Monday, May 04, 2009

New Dimension of Learning

I have had conversations with Myra Barrs in London in March, and email discussions with Mary Barr, both founders of the Learning Record for K-12 students, about a new, optional dimension of learning:

Creativity, originality, imagination. As learners gain confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, ability to use prior and emerging experience in new situations, and reflectiveness, they generally become more playful and experimental, more creative in the expression of that learning. This is true not only in "creative" domains such as the arts, but in nearly all domains: research, argumentation, history, psychology. In all fields the primary contributions to the field are the result of creative or imaginative work. This optional dimension may be adopted by teachers or schools to make explicit the value of creativity, originality, and imagination in students' development and achievement. Among other things, it recognizes the value of creative experimentation even when the final result of the work may not succeed as the student may hope.

Please note that this is an optional dimension, to be adopted as you wish. I would love to hear the results of your use of it.