complex and unpredictable situations, where there are no right and wrong answers‘. According to Rogers (2016), exploration is likely to occur when person is presented with an unfamiliar or unusual environment or situations. Together with ILL team, we designed playful exercises to help participants to respond to the environment, transform existing meaning of such environment and use imagination to construct new meanings, moving on from acquisition of information and leading to the development of creative and divergent thinking.
So, off we went to the woods… everyone was set for an adventure, in the exciting location full of textures and sounds especially in spring time, with flowers blooming and birds tweeting and lots of room for interaction. Helena started the session with the introduction on the importance of the protection of the natural world, to provide a topic, which participants could consider within their explorations. She later invited participants to listen to the sounds of the woodlands, which allowed the facilitators to check how the participants reacted to the new environment. At first, participants found it difficult to relate how such experience could be linked to their practice. To resolve this, David encouraged everyone to find inspiration in their surroundings: notice elements of the environment and express those elements through saying aloud what we see. This interactive activity helped participants to relax and encouraged a creative attitude. We continued to observe and find elements of nature that fascinated or grabbed our attention; we took pictures and later repeated the exercise, but this time focused on one chosen element of the environment and recorded that element with simple drawing techniques. Participants feedback suggested that active observation and encouragement to produce their own creative output, through the recording of the surrounding and switching between different media, helped them connect with the environment, creating their own meanings and interpretations of the environment and discussing those with others during the session. According to Papert’s Constructionist view (Ackermann, 2001:4), ‘projecting out our inner feelings and ideas is key to learning’. Expressing ideas make them tangible and shareable, which in turn, informs, i.e., shapes and sharpens these ideas, and helps us communicate with others through our expressions’. Participants suggested that the use of creative tasks to record and interpret the environment helped them to realise that we often fail to use effectively the vast amount of data and information, which surrounds us and that creative approaches such as visualisation and sharing ideas with others, can help with analysing such information more effectively. Dewulf and Baillie (1999) define creativity as ‘shared imaginations’, which involves awakening our own imagination, sharing it with others through action, creation and encouraging others to use their own imagination.
This activity helped me realise the importance of creative activities when using alternative environments within teaching and learning.
Action:
The activity did not attract many students, which suggest that the use of alternative environment need to have set aims that are relevant to students. I will work closely with academic staff to encourage this creative approach in support sessions, tailored to specific group or activities and aims of the programme. I aim to use the outdoor environment during the Induction Week and offer Cheshire Campus tour to allow students get to know the surrounding of the campus and meet other students; involvement of creative exercises may help with building peer relation and assimilation within the university.
References
Ackermann, E. (2001) Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference? Future of learning group publication, 5 (3) pp. 1-11, available at https://www.zotero.org/barbrad/items/itemKey/5FTU5ZZN
Dewulf, S. and Baillie, C. (1999) CASE Creativity in Art Science and Engineering: How to Foster Creativity. Department for Education and Employment (reproduced in 2002 as part of the Imaginative Curriculum project)
Jackson, N. (2012), Making Higher Education a More Creative Place, Journal for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, volume 2, Issue 1.
Forest School Association (no date), Principles of Forest School, [Online] [05/04/2016] http://www.forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/
Manchester Metropolitan University, Centre for Excellence Learning and Teaching (CELT) (2014) The MMU Strategy for Learning, Teaching and Assessment. [Online] [10/01/2017]
http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/employability/graduate_outcomes.php
Rogers, S. From ‘Theories of play to playing with theory’ in Tricia, D. Goouch, K. Powell, S. (ed) The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophies and Theories of Early Childhood Education and Care, Oxon: Routledge
Roberts, N. (2006) Nurturing Creativity in Young People, A report to Government to inform future policy. London: Crown Copyright, available at http://cercles.vtlseurope.com:8098/arxius/pdf/E150147.pdf
Marcin Wozniak cpd 