EDUP4070 - Integrated Arts (A) Special Course: Reflection 1

Joy - fulness

Within today’s workshop, we looked at the question ‘what is creativity?’ During this workshop we looked at how creativity was perceived within the class via written words such as the words ‘free’, ‘individual’, ‘experimentation’ and ‘colourful’ and there was an activity on how the world perceived creativity and the misconceptions that followed for example ‘creativity and mental illness are connected’. I feel that creativity is essential to life because it allows for culture, growth and a sense of belonging within the surrounding world (Balkin, 1990). However, the word ‘creativity’ itself may be seen as “overused, misused, confused, abused and generally misunderstood” (Balkin, 1990, p. 29). This is because people use it so often it loses its true meaning as being original, progressive and imaginative (Dictionary.com, 2015). As a primary teacher, an implication for integrating creativity into each KLA would be to understand how to assess their work and the processes of a student’s work. It is important to have creativity as the highest priority when teaching students because it allows for their own growth. This only happens when a student feels safe within the classroom environment and is our priority to support each student’s creativity.