Lesson 1: What Makes an Environment That Supports Creativity?
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Welcome back to Teaching for Creativity! You've arrived at our next unit – The Ideal Learning Environment vs. Our Reality. In this first lesson, "What Makes an Environment That Supports Creativity?", we're going to look at some research-backed ideas about designing environments that support creativity. Once again...I hope you have those colored pencils ready! Let's get started.
Dream Big
Picture your current classroom. Think about what it looks like and what resources are currently available to you and your students. What are some things about your classroom environment that you have no control over? Now, let's dream up some possibilities. What if you were given a completely blank canvas to design the classroom of your dreams, with no limitations?
What would it look like? What resources would be available? In what ways would this environment support creativity?
Take some time to sketch out your ideal classroom environment. As always, you can use the materials you already have at your disposal, or you can download the template below. Be creative!!!
Designing Environments That Support Creativity
Researchers Richardson and Mishra have developed a framework for determining how effective an environment is at supporting students' creativity development, known as the Support of Creativity in a Learning Environment, or SCALE (2018). The SCALE was developed with three categories in mind: physical environment, learning climate, and learner engagement. The components of the SCALE are detailed in the chart below.
The three components of SCALE are essential for developing ideal learning environments. However, that doesn't mean that you need to implement every objective mentioned in the SCALE. For the next portion of this lesson, think about which component of SCALE you would like to improve on. Then, choose a corresponding article below in order to extend your learning. Brief descriptions of each article are provided to assist you in deciding which topic might be the most interesting to you!
Physical Environment: 8 Classroom Design Ideas and Best Practices to Follow (This article discusses questions we should be thinking about when designing the physical environment of a classroom, and links examples to other articles that may be useful!)
Learning Climate: Knowledge Building (This article discusses Knowledge Building Communities, which are a great way to continuously develop your learning climate while content is being learned. It is a very interesting topic and can be used effectively with most grade levels!)
Learner Engagement: To Increase Student Engagement, Focus on Motivation (This article discusses how motivation is the key to keeping students engaged with their learning!)
Excellent! I hope you've learned some helpful tips you can use to better design environments that support creativity. Our final activity for this lesson will be completing a Google Form. It is a questionnaire asking you to self-reflect on your classroom environment using the SCALE Framework, and asks you what you learned from the article you chose to read above. Your survey answers are completely anonymous. However, they will be viewable by other participants of this course, so that we all may learn from each other's experiences. Please be sure to keep your responses professional, and do not provide any personal information in the short response questions. This form is mainly a tool to be used for self-reflection, so answer honestly! Be sure to view participant responses after completing the form.
Learning Environments Inquiry Form
Wrapping Up
Designing a learning environment that supports creativity can be a daunting task. This is why having a framework to follow, such as the SCALE, can be a helpful tool. Remember – it is perfectly okay if you don't have every single element of the SCALE implemented into your classroom. As long as you can identify each main component of the SCALE (physical environment, learning climate, and learner engagement), you're on the right track!
In our next lesson, we'll talk about some of the limitations educators face with providing ideal environments for students...and how those limitations might not actually be so limiting after all. If you'd like to read more about the research mentioned in this lesson, you can find those linked under the "Lesson Resources" heading below. Otherwise, make yourself a cup of coffee, take a few minutes to breathe in some fresh air, and click the link below to start Lesson 2.
Click here to begin Lesson 2: The Reality of Education
Click here to return to the Teaching for Creativity Course Homepage
Lesson Resources
Cengage. (n.d.). Knowledge building. Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/knowledge-building
Parrish, N. (2022, November 17). To increase student engagement, focus on motivation. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/to-increase-student-engagement-focus-on-motivation/
Richardson, C., & Mishra, P. (2018). Learning environments that support student creativity: Developing the SCALE. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 27, 45-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2017.11.004
University of San Diego Professional and Continuing Education. (n.d.). 8 classroom design ideas + best practices to follow. https://pce.sandiego.edu/classroom-design-ideas/