creative education unit

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Creative Education

Take your education career to the next level, key details.

• 180 credits
• 45 week programme
• Full-time or part-time study

School or Centre

• School of Architecture
• School of Arts & Humanities
• School of Communication
• School of Design

Next open event

• Watch Open Day recording

Application deadline

• 14 Aug 2024

Develop strategies for working across diverse international learning environments on this Master of Education (MEd)

Watch this short film introducing Creative Education at the RCA

The MEd in Creative Education will enable you to develop the confidence to design, deliver and evaluate innovative creative education that is informed by a critical understanding of competing conceptual and policy perspectives. This will involve an exploration of new and emerging forms of creative education. A significant part of the MEd course will be delivered online.

The MEd draws on years of experience within the RCA of delivering an internal PG Cert in Creative Education programme that has supported over 100 students to review and renew their creative education practice. In recent years, this programme has received outstanding student feedback, with over 92% student satisfaction across the past two years.

Applications for the September 2024 intake are open and will be assessed on a rolling basis. Programmes will close for applications when the maximum number of places have been awarded, or at the final deadline on 14 August, 12noon (UK time).

Explore further

Listen to the RCA Podcast Series 1, Episode 2: Creative education through uncertainty to hear from Chris Mitchell, Deputy Director of Academic Development, and how this form of education and the new MEd Creative Education can help people respond to the challenges of living with uncertainty.

Group seminar

3D making workshop

Mind mapping activity

The RCA has facilities at Kensington, Battersea and White City.

A significant part of the MEd course will be delivered online.

RCA Library

Technology zone

Terrace at RCA Kensington

Exhibition space at RCA Battersea

What you'll study

What you'll cover, by the end of the programme, you should be able to:.

• Define your values as a creative educator in relation to competing critical, conceptual and policy perspectives
• Critically evaluate your pedagogical strategies using the principles and methods of educational research
• Critically reflect on the public impact of your practice as a creative educator, and on their responsibilities as a practitioner
• Demonstrate how to translate your pedagogical principles into the design and delivery of effective creative education
• Develop strategies for working with others across a range of diverse national and international learning environments.

Programme delivery

The programme will operate three principal modes of delivery:

• Burst-mode learning , where you attend campus for intensive weeks of study, followed by synchronous/asynchronous online learning. For example, a 15-credit unit will involve one week of on-campus study.
• Blended learnin g, where you attend a regular pattern of scheduled teaching throughout the unit that is delivered both online and on-campus
• Online learning , where you attend a regular pattern of scheduled teaching throughout the unit that is delivered wholly online.

Programme structure

In term one you'll take the unit Foundations of Learning , which explores the concepts and controversies of contemporary creative education. You will reflect on their experiences, knowledge and values, and locate your practice within a broader theoretical context.

You'll also take Making Pedagogies , which explores the pedagogical implications and possibilities of an education based on making, including a consideration of the materials we use, the processes that we employ and the spaces that we inhabit.

You'll begin the first part of Action Research: Proposal , which enables you to review and renew their own creative education practice through Action Research. In this first part, you'll develop a project plan and associated ethics application that provides a rationale for your chosen project, and outline how you intend to gather, analyse and present research data

You'll also choose a Cross-College elective from a selection offered across the RCA's MEd, MFA and MDes programmes.

In term two you'll take Designs for Learning , a unit which gives you insight into and experience of designing inclusive creative education. It explores how to apply ideas in practice across a range of educational methods and modes, including discussion of campus-based, blended and remote learning.

You'll also take Education for Change , which supports you to design and deliver creative education that is focused on transformation. This will involve an exploration on how education can support people to navigate a complex, changing and an unpredictable world.

You'll complete Action Research: Project, where you'll conduct, analyse and present the project devised in the previous term's Action Research: Proposal , and reflect on how it informs your practice as a creative educator.

Finally, you'll choose another Cross-College elective from a selection offered across the RCA's MEd, MFA and MDes programmes.

In the final term, you'll undertake an Independent Research Project . This unit enables you to bring together learning throughout the programme on an ambitious research project that concludes your degree. You will develop a research proposal and associated ethics application that provides a rationale for your chosen project, and which outlines how you intend to gather, analyse and present research data. You'll then conduct, analyse and present your research project.

Part time students take the same units over a two-year period.

All students will select elective units to determine their own journey through the programme, choosing from a range of electives that are available across all Schools and campuses, and online. The available electives may include:

• Interventions (School of Communication, on campus)
• Digital Storytelling (School of Communication, online)
• Education for Change (Academic Development Office, online & blended options with mix of online and on-campus sessions)
• Collaboration and Inter-disciplinarity as Method (Academic Development Office, online & blended options with mix of online and on-campus sessions)
• Housing and Social Reproduction (School of Architecture, mix of online and on campus sessions)
• Mobility and Debility (School of Architecture, mix of online and on campus sessions)
• Design Innovation: Models and Life Cycle ( School of Design, mix of online and on-campus sessions)
• Design Ethics: Design for Good Practice (School of Design, online)
• Performing Practice ( School of Arts and Humanities, on campus)
• Health and Care: Futures of Care ( School of Arts and Humanities, online)
• Material Engagements: Embodied Practice (S chool of Arts and Humanities, on campus)

Terms 1 and 2

AcrossRCA (30 credits) (Academic Development Office, majority online, but some on-campus sessions)

• Industry Embedded Project (School of Communication, online)
• Sound (School of Communication, on campus)
• Public Engagement as Method (Academic Development Office (MRes), mix of online and on-campus sessions)
• Developing Research Proposals (Academic Development Office (MRes), mix of online
• Making Pedagogies (Academic Development Office (MEd), mix of online and on-campus sessions)
• Capital’s Shadow (School of Architecture, mix of online and on-campus sessions)
• Milieu Milieu Me (The Economy) (School of Architecture, mix of online and on campus sessions)
• Design Resilience: Sustainability (School of Design, mix of online and on campus sessions)
• Design Innovation: Venture Creation (School of Design, mix of online and on campus sessions)
• Sites and Situations: Spatial Feelings (School of Arts and Humanities, on campus)
• Synthetic Encounters: Shapeshifting the Digital (School of Arts and Humanities, online)

Depending on demand and availability, not all electives will be available. Students will be asked for ranked preference and allocated to electives based on those preferences.

Requirements

What you need to know before you apply

Candidates are selected entirely on merit and applications are welcomed from all over the world.

The MEd in Creative Education will be suitable for:

• Art and design educators in Higher Education, Further Education and other educational contexts
• People aspiring to be art and design educators in Higher Education, Further Education and other educational contexts
• Art and design practitioners with an interest in education and/or community engagement
• People involved in community engagement and/or organisation
• People involved in museum and/or gallery education
• Educational developers

Applicants are welcome from those have successfully completed undergraduate, graduate diploma or postgraduate degrees and have an active interest in and engagement with creative education.

Watch this video on what we're looking for in a candidate

What's needed from you

Portfolio requirements.

To apply, you will need to complete a Personal Statement between 400–600 words that addresses the following prompts:

• What informs your approach to creative education?
• What educational themes and/or challenges do you want to explore during your studies?
• What initial ideas do you have for your own educational research project(s)?
• What training and/or support would you need to realise your educational research project(s)?
• How do you think the programme will support your professional development goals?

Video requirements

As part of the application process, you must submit a video of no more than two minutes that answers the question ‘how do you like to learn?’.

The following prompts should help you develop your response:

• What motivates you to keep learning?
• What do you look for in a learning community?
• What do you look for in a learning environment?
• What examples best demonstrate this?

English-language requirements

If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic or UKVI score of 6.5 with a 6.0 in the Test of Written English (TWE) and at least 5.5 in other skills. Students achieving a grade of at least 6.0, with a grade of 5.5 in the Test of Written English, may be eligible to take the College’s English for Academic Purposes course to enable them to reach the required standard.

You are exempt from this requirement if you have received a 2.1 degree or above from a university in a majority English-speaking nation within the last two years.

If you need a Student Visa to study at the RCA, you will also need to meet the Home Office’s minimum requirements for entry clearance.

Fees & funding

For this programme.

ees for September 2024 entry on this programme are outlined below. From 2021 onward, EU students are classified as Overseas for tuition fee purposes.

Home (blended learning)

Home (online), overseas and eu (blended learning), overseas and eu (online).

New entrants to the College will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit in order to secure their place. This will be offset against the tuition fees for the first year of study.

Overseas and EU

Progression discounts.

For alumni and students who have completed an MA or MA/MSc at the RCA within the past 10 years, a progression discount is available for MArch, MFA, MDes, MRes & MEd study. This discount is £5,000 for full-time study, or £2,500 per year for two years of part-time study

Scholarships

The RCA scholarship programme is growing, with hundreds of financial awards planned for the 2024/5 academic year. Examples of financial awards offered in 2023/24 are given below.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor’s International Scholarship

For: All MA programmes, MArch, MFA, MDes, MRes & MEd

Eligibility criteria: Students from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, USA

Eligible fee status: Overseas fee status

Value: £7,000 towards fees

The Deputy Vice Chancellor’s EU Scholarship

Eligibility criteria: Students from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s UK Scholarship

Eligible fee status: Home fee status

Value: £5,000 towards fees

The RCA UK Disabled Students’ Scholarship

Eligibility criteria: Students who identify as D/deaf or disabled

Value: £6,000 for living costs

Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship

For: All programmes excluding PhD & short courses

Eligibility criteria: Black or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British African, Other Black Background, Mixed - White and Black Caribbean, Mixed - White and Black African

Value: Full fees & maintenance

The Vice-Chancellor’s UK Cost of Living Scholarship

Value: £5,000 for living costs

Applying for a scholarship

You must hold an offer to study on an RCA programme in order to make a scholarship application in Spring 2024. A selection of RCA merit scholarships will also be awarded with programme offers. 

We strongly recommend that you apply for your programme as early as possible to stand the best chance of receiving a scholarship. You do not apply directly for individual awards; instead, you will be invited to apply once you have received an offer.

More information

Additonal fes.

In addition to your programme fees, please be aware that you may incur other additional costs associated with your study during your time at RCA. Additional costs can include purchases and services (without limitation): costs related to the purchase of books, paints, textiles, wood, metal, plastics and/or other materials in connection with your programme, services related to the use of printing and photocopying, lasercutting, 3D printing and CNC. Costs related to attending compulsory field trips, joining student and sport societies, and your Convocation (graduation) ceremony. 

If you wish to find out more about what type of additional costs you may incur while studying on your programme, please contact the Head of your Programme to discuss or ask at an online or in person  Open Day .   

We provide the RCASHOP online, and at our Kensington and Battersea Campuses – this is open to students and staff of the Royal College of Art only to provide paid for materials to support your studies. 

We also provide support to our students who require financial assistance whilst studying, including a dedicated Materials Fund.

External funding

There are many funding sources, with some students securing scholarships and others saving money from working. It is impossible to list all the potential funding sources; however, the following information could be useful.

Start your application

Change your life and be here in 2024. applications now open..

The Royal College of Art welcomes applicants from all over the world.

Before you begin

Make sure you've read and understood the entrance requirements and key dates, check you have all the information you need to apply., consider attending an open day, or one of our portfolio or application advice sessions, please note, all applications must be submitted by 12 noon on the given deadline., ask a question.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more or have any questions.

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Our research degrees span the full range of communication, design and media environments.

As a research student in the School of Design, you may be designing an innovative object or system.

Ready to get started?

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The Difference Between Creativity Vs. Creative Learning (and How To Harness Both)

By ELM Learning

June 24, 2021

Before you accuse us of splitting hairs, we know they sound like the same thing, but they’re not. While it’s tempting to use the terms interchangeably, creative learning and creativity have different meanings when applied to education or learning and development.

Find out how creative learning and creativity are related and how both can increase engagement and retention.

But first, let’s define our central concept for today.

What Is Creative Learning?

Creative learning is not memorizing information. It’s building knowledge and developing skills using creative techniques.

Rather than dictating how information should be absorbed, creative education— guides the learner through the instruction process using creative methods. And it challenges the obvious, the conventional, and the assumed. To some extent, it’s about breaking out of constraints.

However, we’re not breaking boundaries just for the sake of breaking them. No! We’re breaking boundaries for valid purposes— like effectively building a comprehension framework.

Here’s a list of creative learning techniques that you may have heard oft:

• Hypothetical scenarios
• Improvisation (with exercises or games)
• Brainstorming sessions and debates
• Storytelling

Now that you have a general overview of creative learning, let’s go over why it’s effective.

Why Is Creative Learning Important?

Learners engage deeply with creative learning experiences. The more that learners engage with the process,, the longer they retain knowledgeand expand their understanding. But that’s just the beginning. Learning creatively does way more than that.

• Stimulates problem-solving. Creative learning experiences change the way learners approach problems. They become more imaginative andinnovative, and they cope better when they don’t know the answer. Creativelearners start visualizing alternatives or possibilities from different perspectives. This perspective shift allows them to anticipate difficulties and  overcome them.
• Develops critical thinking. Learners propose innovative ideas and resolutions. Then, they review the progress of implementing them and adjust the process for improvement.
• Promotes risk-taking. Creative learning exposes learners to failure. They have the opportunity to make decisions and, inevitably, some of them won’t lead to solutions. But learning creatively provides learners with a space where they feel comfortable taking risks and seeing different outcomes. Getting comfortable with “failure” allows learners to take more risks with less fear.
• Builds a curious mindset. Creative learning solutions are unconventional. Unconventional ways of learning make learners curious about the process and the topic and foster learning itself. Creative learning sparks curiosity and discussion and leads learners to interesting insights.
• Increases confidence levels. Creative learning techniques build confidence. The result? Learners are more likely to apply the lessons they learned.

Next, we’ll explore one of the techniques we love the most.

Example of Creative Learning: Instructional Storytelling

Storytelling is a creative learning technique that makes information interesting. It takes the pressure out of the learning experience and improves learners’ attention.

What makes a great story? Think of an object that has sentimental value to you. A cherished souvenir you brought home from a memorable trip  will do. Do you remember the moment you bought it and how you felt, with all the sensory details? Do you know why? Because emotions associated with information power long-term memory.

Long-term memory  maximizes learners’ attention! Emotions drive attention, and attention drives learning.

Learn more on Instructional Storytelling in our free eBook .

Emotions Are Not Feelings

What exactly is emotion?

Emotions are physical reactions to events that trigger our senses.

On the other hand, feelings are not only physical—like emotions—they’re also mental. And they’re our way of interpreting our emotions. Feelings cause us to pay attention to and interact with the environment around us.

We can use emotions to our benefit. We know that certain emotions cause a certain reaction. And we know that feelings originate from emotions and make us pay attention.

So, what do you need to make your learners stay focused on a lesson that will teach them a new skill?

Emotions Drive Creative Learning

You just need to trigger emotions to grab your learners’ attention. And you can do it with stories! Stories evoke emotions, and emotions guide us.

Therefore, to make a learning experience enthralling and keep learners focused, appeal to the six basic emotions—anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise.

Once you get their attention and they’re open to learning, keep them in that mindset by stimulating emotions such as curiosity, delight, or amusement.

Bottom line: Telling an engaging story is a technique you can use to build a creative learning experience through emotions.

We talked about creative learning a lot so far. But up to this point, we haven’t defined creativity, so let’s do that and distinguish creative learning from creativity.

The Difference Between Creative Learning and Creativity

To think creatively means to develop unique and useful ideas and come up with creative learning solutions. But a learner doesn’t need to be a creative person to participate in that process.

Creativity is how an instructional designer addresses the needs of learners. It’s their ability to envision both available and yet-to-exist solutions to cater to each learner. The goal is that each learner gets the experience they need. For instance, you can use microlearning for on-the-go learners or adaptive learning for those who are fast on their feet.

On the other hand, creative learning is a delivery method. It considers individual learning styles and figures out innovative ways to increase engagement and retention of content .

These are a few premises of creative learning solutions:

• Provide a personal learning environment for each learner.
• Create a learning path to actively involve learners instead of making them passive participants. A learning path prescribes a learner’s own learning, yet it allows them to learn on their own time.
• Mix different learning methods—from microlearning to gamification —to increase overall learner engagement.

It’s time to move on to the next step: designing the creative learning solution.

How to Design Solutions to Learn Creatively

You don’t have to do it on your own! Find a learning organization that has the creativity to develop creative learning solutions.

Learners don’t need to be creative people themselves to enroll in and engage with creative learning experiences. However, those who design and develop the content and the delivery system should be creative and know what to do with it.

A creative instructional designer tailors the solution to the learner and the way they absorb new information. That’s how creativity pays off when it comes to learning design.

Before we go, check out some simple strategies that creative instructional designers use all the time.

Simple Creative Learning Solutions You Can Adopt

If you want to be a creative learner more often, do the following:

• Think of ways you could mess up your current problem. Sometimes, just thinking about the worst possible outcomes sheds light on resolutions.
• Ask yourself how you could make your problem easier. This is the reverse strategy of wondering how you could make your problem worse, but it works the same way. You remove constraints from your problem-solving process and critically analyze alternatives. As a result, you make a choice and move forward with it.
• Keep asking a new question. Brainstorming is about generating ideas. However, it’s more effective to generate questions. By doing so, you delve into your problem more effectively and challenge your own assumptions. This helps spark a multitude of possible resolutions.

Creative Mindsets Last a Lifetime

Creative learning has changed the understanding of entire organizations about training and workplace education.

It applies wherever learning happens. And it generates lifelong learning by nurturing a creative mindset in learners. That’s what makes them eager to keep learning.

By developing creativity skills in learners, you develop professionals who can:

• Welcome others’ views with an open mind
• Constructively inquire
• Use imagination and tenacity to solve problems and innovate
• Be resilient to difficulties
• Tolerate uncertainties with courage

And remember: developing creative approaches to learning is, in itself, a creative process.

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9 classroom ideas for creative thinking and learning

Marie Swan July 29, 2019

Creative learning isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the best way to get kids to engage with their education. However, it’s often tricky for teachers to include creativity in their curriculum because the school day is already packed with activities. Fortunately, incorporating creative thinking into the daily timetable isn’t as difficult as you think.

It’s true that the creative learning environment looks and feels different than a regular classroom. But, once the right resources are in place, the benefits become clear. In a creative classroom, students can express themselves fully. They learn how to challenge problems and find innovative solutions. In short, they learn faster and more effectively .

Are you ready to help your class achieve its full potential? Let’s look at nine innovative ways to bring passion, creativity, and excitement to your curriculum.

Creative ideas for school activities

1. Make learning a hands-on activity

Learning by doing is something that most of us can identify with. It’s one thing to read about how to set up an experiment, for example, but it’s an entirely different experience to get your hands dirty and actually conduct one yourself.

Listening to a teacher talk for an hour on any subject is unlikely to engage pupils at a deep level. A teacher can describe how to set up an electrical circuit, but students will be better able to consolidate their learning by actually getting hands-on with a battery and wires. Interaction is the key to effective learning, and children who take a proactive role in their education naturally retain more information and have a greater understanding of the subject.

How can you achieve this in your own classroom? Here are some inspiring suggestions:

• Instead of reading a play script in English class, divide your students into small groups to act out the sections themselves.
• Rather than merely reading about and discussing the cell cycle, have your students identify the stages that cells are in by observing skin or plant cells under a microscope.
• When learning about 3D shapes, allow pupils to create their own replicas using art straws instead of looking at diagrams or pictures.

2. Consider your classroom flow

Rigid learning environments are an outdated concept. Today’s classroom needs to be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of a variety of activities. Pupils should no longer be sitting still in rows at desks during their school day. Of course, there’s a time for facing the front and listening to the teacher, but there must also be room for group work, whole-class presentations, independent work assessments, and paired discussions.

The key to good classroom flow lies in a well-thought-out layout. A group workspace is always a good addition to your class, with a large area of empty floor space that can be used for a range of purposes. Experiment with several options to find what works best for your learning environment.

3. Facilitate debates and discussions

As a teaching professional, you can easily fall into the trap of talking the entire block. In fact, this was historically regarded as a standard practice in teaching — children were there to listen, and teachers were there to impart their knowledge. Now, of course, the world is a very different place (and that’s a good thing!).

Effective self-expression is a key element of any creative classroom. Students must have the freedom to speak their minds and raise their opinions. To do this, there must be an open approach to discussion within the learning space. As the teacher, you’re partly tasked with facilitating meaningful conversations and challenging conventional viewpoints. Through thoughtful evaluation and interactive debate around a given topic, young people can learn about critical thinking and engage with their learning materials.

4. Bring color to your classroom

Color has a place in every classroom. In elementary education, color already has a key role to play. However, even older students can benefit from the use of color in unconventional and creative ways within their learning environment. 

We all know that color has the power to affect mood. By integrating color as an educational tool, you can help students to absorb information more rapidly. Color-coded notes, mood corners, and inspirational posters can all benefit a child’s ability to learn and think more creatively.

5. Offer choice as a standard

As a teacher, you’re likely used to setting a single assignment for every student in your class. However, that fails to take into account individuals’ skills, abilities, and interests. When young people are engaged with a project on a deeper level, they’re more likely to take away something valuable from the experience. By simply opening up the possibility of choice, you can unleash students’ potential to express themselves in their own way instead of trying to cram them into molds that don’t fit.

Unfortunately, students are rarely given freedom within the school setting. They’re used to being told what to do and how to go about it. You tell them what you want to see according to a rigid rubric, and they go ahead and produce what you’ve asked for (hopefully). When you think about it, this is a restrictive approach to learning. Yet it’s possible to allow students to unlock their true potential by simply offering them a choice, no matter how small.

Rather than requiring each student to write an essay to demonstrate their understanding of a topic, why not ask your students to pick a format that they like while still meeting your required criteria? Some may choose to assemble a PowerPoint presentation, while others may prefer to create a poster or even a dramatic performance. And yes, there will be students who actually want to write that essay.

By offering young people choice, you foster an environment in which they can prove their knowledge via the method that suits them best. That way, you can truly assess whether a student’s performance reflects their academic abilities, without the potential interference of an ill-suited format. Remember, the important thing is the understanding, not the way in which it is expressed.

6. Make goal setting part of everyday learning

Teachers set goals for their students, but are your pupils setting any for themselves? Part of a creative curriculum involves encouraging students to think about what they want to achieve. Once they know where they’re headed, they can take the right steps to get there. After all, without knowing the final destination, how can your students ever take actionable steps to get there?

For different students, the goals will naturally vary. While one pupil may want to improve their spelling, another may be keen to use more creative vocabulary or work toward expressing themselves more clearly in writing. The most important aspect of goal setting is the knowledge of self that it demands. To set a suitable goal, students must objectively assess their own strengths and weaknesses. They must determine what they still need to achieve and then plan how they can reach their goal.

Of course, an essential part of goal setting retrospection. Students must consider whether they achieved the target they set for themselves. If not, they must note what went wrong and how the obstacles can be overcome in the future. By doing this, creative thinking becomes part of everyday learning.

7. Make team building a priority

In all aspects of life, working as a team is essential to success. It’s also by working together that we can channel our creativity most effectively. Cooperation allows ideas to be shared, new solutions to be devised, and innovative decisions to be made. Working together also facilitates effective conversations and discussions, allowing for creative collaboration to take place.

Team building exercises should be part of the everyday classroom environment. Playing cooperative games and participating in group challenges both have a key role in building positive interactions. This type of interactivity also provides an effective sounding board for students to share their ideas and derive inspiration from their peers.

8. Experiment with mixed learner groups

In every classroom, there are certain students who always choose the same partners and groups when teamwork is required. This results in limited creativity — being too comfortable with any setup eventually causes stagnation. But selecting unusual groupings can unleash a surprising amount of creativity.

Within ordinary student-selected groups, each member will know their own role and will instinctively play it. However, when students are paired with unfamiliar classmates, they must broaden their horizons and learn how to work with others beyond their close circle of friends. They must look for a new role within this unusual grouping. As a result, they may discover new skills and unlock fresh potential. By simply shuffling groups around from time to time, you can help your students to learn more about themselves and what they can bring to the table.

9. Challenge and extend with open-ended questions

Closed-ended questioning has long been a feature of our education system. As teachers, we all too often deal in finite answers. Yet, this way of determining students’ knowledge and understanding actively shuts down creativity. While a closed question demands a set response, it doesn’t address any of the important creative aspects of education.

For example, asking what happens to a character during the course of a chapter may give pupils the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of what they have read, but it doesn’t look beyond the surface to the deeper concepts that the author intended. Open-ended questions encourage students to put themselves in the author’s position, to use their empathy, and to use their wider knowledge of the book and its context to generate a creative and thoughtful response to your questions.

Although children often struggle with the concept of open-ended questioning, they soon learn an array of new skills to rise to the challenge. They start to open their minds to the possibility that there is more than one answer to any problem. Students will soon adapt and begin to use their natural inquisitiveness and creativity to determine a range of potential solutions.

The importance of a creative classroom environment

Your classroom is the focus of your students’ learning journey. It is your responsibility as a teacher to ensure that it offers the most creative experience possible. By fostering a positive learning environment that is open to discussion and student contribution, and by introducing collaborative and thought-provoking activities into the curriculum, you can allow creativity to flow through the whole school day.

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Teaching Creatively and Teaching for Creativity

• First Online: 07 October 2016

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• Teresa Cremin 4  

Part of the book series: Educational Linguistics ((EDUL,volume 27))

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In order to prepare today’s students to engage with tomorrow’s world, governments, schools and universities need to prioritise creativity in education – both creative teaching (teacher centred) and teaching for creativity (learner centred). Creativity is a life skill; it can help students learn to live with uncertainty and use their personal creativity to thrive. This chapter examines students’ and lecturers’ conceptions of creativity, their creative engagement in teaching and learning, and the nature of creative pedagogical practice. In so doing, it argues for a fuller consideration of the possibilities and potential of teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. It highlights in particular the significance of motivation, passion, and recognizing one’s own creativity, and argues that increased attention urgently needs to be paid to creative teaching and learning in the academy.

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Cremin, T. (2017). Teaching Creatively and Teaching for Creativity. In: Breeze, R., Sancho Guinda, C. (eds) Essential Competencies for English-medium University Teaching. Educational Linguistics, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40956-6_7

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The Essential Framework for Teaching Creativity

As art teachers, we want our students to be capable and confident creative thinkers. We recognize, admire, and respect the ability of the artists we love to make art that’s fundamentally their own. We know it’s important to guide our students toward developing the skill set needed to do the same.

Creativity is a learned skill, but sometimes we wait until students are in advanced classes before they’re actually allowed to try their own ideas. Unfortunately, this is too late for the students who choose not to take advanced art classes.

In my own practice, I spent years thinking about how to move students at all levels from needing my support to making art independently. What I eventually came up with was a process called the Artistic Thinking Process, or ATP.

This framework works wonderfully to take my beginning high school students from unsure and needy to independent and confident.

The Artistic Thinking Process is based on the creative process. It clearly lays out the process of finding an idea, developing that idea, creating work around the idea, and finally sharing that work and reflecting on it. It teaches strategies to help kids navigate each stage of the process.

Breaking the process down in this linear way, from finding inspiration to reflecting on finished work, is helpful for students. It allows them to see the big picture in a way they can easily follow independently. Of course, we know creating a piece of work often has detours. For students, this realization comes through teachable moments and experience.

Teaching the Artistic Thinking Process Through Scaffolding

While this system works well, it’s important to start slowly.

Learning how to take an idea from conception to completion takes time and scaffolding. Therefore, I teach kids how to use the process with support before asking them to fly solo.

I teach specific lessons on the different steps of the process. In each, I model my thinking, provide time for collaborative learning, and ask kids to do independent practice. I especially focus on Inspiration and Development, as those are the two areas that can make the biggest difference in student work; for many students who are used to instruction where the teacher does most of the heavy thinking, having the responsibility of finding and pursuing an idea is a new and challenging experience.

As my students gain experience using the Artistic Thinking Process to move through the creative process, I gradually provide less support.

Instead of teaching specific strategies for each stage, I shift to asking students to make their own choices about how they will complete each step of the process. This builds until the end of the class, where students are asked to create a Final Portfolio . This acts as a final exam and is a collection of work made during the last few weeks of school. Students are required to use the Artistic Thinking Process to independently create, and they do!

The culmination of all of this hard work is a  pop-up art show . Energy, creativity, and focus are at an all-time high. Students who had no idea where to begin at the start of the course no longer need me for ideas. This is exactly where I want them to be!

Giving our students project steps and answers isn’t doing them any favors. Instead, let’s give them the tools they need to become independent artists. Students are able to initiate and pursue amazing, wondrous ideas we’d never think of, and to develop their creative potential so they can release it into the world no matter what professions they pursue. It’s our job as art teachers to prepare our students for the future. To do this, we must teach them how to think for themselves. We must teach them how not to need us.

How do you teach the creative process in your classroom?

How independent do you think students should be in the art room?

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

Melissa Purtee

Melissa Purtee is a high school art educator and a former AOEU Writer. She is passionate about supporting diversity, student choice, and facilitating authentic expression.

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Follow our news, recent searches, singapore students top pisa study on creative thinking, despite not thinking of themselves as creative, advertisement.

Singapore placed first in a study that tested 15-year-olds on how well they generate creative ideas, as well as evaluate and improve on them, ahead of Korea and Canada in second and third place respectively. 

Students leave for classes after their recess at a secondary school in Singapore on Oct 27, 2016. (File photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)

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Ang Hwee Min

SINGAPORE: Singapore's 15-year-olds came out top in an international benchmarking study on creative thinking, even though they do not think of themselves as creative. 

Singapore students were tested on how well they generate creative ideas, as well as evaluate and improve on them in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022.

A total of 6,600 students from 149 secondary schools and 15 private schools, including international schools and religious schools, participated in the study, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a press release on Tuesday (Jun 18). Singapore also topped the scoreboard for mathematics, science and reading.

Since 2012, PISA has included an optional innovative domain in each testing cycle, such as creative problem solving, collaborative problem solving and global competence. Singapore ranked joint-first with Korea for creative problem solving, and first for the other two. 

Singapore participated in the creative thinking study because it is an "important competency" that helps to prepare young people for a rapidly evolving world, said MOE, adding that it was interested in having insights on how students have developed in this area. 

The findings are useful in improving the curriculum and training teachers to better nurture creative thinking in students, said the ministry's deputy director-general of education Sng Chern Wei. 

"We certainly will be analysing the findings, and allowing us to learn from these findings the areas for further improvement, as well as areas of strength that we ought to affirm and preserve, despite the regular changes to our curriculum," he added. 

For example, to nurture creative students, they need to be given more space to experience unstructured activities and more exposure to aspects that allow them to come up with different ideas, said Mr Sng.

MOE will take these into account during its curriculum reviews, he added. 

Singapore launches blueprint for ‘future design school’ to prepare youths for an AI-centric future

Smallest proportion of low performers.

Students were presented with tasks that measure their ability to generate diverse ideas, generate creative ideas, as well as evaluate and improve ideas. This type of creativity can be developed through practice and is demonstrated in everyday contexts, MOE said. 

For example, in one exercise, students were presented with a book cover with the number "2983" on it, and were tasked to come up with an original story idea for the book. 

Conventional answers include an account of what life is like for humans in the year 2983, while an unconventional reference to the number "2983" in the story could be a more original idea. Participants were awarded full credits for uncommon ideas, and partial or no credits for common and conventional ideas. 

Singapore students ranked first in generating diverse ideas and generating creative ideas. They came second, behind Korea, in evaluating and improving ideas. 

Students were assigned to a proficiency level based on their results, with levels three and four, or a creative thinking score of 23 to 41, marking baseline performance. 

Those who scored below 23 points were regarded as low performers, while those who scored 41 and above were regarded as top performers, at proficiency levels five or six. 

About 58 per cent of Singapore students were top performers, attaining proficiency levels five or six. This is more than twice the OECD average proportion of 27 per cent, and the highest among all 64 participating systems, said MOE. 

The mean score in Singapore is 41, above the OECD average of 33. Singapore also had the smallest proportion of low performers at 6 per cent, below the OECD average of 22 per cent. 

Students from lower-socioeconomic status households also performed better than the average OECD student, with 36 points on average. Students in the top 25 per cent of households scored an average of 45 points. 

In most of the countries that participated in the study, girls performed better than boys on average, and Singapore was no different, although they were comparable in some aspects, said MOE. 

Girls scored an average of 42 points while boys scored an average of 40 points. Girls also outperformed boys in generating creative ideas, as well as evaluating and improving ideas. 

Commentary: Singapore students should be taught world affairs to avoid binary thinking

This is why parents go to great lengths to conquer PSLE. But what do their children say?

Less confidence in being creative.

Despite performing well in the study, Singapore students did not think of themselves as creative. Just 64 per cent of them said they were confident or very confident of being creative, compared with the OECD average of 73 per cent. 

About 47 per cent of them said they were confident or very confident in telling creative stories, and 42 per cent of them thought they could produce good drawings, compared with the OECD average of 61 and 55 per cent. 

MOE noted that the conventional impression of Singapore students is that they are not creative and only book smart, and that this PISA study was an instrument that could test this assumption. 

The outcomes are reassuring, and indicate that Singapore schools are not as uncreative as typical impressions of them would suggest, said the ministry, adding that it was "surprised but not entirely shocked" by the results. 

The PISA results in the past 20 years can also debunk the notion that Singapore students are rote learners who cannot apply their knowledge, MOE added. 

"A rote learner would not be able to perform in the PISA main instruments so strongly cycle after cycle," it said. 

The study is a "very affirming indication" that Singapore students can think creatively to thrive in the future, which will demand more innovation and adaptability, said Mr Sng.

Singapore students also reported favourable perceptions of their teachers’ pedagogies, which helped in nurturing their creativity, the Education Ministry said. The majority – 80 per cent – said their teachers valued creativity and encouraged students to come up with original answers.

Students also reported positive family environments that fostered creative thinking. For example, 84 per cent of Singapore students noted that their family encouraged them to try new things.

Schools and parents can work together to help increase students' confidence in their creative abilities, he added. 

Students may lack confidence because they have not received clear feedback on this aspect of their growth, since there are "very few" instruments that test creative thinking, Mr Sng said. 

"Another possible reason may be that they are generally humble ... and therefore don't rate themselves very highly when asked for their ability in creative thinking."

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Guidance for designing or teaching a Creativity/Innovation (CRI) course, including assignment resources and examples.

From the BU Hub Curriculum Guide

“BU students across fields of study will benefit from learning how to think in new ways, imagine new possibilities, take new approaches, and/or make new things. Creative activity is a source of deep human satisfaction and common good. In addition, the ability to generate and pursue new ideas is quickly becoming a prerequisite for entry into the skilled workforce, which places a premium on applicants’ creative skills and potential for contributing to creativity’s more applied offspring, innovation. BU graduates should understand how the creative process moves from need or desire to design to draft to redesign to execution; they will have personal experience of taking risks, failing and trying again; and, in this way, they will  have developed the patience and persistence that enables creativity to come ultimately to fruition.” For more context around this Hub area, see this  Hub page .

Learning Outcomes

Courses and cocurricular activities in this area must have all outcomes.

• Students will demonstrate understanding of creativity as a learnable, iterative process of imagining new possibilities. This can be observed in three interrelated ways:
• Students will practice creative and innovative thinking as an iterative process, for example by revising their ideas or their methodologies in response to feedback from peers or instructors.
• Students will provide a metacognitive reflection, in which they evaluate their choices in relation to risk-taking or experimentation and identify individual and institutional factors that promote and/or inhibit creativity.
• Students will generate a product based on the above processes. (See learning outcome #2.)
• Students will be able to exercise their own potential for engaging in creative activity by conceiving and executing original work either alone or as part of a team.

If you are proposing an CRI course or if you want to learn more about these outcomes, please see this Interpretive Document . Interpretive Documents, written by the   General Education Committee , are designed to answer questions faculty have raised about Hub policies, practices, and learning outcomes as a part of the course approval process. To learn more about the proposal process,  start here .

Area-Specific Resources

• Design Thinking Explained (MIT Sloan news article)
• Design Thinking for Educators:  designthinking.ideo.com
• Stanford d.School
• Stanford d.School Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking
• “An Introduction to Design Thinkin g”
• Principles of Productive Failure
• Daly, Shanna, Mosjowski, Erika, and Seifert, Colleen. “Teaching Creative Process Across the Disciplines.” Creative Education Foundation, 2016.  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jocb.158/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jocb.158/epdf
• Marquis, Elizabeth and Susan Vajoczki. “Creative Differences: Teaching Creativity Across the Disciplines.” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning  6.1 (2012).  http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&context=ij-sotl
• Jackson, Norman. “Developing Students’ Creativity Through a Higher Education.” 13 Nov. 2017. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321036375_Developing_Students’_Creativity_through_a_Higher_Education

Assignment Ideas

The following are assignments that faculty have developed to encourage students to develop creativity/innovation:

Creativity and Idea-Generating Activities

Spark students’ imagination, and prompt them to thinking creatively about ways to approach a problem. Examples of such activities include:

• Problems with little or no data or information . These are small-scale problems that have no “right” answer, and encourage students to generate multiple possible solutions. For example, students may be given the numbers: 2, 3, 5, 10, 24 and asked to use all the five numbers and any mathematical operations that they choose to make up the number 120. The problem has many solutions, for example: (10-5)*24/(3-2)=120, or (10-5)(3-2)*24=120 (Raviv, 2004). Another example might ask students to estimate the number of dentists in the greater Boston area, and develop strategies for testing their answers.
• What is it? Students are shown an invention, and asked to brainstorm what it is
• What can you do with it? Students are given an everyday object, such as a coat hanger, and asked to generate as many possible uses of the object as they can in a brief period of time.

Ill-Structured Problems

Ask students to invent strategies for solving a problem with little structure/scaffolding to guide their thinking. Students work in collaborative groups or teams to understand the problem and propose solutions. Problems may not have an obvious solution, and so are open-ended and authentic to real world issues. Students identify and analyze the nature of the problem, determine what evidence and information they need to gather to define or understand the problem, and then utilize gathered data to come up with informed solutions.

Design Thinking

Structure students’ learning experiences around these core principles of design thinking . As a process of creative innovation, design thinking involves asking questions and gathering information related to an individual’s or society’s needs, generating multiple ideas for solutions to meet those needs, prototyping artifacts and solutions, iterating designs based on user feedback, and producing a final product. Human-centered design thinking, a variation of the design thinking approach, emphasizes the role of human empathy throughout the solution design process, with an end goal of improving the quality of life for a given end-user or community. 

The purpose of design thinking is to create a viable product, or develop and implement solutions to a real-world problem. Throughout the design process, students learn to hone their creative skills by identifying constraints and determining criteria for successful solutions. To meet these goals, students must take into account not only what problem(s) to address, but how to define the problem(s) in terms of the larger societal context, including limits to possible solutions. The goal of the design thinking challenge is to practice design thinking skills and how to structure the design process. Structuring the challenge into four stages (below) can help students focus their attention on the specific creative skills that need developing:

• Identify a real-world problem
• Brainstorm solutions to the problem
• Prototype, gather evidence, and iterate on your solution
• Go public with your solution

Empower students to develop creative products and approaches by limiting the structure of learning experiences, and asking students to “fail productively” in their pursuit of problem solutions. Productive failure   is a concept from learning theory that emphasizes the construction and retention of knowledge by asking learners to devise multiple approaches and solutions to ill-defined problems for which there is no single “right” answer. Productive failure, and other “invention” activities are well suited for exposing students to the skills and habits of mind for Creativity/Innovation, and engage students in the authentic ambiguity of real-world problem solving.

Additional sample assignments and assessments   can be found throughout the selected   Resources   section located above.

Course Design Questions

As you are integrating Creativity/Innovation into your course, here are a few questions that you might consider:

• What framework/vocabulary/process do you use to teach the key principles of creativity and innovation in your course?
• What assigned readings or other materials do you use to teach creativity and innovation specifically?
• Do students have opportunities throughout the semester to apply and practice these skills and receive feedback?
• What graded assignments evaluate how well students can both identify the key elements of creativity and innovation and demonstrate their creativity and innovation skills?

Kapur, M. (2012). Designing for Productive Failure. The Journal of the Learning Sciences., 21(1), 45.

Raviv, D. (2004). Hands-on activities for innovative problem solving. Age., 9, 1.

You may also be interested in:

Project-based learning, ctl guide to the teamwork/collaboration hub area, research & information literacy hub guide, oral & signed communication hub guide, ctl guide to writing-intensive hub courses, ctl guide to the individual in community hub area, ctl guide to critical thinking, ctl guide to digital/multimedia expression.

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• Your Course Philosophy
• Writing Course Aims and Learning Outcomes
• Writing Unit Aims and Learning Outcomes
• Writing Assessment Criteria
• Writing Unit Assessment Templates Requirements
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Writing Unit Aims and Learning Outcomes

A common mistake people make is to write aims, learning outcomes and assessment criteria that are very similar to each other. Often they only make a slight change in the wording when an aim becomes a learning outcome. However, aims should be very different from outcomes, and there can also be a different number of aims from outcomes.

Before writing any of these, think hard about two things:

• what do you want your students to achieve through studying on the course ?
• what do they need to have learned?

Once you have answers to these two questions, identify what they need to have learned at the end of each unit . Remember that:

• what they achieve does not need to be measurable, and should feed into the aims .
• what they need to have learned should be used as the basis for writing learning outcomes .

Writing Aims

Unit Aims describe the intended purpose of teaching and learning activities in a specific unit. They should not attempt to describe what students will learn or do, rather they should attempt to answer two questions:

• What is the purpose of this unit?
• What is the unit trying to achieve?

When you write aims, you’re letting everyone know what you hope students will get out of a course, unit or session. Therefore, you’re not describing what will be assessed, you’re setting out your aspirations for the students. Aims are always written in the form of your hopes for the students and always begin with the verb in the infinitive, for example:

• To provide an insight into the theories and practices of Fashion Design
• To provide a range of opportunities for students to develop visual communication skills
• To enable students to practice and develop key graphic design skills
• To provide a critical overview of the state of contemporary architecture

Things to watch out for when writing aims

Remember that aims are a statement of intent and an opportunity to make clear what the course ethos is.

For course aims, you need to think big. What changes do really hope someone who has finished the course will have made? For example: ‘To encourage students to be self-motivated and ambitious’.

A common mistake is to write aims as if they were the students’ own, rather than your aims for your students. Remember, you’re always writing your aims for your students.

Writing Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are very different from aims. When you’re writing learning outcomes, you are identifying the things that all students should have learned at the end of a unit and that it’s possible to assess.

All the Learning Outcomes for a course will be listed in the Programme Specification, and each unit of study will then assess different Learning Outcomes. Some Learning Outcomes may be assessed more than once during the course, but each Learning Outcome must be assessed at least once.

Things to watch out for when writing learning outcomes

Each learning outcome needs to identify something different and each should only identify one thing. A common error is to put two or three things together within a single learning outcome. If you find your list of learning outcomes is long, then the chances are you need to combine some of these into an overarching learning outcome. Look closely at whether two of your outcomes are in fact describing the same or a similar outcome.

When assessing, it’s only possible to reward something like creativity if this has been identified in a learning outcome. On the other hand, bear in mind that a learning outcome must apply to all students. Therefore, if you want creativity, all students will have to demonstrate this.

Learning Outcomes that attempt to assess students’ ‘understanding’ are not very effective – how can you really be sure that a student understands something? And how can you assess ‘understanding’? A better approach is to use the phrase, ‘by the end of this unit students will be able to…’ and then follow this with an appropriate verb. For example, ‘by the end of this unit students will be able to describe how theories of postmodernism have influenced the development of Graphic Design.

Useful tips for writing effective Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes always begin with a verb and the best way to write them is to look at a version of Bloom’s Taxonomy and select one that is appropriate. You’ll notice from Bloom’s taxonomy that different verbs are used to describe lower or higher levels of learning.

• Avoid having too many outcomes – between 3 and 6 is usually sufficient, and these should focus on the most important things that students will learn during the unit.
• Consider how you will assess each outcome . Are they achievable for students? How will students be able to evidence their learning? Dispose of any outcomes that are too vague. _
• Make sure each outcome is distinct from the others. Each learning outcome needs to identify something different and each should only identify one thing. A common error is to put two or three things together within a single learning outcome. If you find your list of learning outcomes is long, then the chances are you need to combine some of these into an overarching learning outcome. Look closely at whether two of your outcomes are in fact describing the same or a similar outcome.
• Use clear, simple language , particularly in the early stages of a course. It is important that students have a clear understanding of what you expect them to do.
• Focus on the process as well as the product that students will produce. The outcome should describe the process that students will undertake during the unit, not simply what they will produce at the end. For example, ‘students will be able to produce an art exhibition’ is ineffective as it does not explain what students need to do to produce the exhibition. Instead, ‘students will be able to plan, promote, organise and put on an art exhibition’ explains the process that students will follow and will be easier to assess.

Setting outcomes at an appropriate level

The language that you use in your unit outcomes – and particularly the verbs – needs to be consistent with the level of study of the unit. If you’re not familiar with levels of study, they are as follows:

• Further Education – Level 3
• Higher Education 1st Year – Level 4
• Higher Education 2nd Year – Level 5
• Higher Education 3rd Year – Level 6
• Higher Education Postgraduate – Level 7

There are no strict rules as to the language that is suitable for each level of study. However, it is important that the language reflects the progression from lower to higher thinking skills as the levels of study increase. When writing unit outcomes, it can be useful to refer to what is known as Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives which classifies different levels of cognitive ability. An updated version of Bloom’s Taxonomy has been developed by Anderson & Krathwohl (2001), and it contains useful verbs that can guide the choice of appropriate language for a particular level of study. Click the image below to enlarge, or download the taxonomy.

Bloom’s Taxonomy for teaching, learning and assessing (adapted)

Based on the above taxonomy, here are some examples of unit learning outcomes using the verbs at each cognitive level:

Examples of unit learning outcomes based on Bloom’s taxonomy

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Creative Commons

Learn more with creative commons: recent training highlights.

CC’s Learning and Training team share highlights from a range of trainings, discussions, and engagements in the first few months of 2024. If you would like to explore CC Certificate courses or have a custom training, please email learning [at] creativecommons.org. We would look forward to working with you.

If the embedded timeline above is not working, the highlights are also listed below.

What’s next

In the coming months, we  look forward to co-developing a public folder of CC training materials with CC communities around the world. Stay tuned for more information and how to get involved. 

Meanwhile: would you like a CC training at your institution or community of practice? Learn more on our website and email learning [at] creativecommons.org for more information. We’d be delighted to help you continue to grow your knowledge of Creative Commons licensing and the open movement.

Timeline text

• 9 January : CC provided a short overview of OER and CC licenses as tools to support education and science in Ukraine. This was presented for Ukrainian conference “Open Knowledge in Ukrainian Universities: Open Educational Resources.” Recording available on YouTube .
• 20 January : At the 2024 ALA LibLearnX conference in January, CC presented: “ 3D Scanning for Cultural Heritage Institutions: Practical Skills and Considerations for Library Preservation .” In this hands-on workshop, participants learned the basics of how 3D scanning works and the importance of this technology for preserving cultural heritage and library collections. After a quick demonstration, we were able to dive into a deeper discussion about the copyright and open licensing considerations of this particular type of digital preservation.
• 26 February : CC provided a general CC licensing training for CC network colleagues in Rwanda . We thoroughly enjoy supporting CC network colleagues and are happy to provide one-hour trainings like this upon request.
• 29 February : In a keynote, titled “ In Cyborg Luddite Solidarity ,” we explored the challenges and promises generative AI poses for creators and open educators. From concerns around privacy, consent, bias, economic and environmental impacts, access to and control over technology further entrenching inequities, copyright, misinformation and more, generative AI remains a contentious advancement. Simultaneously, the benefits and promises witnessed in 2023 alone were awe-inspiring. AI advanced life-saving medical knowledge, enhanced educational curriculum alignment across national borders, and made creative expression more accessible to untrained creators. Using generative AI, international projects strengthened linguistic diversity online — work vital to addressing one of the major inequities of the internet. While our new landscape continues to evolve, we drew from the Luddite Movement and Cyborg Manifesto to highlight ethics from our collective pasts that may apply today.
• Between 4 and 8 March , we celebrated Open Education Week with a range of learning offerings.
• 4 March : In Affordable Learning Kentucky’s virtual OE week symposium, CC delivered a talk titled “ OER and Social Justice: Are We Keeping Our Promises? ” We were grateful to engage with a new audience about the OER and its potential for even greater accessibility and social justice to empower learners from all facets of society. 
• 4 March : This Licensing Q&A webinar was part of the Creative Commons Certificate courses , and was available to the public. Meredith Jacob is the CC US Public Lead and Director of the Project on Copyright and Open Licensing at the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law.
• 5 March : CC hosted a webinar focused on Wikidata, OER, and curriculum alignment in Ghana, Uruguay, and Italy, with special guests Nat Hernández Clavijo and Sailesh Patnaik . Clavijo and Patnaik shared the transformative potential of Wikidata in curriculum alignment through a review of Wikidata for Education, a project born in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, in collaboration with UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition. The project aligned Wikipedia articles with school curricula, revolutionizing the way students access relevant information, and has since expanded to Uruguay and Italy. Recording link (English) ; Recording link (Español)
• 6 March : CC provided a training day in prep for Missouri’s A&OER Conference . Training days are great opportunities to ensure large groups have a baseline understanding of CC licenses, open practices, and open advocacy efforts. 
• 7 March : In celebration of Open Education Week, OE Global’s Alan Levine interviewed CC Director of Learning and Training, Jennryn Wetzler. The podcast will be available on the OEGlobal Voices podcast page .
• 8 March : This Q&A webinar included an overview of CC’s recently released Recommended Best Practices for Better Sharing of Climate Data and the CC licenses and tools that support best practices. Our recommendations are a result of collaboration between Creative Commons, government agencies, and intergovernmental organizations including ECMWF, NASA, NOAA, and the World Resources Institute. They mark a significant milestone in our ongoing effort to enhance the accessibility, sharing, and reuse of open climate data to address the climate crisis. Our goal is to share strategies that align with existing data sharing principles and pave the way for a more interconnected and accessible future for climate data. These recommendations also align with the strategies and outcomes of the Open Climate Campaign, a partnership between Creative Commons, SPARC, and EIFL.
• 12 March : This Licensing Q&A webinar with CC General Counsel Kat Walsh was part of the Creative Commons Certificate courses , and was available to the public.  
• 12 March – 2 April : CC piloted a series of webinars with ALA’s Core division about copyright, Creative Commons licensing, and the potential impact of emerging technologies on copyright and open access. Recording links are forthcoming.
• 21 March : This informational webinar was part of the Creative Commons Certificate courses, and was available to the public. Nancy Olson, Director of Distance Education and Instructional Technology at Barstow College provided practical guidance on Accessible OER.
• 5 April : CC co-presented a session at the Northeast OER Summit titled “Beyond Affordability: Collaboration, Reuse, Translation and Localization of OER in Ukraine.” Through storytelling of a recent event in 2023, Ukrainian colleagues and CC demonstrate the power of OER as a tool for cross country collaboration, connection and as support for learning communities in Ukraine. Presenters invited participants to join their collective story, exploring ways to support Ukrainian colleagues translating and localizing needed skills training amidst war.
• 17 April : Creative Commons announced the launch of “ Introduction to Open Educational Resources ,” our first professional development microcredential course and partnership with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, commencing on 31 May.
• Learning & Training
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The cc open education platform funds five new community projects, creative commons and university of nebraska at omaha partner on a microcredential course, new revisions to cc certificate course content = new opportunities for translations, cc open education platform activities: 2023 in review.

International Programs

Fulbright recipient Dawn Thomas reflects on her impactful work teaching English and art in Spain

Dawn Thomas (MAT secondary English education ‘23) was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship for 2023-24. Originally set to embark on her teaching journey in Israel, unforeseen circumstances led to the cancellation of her assignment. She is now serving as an English language assistant and English art assistant for students ranging from 3 years old through those in sixth grade, who speak Spanish and Gallego, in Galicia, Spain. After finishing her Fulbright tenure and returning to the U.S., Thomas will start a new position in the English Department at Iowa City High School, where she will teach three world literature classes and two African American literature classes. Learn more about her reflections on her Fulbright experience through the Q&A piece below.   

Can you give us a brief overview of your Fulbright experience?

My Fulbright program initially began online with my original host institution in Haifa, Israel. During this period, I collaborated with the English Department at the Arab Academic College for Education to develop a six-day unit on African American literature, poetry, and music for Arab Israeli teaching students.

Since arriving in Spain, I have:

• Led multiple daily classes focusing on English language grammar and structure.
• Designed and taught a multi-style self-portrait art project.
• Created and led a cultural art activity that resulted in a school-wide collection of "stones of remembrance."
• Conducted an art activity centered on the life and work of Elizabeth Catlett.
• Facilitated small-group English language lessons and evaluations with each first and second -grade student.
• Hosted an "African American Read-In" in Spain as part of the National Council for Teachers of English's annual event. During this event, I read "Susie King Taylor: The Bravest Girl You've Ever Seen" to all first through sixth grade students over three days. The readings included an activity where students planted okra seeds, an important heritage reference from the book.
• Delivered a presentation about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on my first day of school, which coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S. My bilingual coordinator assigned all sixth grade students to create a biography about him, and I had the opportunity to review and evaluate each one.
• Designed a three-episode Harlem Renaissance podcast as a required "side project," featuring six students—two from each of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Our final podcast recording will take place on the last day of my Fulbright program. 

How has your Fulbright experience influenced you personally and professionally?

This experience has, more than anything else, provided me with the confidence to exist and engage with globally diverse groups of people. It has furthered my understanding and beliefs about how language works and is used in various power structures and defined cultures. It has helped me to appreciate immigrant student experiences in the U.S. I believe this experience will become invaluable to me as a new teacher in the Iowa City community. 

What advice do you have for future students interested in applying for a Fulbright?  

My advice for future Fulbrighters is to prepare to stick with the application process; believe that if you receive an award, you absolutely deserve it...no one is doing you a favor; and finally, this experience is, more than anything else you will probably experience, what you make of it. No one, not Fulbright, not the U.S. Department of State, not your peers or parents can make this experience into the dream you have for yourself. YOU have to make it happen, so let go of all expectations and start creating your journey. 

EXPLORE THE MANY FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES OPEN TO UI STUDENTS AND ALUMNI 

International Programs  (IP) at the University of Iowa (UI) is committed to enriching the global experience of UI students, faculty, staff, and the general public by leading efforts to promote internationally oriented teaching, research, creative work, and community engagement.  IP provides support for international students and scholars, administers scholarships and assistance for students who study, intern, or do research abroad, and provides funding opportunities and grant-writing assistance for faculty engaged in international research. IP shares their stories through various media, and by hosting multiple public engagement activities each year.  

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International Programs at the University of Iowa supports the right of all individuals to live freely and to live in peace. We condemn all acts of violence based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, and perceived national or cultural origin. In affirming its commitment to human dignity, International Programs strongly upholds the values expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights .  

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Ancient Greece Unit Bundle

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