Creativity and curiosity in the classroom

We all start out life as divergent thinkers, but then our thoughts seem to gradually converge. How then, asks Jonathan Lear, can we keep children’s creativity and curiosity alive as they get older?

Did you know that, up until fairly recently, the colouring used in red Smarties came from crushed up insects? Or that the technical name for their shape is an oblate spheroid? Perhaps not. However, if you are a parent of a child under the age of about eight, you will know at least one fascinating fact about one of the nation’s favourite sweets. The information I’m referring to is, of course, miles per tube. As any self-respecting parent will admit, sometimes the only way to get through depressingly long car journeys with young children is to slowly dispense sweets. My record, for those who are interested, is 50 miles per tube.

The trouble really starts, however, when the Smarties run out. If your children are anything like my two gorgeous girls (and most young children are), it’s only a matter of time before the incessant questions begin. I don’t think it’s a deliberate ploy to drive me mad; it’s just that they really, really, desperately want to know stuff. To give you an insight, one recent classic from my youngest daughter was, “Daddy, what would happen if the road disappeared?” For a parent, there’s only one answer to this. “Don’t worry darling, that won’t happen.” But that’s not an acceptable answer for a fiveyear- old. “No, but Daddy, what if it did?”

It’s hard not to buckle under such determined interrogation, but maybe if I was a better person, I’d be able to step back from the situation and reflect on the positives – namely, the incredible and undimmed curiosity of young children.

One of mankind’s greatest minds, Albert Einstein, spent large parts of his waking hours conducting very similar ‘thought experiments’. What would happen if the road, or ground, or planet really did disappear? What would happen to the car? Would it continue to travel with the same velocity? With no planet, would there be any gravity? Would the car continue to travel through space forever? All the time I thought that my little girls were asking ridiculous questions, but they were actually conducting thought experiments about motion through time and space.

It should come as no surprise, then, that it was also Einstein who famously said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” Curiosity seems such a childlike quality, and one that is frequently outgrown or left behind. It appears however, that truly great thinkers manage to retain this, and with it, the ability to think like a five-year-old.

So if this is the case, for whatever reasons, what can we do about it?

Little Miss Sunshine

About 10 years ago, one of the cleaners at my school, Babs, brought me a present. Her daughter worked at McDonalds and had access to the Happy Meal toy stash. Knowing that there was a slightly childish teacher working at her mum’s school, she thoughtfully siphoned off a selection for me to play with. In the collection was a series of Mr Men and Little Miss figures that they’d produced at the time, and it was in this collection that I found Little Miss Sunshine.

Little Miss Sunshine is plastic, very yellow, and has two small metal buttons on the back of her outstretched arms, one on each hand. When both her hands are held, a circuit is completed and she lights up. And as if that isn’t enough, if you stand in a circle with some friends, all holding hands, and add Little Miss Sunshine to the group – one member of the circle holding one hand, and another holding the other – she still lights up! As teachers, we can’t help but start thinking about the uses of such a toy. Little Miss Sunshine is crying out for a science lesson on electricity, and maybe one of the first questions that children (and adults) ask is ‘How does she work?’ Given the opportunity though, what else might they ask?

Having shown the children Little Miss Sunshine, they could be taken through a question development session where as many different questions are recorded as possible – they could start individually, then work in pairs and groups. (For some tips, try Googling ‘Question Formulation Technique’.)

Following this, the children could do some sorting based on three different categories of questions. The three strands are ‘Research’ (self-explanatory), ‘Explore’ (questions that can be investigated), and ‘Think’ (questions with no real answers – the more philosophical stuff). With very young children, each category could be represented by a picture or symbol to make it more accessible. For older ones, in a science context, for example, the ‘Explore’ could be replaced with ‘Test’. An example might be:

> Research - Who made it?
> Explore - How does it work?
> Think - Can you be happy all of the time?

With all the questions sorted, there could be a discussion about which areas the children want to explore further. Equally, the teacher may decide to address a particular strand based on the learning they want the children to experience. We might still arrive at electricity, but along the way, all the children’s questions have been valued, and divergent thinking has been celebrated. Some might be worked on straightaway, others ‘parked’ for later. Using a technique like this would still allow us to ensure the children have all the required knowledge in terms of the curriculum, but would also open up other opportunities to take their learning forward.

The ‘Who made it?’ question is an interesting one. Little Miss Sunshine was made in China, and along with the science learning, perhaps this might lead to the children finding out about working conditions, or fair pay, which in turn could lead to work on FairTrade. The ‘Think’ example, ‘Can you be happy all of the time?’, would work really well as a Philosophy for Children session, or circle time.

The process could be used to explore any object, image, or even film, and the more practice the children get at developing a wide range of different questions, the more chance they have of keeping hold of that amazing natural curiosity. It might even help us to recapture it too.