May 11, 2009 – One of the most creative minds on the UofC campus will be teaching a course on that very subject this summer – with an educational twist.

Dr. Robert Kelly of the Faculty of Fine Arts will offer the three-credit, 500-level Creativity and Educational Practice from July 2 to 8, 2009 (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); the course will explore how creativity is fostered across various disciplines and grade levels in educational practice.

According to Cynthia Prasow, UofC Faculty of Education co-ordinator of this and other summer courses for practicing and aspiring teachers, Dr. Kelly’s course is “one of the most popular in our new series of professional development courses (click here to read more about Expanding Horizons.)

“Bob’s theory and methods of sparking creative thought and practice amongst children and adults are incredibly stimulating. We’ve had many positive comments from students since we introduced his course,” she notes.

Dr. Kelly is considerably more modest about his offering. “I suppose it’s not surprising, but I experiment with the course each time I teach it,” he says. “It is constantly evolving.

“My research is focused on creating environments and practice that enable idea generation and development that are at the core of creativity. I tend to focus on the design process across disciplines. My feeling is that the only way to understand creativity is to experience it firsthand and document it yourself.

“This can be quite alarming for people who don’t see themselves as particularly creative – and many people often put themselves into that category. So I start off the entire process by making students understand that we’re all on a level playing field, and that each one of them is safe to explore his or her own creativity.”

As the course progresses, Kelly says he draws the class into “longer independent and collaborative creative explorations, in which each student creates something and also documents the process of creation. I’m not so much worried about the quality of the product as I am about the students bearing witness to the longitudinal path of the creative process.

“I want them to be able to say, ‘Here are my ideas and here’s how they have changed over time,’ and then to understand why these changes have occurred.”

This is especially important as he’s observed that people often nip their ideas in the bud much too early.

“There is a strong tendency towards early closure, which is anathema to creative thought. This is common in our current educational culture that is heavily focused on consumption and standardization. Creativity has a path that ebbs and flows; as creators, we have to be aware of that process so we can actively develop ideas as they evolve.”

As for idea creation, Kelly uses simple design problems that are common to everyone. This creates a status-less environment where everyone is not afraid to offer ideas and can have fun doing it. “I ask people to do something like redesign a teabag. We all drink tea and we’ve all experienced how annoying it is when you take the teabag out of the cup and it drips all over the floor.

“From variations of this exerise, I have had suggestions that range from ‘making existential tea’ to ‘Why do you want a teabag? Why not use loose tea, the way other cultures do?’ No possibilities are rejected!

An added perk for the course is its luminous array of guest lecturers. “I bring in a variety of creative people primarily from the Calgary theatre community. These people are immersed in creative practice, so they not only can jam about it but also bear witness to it, demystify it,” says Kelly.

And when asked the inevitable question – ‘Can creativity be taught?’ – he has a ready answer. “Yes, it can definitely be developed, given three criteria. The first is time: you need time to generate and develop ideas and that can be a problem in a classroom where we are always pressed to cover and test curriculum content and to meet deadlines.

“The second criteria is a supportive environment: will educators and students have access to stimuli, research, budgets, resources that enable creative practice? And the third is disposition of the learner and the educator: Are both self-instigative when it comes to generating ideas? Are they inclined to experiment? Do they have the strategies that enable their ideas diverge and converge over time?

“If you can create a setting in which all three of these criteria can be met to some degree, then yes, creativity has a real chance in the classroom.”

Robert Kelly has recently published a text on creativity: Creative Expression, Creative Education is published by Detselig Enterprises Ltd. and available in the UofC bookstore.

To visit Dr. Kelly’s personal webpage, click here.

The registration deadline for this and other Expanding Horizons courses is June 15, 2009. To register for the Creativity and Educational Practice course, register at Education Tower Room 1102 weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Cynthia Prasow at cprasow@ucalgary.ca or phone her at 403-220-6288.