Aladdin
Group
- Group logo
The Reason that we choose Aladdin as our group name is that the lamp of Aladdin is only a piece of furniture till one day a pair of hands helping it to release the omnipotent spirit. Give yourself a chance to work with others, which can bring you a surprising outcome that you never imagined before
- content
Creativity is a cognitive and thinking skill or process. It seeks
to understand the thinking process of creative thought (Sternberg & Lubart,
1999). Any learning which involves understanding and new awareness, is based on
allowing the learner to go beyond notional acquisition, and focuses on thinking
skills.
Actually, creativity and innovation are closely linked. As a
teacher, using innovative teaching means to let students learn independent
thinking skills is more important than just learning knowledge, which means the
process that leading to creative learning the implementation of new methods,
tools and contents which could benefit learners and their creative potential.
We believe that learning is not to control students, but to
develop them; not remember theory, but go into the life; not implant knowledge,
but learn to create; not remember others’ thinking, but have your own thinking.
Creative thinking is the true learning, is the core of the study. Therefore, in
our new curricular, in order to achieve this teaching philosophy, we combine learning
knowledge and learning creativity, through understanding the topic which is
close to life, group discussion, in-class presentation, self-study, movie
script creating and other ways to improve students’ creativity ability and
thinking skills, which will be explained in detail in the following paragraph.
- Team consideration of creativity teaching and assessing environment in education domain
Creativity teaching in education domain is usually considered as
difficult for teachers because 2 tough contradictions are interrupting their
way. First one is the implicit theories of creativity in education; second one
is the poor environment for creativity teaching and assessing.
Accompany with years of education experiences and stories of
eminent people, teachers gradually reached a series of implicit theories on
what kind of students could be creative which differ from the ones carried by
researchers significantly. For instance, one implicit theory suggests that only
pure talent people in arts domain can make creativity happen; however, research
shows that people from any disciplines with learnt skills are possible of
coming up with creative ideas (Sharp 2004). In addition to that, numbers of
research also find the relevance between creativity and knowledge-acquisition
while implicit theory do not see any necessary to connect those two things
(Boden 2001).
In terms of poor environment, there are basically 2 main problems
in this field. To begin with, teachers have trouble with the balance between
different areas. Education do not only serve the need of developing students
but also responsible to deliver stakeholders’ expectation. It means that
teachers need to spend more time to finish teaching required knowledge and give
up time for discussion and idea sharing activities which benefit creative
thinking skills a lot. Even though some teachers are encouraged to stimulate
students’ creativity in their classes, teachers themselves are not creative at
all to design any creative teaching methods to motivate students’ creative
thinking skills. Because the lack of training of teaching creativity resulted
ineffective class activities teachers used.
- Theoretical base of the English program redesign
As what has been analyzed above, our team decide to design an
English teaching program for students in Hong Kong Universities to both teach
and assess their creativity. Instead of expecting eminent students with
brilliant creativity, this program aims at cultivate LCC (Little c Creativity),
which could be seen as behavior and mental attitude, or as the ability to find
new and effective solutions to everyday problems, among students (in Craft,
Jeffery, & Leibling, 2001).
In contrast to traditional English teaching that judge a student’s
mark on the behalf of their test result first, followed with their listening
and speaking skills, in this newly designed program, both teachers and students
should recognize the process of learning is more important than the product of
learning. Therefore, we would capitalize on in class activities during the
whole program to nurture students’ creative thinking skills and evaluate their
performance continuously.
According to strategies Woods and Jeffery discovered in curriculum
delivery, practitioners (teachers) could transfer knowledge in a creative way
by: sharing and creating knowledge; speculating on a given topic; sharing
puzzlement and so forth. Our team would make best use of these theories as our
program design guidelines. We firmly build two class activities that run
through the whole program to provide both teachers and students opportunities
for creativity teaching and learning.
- Activities both creativity itself and teaching for creativity
During the whole semester, each student is required to hand in a 1
page reading report once a month. Reading resources are not limited to one
specific category, such as novels, newspapers or magazines are all counted.
Students need to raise their own opinion of the materials they read in a short
and concise style since the report is 1 page only. At the end class of each
month, teachers will select 5 students randomly to present their works with the
whole class with Q & A session. Students who presented can get an extra
mark as bonus to stimulate their motivation. Teachers will also give comments
of each selected report. This activity matches Hong Kong students’ English
background. They can write and read English well because of teaching in English
model of the city; however, they lack experiences expressing their thought in
English. Staring from writing their thought out with limited words can exercise
their precise application of the language. What’s more, report presentation is
a brain-storming time for students to share and creating knowledge in public.
Last but not least, students can also benefit from reading which is very
effective to learn local expression and vocabulary.
Besides the activity mentioned above, the whole series of classes
will be divided in to different topics, including hot political issues,
history, entertainment, nature, animal protection etc. In the syllabus,
teachers provide topic related movies which requires students to watch after
classes. In the middle of the semester, each group of students should choose
one of the movies to do the project. The project is to redesign movie plot with
a hard copy of movie script and a team play last no more than 15 minutes. In
addition to that, each group should explain their consideration of plot
redesign. There will be one more chance to do this at the end of the whole
semester for students to improve their performance based on the first
experience. Teachers should address the purpose of this activity is to making
students the centric of the class and they should be responsible for their own
learning. And teachers would offer informal judgment as references. Plot
redesign by students can trigger their creative thinking skills and connect
knowledge learnt in lessons. Focusing on subtitles during the script writing is
a process of knowledge accumulating which can reinforce memory. As the article
mentioned in the beginning, knowledge and creativity are interdependent.
Assessment of the redesigned program
Creativity has to be valued by teachers throughout the whole
educational process, from informal judgment to written assignments. Reading
report and script redesign penetrates during the whole semester, teachers got
opportunities to observe students behavior and performance in the class and
adjust the plans to match their needs. This creative designed program could
enhance students’ motivation in English learning since they were already tired
of traditional listening only model in their high school. It is challenging for
them to speak out their thoughts appropriately and precisely but in-class
discussion and report writing before presentation and drama play can ease their
nervousness and build confidence.
- Team dynamics and situations that helpful or not helpful in developing Curriculum
There are two factor can help us come up with a creative English
class that teaches English as a second language to University Students in Hong
Kong.
Team Dynamics, from the definition of BusinessDictory.com, it
means some unseen force that affect the behavior relationship among Team
members, and Team Dynamics can strongly influence how a team reacts, behaves or
performs, it also have a direct influence of the productivity of the task.
These forces might include Personality styles, Team Roles, Office
layout, Tools and technology, Organizational culture and
Processes/methodologies/procedures.
Base the theory of MTR-i™ team dynamics, it based on the roles
that people play, and the resultant forces created by the interaction between
team members.
Our team is a diversity team, and each of our team members has
different learning area. Rena learned the urban planning in her university
life, a good Urban Planner need to clearly understand the history of the urban
and it also need good design & drawing skill. It makes Rena be a person who
use rational and logicality thinking to solve problems in her work and life.
Jewel took English as her major in her university study, she can speak a
fluency American English. And she had been an English teacher in mainland China
before she took the master courses in City University of Hong Kong, so she had
some experience of teaching English, and she did not use the“Duck-stuffing”
type of teaching to teach English, she used some creatively method to teach
English. Jason took his bachelor degree at Hong Kong Baptist University before
he took master degree at City University. So he has a understanding of Hong
Kong Society, and his bachelor major is Human Resources Management, in a word,
HRM is a subject which is put the suitable people at the suitable position, it
need to have strong communication skill and basic psychology knowledge, then,
it can analysis the character of each person and put them at the suitable
place.
And our team wants to design a creatively English course for Hong
Kong locals, and the character of our team is innovating. It can help us
develop an innovative curriculum,
An innovative team can use their imagination to create different,
unique and new perspectives and ideas. We observe the society around us, then
use our imaginations to think what we have observed from the different
perspective, and design a new ideas and insights, or using a new way to express
the old ideas and perspectives. Innovating often use radical solutions to
problems at the most time, it is a long term vision and it maybe a crazy ideas.
Innovative thinking is a double-edged sword, sometimes it were not
helpful in developing an innovative curriculum. We focus on creativity, it
might lead to ideas and perceptive that is too radical, which seem by others. Because
we need to create different ideas or perspective, it would cause us to pursue
impractical or unrealistic ideas. At the most time, creativity ideas is unique,
it might lack alternative perspectives.
According to an Education Commission report in 1994, the portion
of the population claiming to understand English rose from 44% in 1983 to 70%
in 1993. Census data showed that the proportion of the population that could
speak English, either as a first or second language, rose from 38.1% in 1996 to
43% in 2001 and 44.7% in 2006.
Hong Kong is an international city which as a bridge connects the
eastern and western country. During the British colonial era, English was the
sole official language of Hong Kong until 1974. After the 1997, Cantonese and
English are both official languages of Hong Kong under the Hong Kong Basic Law
and the Official Languages Ordinance. And the economics of Hong Kong based on
Financial and service industry, all the university in Hong Kong use the English
as the teach medium. So when our team designs the creativity curriculum, we can
pay more attention to teach knowledge that require creative problem solving
skills, innovative initiatives, and collaborative interactions with diverse
others. Instead of grammar, or vocabulary, etc.
Besides, there are another reason would influence us design an
innovative curriculum. Every university has policy and regulation, and school
would set a series of requirement for professor, at the same time, school want
English curriculum which is more creativity than traditional one, it is hard to
deigning. Because at the most time, creativity is thinking a new thing,
innovation is doing a new thing, and it is hard to understand by others. More
rules and regulations restrict the imagination of the team.
- What the parents concern about?-----If the teacher spend more time on class activities, will my children really acquire knowledge?
Actually, most of the parents are the advocates of tradition.
Because the traditional teaching mode results can be expected, whether seeing
other children have achieved good results, or their own child also has
significant improvement in previous study, they are willing to believe that
this teaching method, students can learn well and have a bright future.
Therefore, the primary thing what most of the Hong Kong parents worry about is
if their children are really into things, which means whether the students can
acquire English knowledge and utilize it well under this teaching innovation,
especially finding a decent job after graduation Parents always think more of grades and
visible results.
In fact, students in high school are just like test taking
machines. They learn by rote and the learning motivation is almost for the
grades. However, answering questions well does not mean they can digest the
knowledge and apply it to other situation well. Some students who can get high
marks lack of creative thinking skills and practical application ability, that
is, expressing their own thoughts accurately. Additionally, since they have
done lots of English exercise and tests in high school, passed quite difficult
exam –A level, and entered the university which has a relatively free
environment, it is inevitably for them to slack off. With less exam pressure,
many students are not willing to learn English seriously like before. To meet
the parents’ requirements, letting students learn English and use it well, the
traditional teaching methods are of no help to solve this problem. What we need
to do is to change their thinking habits, cultivating their creativity and let
them be on their own initiative to learn.
- Enterprises pay more attention to the applicants’ ideas and creativity ability.
Due to the rapid development of Hong Kong, when enterprises select
employees, it is no longer for them to solely look at graduates’ background and
grades, but paying more attention to whether the applicant has his own thoughts
and creativity that can bring fresh strength for the company. Look at what the
world’s top 500 enterprise values- 8 essential elements in Nestle: English
ability, adaptability and agility, attitude, creativity, enthusiasm, loyalty,
communication skills, independent, team work skills and leadership skills; for
Johnson, thinking is the first evaluation factor. Thus, as mentioned above, thinking
process is important than learning product. Our curricular is exactly based on
the teaching philosophy of thinking and creativity.
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English ability, adaptability and agility, attitude, creativity, enthusiasm, loyalty, communication skills, independent, team work skills and leadership skills
Thinking is the first evaluation factor
- Consolidating knowledge in the creation process of thinking
The innovation we proposed is to let the class become lively and
interesting, more than teaching vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. The
teacher will choose one topic a class to guide the students to discuss, which
involving those contents of hot debates that Americans or the British are
interested in. Through this way can help the students to have a certain
understanding about foreign society and humanity. After all, if one wants to
speak English well, he must know the English national historical and cultural
background. Meanwhile, in the basis of understanding, taking one-on-one
dialogue with the teacher can enhance their language ability and strain
capacity. Such curricular may largely stimulate students’ innovative and
creative thinking. Certainly, combined with parents’ concern, we add movie script
creation and drama play to improve students’ practical application ability. As
the process unfolds, the student becomes aware of the potential for a creative
approach in al aspects of the development of an identity (Kiely, 1998). At the
same time, they also learned the corresponding knowledge, including the
writing, listing, speaking and thinking in English skills. Of the most
importance, their creativity abilities are nurtured.
There is one more thing to be added. This new curricular is open
to above grade two, aiming to give freshman time to adapt different study in
university so that it can eliminate inelasticity, which in another concern one
those parents mentioned.
- Reference
- Margaret C. Kiely, 1998, “A piece of good news”: Teaching as a creative process, 30-38.
- Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. I., 1999. The concept of creativity: Prospects and paradigms. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity: 3-15.
- C.K. Lau, 2009. HONG KONG’S ENGLISH TEACHING CONUNDRUM. Hong Kong Journal. According to http://www.hkjournal.org/archive/2009_summer/3.htm
- Team Dynamics, Team Technology website. According to http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/team-dynamics.html
- Sharp, C. (2004). Developing Young Children's Creativity: what can we learn from research?Topic, 32, 5-12.
- Boden, M. (2001). Creativity and Knowledge. In A. Craft, B. Jeffrey & M. Leibling (Eds.), Creativity in education (pp. 95-102). London: Continuum.
- Craft, A., Jeffrey, B., & Leibling, M. (2001). Creativity in education. London: Continuum.
