1. ‘Lessons from the Masters’
Bruce Hammonds

2. 5 Main messages
Why isn’t creativity
central to all our lives?
Is it just for the gifted?
Why is creativity
important?
What blocks creativity?
What can we learn from
the ‘masters’.
What is the creative
process?

3. New thinking is urgent because we are
leaving a failing Industrial Age
and entering an evolutionary
world.
Of unpredictability
interconnections
and continual creation.
Darwin started all
this!

4. What future attributes will we
need?
Is our education system up to it?
Short answer – no!
The big question for us all-
what is the purpose of life?
Artist Peter Sidell

5. Today we still use rear vision thinking –looking to
the past for security (National Standards)
Henry Ford
still rules!

6. Measure, classify, graph and gather ‘best evidence’.
We can Blame Newton or Blake’s God for
the mess we are in!
I have a
good
idea!

7. Time to leave age of
science and rationality.
They only observe and
measure only what they
are looking for.
(i.e. National Standards)

8. We have to change!!
Currently we still fail 20% of all learners
‘One size never fitted all’ :We need a new story
These
are the
citizens
we
need
‘little boxes’

9. National Standards will limit the
creative experiences of our students.

10. New thinking breaks all the rules
The ‘Fosbury Flop’.
Not ‘best practice’ – which becomes ‘fixed’ practice
What we really need is new thinking

11. It is the end of an
Era.
The captain and
officers should go
down with the
ship.
A lot of current
change is akin to
rearranging the
deck chairs on the
Titanic.
This is not
what we
planned

12. We all need to be
‘Be prepared to abandon everything’ Peter
Drucker

13. Are we ready for the future?
Are we ready for an ‘Age of creativity’ or
what some are calling ‘The Second
Renaissance?
Can we escape past thinking or structures?

14. Some say we are entering
An ‘Age Of Creativity’
or a ‘Second Renaissance’.
What will students need to thrive?

15. Attributes of a creative mind to
thrive in an ambiguous world?
‘Knowing what to do when you
don’t know what to do’? Piaget
‘How act when the world turns
to custard’. ( David Lange)
How to make decisions and
choices without enough data!

17. New Beliefs:
1.Everyone has
creative capacities
2.These capacities
are our greatest
resource
3.Developing
creative capacities
requires the
creation of a
culture of
innovation
Why do so many adults think
they are not creative?
What are your thoughts?

18. An ‘age of self invention’.
Perpetual 2yr olds , scientist, artists ,
explorers ..questioning everything!
Schools need to be about tapping
and amplifying students creativity.
All progress depends on the ‘crazy
ones’ – the ‘unreasonable ones’ – the
‘mavericks’.

19. We need the
‘beyonders’
Our society needs people
who go beyond expectations
John Britain
Columbus
Darwin
And creative teachers
most of all!!

20. Educations new
task:

21. ‘We have
successfully
domesticated
our students
ignoring their
natural gifts’.
‘We have
trained them to
be fed without
going on the
hunt’.
Sit!
Heel!
Fetc
h!

22. Lets ensure our students retain their birthright to
be natural learners – ‘wolves of learning’.
‘By institutionalizing
learning we have taken
something precious
from our learners.
Natural curiosity has
been replaced by our
curriculums.
Our agenda not theirs’
We need to create conditions to foster the thrill of learning

23. Our revised 2007 curriculum requires
creative thinking.
‘All students confident life long
learners’.
‘All students to be ‘seekers, user
and creators’ of their own
knowledge’.
‘Intellectual curiosity is at the
heart of learning’.
Importance of ‘key
competencies’.
Now ‘side-lined’ by National Standards

24. Software for the brain
– we have the power
to amplify or restrict
our students learning.
Humans are all born to learn – but even
before five some have lost the habit!
Unlimited
potential our
‘plastic’ brains
First years
vital – up
until 7

25. What are my unique
gifts and talents?

26. Elwyn Richardson
developed his school
as a community of
artists and scientists
in the 50s.
Still an inspiration for creative
teachers.
Elwyn knew…….

27. ‘I reach a hand into
the mind of the child
and bring out a
handful of the stuff I
find there and use it.’
The first books
should be
‘made’ out of the
rich experiences
of a child's life.
Another pioneer. Sylvia Ashton Warner. 1950s
Sylvia
Knew!

28. Our rooms ought to
be full of the
students ‘voices’
– their
questions,
thoughts and
ideas.
Our curriculum
should ‘emerge’
from their
concerns.

29. We now need to
develop an image of
a future learner …
and then develop
the conditions to
ensure all learners
develop their
unique gifts and
talents to be life
long learners.
‘Kids with the future in their

30. We have to create the conditions ( or
culture) to help all students develop
their gifts and talents.
‘To be seekers, users and creators of their own
knowledge’ NZC 2007

31. Discover the talents of all your students
and ‘amplify’ them.
We are what we can do!

32. Base all learning on developing multiple
intelligences and valuing uniqueness
‘Bits of these talented adults exist in your
rooms? Name their intelligences

33. Assess your strength out of ten for each
and share with someone
Which
ones do
schools
over
emphasize
to the
detriment of
the other
talents?

35. The ‘da Vinci Code’
Observe
carefully –value
the senses
Question
everything
See
connections
Experiment,
draw, paint ,
invent
Lets’ get our children ready for the 2nd
Renaissance –
an Age of Ideas and Creativity.
They wouldn’t
let me go to
school!

36. And Elliot Eisner who writes about exploring
our world with ‘nets’, or frameworks, to capture
and express meanings – similar to multiple
intelligences or traditional disciplines.
As an
artist
As a
scientist
As a
writer/poetA a historian
As a
mathematician
As a
builder
Or
whatever

37. Whatever your curriculum – ‘do fewer things
well’ – to develop deep learning.
Put the really important things in the first
bucket, important in the second and nice to do
if time in the third – then throw away the last
two buckets. ( from John Edwards)

38. The role of the ‘teacher’ :Good teachers have the
‘David Factor’.
I saw an
angel in the
marble and
set it free!

39. Give students time explore their creativity.
Horses developed by a ‘delinquent’ over several
months
17
year
old
‘Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly’ Mae West

40. The best metaphor for a teacher is a
creative coach or learning adviser
Are we are killing creativity
by too greater emphasis on
adult expectations and too
heavy a feedback
Students work should reflect
their personal styles.

41. Learning ‘how to
learn’ is
important but so
is
An appreciation
of the
power of
personal
mastery.
Goethe

42. Thinking is
about seeing
patterns in
ones
experience.
Do
something.
What
happened?
Why?
What will you
do next time.

43. We need to
respect and value
students
questions, ideas
and theories – our
rooms should be
full of their prior
ideas before we
start to help them.
What are
they
thinking
or
feeling?
Their questions are the beginning of our
inquiry programmes.

44. Observation a
key skill of all
masters
‘Draw’ on your prior
knowledge so as
to challenge it
Inquiry begins with observing something that
capture our attention.
What do you know about constructivism?
Durer

45. Draw a spider?
After drawing
check with those
near you and
amend your ideas.
( power of
collaboration – or
wisdom of crowds)
?
Assess your efforts –what criteria make a spider?

46. Most of you will
aware of the
various thinking
models* around
– I am
focusing on :
artistry, depth
of thought
and
excellence
*To often Higher Order Thinking for ‘thin’ learning?

47. Lessons from
the masters
1.Mastery takes time
-10000 hours – a long
apprenticeship
2.Lots of observation
of details, practice ,
effort and frustration.
3.With time intuitive
insight and personal
style/ability/ideas
develop..

48. We need to give students the opportunity to do something
well so they understand the importance of ‘stickability’ effort,
practice ‘grit’ – not first finished as best!

49. Creative process from novice to expert is somewhat
messy -10000 hours!
1.Initial excitement
2.Being overwhelmed by task or frustrated by difficulty or lack
of skill ( many give up at this point)
3.Often a need to stand back – solutions come unexpectedly
4.With time and success process becomes automatic/intuitive/
creative/ able to take advantage of serendipity

50. All masters
have what poet
John Keats
called ‘negative
capability’ - to
be able to cope
with uncertainty
and doubt
without rushing
into premature
judgment.
To be open and
learn from any
experience.

52. Darwin’s visual metaphor

53. We need to re-imagine everything.
‘Schools could
not have been
better designed
to destroy the
talents of
students’.

54. We need to re-imagine schools as
communities of Inquiry
‘Imagination is more important
than knowledge. To raise new
questions, new possibilities, to
regard old problems from a new
angle, requires creative
imagination and marks real
advance in science.’

55. ‘The liberation of genius and goodness of all
children, the creation of new minds for the
new millennium, and creating learning
communities that invite and challenge the
wonder and awe of the human spirit’.
Is this the work you want to do?
Stephanie –Pace Marshall America
educator and astronaut

56. We could be the
creative country
if we developed
all students’
imaginations
‘Who reaches a future
down for us from the
high shelf of spiritual
daring’ Allan Curnow
We all do!
Politicians are always wrong’ Michael Fullan

57. So we have a choice…..
Personalized creative
teaching to develop
all students gifts and
talents or
standardization of
teaching ( National
Standards)neglecting
student creativity
No choice!!

58. Most of all to drive your own
bus! Tell your own story!
Mike
Smithers
Main messages again
1. Why isn’t creativity
central?
2. Why is creativity
important?
3. What blocks creativity?
4. What can we learn from
the ‘masters’?
5. What is the creative
process?