Research as Creative Activity within Your Content Area
In the arts, creative activity equates to research (although faculty in the arts also produce additional research and scholarship in many of the same ways as other disciplines). The processes faculty in the arts utilize to mentor their students in these creative activities could also be used in other disciplines to encourage student engagement, active learning, and to help students look at content through new points of view. Students in arts courses often have the opportunity to improve and represent their knowledge through singing, playing, and composing through performance in large and small ensembles, and through techniques courses. Consider what this could look like to students in other content areas? Perhaps rather than demonstrating their ability to hit notes accurately, students use their creative thought to show their mastery of finance skills by creating a 5-minute video of a ‘day in the life of a person making minimum wage’ in which they share facts they have learned from the reading and apply it to an imagined person out in the world. Or what if your students visited a place of business and then were tasked with reimagining the floorplan to accommodate an individual in a wheelchair? In these ways, you are taking aspects of creative activities and applying them to content that is relevant to your course.
The first step is to find the opportunities. Connecting with community or campus events may provide a natural opportunity for creativity within your discipline.
Professional organizations put out calls for submissions from students related to your content area. As they are often welcoming to all types of submissions, this may pose a perfect opportunity to let students tap into their creative sides while also letting them get feedback from the professional community outside of UNK.
Watch for community-based events which often offer opportunities to share creative activities as well.
Create an opportunity on campus or collaborate with a student organization to invite creative presentations on topics within your field.
Once you find the opportunity, you can mentor students in crafting their product (video, composition, audition tape, educational flier, application materials).
Tackle the BIG problems – look at the real world and ask students to identify current issues/challenges facing the world. Then invite them to come up with outside-the-box solutions. Encourage creative thinking.
It is helpful to set up a timeline to help students organize their creation process. For instance, which tasks should be completed when and in what order. Again, students may be less accustomed to being asked to be creative – they need to learn how to set short-term goals and be held accountable in a different way than simply rote memory.
Consider collaborations across campus; is there any special equipment or resources that may be available through other departments across campus that can help your students in their process? The world today is very transdisciplinary.
Once your students’ products have been prepared, it is time to move beyond the standard lecture.
Let students determine the best avenue for presentation or for sharing their work. This may open doors for them when you are able to help them find a meaningful audience for their creative works.
This is an ideal time to reflect with your class about how it feels to put your creative products out to others for judgement. This is an opportunity to walk them through reflecting on and coping with anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and hope that are all natural responses to this process.
Creative works are in constant evaluation, often in real time. Because creative works are often personal for the creators, it can feel very intimidating to show your expressive pieces to your peers. Be supportive, create a space in your classroom where mistakes are ok and growth is the focus. Praise the process, it may be more important than the final product.
If the submission was not successful (was not accepted for presentation, etc.), ask students to reflect on what could be changed for the next time, or consider new avenues for submissions in the future.
If the submission was successful, then their work paid off, and students now get to experience the event (being hired, putting the solution into practice, performing with a group, competing on new stages, seeing your works in public, receiving guidance from renowned professionals).
Cavazos and colleagues (2021) shared data demonstrating positive learning outcomes associated with assigning students to create infographics when learning about commonly accepted psychological misconceptions. Chesnavage (2021) shared that allowing for creative-based assignments helped college students find new ways to connect to the content in a World Religions course. Teachers may perceive creating or opening assignments to creative options as too complex, however, by embracing creative outlets for students, they can actually enhance students’ ability to problem solve in new ways (Donnelly, 2004) which can decrease frustration, feeling overwhelmed, and burnout.
References
Cavazos, J. T., Stern, W., Stephenson, E., & Heddy, B. (2021). Myth-busting with infographics: Do creative assignments help students learn? Teaching of Psychology, 48(2), 117-123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320977269
Chesnavage, C. S. (2021). Digital stories as a creative assignment for studying world religions. Religions, 12(8), 644, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080644
Donnelly, R. (2004). Fostering creativity within an imaginative curriculum in higher education. The Curriculum Journal, 15(2), 155-166.
About the Invited Experts
Dr. Duane Bierman is Professor of Music at UNK, where he was appointed Director of Bands in 2010. He conducts the Wind Ensemble, assists with the Pride of the Plains Marching Band, directs the UNK Drumline, teaches the percussion studio, and teaches courses in conducting and ensemble techniques. Dr. Bierman holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting from North Dakota State University, a Master of Music degree in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Northern Colorado, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Wartburg College. He also taught instrumental music at Allen County Community College in Iola, Kansas for five years.
Dr. Christopher M. Strickland is an artist, educator, researcher, and creativity and educational consultant. He holds a BFA in Fine Arts Education and Painting from the University of Southern Maine, as well as an M.Ed. in Arts Integration: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Design and Ph.D. in Educational Studies, with a concentration in Educational Leadership, from Lesley University. Prior to moving to Nebraska and joining the University of Nebraska at Kearney Faculty in 2022, he lived in New England and taught K-12 visual arts education in New Hampshire. His creative scholarship and research focus is on autoethnographic and arts-based inquiry and broadly encompasses identity, spirituality, creativity and art education, visual literacy, interdisciplinary curriculum design, and culturally responsive teaching.
