By Melissa Payette, Director of Professional Learning and Customer Success
The demands on teachers created by high-stakes testing, students struggling to engage in school post-COVID, and increasingly stressful parent interactions, among countless other things, have made creativity more of a time-consuming luxury than an expectation for lessons. As Carl Hooker notes in his insightful EdSurge article, “Engagement and creativity play such important roles in the learning process, but with the myriad of other requirements and obligations, they can easily get lost in the abyss of deadlines and mandates.”
As educators know, focusing on creativity leads to more engagement, both for teachers and for students. So why, as Hooker points out, are educators pressured to save the most creative and engaging units for the end of the year, after state testing and assessment data is due? What is the impact of this approach on students? What about teachers? Could this focus on efficiency and benchmarks over creativity be contributing to the burnout that teachers experience?
Hooker cites a Gallup article that shows that schools where creativity is promoted and prioritized saw an increase of standardized testing scores and measures of deeper learning. We know that creativity is linked to academic success: “Creativity encourages problem-solving, critical thinking, iteration, collaboration and making deep connections in students’ learning material. Schools can struggle with fostering creativity when they are too focused on a desired outcome, too prescriptive and not allowing for individuality and student agency.” LessonLoop was founded on this principle: creative, engaging, and joyful learning experiences create better academic outcomes than rote, standards-driven learning. Our platform offers students the opportunity to express their needs and tell educators, in their own words, what helps them learn.
Hooker’s EdSurge piece touches on the value of professional learning that promotes creativity by ensuring that educators understand how tools add value and how to integrate them into lessons to make them “meaningful and relevant.” LessonLoop, as a professional development platform, relies heavily on this approach. We know that teachers intuitively know what works, and we want to provide them with tools, data, and resources to help them create the best, most engaging lessons. The LessonLoop educator dashboard provides data and student feedback to the educator, who can make informed decisions about their instruction to best target their learners. As Sir Ken Robinson says, “Building in more creativity comes down to student agency—teaching students to find their voice.”
