creative education manifesto

Contemporary Visual Arts Network London

Join the #ArtIsEssential Creative Education Coalition and pledge your support for protecting the creative skills pipeline

#ArtIsEssential campaign coalition launch Creative Education Manifesto, calling on all political parties to protect the creative arts talent pipeline

Ahead of party conference season, a coalition of creative and higher education organisations have launched their  Creative Education Manifesto ,  calling on all political parties to commit collectively to restoring creative arts education.

The manifesto contains eight key asks which, if actioned, the coalition argues will help protect the critical talent pipeline that feeds the UK’s successful creative economy, and with it the economic backbone and cultural identity of the country.

Backed up by a wealth of compelling evidence, the  Creative Education Manifesto  illustrates how protecting and nurturing creative skills in education can have huge economic and societal benefits.

Among these benefits are:

• Job, skills and wealth creation and generation
• Increased innovation, productivity and growth
• High street renewal, safer streets and desirable communities, a true pathway to delivering levelling up across the UK
• Healthier, happier and responsible citizens equipped with powerful self-efficacy and agency.

All this whilst sustaining one of the most valuable UK Plc assets: its world-leading creative and cultural arts sector.

The #ArtisEssential  Creative Education Manifesto  calls for cross-party commitment and collaboration, and a long-term creative education and cultural plan for the UK.

The coalition hopes this will restore the talent pipeline into the creative arts and cultural industries and unlock a multiplier benefit impact across all sectors of society including the economy, health and community cohesion and integration.

The #ArtIsEssential  Creative Education Manifesto  calls on all political parties to :

• Equip every child with a solid foundation of creative education skills
• Drive the recruitment and training of specialist creative arts teachers
• Put the creativity back into creative arts/cultural arts education
• Review creative arts/cultural education assessment and qualifications to ensure valuable qualifications are protected in the long-term and creative arts skills are formally recognised and valued
• Enable a primary, secondary and tertiary education system that values STEM, the Arts and Humanities in equal measure and enables and embraces interdisciplinary study and research
• Realise the value of sustaining a talent pipeline of creative arts/cultural arts students into higher education and beyond, including a commitment to Lifelong Learning within and through creative education
• Ensure equality of access to a thriving creative arts/cultural ecosystem for every citizen across the country
• Ensure recognition of – and investment in – the power play of creative arts/creative skills to turbo boost entrepreneurism and commercialism across the UK

According to the DCMS’s own research published in June this year, participating in the creative industries and can have a significant impact on wellbeing – not just for improved mental health, but for degenerative health issues like Parkinson’s disease and dementia. The positive impact of the arts on health is strongest in tackling psychosis in young adults, postnatal depression, recovery from neurological damage and falls prevention in older people. Estimated cost saving to the NHS due to a reduction in GP visits from arts participation is estimated to be in the order of hundreds of millions of pounds per annum.

Creative industries GVA has been growing faster than the UK economy since 2011 with large increases seen in 2015 and 2019. [1]  The GVA of creative industries has increased 5.6% between 2018 and 2019 and by 43.6% between 2010 and 2019 in real terms. The creative industries delivered £115.9bn of Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2019, 5.9% of UK GVA.

Frontier Economics  reported that “…firms with greater connections to the [creative industries] are more likely to produce product innovations.”

Kingston University  Future Skills 2022  survey of 2000 business leaders found 44% identified creativity as a valued skill for innovation (8 th  in the list of 10 Future Skills).

A DCMS Culture White Paper from 2016  found that cultural participation can help deliver improved educational outcomes in children and young adults, including raised attainment and a greater likelihood of going on to further and higher education.

The #ArtIsEssential Creative Education Coalition is made up of the following organisations:

• University Alliance
• CVAN: Contemporary Visual Arts Network 
• CHEAD: Council for Higher Education in Art & Design 
• Craft Council
• London Higher
• University of the Arts London
• University College London  including  The Slade
• The Courtauld Institute of Art
• University of Kent
• South East Cultural Innovation Forum 

If you’d like to join the creative education coalition and pledge your support for protecting the creative skills pipeline – Sign up here or via our QR code below:

• Sign Up to #ArtIsEssential Creative Education Coalition

CVAN London is open to all arts organisation and practitioners within the Greater London area.

Membership is free , and the more members we have the better we can support and represent the sector.

Contact us to find out more

#ArtIsEssential campaign coalition launch Creative Education Manifesto

by admin | Sep 21, 2023 | A_Home_page_restricted , News , Publications

Ahead of party conference season, a coalition of creative and higher education organisations have launched their  #ArtIsEssential   Creative Education Manifesto ,   calling on all political parties to commit collectively to restoring creative arts education.

Read the report and i f you’d like to join the creative education coalition and pledge your support for protecting the creative skills pipeline – sign up via the QR code on this web page .

The manifesto contains eight key asks which, if actioned, the coalition argues will help protect the critical talent pipeline that feeds the UK’s successful creative economy, and with it the economic backbone and cultural identity of the country.

Backed up by a wealth of compelling evidence, the   #ArtIsEssential   Creative Education Manifesto   illustrates how protecting and nurturing creative skills in education can have huge economic and societal benefits.

Among these benefits are:

• Job, skills and wealth creation and generation
• Increased innovation, productivity and growth
• High street renewal, safer streets and desirable communities, a true pathway to delivering levelling up across the UK
• Healthier, happier and responsible citizens equipped with powerful self-efficacy and agency.

All this whilst sustaining one of the most valuable UK Plc assets: its world-leading creative and cultural arts sector.

The   #ArtisEssential   Creative Education Manifesto   calls for cross-party commitment and collaboration, and a long-term creative education and cultural plan for the UK.

The coalition hopes this will restore the talent pipeline into the creative arts and cultural industries and unlock a multiplier benefit impact across all sectors of society including the economy, health and community cohesion and integration.

The   #ArtIsEssential   Creative Education Manifesto   calls on all political parties to :  

• Equip every child with a solid foundation of creative education skills
• Drive the recruitment and training of specialist creative arts teachers
• Put the creativity back into creative arts/cultural arts education
• Review creative arts/cultural education assessment and qualifications to ensure valuable qualifications are protected in the long-term and creative arts skills are formally recognised and valued
• Enable a primary, secondary and tertiary education system that values STEM, the Arts and Humanities in equal measure and enables and embraces interdisciplinary study and research
• Realise the value of sustaining a talent pipeline of creative arts/cultural arts students into higher education and beyond, including a commitment to Lifelong Learning within and through creative education
• Ensure equality of access to a thriving creative arts/cultural ecosystem for every citizen across the country
• Ensure recognition of – and investment in – the power play of creative arts/creative skills to turbo boost entrepreneurism and commercialism across the UK

According to the DCMS’s own research published in June this year, participating in the creative industries and can have a significant impact on wellbeing – not just for improved mental health, but for degenerative health issues like Parkinson’s disease and dementia. The positive impact of the arts on health is strongest in tackling psychosis in young adults, postnatal depression, recovery from neurological damage and falls prevention in older people. Estimated cost saving to the NHS due to a reduction in GP visits from arts participation is estimated to be in the order of hundreds of millions of pounds per annum.

Creative industries GVA has been growing faster than the UK economy since 2011 with large increases seen in 2015 and 2019 .  ( DCMS Economic Estimates , updated April 2023 )   The GVA of creative industries has increased 5.6% between 2018 and 2019 and by 43.6% between 2010 and 2019 in real terms.  The creative industries delivered £115.9bn of Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2019, 5.9% of UK GVA.

Frontier Economics   reported that   “… firms with greater connections to the [creative industries] are more likely to produce product innovations.”

Kingston University   Future Skills 2022   survey of 2000 business leaders found 44% identified creativity as a valued skill for innovation (8 th   in the list of 10 Future Skills).

A DCMS Culture White Paper from 2016   found that cultural participation can help deliver improved educational outcomes in children and young adults, including raised attainment and a greater likelihood of going on to further and higher education.

University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson   said: “As our   Creative Education Manifesto   illustrates, creative skills and activities are important not just to the success of industries across the board, but to the wellbeing and happiness of the UK’s individuals and communities. Protecting and future-proofing the creative talent pipeline should be a top priority for government.

Cultivating and nurturing these skills from an early age can only benefit the UK economically and culturally and create longevity for one of the UK’s most lucrative industries.”

CEO of GuildHE Gordon McKenzie and Prof Paul Gough, Vice-Chancellor of Arts University Bournemouth and Chair of the United Kindom Art and Design Institutions Associaton (UKADIA)   said : “We are delighted to have partnered in the creation of the Creative Education Coalition Manifesto. Creative skills are not only vital to the productivity and global success of many UK industries: creative expression is fundamental to what makes us human. The opportunity to develop and progress creative skills at every stage of the education system is essential and we must ensure that all young people, regardless of their social background, have access to high-quality creative learning experiences from an early age.”

A spokesperson from CHEAD: Council for Higher Education in Art & Design said: ”Creativity is coveted by employers across all sectors as the essential future skill most in demand. As our creative education manifesto shows, creative graduates are resilient, risk-taking, change-making, problem-solving, team-working, tech-savvy, inspiring individuals who hold the key to unlocking UK’s creative potential, enriching all our lives and creating inclusive opportunities for all young people.”

Dr Diana Beech, CEO, London Higher   said : “The creative industries are important for a thriving economy, and London’s dynamic creative arts scene including an impressive array of world-leading creative education providers is no exception. The creative industries play a pivotal role in driving economic growth and fostering innovation. In London alone, the creative industries contributed £13 billion in taxes in 2019/20, which is £4,300 per person, with this economic benefit trickling out to the rest of the country.

As a global hub for culture and a leading destination for creative education, London attracts talent from around the world and acts as a magnet for creative minds. We must protect the UK’s talent pipeline to ensure that our world-leading creative industries can continue to thrive and produce diverse arts representation. The   Creative Education Manifesto’s   ask for cross-party collaboration and a long-term creative education plan for the UK is crucial to making this happen.”

Polly Mackenzie, Chief Social Purpose Officer at University of the Arts London   said: “Creativity is valuable to every one of us: to our communities, our wellbeing, the economy, and our place in the world. Creative education has the power to shape and change lives and we must do all that we can to protect and elevate it. This is why University of the Arts London is proud to be part of the #ArtisEssential coalition and we wholeheartedly support the   Creative Education Manifesto .”

Central School of Ballet offers inspirational dance training in the heart of London. Students join the School from around the world to secure a BA (Hons) degree in Professional Dance and Performance, validated by the University of Kent. Central aims to nurture the passion and talent of our dancers into excellence with classical ballet training supplemented by classes in varied styles that prepare students for today’s dance industry. With graduates in renowned companies around the UK and the world, Central works with talented students to create futures in dance.

Website: https://www.centralschoolofballet.co.uk/

Central Film School offers students a practical education in fictional narrative and documentary filmmaking. We aim to give independent voices the skills and knowledge needed to tell their stories through film. We train aspiring filmmakers, actors and screenwriters to work in the industry as soon as they graduate, both in the UK and internationally. Founded in 2008, Central Film School has provided students from all over the world with the fundamental skills needed to become professionals in the film and TV industry.

Through our BA (Hons), MA and Short Courses, we give students a grounding in all aspects of filmmaking, screenwriting and acting, including both fiction and factual disciplines. Our approach is practical, aided by our small class sizes, student-centred approach to teaching & learning, ethos and community atmosphere. The school constantly develops its programmes, equipment and methods to ensure students are familiar with the most up-to-date industry practices.

Website: https://centralfilmschool.com/

In September 2007, BPP University made history by becoming the first publicly owned company in the UK to obtain degree awarding powers. BPP University’s unique approach is education that is academically rigorous but also grounded in practical application that is highly relevant to our students, stakeholders and industry.

In 2020, BPP University was granted indefinite taught degree awarding powers (TDAP) under the Office for Students (OfS) new regulatory framework. The award of indefinite TDAP, which came into force on 1st September 2020 acknowledges the University’s academic integrity as a mature higher education institution with rigorous standards and academic governance. It has around 21,000 students, studying across 13 centres, in eight locations across England and online around the world. 78% are full-time, over 83% are on postgraduate programmes.

Website: https://www.bpp.com/

As an award-winning music specialist HEI, Point Blank takes pride in teaching the creative process of making music at the highest level. With expert lecturers and state-of-the-art facilities, the School has a reputation for providing students with an industry-informed curriculum and the tools to succeed in their careers. Based in London and with campuses across the globe, Point Blank enjoys an international presence. The School is renowned for offering HE and professional programmes in disciplines such as Music Production & Sound Engineering, DJ Practice, Vocal Performance, Music Industry Management and Radio Production & Broadcasting. Consulting industry all the way from curriculum design to their expectations from our graduates, Point Blank practises high-quality teaching by industry professionals to a community of students who become highly employable and go on to forge great careers in the world of music, the creative arts and beyond.

https://www.pointblankmusicschool.com/courses/london/

Rambert School is leading the way in dance education. We are a place of innovation, excellence, and creativity. We deliver degree programmes within the higher education sector and attract the best in dance talent to our course. We nurture and develop thinking artists and our graduates go on to have outstanding careers as dancers, choreographers, and artistic leaders. Through our work we are both feeding the dance profession and influencing it.

rambertschool.org.uk

The National Centre for Circus Arts is a registered charity and one of Europe’s leading providers of circus education. Our diverse range of work includes a BA Hons degree in Circus Arts, a structured progressive training programme for under 18s and professional development opportunities for aspiring and established performers. Adults and young people can take part in a range of recreational classes and we provide workshops and away days for the business community.

https://www.nationalcircus.org.uk/

Small by design, New College of the Humanities (Northeastern University – London) offers a vibrant, collegiate community delivering broad and academically rigorous degree programmes, designed to equip graduates with the combination of skills and knowledge that are increasingly desired by organisations, employers and society.

Graduates from Escape Studios (dubbed Escapees) have worked on award-winning games, films and TV series, such as Stranger Things and Obi-Wan Kenobi, along with Oscar and BAFTA-winning films such as Dune, No Time to Die, 1917, Interstellar, Star Wars, Ex Machina, and bestselling games Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted 2 and Forza Horizon.

Oxford Business College is the oldest independent business school from Oxford. It has expanded from one campus in Oxford to four cities, numerous campuses and partnerships with multiple UK universities, including the University of West London, Buckinghamshire New University and University for the Creative Arts.

Website: https://oxfordbusinesscollege.ac.uk/about-us/

Christ the Redeemer College (CRC), London is an academic institution established by the Redeemed Christian Church of God and a provider of vocational and higher education located in Harrow, London. CRC has been established for over eighteen years and is a partner college of Newman University, Birmingham.

Website: https://christredeemer.ac.uk/

For over 25 years ACM has delivered specialist higher and further education programmes. The roots of the provider are within music however this has broadened over the last 5-years with ACM now delivering specialist, interdisciplinary programmes across the Creative Industries taught by industry professionals and academics from world-class facilities in London, Birmingham and Surrey. ACM is grouped with Metropolis Studios, Europe’s largest independent recording complex, and The Electric Theatre, a thriving arts venue in Surrey, ensuring that students get real-world connections and opportunities throughout their studies.

The Dyson Institute is an independent provider of higher education. Its mission is to build challenging and enriching educational experiences, which are free, student-centric and aligned with the needs of industry.

The Dyson Institute’s students are employed as Undergraduate Engineers within Dyson Technology’s Global Engineering team from day one. They contribute to live projects, while studying for their BEng (Hons) Engineering degree apprenticeship. With a competitive salary and no tuition fees to pay, they can graduate debt-free.

Website:  www.dysoninstitute.com

Buckinghamshire New University offers industry-focused degree programmes and professional qualifications across the creative and cultural industries, management and information management sectors, and the public sector. Through its School of Nursing & Allied Health, the University works with the NHS, private and independent sectors to produce dynamic graduates ready to enter the profession. The University has a range of industry-focused facilities used by professionals, including a Human Performance, Exercise & Wellbeing Centre, simulation suites for areas such as healthcare and aviation, and state-of-the-art film and television and audio and music production suites. It also owns the dedicated conference and events venue, Missenden Abbey.

https://bucks.ac.uk/

Nelson College London is an independent provider of higher education with a career-focussed widening participation mission. Founded in 2009 and operating at two campuses in the London Borough of Redbridge, the College is registered with the Office for Students (OfS) as an approved fee cap provider. The College offers access to higher education to people from the widest possible range of backgrounds, enabling them to transform their lives and prosper through the acquisition of the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed in their chosen careers.

https://nelsoncollege.ac.uk/

At Regent College London, we have been delivering flexible and accessible education successfully for over 20 years, and are now in our tenth year of providing higher education courses.

We have built a reputation on well-qualified and experienced staff, small class sizes, and excellent student support and facilities. This allows our students to flourish and succeed – whether it is to build their careers or go on to further study. We have five campuses in Central London, Harrow, Kingsbury, Southall and Wembley.

We are dedicated to widening access to higher education for all prospective students and are recognised for our success in attracting applications from under-represented groups, those who are returning to education to gain new or higher level skills, and those with varying levels of past academic success.

We are able to work very effectively with students of all abilities to improve their prospects and carry them forward into achieving their academic aspirations, forge successful careers or start their own businesses.

Range of career-focused courses:

• Business Management
• Business Entrepreneurship
• Health and Social Care / Social Sciences
• Accountancy
• Software Engineering

Our range of fully accredited, industry-focused HND, Foundation Year degrees, Bachelor’s Degrees and Top-up degrees are designed with both professional and personal success in mind. All our courses are developed in close involvement with industry experts ensuring that you develop the knowledge and skills employers are looking for. 

Academic partnerships

Each of the Foundation Year Degrees, Bachelor’s Degrees and Top-Up Degrees offered at Regent College London is franchised and awarded by one of our partner institutions – Buckinghamshire New University, University of Bolton and the University of Northampton respectively.

Moorlands College is a Christian theological training college and has been training people since 1948. The college’s programmes are validated by the University of Gloucester, offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in applied theology, and has locations of study in Dorset, Torquay, Birmingham and Belfast.

RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art)  offers vocational training for actors, stage managers, designers and technical stage craft specialists. We pride ourselves on the exceptional standard of our teaching, productions and facilities, and the personalisation of our training tailored to the needs of each student. Our student population is a diverse community from all over the world, united by a shared passion for theatre-making.

We seek to train the most talented individuals and create opportunities for a wider community to engage with us through widening participation and outreach work, and short courses. Founded in 1904, we have an impressive track record of graduate achievement in theatre, film, television and radio, as award-winners and leading actors, directors, writers, producers, lighting, sound and costume designers, prop makers, scenic artists, stage managers and production managers.

University Academy 92 (UA92) is a new higher education institution based at a new campus in Old Trafford, Manchester. The UA92 experience is about much more than an academic qualification, it’s preparation for life. Students will embark on a personal development journey to forge their character, challenging and supporting them in equal measure, and preparing them to reach their full potential.

London Film School is a not-for-profit film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, neighbouring Soho, a hub of the UK film industry. LFS was founded in 1956 by Gilmore Roberts as the London School of Film.

University College of Estate Management (UCEM) is the leading provider of supported online education for the Built Environment, with over 95 years’ experience of providing the highest quality learning opportunities. UCEM has more than 3,500 students from more than 100 countries benefiting from its qualifications taught by tutors with extensive industry experience. The university college is the largest provider of Degree Apprenticeships within the Built Environment and works with more than 120 employers to deliver their apprenticeship training needs to more than 650 apprentices.

Solent University is a dynamic and distinctive new university dedicated to academic excellence, social justice and the integration of theory and practice. ‘Real world’ experience is built into an exciting range of innovative courses, whether in business, technology, art and design, media production, maritime, the creative industries, or sport.Solent University is based in Southampton, and was previously called Southampton Solent University.

Delivering creative media courses since 1976. SAE Institute offers courses in Sound / Audio Engineering, Music Production, Digital Filmmaking, Web Development, 3D Interactive Animation and Games Programming.

Central’s mission is to place students at the centre of its work. Central develops practitioners and researchers who shape the future of theatre and performance across the UK and beyond.

The undergraduate and postgraduate courses help students to achieve their future dreams in the agricultural, land, business management, food, equine and property industries.

NUA is dedicated to providing vocational, practice based courses which allow students to enter an exciting and challenging community of artists, designers and makers who share their passions and interests. Whilst the institution’s history can be traced back to 1845, it is contemporary and forward thinking with industry standard facilities in its city centre campus.

Today NUA continues to thrive as an established University sector institution, with a national reputation for excellence and a strong ethos as a creative academic community.

Founded in 1968 as a teacher training college, Newman has now grown to offer a variety of degree level courses across a number of different fields, whilst still upholding a fantastic reputation for teacher training.

The teaching at Newman takes places on its single campus on the outskirts of South-west Birmingham, welcoming students and staff of all ethnicities, cultures, faiths and social backgrounds.

Students are taught primarily in small collaborative groups rather than big lectures and are encouraged to be an active participant in their own learning.

Newman University consistently has excellent levels of graduate employment; this is a testament to the relevance of work placement opportunities available to students through the extensive Newman University partners and the skills students develop throughout their studies.

New College of the Humanities (NCH) is a university-level college in the heart of London. Small by design, NCH offers a broad liberal arts-inspired curriculum with highly personalised teaching, including a one-to-one tutorial system. The College admitted its first students in 2012.

Founded in 2006, Mont Rose College has created a reputable brand for higher education, offering an exceptional learning environment, situated in Ilford, London. Mont Rose College has earned its reputation by providing quality teaching and tailored student support. The College received TEF Silver second consecutive year and is registered with the Office of Student (OFS) since April 2019.

The College operates through three campuses based in Redbridge, London, offering HND and Pearson’s DET qualifications in the following subject areas.

HND in Business (Marketing) HND in Hospitality Management HND in Accounting and Finance HND in Health & Care Practice (Health Care Management) Diploma in Education and Training (DET)

Mont Rose College is also working in partnership with Buckinghamshire New University to offer the following courses; BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance (L6 entry ‘Top Up’)

B.A. (Hons) Business Management (L6 entry ‘Top Up’)

B.A. (Hons) International Hospitality Management (L6 entry ‘Top Up’)

B.A. (Hons) Integrated Health & Social Care (L6 entry ‘Top Up’)

B.A. (Hons) Business Management

BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance

BSc (Hons) Computing

As a provider of Higher Education, Mont Rose College is committed to lifelong learning, working with a diverse range of students from adult learners to school leavers seeking higher education in colleges in London.

Based in the City of London since 1879, The London Institute of Banking & Finance advance banking and finance by providing outstanding education tailored to the needs of business and individuals.

Our undergraduate, postgraduate and apprenticeship degrees in banking and finance are specific to role requirements and delivered by respected industry practitioners. As a result our students graduate with a recognised professional status and are prepared to advance the sector.

Today we are the only specialist provider of dedicated personal finance qualifications for children and young people and play a leading role in the development of financial understanding in the wider community.

We work with banking and finance sector experts to develop our professional qualifications in banking, regulated advice and international trade finance. Our aim is to help both individuals and organisations to preform better. All of our qualifications are therefore providing clear career paths to match industry need and professional recognition and can lead to Chartered Associateship status.

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts was set up to combine performance, technical innovation, understanding and business awareness for youngsters intent on sustained careers in the arts and entertainment economy. The LIPA cost some £20m to create. Spearheading its creation were Sir Paul McCartney (Lead Patron) and Mark Featherstone-Witty (Founding Principal/CEO). The curriculum is holistic. Whatever each student chose as their specialism, the extension of this skill is supplemented by allied performing arts skills, as well as business skills and intellectual development.

Leeds Conservatoire is a leading European conservatoire and the largest in the United Kingdom. The conservatoire provides music education to a community of over 1,900 musicians through a variety of programs, including undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, numerous short courses for all ages, and a Saturday Music School for young musicians aged nine–18.

The conservatoire opened in 1965 as Leeds Music Centre, providing a light music course with a significant focus on jazz. In 1993, Leeds Conservatoire launched the first jazz degree in Europe and went on to become the first U.K. conservatoire to offer popular music, music production, and, later, music business. Now, 50 years since its inception, the conservatoire’s  undergraduate program  includes degrees in popular music, classical music, jazz, music production, music business, film music, songwriting, and folk, and the postgraduate study option, entitled  MMus/PGDip Creative Musician , offers the opportunity to collaborate with leading composers, performers, producers, and songwriters, and develop skills as a professional-level musician.

Hereford College of Arts is a dedicated arts college with a specialist focus on art, media, design, popular music and performing arts. We offer eleven undergraduate degrees alongside a range of pre-degree and short course programmes for students of all ages from twelve. Our Mission:  ‘To provide outstanding education and employability in the creative arts.’

Established in 1902 as Falmouth School of Art, it has grown over a century to become a digital innovation hub. Today, its portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate courses represents the breadth of the Creative Industries, the fastest growing sector in the UK economy.

The University has recently experienced a period of rapid growth, its on-campus student population tripling in size since 2001 to nearly 5300 students today. These students study on two campuses in Falmouth and Penryn. As well as the courses that are delivered on-campus in Cornwall, Falmouth also provides groundbreaking online distance learning and exciting collaborative partnerships with industry-leading bodies including the Academy of Contemporary Music and the Fashion Retail Academy in London.

Falmouth’s research programmes are built on the principle of open innovation – the idea that the grand challenges of our age can be addressed most effectively when tackled collaboratively across disciplinary boundaries. They focus on delivering impact for lives and economies through the development of new knowledge, solutions, services and products.

Falmouth University acts as an anchor institution in Cornwall, partnering with public and private sector organisations to support the county’s economic, skills and enterprise agendas. Its 2030 strategic plan is aligned with the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly LEP 2030 plan and Cornwall Council’s long term strategic vision. The creative industries are key to the Cornwall economic strategy as the sector is not only currently the third largest employer in the region but also the likely source of future high growth companies and higher value jobs

Northern School of Art

Northern School of Art is a specialist Art and Design college, with campuses in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.

We offer a broad range of Higher and Further Education music courses – including BA Honours Degrees, nationally accredited Diplomas and Postgraduate Teaching Certificates. Our professional highly vocational and real-world courses include studies in guitar, bass, drums, vocals, songwriting, music production, music business, music journalism and event management.

Bradford College has been delivering quality education and training for over 180 years.  Each year we deliver hundreds of courses to over 23,000 learners, from across the globe. The College is the fourth largest in the country and the largest provider of higher education outside of the university sector in England.

The University has been named by Which? as one of the top five creative universities in the UK, with around 7,000 students and 1,000 staff. Over 94 per cent of graduates are in work or further study within six months of graduating, and many are successful freelancers, entrepreneurs or are employed in different companies across many sectors.

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Slade School of Fine Art

#ArtIsEssential campaign launches Creative Education Manifesto

Ahead of party conference season, a coalition of creative and higher education organisations have launched their #ArtIsEssential Creative Education Manifesto, calling on all political parties to commit collectively to restoring creative arts education.

For more information see the Contemporary Visual Arts Network England website .

Download the Creative Education Manisfesto (pdf)

Creative Education Manifesto

During the season of party conferences, UKCCD supports the Creative Education Manifesto, #artisessential , and joins the lobby to reverse the government’s biased promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine) subjects at the expense of arts subjects. This bias has the potential to hinder the development of creativity, which is essential for the future of our creative industries, contributing significantly to GDP and employment (larger than the financial sector) and scientific research.

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A manifesto for creative education

Author 1 's' : '')>, vanessa wilson, chief executive.

Vanessa Wilson is chief executive of University Alliance

• creative arts

On 19 January 2021, the Office for Students received a guidance letter from education secretary Gavin Williamson setting out the allocations for the Higher Education Teaching Grant for 2021-22.

It was this letter that in one fell swoop knifed creative arts education in the back, gave a good kicking to London institutions and put the boot into the Uni Connect programme.

With some fairly uncompromising words, Williamson informed the sector of the “strategic reprioritisation” of what was and wasn’t important:

…reprioritise funding towards the provision of high-cost, high-value subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost STEM subjects and/or specific labour market needs. …remove weightings for London providers from across the T-Grant, including the students attending courses in London supplement, and weightings within the student premiums. The reduction of London weighting will enable the OfS to invest in other priorities such as high-cost subject funding, which is offered to providers in all regions of England, supporting the levelling-up agenda.

Just three months earlier, the government had been forced into an embarrassing climbdown, scrapping its controversial cyber security campaign which suggested that “Fatima”, an aspiring ballet dancer, should retrain in cyber security. This famously sparked outcry from the art world, even riling up the government’s own culture secretary.

What these two episodes in recent higher education history told us was that there was palpable disregard for the creative arts and cultural industries. Dominic Cummings was even rumoured to have said that the “f*cking ballerinas can get to the back of the queue” in terms of pandemic support.

This all appears to be predicated on a belief that the cultural industries and creative arts education are just a “nice-to-have”.

The guidance letter to the OfS revealed not only an inherent prejudice within government, but a lack of basic policy fact-checking. The fact is that the creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK and are worth over £116bn to the economy.

A quick trawl of the Home Office’s shortage occupations list reveals that the UK is facing chronic labour shortages in these industries. “Artists – all jobs”, “dancers and choreographers”, “musicians”, “arts officers, producers and directors – all jobs” and “graphic designers – all jobs” make the list. By its own qualifying criteria, the teaching grant should never have been cut for these subjects – they fulfil the brief for being both high value and facing major labour shortages.

There is a wealth of evidence that creative arts education and our cultural industries are key to unlocking wider social and economic benefits and big wins for UK plc. Two and a half years since Gavin Williamson’s letter, it seems that some in government are now paying attention. In March 2023, the OfS announced £9.6 million of funding for performing arts courses , and in July the government appointed a panel of experts to develop a cultural education plan.

To an extent though, the damage has been done. Years of underinvestment and under-prioritisation for the creative arts have destroyed our creative education pipeline.

Art is essential

This is where the Creative Education Coalition enters the fray. A group of creative, cultural and higher education organisations coming together to set the record straight, and prove that creative arts education and our cultural industries are essential to the success of the UK’s social and economic future.

This led to the creation of our #ArtisEssential Creative Education Manifesto , which we are publishing ahead of the party conferences, and will use as a platform to support discussions with all political parties in the build-up to the next general election.

Our aim is to secure cross-party commitment to protect our creative education pipeline over the long-term through a set of eight simple asks, backed up by compelling evidence of the educational, economic, health, social and cultural benefits to UK Plc.

The asks aren’t rocket science and don’t cost the earth – in fact many don’t cost anything at all. But they will be transformative for the UK in delivering clear financial returns and efficiencies, including restoring the creative arts talent pipeline to ensure it continues contributing to the UK’s creative economy.

The manifesto calls on all political parties to equip every child with a solid foundation of creative education skills, to drive the recruitment and training of specialist creative arts teachers, and to put the creativity back into creative and cultural arts education.

It also calls for a review of creative and cultural education assessment and qualifications to ensure valuable qualifications are protected in the long-term and creative arts skills are formally recognised and valued, and for a primary, secondary and tertiary education system that values STEM, the arts and humanities in equal measure and enables and embraces interdisciplinary study and research.

We need a commitment to realising the value of sustaining a talent pipeline of creative and cultural arts students into higher education and beyond, including a commitment to lifelong learning within and through creative education. We need equality of access to a thriving creative arts/cultural ecosystem for every citizen across the country. And there needs to be recognition of – and investment in – the potential for creative arts and skills to turbo boost entrepreneurism across the UK.

If we get cross-party support for these eight simple asks, we believe that many of their combined aims will be enabled – economic productivity and growth, educational and health inequalities, levelling up including town and high street renewal, and crime reduction and safer communities.

Getting the creative skills pipeline going can be simple. It can also be a key solution to many of the challenges our country faces.

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Chair of CHEAD speaks at Creative Education Manifesto event at Labour Party Conference

Sandra booth, october 11, 2023.

During party conference season, a coalition of creative and higher education organisations, including CHEAD, have launched their Creative Education Manifesto, calling on all political parties to commit collectively to  restoring creative arts education.

At a packed event hosted by LIPA, Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, the #ArtIsEssential campaign coalition launched  C reative Education Manifesto , calling on all political parties to protect the creative arts talent pipeline .

CHEAD are a leading contributor to the manifesto, Trustees attended and our Chair also spoke at the event. The speech is detailed below.

Hello, I’m Professor David McGravie Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts Humanities & Social Sciences at University of Chester and I’m currently the chair of CHEAD Council for Higher Education Art and Design because I am passionate about art and design higher education.

CHEAD represents the higher education art and design sector and is an inclusive voice for creative arts education. We aim to inform debates and to influence key policy where it touches on our sector. As a charitable organisation with nearly 70 institutional members and a following of 1200 creative educators, researchers and practitioners, we are delighted to have worked with the creative education coalition to draw up this creative education manifesto. I think you’ll all agree this powerfully illustrates how protecting and nurturing creative skills in education can have huge economic and societal benefits.

The reality is our economy is stronger because of creativity. Generating over £115 billion every year, employing more than 2 million people, and growing at five times the rate of the wider economy, contributing more than aerospace, automotive, life sciences and the oil and gas sectors combined. The creative industries are not only the lifeblood of national culture, but they make an immense contribution to our financial security and future prosperity.

If our creative futures are put at risk — it’s not just our right but our responsibility to stand up and do something about it.

I can offer three specific priority areas where the UK arts, media and design higher education providers can work with the UK government in common cause to protect the creative talent pipeline –

1. Firstly, We can all collaborate to cultivate the next generation of the creative workforce. Educating our brilliant graduates is a privilege. They are the changemaking intra and entrepreneurs and agitators. Our colleagues at CHEAD witness every day the transformative power a creative education can bring. As the Future Skills Report from Kingston University highlights a higher arts education develops the graduate attributes and skills most needed by employers such as critical thinking, risk taking and problem solving.

2. Secondly, We can connect students and educators to the creative and cultural stakeholders in their area through the civic engagement and social purpose missions of universities.

3. Thirdly, We can empower teachers to deliver the existing curriculum in more creative ways through our teaching training programmes.

To do this, we must protect creative education at all levels.

In conclusion, art education is not just about learning to create art or play an instrument. It’s about developing a deeper understanding of the world around us, being more innovative creative thinkers and unleashing potential whilst contributing to our overall well-being. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to emphasize the importance of art from early learning through to higher education. And that is why……We are wholeheartedly supportive of the Art is Essential campaign.

I’m feeling optimistic that leaders and influencers here today are inspired to work together to design a new policy solution so that every school aged child has access to a high quality creative and cultural education. The people in this room understand what’s at stake. The manifesto offers a strong and compelling body of evidence that speaks to current policy but also radically challenges it. Today is about fuelling hope, ambition….and taking action, by scaling up a movement around creativity that promotes greater understanding of creative pedagogies and brings the political and social dimensions of creativity onto the horizon through further debate and research.

Building on the momentum created by all our speakers, I now call on everyone here today to offer strong support for this proposal and its ambitions.

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The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education pp 473–491 Cite as

Creative Learning in Education

• Ronald A. Beghetto 3  
• Open Access
• First Online: 25 June 2021

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Creative learning in schools represents a specific form of learning that involves creative expression in the context of academic learning. Opportunities for students to engage in creative learning can range from smaller scale curricular experiences that benefit their own and others’ learning to larger scale initiatives that can make positive and lasting contributions to the learning and lives of people in and beyond the walls of classrooms and schools. In this way, efforts aimed at supporting creative learning represent an important form of positive education. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce and discuss the co-constitutive factors involved in creative learning. The chapter opens by clarifying the nature of creative learning and then discusses interrelated roles played by students, teachers, academic subject matter, uncertainty, and context in creative learning. The chapter closes by outlining future directions for research on creative learning and positive education.

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Although schools and classrooms have sometimes been characterized as contexts that suppress or even kill student creativity (Robinson, 2006 ), educational settings hold much promise for supporting students’ creative learning. Prior research has, for instance, indicated that there is on an average positive relationship ( r  = .22) between measures of creativity and academic achievement (Gajda, Karwowski, & Beghetto, 2016 ). This association tends to grow when measures are more fine-tuned to assess creativity and academic learning in specific subject areas (Karwowski et al., 2020 ). These findings suggest that under the right conditions, creativity and learning can be complementary.

Indeed, creativity researchers have long asserted that creativity and learning are tightly coupled phenomena (Guilford, 1950 , 1967 ; Sawyer, 2012 ). Moreover, recent theoretical and empirical work has helped to clarify the construct and process of creative learning (Beghetto, 2020 ; Beghetto & Schuh, 2020 ; Gajda, Beghetto, & Karwowski, 2017 ). Creative learning in schools represents a specific form of learning that involves creative expression in the context of academic learning. More specifically, creative learning involves a “combination of intrapsychological and interpsychological processes that result in new and personally meaningful understandings for oneself and others” (Beghetto, p. 9).

Within the context of schools and classrooms, the process of creative learning can range from smaller scale contributions to one’s own and others’ learning (e.g., a student sharing a unique way of thinking about a math problem) to larger scale and lasting contributions that benefit the learning and lives of people in and beyond the walls of the classroom (e.g., a group of students develop and implement a creative solution for addressing social isolation in the lunchroom). In this way, efforts aimed at supporting creative learning represents a generative form of positive education because it serves as a vehicle for students to contribute to their own and others learning, life, and wellbeing (White & Kern, 2018 ). The question then is not whether creative learning can occur in schools, but rather what are the key factors that seem to support creative learning in schools and classrooms? The purpose of this chapter is to address this question.

What’s Creative About Creative Learning?

Prior to exploring how creative learning can be supported in schools and classrooms, it is important to first address the question of what is creative about creative learning? Creative learning pertains to the development of new and meaningful contributions to one’s own and others’ learning and lives. This conception of creative learning adheres to standard definitions of creativity (Plucker, Beghetto, & Dow, 2004 ; Runco & Jaeger, 2012 ), which includes two basic criteria: it must be original (new, different, or unique) as defined within a particular context or situation, and it must be useful (meaningful, effectively meets task constraints, or adequately solves the problem at hand). In this way, creativity represents a form of constrained originality. This is particularly good news for educators, as supporting creative learning is not about removing all constraints, but rather it is about supporting students in coming up with new and different ways of meeting academic criteria and learning goals (Beghetto, 2019a , 2019b ).

For example, consider a student taking a biology exam. One question on the exam asks students to draw a plant cell and label its most important parts. If the student responds by drawing a picture of a flower behind the bars of a jail cell and labels the iron bars, lack of windows, and incarcerated plant, Footnote 1 then it could be said that the student has offered an original or even humorous response, but not a creative one. In order for a response to be considered creative, it needs to be both original and meaningfully meet the task constraints. If the goal was to provide a funny response to the prompt, then perhaps it could be considered a creative response. But in this case, the task requires students to meet the task constraints by providing a scientifically accurate depiction of a plant cell. Learning tasks such as this offer little room for creative expression, because the goal is often to determine whether students can accurately reproduce what has been taught.

Conversely, consider a biology teacher who invites students to identify their own scientific question or problem, which is unique and interesting to them. The teacher then asks them to design an inquiry-based project aimed at addressing the question or problem. Next, the teacher invites students to share their questions and project designs with each other. Although some of the questions students identify may have existing answers in the scientific literature, this type of task provides the openings necessary for creative learning to occur in the classroom. This is because students have an opportunity to identify their own questions to address, develop their own understanding of new and different ways of addressing those questions, and share and receive feedback on their unique ideas and insights. Providing students with semi-structured learning experiences that requires them to meet learning goals in new and different ways helps to ensure that students are developing personally and academically meaningful understandings and also provides them with an opportunity to potentially contribute to the understanding of their peers and teachers (see Ball, 1993 ; Beghetto, 2018b ; Gajda et al., 2017 ; Niu & Zhou, 2017 for additional examples).

Creative learning can also extend beyond the walls of the classroom. When students have the opportunity and support to identify their own problems to solve and their own ways of solving them, they can make positive and lasting contributions in their schools, communities, and beyond. Legacy projects represent an example of such efforts. Legacy projects refer to creative learning endeavours that provide students with opportunities to engage with uncetainty and attempt to develop sustainable solutions to complex and ill-defined problems (Beghetto, 2017c , 2018b ). Such projects involve a blend between learning and creative expression with the aim of making a creative contribution. A group of fourth graders who learned about an endangered freshwater shrimp and then worked to restore the habitat by launching a project that spanned across multiple years and multiple networks of teachers, students, and external partners is an example of a legacy project (see Stone & Barlow, 2010 ).

As these examples illustrate, supporting creative learning is not simply about encouraging original student expression, but rather involves providing openings for students to meet academic learning constraints in new and different ways, which can benefit their own, their peers’, and even their teachers’ learning. Creative learning can also extend beyond the classroom and enable students to make a lasting and positive contribution to schools, communities, and beyond. In this way, the process of creative learning includes both intra-psychological (individual) and inter-psychological (social) aspects (Beghetto, 2016).

At the individual level, creative learning occurs when students encounter and engage with novel learning stimuli (e.g., a new concept, a new skill, a new idea, an ill-defined problem) and attempt to make sense of it in light of their own prior understanding (Beghetto & Schuh, 2020 ). Creative learning at the individual level involves a creative combinatorial process (Rothenberg, 2015 ), whereby new and personally meaningful understanding results from blending what is previously known with newly encountered learning stimuli. Creativity researchers have described this form of creativity as personal (Runco, 1996), subjective (Stein, 1953 ), or mini - c creativity Footnote 2 (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007 ). This view of knowledge development also aligns with how some constructivist and cognitive learning theorists have conceptualized the process of learning (e.g., Alexander, Schallert, & Reynolds, 2009 ; Piaget, 1973 ; Schuh, 2017 ; Von Glasersfeld, 2013 ).

If students are able to develop a new and personally meaningful understanding, then it can be said that they have engaged in creative learning at the individual level. Of course, not all encounters with learning stimuli will result in creative learning. If learning stimuli are too discrepant or difficult, then students likely will not be able to make sense of the stimuli. Also, if students are able to accurately reproduce concepts or solve challenging tasks or problems using memorized algorithms (Beghetto & Plucker, 2006 ) without developing personally meaningful understanding of those concepts or algorithms, then they can be said to have successfully memorized concepts and techniques, but not to have engaged in creative learning. Similarly, if a student has already developed an understanding of some concept or idea and encounters it again, then they will be reinforcing their understanding, rather than developing a new or understanding (Von Glasersfeld, 2013 ). Consequently, in order for creative learning to occur at the individual level, students need to encounter optimally novel learning experiences and stimuli, such that they can make sense of those stimuli in light of their own prior learning trajectories (Beghetto & Schuh, in press; Schuh, 2017 ).

Creative learning can also extend beyond individual knowledge development. At the inter-psychological (or social) level, students have an opportunity to share and refine their conceptions with teachers and peers, making a creative contribution to the learning and lives of others (Beghetto, 2016). For instance, as apparent in the legacy projects, it is possible for students to make creative contributions beyond the walls of the classroom, which occasionally can be recognized by experts as a significant contribution. Student inventors, authors, content creators, and members of community-based problem solving teams are further examples of the inter-psychological level of creative contribution.

In sum, creative learning is a form of creative expression, which is constrained by an academic focus. It is also a special case of academic learning, because it focuses on going beyond reproductive and reinforcement learning and includes the key creative characteristics (Beghetto, 2020 ; Rothenberg, 2015 ; Sawyer, 2012 ) of being both combinatorial (combining existing knowledge with new learning stimuli) and emergent (contributing new and sometimes surprising ideas, insights, perspectives, and understandings to oneself and others).

Locating Creative Learning in Schools and Classrooms

Having now explored the question of what makes creative learning creative, we can now turn our attention to locating the factors and conditions that can help support creative learning in schools and classrooms. As illustrated in Fig.  19.1 , there are at least four interrelated components posited as being necessary for creative learning to occur in schools, classrooms, and beyond: students, teachers, academic subject matter, and uncertainty. Creative learning in schools and classrooms occurs at the intersection of these four factors. Further, the classroom, school, and broader sociocultural contexts play an important role in determining whether and how creative learning will be supported and expressed. Each of these factors will be discussed in the sections that follow.

Factors involved in creative learning in schools, classrooms, and beyond

The Role of Students in Creative Learning

Students, of course, play a central role in creative learning. At the individual level, students’ idiosyncratic learning histories will influence the kinds of creative insights, ideas, and interpretations they have when engaging with new learning stimuli (Beghetto & Schuh, 2020 ; Schuh, 2017 ). Although a case can be made that subjective and personally meaningful creative insights and experiences are sufficient ends in themselves (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007 ; Runco, 1996 ; Stein, 1953 ), creative learning tends to be situated in well-developed subject areas. Moreover, the goals of most formal educational activities, such as those that occur in schools and classrooms, include making sure that students have developed an accurate or at least a compatible understanding of existing concepts, ideas, and skills (Von Glasersfeld, 2003). Consequently, creative learning in schools—even at the individual level—involves providing students with opportunities to test out and receive feedback on their personal understandings and insights to ensure that what they have learned fits within the broader academic subject area. When this occurs, creative learning at the individual level represents a blend of idiosyncratic and generally agreed upon academic knowledge.

Notably, the idiosyncratic portion of this blend is not merely surplus ideas or insights, but rather has the potential to creatively contribute to the learning and understanding of others. Indeed, the full expression of creative learning extends beyond the individual and also has the opportunity to contribute to the learning and lives of others. At both the individual and social level of creative learning, students’ need to be willing to share, test, and receive feedback on their conceptions, otherwise the full expression of creative learning will be short-circuited. Thus, an important question, at the student level, is what factors might influence students’ willingness to share their ideas with others?

Creativity researchers have identified at least three interrelated student factors that seem to play a role in determining students’ willingness to share their conceptions with others: creative confidence, valuing creativity , and intellectual risk - taking. Creative confidence beliefs refer to a somewhat broad category of creative self-beliefs that pertain to one’s confidence in the ability to think and act creatively (Beghetto & Karwowski, 2017 ). Creative confidence beliefs can range from more situationally and domain-specific beliefs (e.g., I am confident I can creatively solve this particular problem in this particular situation) to more general and global confidence beliefs (e.g., I am confident in my creative ability). Much like other confidence beliefs (Bandura, 2012 ), creative confidence beliefs are likely influenced by a variety of personal (e.g., physiological state), social (e.g., who is present, whether people are being supportive), and situational (e.g., specific nature of the task, including constraints like time and materials) factors. Recent research has indicated that creative confidence beliefs mediate the link between creative potential and creative behaviour (Beghetto, Karwowski, Reiter-Palmon, 2020 ; Karwowski & Beghetto, 2019 ).

In the context of creative learning, this line of work suggests that students need to be confident in their own ideas prior to being willing to share those ideas with others and test out their mini-c ideas. However, valuing creativity and the willingness to take creative risks also appear to play key roles. Valuing creativity refers to whether students view creativity as an important part of their identity and whether they view creative thought and activity as worthwhile endeavours (Karwowski, Lebuda, & Beghetto, 2019 ). Research has indicated that valuing creativity moderates the mediational relationship between creative confidence and creative behaviour (Karwowski & Beghetto, 2019 ).

The same can be said for intellectual risk-taking, which refers to adaptive behaviours that puts a person at risk of making mistakes or failing (Beghetto, 2009 ). Findings from a recent study (Beghetto, Karwowski, Reiter-Palmon, 2020 ) indicate that intellectual risk-taking plays a moderating role between creative confidence and creative behaviour. In this way, even if a student has confidence in their ideas, unless they identify with and view such ideas as worthwhile and are willing to take the risks of sharing those ideas with others, then they are not likely to make a creative contribution to their own and others learning.

Finally, even if students have confidence, value creativity, and are willing to take creative risks, unless they have the opportunities and social supports to do so then they will not be able to realize their creative learning potential. As such, teachers, peers, and others in the social classroom, school, and broader environments are important for bringing such potential to fruition.

The Role of Teachers in Creative Learning

Teachers play a central role in designing and managing the kinds of learning experiences that determine whether creativity will be supported or suppressed in the classroom. Indeed, unless teachers believe that they can support student creativity, have some idea of how to do so, and are willing to try then it is unlikely that students will have systematic opportunities to engage in creative learning (Beghetto, 2017b ; Davies et al., 2013 ; Gralewski & Karawoski, 2018 ; Paek & Sumners, 2019 ). Each of these teacher roles will be discussed in turn.

First, teachers need to believe that they can support student creativity in their classroom. This has less to do with whether or not they value student creativity, as previous research indicates most generally do value creativity, and more about whether teachers have the autonomy, curricular time, and knowledge of how to support student creativity (Mullet, Willerson, Lamb, & Kettler, 2016 ). In many schools and classrooms, the primary aim of education is to support students’ academic learning. If teachers view creativity as being in competition or incompatible with that goal, then they will understandably feel that they should focus their curricular time on meeting academic learning goals, even if they otherwise value and would like to support students’ creative potential (Beghetto, 2013 ). Thus, an important first step in supporting the development of students’ creative potential is for teachers to recognize that supporting creative and academic learning can be compatible goals. When teachers recognize that they can simultaneously support creative and academic learning then they are in a better position to more productively plan for and respond to opportunities for students’ creative expression in their everyday lessons.

Equipped with this recognition, the next step in supporting student creativity is for teachers to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for infusing creativity into their curriculum (Renzulli, 2017 ) so that they can teach for creativity. Teaching for creativity in the K-12 classroom differs from other forms of creativity teaching (e.g., teaching about creativity, teaching with creativity) because it focuses on nurturing student creativity in the context of specific academic subject areas (Beghetto, 2017b ; Jeffrey & Craft, 2004 ). This form of creative teaching thereby requires that teachers have an understanding of pedagogical creativity enhancement knowledge (PCeK), which refers to knowing how to design creative learning experiences that support and cultivate students’ adapted creative attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, and actions in the planning and teaching of subject matter (Beghetto, 2017a ). Teaching for creativity thereby involves designing lessons that provide creative openings and expectations for students to creatively meet learning goals and academic learning criteria. As discussed, this includes requiring students to come up with their own problems to solve, their own ways of solving them, and their own way of demonstrating their understanding of key concepts and skills. Teaching for creativity also includes providing students with honest and supportive feedback to ensure that students are connecting their developing and unique understanding to existing conventions, norms, and ways of knowing in and across various academic domains.

Finally, teachers need to be willing to take the instructional risks necessary to establish and pursue openings in their planned lessons. This is often easier said than done. Indeed, even teachers who otherwise value creativity may worry that establishing openings in their curriculum that require them to pursue unexpected student ideas will result in the lesson drifting too far off-track and into curricular chaos (Kennedy, 2005 ). Indeed, prior research has demonstrated that it is sometimes difficult for teachers to make on-the-fly shifts in their lessons, even when the lesson is not going well (Clark & Yinger, 1977 ). One way that teachers can start opening up their curriculum is to do so in small ways, starting with the way they plan lessons. Lesson unplanning—the process of creating openings in the lesson by replacing predetermined features with to-be-determined aspects (Beghetto, 2017d )—is an example of a small-step approach. A math teacher who asks students to solve a problem in as many ways as they can represent a simple, yet potentially generative form of lesson unplanning. By starting small, teachers can gradually develop their confidence and willingness to establish openings for creative learning in their curriculum while still providing a supportive and structured learning environment. Such small, incremental steps can lead to larger transformations in practice (Amabile & Kramer, 2011 ) and reinforce teachers’ confidence in their ability to support creative learning in their classroom.

The Role of Academic Subject Matter in Creative Learning

Recall that creativity requires a blend of originality and meaningfully meeting criteria or task constraints. If students’ own unique perspectives and interpretations represent the originality component of creativity, then existing academic criteria and domains of knowledge represent the criteria and tasks constraints . Creativity always operates within constraints (Beghetto, 2019a ; Stokes, 2010 ). In the context of creative learning, those constraints typically represent academic learning goals and criteria. Given that most educators already know how to specify learning goals and criteria, they are already half-way to supporting creative learning. The other half requires considering how academic subject matter might be blended with activities that provide students with opportunities to meet those goals and criteria in their own unique and different ways. In most cases, academic learning activities can be thought of as having four components (Beghetto, 2018b ):

The what: What students do in the activity (e.g., the problem to solve, the issue to be addressed, the challenge to be resolved, or the task to be completed).

The how: How students complete the activity (e.g., the procedure used to solve a problem, the approach used to address an issue, the steps followed to resolve a challenge, or the process used to complete a task).

The criteria for success: The criteria used to determine whether students successfully completed the activity (e.g., the goals, guidelines, non-negotiables, or agreed-upon indicators of success).

The outcome: The outcome resulting from engagement with the activity (e.g., the solution to a problem, the products generated from completing a task, the result of resolving an issue or challenge, or any other demonstrated or experienced consequence of engaging in a learning activity).

Educators can use one or more of the above components (i.e., the what, how, criteria, and outcome) to design creative learning activities that blend academic subject matter with opportunities for creative expression. The degrees of freedom for doing so will vary based on the subject area, topics within subject areas, and teachers’ willingness to establish openings in their lessons.

In mathematics, for instance, there typically is one correct answer to solve a problem, whereas other subject areas, such as English Language Arts, offer much more flexibility in the kinds of “answers” or interpretations possible. Yet even with less flexibility in the kinds of originality that can be expressed in a particular subject area, there still remains a multitude of possibilities for creative expression in the kinds of tasks that teachers can offer students. As mentioned earlier, students in math can still demonstrate creative learning in the kinds of problems they design to solve, the various ways they solve them, and even how they demonstrate the outcomes and solutions to those problems.

Finally, teachers can use academic subject matter in at least two different ways to support opportunities for creative learning in their classroom (Beghetto Kaufman, & Baer, 2015 ). The first and most common way is to position subject matter learning as a means to its own end (e.g., we are learning about this technique so that you understand it ). Creativity learning can still operate in this formulation by providing students with opportunities to learn about a topic by meeting goals in unique and different ways, which are still in the service of ultimately understanding the academic subject area. However, the added value in doing so also allows opportunities for students to develop their creative confidence and competence in that particularly subject area.

The second less common, but arguably more powerful, way of positioning academic subject matter in creative learning is as a means to a creative end (e.g., we are learning about this technique so that you can use it to address the complex problem or challenge you and your team identified ). Students who, for instance, developed a project to creatively address the issue of contaminated drinking water in their community would need to learn about water contamination (e.g., how to test for it, how to eradicate contaminates) as part of the process of coming up with a creative solution. In this formulation, both academic subject matter and creative learning opportunities are in the service of attempting to make a creative contribution to the learning and lives of others (Beghetto, 2017c , 2018b ).

The Role of Uncertainty in Creative Learning

Without uncertainty, there is no creative learning. This is because uncertainty establishes the conditions necessary for new thought and action (Beghetto, 2019a ). If students (and teachers) already know what to do and how to do it, then they are rehearsing or reinforcing knowledge and skills. This assertion becomes clearer when we consider it in light of the structure of learning activities. Recall from the previous section, learning activities can be thought of as being comprised of four elements: the what, the how, the criteria for success, and the outcome.

Typically, teachers attempt to remove uncertainty from learning activities by predefining all four aspects of a learning activity. This is understandable as teachers may feel that introducing or allowing for uncertainty to be included in the activity may result curricular chaos, resulting in their own (and their students) frustration and confusion (Kennedy, 2015). Consequently, most teachers learn to plan (or select pre-planned) lessons that provide students with a predetermined problem or task to solve, which has a predetermined process or procedure for solving it, an already established criteria for determining successful performance, and a clearly defined outcome.

Although it is true that students can still learn and develop new and personally meaningful insights when they engage with highly planned lessons, such lessons are “over-planned” with respect to providing curricular space necessary for students to make creative contributions to peers and teachers. Indeed, successful performance on learning tasks in which all the elements are predetermined requires students to do what is expected and how it is expected (Beghetto, 2018a ). Conversely, the full expression of creative learning requires incorporating uncertainty in the form of to-be-determined elements in a lesson. As discussed, this involves providing structured opportunities for students (and teachers) to engage with uncertainty in an otherwise structured and supportive learning environment (Beghetto, 2019a ).

Indeed, teachers still have the professional responsibility to outline the criteria or non-negotiables, monitor student progress, and ensure that they are providing necessary and timely instructional supports. This can be accomplished by allowing students to determine how they meet those criteria. In this way, the role that uncertainty plays in creative learning can be thought of as ranging on a continuum from small openings allowing students to define some element of a learning activity (e.g., the how, what, outcomes) to larger openings where students have much more autonomy in defining elements and even the criteria for success, such as a legacy project whereby they try to make positive and lasting contributions to their schools, communities and beyond.

The Role of Context in Creative Learning

Finally, context also plays a crucial role when it comes to creative learning. Creative learning is always and already situated in sociocultural and historical contexts, which influence and are influenced by students’ unique conceptions of what they are learning and their willingness to share their conceptions with others. As illustrated in Fig. 19.1 , there are at least three permeable contextual settings in which creative learning occurs. The first is the classroom context. Although classrooms and the patterns of interaction that occur within them may appear to be somewhat stable environments, when it comes to supporting creative expression, they can be quite dynamic, variable, and thereby rather unpredictable within and across different settings (Beghetto, 2019b ; Doyle, 2006 ; Gajda et al., 2017 ; Jackson, 1990 ). Indeed, even in classrooms that are characterized as having features and patterns of interaction supportive of creative learning, such patterns may be difficult to sustain over time and even the moment-to-moment supports can be quite variable (Gajda et al., 2017 ).

It is therefore difficult to claim with any level of certainty that a given classroom is “supportive of creativity”; it really depends on what is going on in any given moment. A particular classroom may tend to be more or less supportive across time, however it is the sociodynamic and even material features of a classroom setting that play a key role in determining the kinds and frequency of creative learning openings offered to students (Beghetto, 2017a ).

The same can be said for the school context. The kinds of explicit and tacit supports for creative learning in schools likely play an important role in whether and how teachers and students feel supported in their creative expression (Amabile, 1996 ; Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014 ; Renzulli, 2017 ; Schacter, Thum, & Zifkin, 2006 ). Theoretically speaking, if teachers feel supported by their colleagues and administrators and are actively encouraged to take creative risks, then it seems likely that they would have the confidence and willingness to try. Indeed, this type of social support and modelling can have a cascading influence in and across classrooms and schools (Bandura, 1997 ). Although creativity researchers have theorized and explored the role of context on creative expression (Amabile, 1996 ; Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014 ), research specifically exploring the collective, cascading, and reciprocal effects of school and classroom contexts on creative learning is a promising and needed area of research.

In addition to classroom and school settings, sociocultural theorists in the field of creativity studies (Glăveanu et al., 2020 ) assert that the broader sociocultural influences are not static, unidirectional, or even separate from the people in those contexts, but rather dynamic and co-constitutive processes that influence and are influenced by people in those settings. Along these lines, the kinds of creative learning opportunities and experiences that teachers and students participate in can be thought of as simultaneously being shaped by and helping to shape their particular communities, cultural settings, and broader societies. Consequently, there are times and spaces where creative learning may be more or less valued and supported by the broader sociocultural context. Although some researchers have explored the role of broader societal contexts on creativity (Florida, 2019 ), additional work looking at the more dynamic and reciprocal relationship of creative learning in broader sociocultural and historical contexts is also needed.

Future Directions

Given the dynamic and multifaceted nature of creative learning, researchers interested in examining the various factors involved in creative learning likely would benefit from the development and use of analytic approaches and designs that go beyond single measures or static snapshots to include dynamic (Beghetto & Corazza, 2019 ) and multiple methods (Gajda et al., 2017 ). Such approaches can help researchers better understand the factors at play in supporting the emergence, expression, and sustainability of creative learning in and across various types of school and classroom experiences.

Another seemingly fruitful and important direction for future research on creative learning is to consider it in light of the broader context of positive education. Such efforts can complement existing efforts of researchers in positive education (Kern, Waters, Adler, & White, 2015 ), who have endeavoured to simultaneously examine multiple dimensions involved in the wellbeing of students. Indeed, as discussed, creative learning occurs at the nexus of multiple individual, social, and cultural factors and thereby requires the use of methods and approaches that can examine the interplay among these factors.

In addition, there are a variety of questions that can guide future research on creative learning, including:

How might efforts that focus on understanding and supporting creative learning fit within the broader aims of positive education? How might researchers and educators work together to support such efforts?

What are the most promising intersections among efforts aimed at promoting creative learning and student wellbeing? What are the key complementary areas of overlap and where might there be potential points of tension?

How might researchers across different research traditions in positive education and creativity studies collaborate to develop and explore broader models of wellbeing? What are the best methodological approaches for testing and refining these models? How might such work promote student and teacher wellbeing in and beyond the classroom?

Creative learning represents a potentially important aspect of positive education that can benefit from and contribute to existing research in the field. One way to help realize this potential is for researchers and educators representing a wide array of traditions to work together in an effort to develop an applied understanding of the role creative learning plays in contributing to learn and lives of students in and beyond schools and classrooms.

Creative learning represents a generative and positive educational experience, which not only contributes to the knowledge development of individual students but can also result in creative social contributions to students’ peers, teachers, and beyond. Creative learning thereby represents an important form of positive education that compliments related efforts aimed at building on the strengths that already and always inhere in the interaction among students, teachers, and educational environments. Creative learning also represents an expansion of prototypical learning efforts because it not only focuses on academic learning but also uses it as a vehicle for creative expression and the potential creative contribution to the learning and lives of others. In conclusion, creative learning offers researchers in the fields of creativity studies and positive education an important and complimentary line of inquiry.

This example is based on a popular internet meme of a humorous drawing in response to this question.

Creativity researchers recognize that there are different levels of creative magnitude (Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009 ), which ranges from subjectively experienced creativity ( mini - c ) to externally recognized creativity at the everyday or classroom level ( little - c ), the professional or expert level ( Pro - c ), and even legendary contributions that stand the test of time ( Big - C).

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London Higher supports #ArtIsEssential Creative Education Manifesto

Posted 21 September 2023

In support of the #ArtIsEssential Creative Education Manifesto , Dr Diana Beech, Chief Executive Officer at London Higher said:

“The creative industries are important for a thriving economy, and London’s dynamic creative arts scene including an impressive array of world-leading creative education providers is no exception. The creative industries play a pivotal role in driving economic growth and fostering innovation. In London alone, the creative industries contributed £13 billion in taxes in 2019/20, which is £4,300 per person, with this economic benefit extending to the rest of the country.

As a global hub for culture and a leading destination for creative education, London attracts talent from around the world and acts as a magnet for creative minds. We must protect the UK’s talent pipeline to ensure that our world-leading creative industries can continue to thrive and produce diverse arts representation. The Creative Education Manifesto’s ask for cross-party collaboration and a long-term creative education plan for the UK is crucial to making this happen.”

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School principals get creative to keep their staff in the classrooms

Cory Turner

Hundreds of K-12 school leaders from across the country were in Washington, D.C., recently to talk with lawmakers. One of their main messages was: staffing shortages are still a problem.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Four years ago, COVID-19 sparked the biggest disruption in the history of America's K-12 schools. Recently, hundreds of principals came to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers to tell them what kind of help they still need. One problem kept coming up - staffing shortages.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER #1: We have major shortages right now.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER #2: I look at the teacher ed programs. They can't keep up with the need.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER #3: It's the lack of candidates.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER #4: People that I started teaching with in 2008 - I think my wife and I are the only ones still in the profession.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Cory Turner spoke with a bunch of these school leaders while they were in town.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE: I know you're probably tired of hearing about shortages of teachers and bus drivers and cafeteria workers. I mean, they've been driving headlines for years now. And let me tell you. The dozen principals I sat down with are tired of them, too.

CHRIS BASTIAN: It's contract time, and 10 minutes ago, I got an email - found out my high school English teacher is not coming back. That's like a unicorn.

TURNER: Chris Bastian is an elementary school principal and the superintendent of a tiny North Dakota school district. Oh, and he sometimes drives the school bus.

BASTIAN: Luckily, I think, you know, driving big things is fun. So - you know, so it does help. But...

TURNER: In this way, North Dakota isn't so different from northern Illinois.

RAUL GASTON: DuPage is just outside of Chicago - so lots of applicant, big pool.

TURNER: At least that's the way it used to be. Many years ago, middle school principal Raul Gaston says he had over 400 people apply for a job he posted for a seventh-grade science teacher.

GASTON: When I had the same position open three years ago, I literally had 12 applicants. Only eight were actually qualified.

TURNER: What's the problem? Well, a few things. First, teacher supply hasn't been great because, principal Beth Houf in Jefferson City says, the pay is often so low.

BETH HOUF: Our starting salary in Missouri is $38,000.

TURNER: At least that's the minimum. And it would be even lower if it weren't for a special statewide grant program meant to boost pay.

HOUF: That's the huge reason why. You don't attract the best and brightest for $38,000.

TURNER: During the pandemic, the demand for teachers also went way up. Schools all over the country tried to help students recover from the pandemic by using federal relief dollars to create new jobs and hire more people, and that created a kind of frenzy in the teacher labor market.

MATT HANEY: I have a neighboring high school who had two math openings for two math positions.

TURNER: Matt Haney, a high school principal in Maine, said one of his fellow principals had to get really creative to fill those open jobs.

HANEY: And the principal couldn't find anyone. And he wound up at dinner with his wife one night, and the waitress was really engaging and doing a good job. He said, have you ever thought about being a teacher?

TURNER: She actually took the job, and Haney says she's doing OK. There's another problem with hiring these days. Teaching has gotten more stressful. Teacher surveys make clear student behaviors have been more challenging in recent years, and also, in many places, the politics around education aren't helping. Lucas Pugh leads a middle school in Tempe, Ariz.

LUCAS PUGH: Honestly, my teachers are tired of getting yelled at by people and disparaged and, you know, attacked and then - you know, for what?

TURNER: Middle school principal Suzan Harris in Georgia says she's tried to tune in to her teachers' needs beyond pay.

SUZAN HARRIS: Because gone are the days when I can say, you know what? If you want to go, go.

TURNER: That includes being more flexible with time off if they're caring for a family member.

HARRIS: So now I have to really and truly look at how I care for my teachers. And because we're being intentional about how we care for our teachers, we're seeing them wanting to stay.

TURNER: The good news-bad news of this story is that at least some of these supply shortages may soon be coming to an end. That's because the federal relief dollars that help drive up demand will be disappearing in the coming months, and some of the jobs they paid for will disappear with them. Cory Turner, NPR News.

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