Sunday 30 September 2012

Blog #2: Building Creative Confidence

(Retrived: September 30, 2012)

Creativity is defined as:

  (1)    the state or quality of being creative.

  (2)  the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.

  (3)   the process by which one utilizes creative ability.

 (Retrieved: September 30, 2012)

As a culture, we have created an artificial dichotomy to distinguish the creative from the non-creative. In attempting to identify what qualifies an individual to be defined as creative (or not), we perpetuate a distorted notion of what it means to be so. We create exclusion; which negates and/or limits what is innately engrained in all of us - creativity. In general, we passively equate creativity with a traditional definition of the ‘arts’ - painting, sculpting, architecture, music and poetry. However, a more expansive understanding of the arts exists today, that includes the use of technology. Creativity manifests itself in immeasurable forms. When acknowledged and cultivated, I believe most of us would be more confident in sharing it with others. However, somewhere along the way, many of us have been deceived into believing that creativity is a subordinate quality to possess in light of academic rigor. We deny or suppress what most of us would prefer to do in light of what we are expected to do.

Where along the way in becoming adults, do some of us ‘lose’ our creativity?

How has our school experience served to enhance or diminish our creative selves?

Self-Efficacy is defined as “beliefs that determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave.”
(Retrieved: September 20, 2012)

As educators, I believe it is paramount for us to provide our students opportunities to develop and express their creativity. This means helping many of our students to reconceptualize what it means to be ‘creative.’ Technology is a viable medium for creativity. 

In David Kelley’s presentation at TED, he addresses how each of us can ‘build our creative confidence.” Many of us, through our personal experience of school have an eroded sense of creativity. 

Here are some questions to consider:

Was it a derogatory or belittling comment made from a teacher and/or peer that chipped away at your self-confidence?

Was there a lack of opportunity for you to develop your creativity (ex. because your teacher was fearful or anxious about his/her own ability)?

Were the demands of academic curriculum favoured over learning to use technology effectively? the fostering of art appreciation and skills?


As such, it is time to reclaim our creativity. 



David Kelley: How to Build your Creative Confidence

As educators, I believe we have a responsibility to reignite, cultivate and/or deepen creativity in our lives. There are no exact, prescriptive steps to direct us in beginning or continuing upon the development of our creativity. There is however, a vital reason for us to do so. Our students need us to thrive in our own creativity, so that they are inspired and impacted to follow our lead.

Be relentless in pursuing your creativity.

Here's an interesting article about Creativity:  A Creative Life is a Healthy Life