What does it mean to be creative? We all possess creativity in some form, and can certainly shape and learn from it throughout our lives, especially with the help of our education system. If we integrate projects, passion, peers, and play, we could create a system that actively encourages creative thinking, preparing students to meet the needs of an evolving society. Making this case is MIT Professor Mitchel Resnick, author of the book Lifelong Kindergarten, which GHELI staff members explored during Learning Lab workshop led by the Incubator’s instructional design specialist, Nina Bhattacharya. Learning Lab is the informal space wherein GHELI’s pedagogy team dives deeper into different modalities of teaching and learning.
After reading an excerpt from the book, staff pulled out quotes from the text that they wanted to offer for reflection and posted them on large, colorful sticky notes on the whiteboard. Staff wrote down questions inspired by the quotes, jotting their thoughts in the spaces around each sticky note. By the end, when the team stepped back and scanned the board filled with these questions, written in various colors, they saw a web of interconnected thoughts creating a “question map”.
The team then participated in a few rounds of “noticing and wondering”, where they noticed comments and quotes on the board and wondered: What types of practices might nurture creativity? Is it feasible to avoid rubrics? How can we facilitate better thinking about process? The team sat in front of the board and shared their own experiences in the American education system—ways in which they were encouraged or struggled to express their creativity, and how these experiences have shaped their own way of thinking.
The practical integration of the idea of “lifelong kindergarten”—wherein outside-the-box thinking, play, and experimentation are integrated across disciplines—will still take time and some tinkering. Nonetheless, staff left with the insight that we all must think more critically about crafting learning spaces that constantly push educational boundaries for both educators and learners alike.