"An alien spaceship crash landed in my playground today" For one primary school in England, this was not an ordinary day. It was a fabulous day of inspiration, writing, drawing, discovering and learning for the pupils, the staff and the parents. But the best thing of all? The only truly out of the ordinary thing was the alien spaceship. So how do you make creativity a more everyday part of primary teaching? Teachers and trainees agree that creativity is a fabulous thing. But to get creative approaches into everyday teaching, you need to tackle the question - what is creativity? This book explores this question in an accessible and practical way. It helps trainees to do more than ‘know it when they see it’, by helping them to understand the separate and very diverse elements of creativity. The third edition of this popular text retains key material, but it has been updated and revised to include two new chapters on the creative curriculum, along with links throughout to the Standards and the new National Curriculum. This book will help you enhance your teaching so you and the children in your class can be: fellow explorers, adventurous discoverers and spontaneous investigators!

Creative Learning in the Primary School uses ethnographic research to consider the main features of creative teaching and learning within the context of contemporary policy reforms. In particular, the authors are interested in the clash between two oppositional discourses - creativity and performativity - and how they are resolved in creative teacher practice. The blend of analysis, case-study material and implications for practice will make this book attractive to primary teachers, school managers, policy makers, teacher educators and researchers.

This book introduces the new term ‘creativities’ with cutting-edge examples of creativities research that has influenced the thinking and work of teachers and school leaders in their practice. Co-edited by one of the leading international experts in creativity and the arts, this book is packed with imaginative ideas and practical classroom suggestions underpinned by theory and research to help teachers become research-informed and research-generating. Sculpting New Creativities in Primary Education will inspire us, invite us to think, and share ways in which research is informing and enabling a role for new and creative practices in primary education. Each chapter is collaboratively written by an academic and a practicing teacher covering areas such as: creative spaces, intercultural and interdisciplinary creativity, art, wellbeing, mathematics, STEM and leadership creativities. It importantly highlights the need to inspire, shape and unfold change-making practices that (re-)invigorate, (re-)empower, and (re-)position primary education practice. Drawing from projects originally conducted both in the UK and beyond, this revolutionary book invites teachers, teaching assistants and school leaders to co-create ways to unlock research together as mutually informative ways of authoring change.

There is considerable interest in education around the world in flexible thinking and learning skills but very little consensus as to the nature of these skills and how best to promote them in schools. This book puts forward a clear and practical framework for understanding thinking, creativity and learning to learn as the fruits of engagement in dialogue. It also outlines in detail how this framework can be applied to teaching across the curriculum at both primary and secondary level, drawing on the best practices associated with the teaching thinking; creativity; and learning to learn movements explaining their success in terms of dialogic theory. In particular the book incorporates aspects of a number of thinking skills approaches, such as Lipman�s Philosophy for Children approach, as well as features of contemporary innovations in education such as assessment for learning and the development of creativity. Each chapter opens with a vignette to set the scene and continue into a light and popularly written exposition of theory, before moving on to a description of practice and concluding with practical guidelines for how to teach for thinking and creativity in schools and classrooms. The first six chapters in the book have more of a focus on developing core theoretical themes and the following six chapters in the second half of the book focus more on practice-led themes. The relationship between theory and practice is treated as flexible and dynamic, theory being developed by practice as much as practice implementing theory.

This informative book brings together theory, research and practice examples of creativity in primary schools, providing a scholarly yet accessible introduction. The book offers an overview for teachers looking for a concise guide to current thinking about creativity, particularly if your school is thinking of introducing or extending its practice. The book considers recent developments in the creative curriculum, and techniques embedded in approaches such as Philosophy for Children, Mantle of the Expert and Enterprise Education. Ideas for personalising teaching and creating independent and motivated learners are incorporated. Other key features of the book include: Examination of the major theories of creativity How to develop your own creativity as a teacher Focus on the difference between developing group and individual creativity Innovative ideas for creativity in subject teaching Practical examples and 'Creative Challenges' throughout The book draws on the author's many years of experience of working with children in schools, working on Creative Partnerships and Higher Education in the Arts (HEARTS) projects and ideas developed through working in initial teacher training. This book is essential reading for students in the early stages of their teacher training course as well as for practising teachers looking for innovative ideas and guidance on developing creativity in themselves and their classrooms. "This is an interesting book, which explores theory, practice and policy of creativity in the primary classroom. Jill Jesson links five key creative behaviours drawn together initially by (then) policymakers QCA, with what she identifies as six areas of creative endeavour. Primary teachers committed to developing a 'creative curriculum' will find much material in this lively book that supports their personal and professional creativity, as well as suggestions for classroom practice in developing individual and group work." Professor Anna Craft, University of Exeter and The Open University, UK "This is a compulsory read for all those interested in developing the creative potential of young people in primary schools. It includes a useful overview of previous thinking on creativity and makes a convincing case for its importance across the curriculum. Above all, this book is jam-packed with practical ideas. Whether you are interested in creative approaches to maths or modern languages, developing group or personal creativity, or the challenges of assessing creative endeavour, you will find a host of strategies that have been tried and tested in the classroom." Hilary Hodgson, Director, Ormiston Trust

A rounded, comprehensive, guide to issues of practice, pedagogy and policy concerned with creative education.

Aimed at primary teachers, this text explores creativity across curriculum subjects and offers advice on planning and implementing effective creative teaching and learning.