Creative Teaching for Equality and EquityAcross Cultures

Ananda Kumar Palaniappan1, Chanisa Tantixalerm2,

Adelina Asmawi1, Lau Poh Li1, Pradip Kumar Mishra1

1University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Addressing issues relating to equality and equity in educational experiences requires creative approaches and strategies. Often teachers are unable to address this aspect of their teaching. However, creative teachers, given their creative predispositions, might be better able to address these issues as they tend to generate more creative teaching approaches. Very few studies have investigated how creative teachers address these issues in their various forms and across cultures. There is a need to address situations where some learners require more challenging tasks than others and also when learners are culturally diverse. Creative teachers may be best placed to address these issues since they would be better able to come up with creative teaching strategies. There may also be cultural differences in teaching strategies since teacher-learner interactions have been found to differ across cultures. In this study, creative lecturers in Malaysia and Thailand were first identified using student ratings. These lecturers were then observed in their classrooms and interviewed on how they addressed issues relating to providing equitable education and the creative strategies they employed. Focus group discussions with their learners were also held to triangulate the findings. Findings show that creative teachers address issues of equality and equity in six areas, namely, Resources, Teaching strategies, Assessment, Language, Activities and Open-mindedness. Creative teachers are able to creatively design or adapt resources and activities which the diverse students are free to choose according to their needs. They have a repertoire of teaching strategies to accommodate students’ learning styles and employ culturally responsive communication styles. Being open-minded, they allow a range of assessment approaches that cater to student diversity. Although Malaysian and Thai creative lecturers address equality and equity issues in similar areas, their approaches in executing these creative strategies differ. These findings suggest that it may be necessary for teacher educators in Malaysia and Thailand to look into these six areas which may help them to address equity and equality issues creatively among learners. This paper concludes with some recommendations for further research.

Corresponding author:

Prof. Dr. Ananda Kumar Palaniappan

Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling,

Faculty of Education,

50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Email: Telephone: +6-019-9310956

Highlights:

  • Creative lecturers addressed equality and equity in twenty six areas.
  • Six main themes were derived from these areas
  • Resources, Teaching strategies and Activities were identified as the main themes.
  • Assessment, Language, and Open-mindedness were also thematically important.
  • Malaysian and Thai lecturers used similar strategies, but with different approaches.

Creative Teaching for Equality and Equity across Cultures

  1. Introduction

The concept of equality and equity in education has contributed vastly to the humanistic viewpoint of teaching and learning in schools and institutions of higher learning. This is in line with Aristotle’s view of treating equals equally and unequals unequally. Teachers are expected to design creative and innovative teaching and learning experiences to cater for alllearners taking into account thevarious areas of differences. However, this is not the case in most schools and institutions of higher learning (Derounian, 2011). For example, academically advanced learners are preferred to those who are not. Learners who are creative or question the status quo (Beghetto, 2007) appear unappealing to teachers (Cheng, 2011; Westby & Dawson, 1995) while those who are conforming are held in high regard.In some cases,slow learners and even the gifted are neglected(Yewchuk, 1998) sometimes due to the lack of knowledge and skills on how to cater for them (Munro, 2012). Although teachers may try their best to cater for all learners and also address their individual differences, this can be very challenging (Daniels, 2013). Creative teachers are able to generate and implement ideas to ensure there is equality and equity in the classroom however formidable the task (Reilly, Lilly, Bramwell,Kronish, 2011). When it comes to curriculum, teaching and assessment, they know that one size does not fit all.

While a number of studies have been done on creative teaching (e.g., Horng,Hong,Lin, Lin,Chang, Chu, 2005; Rinkevich, 2011) and on equality and equity in education(e.g., Blanchet-Cohen,& Reilly,2013;Reed & Oppong, 2005), hardly any studies deal with how creative teachers address equality and equity issues in the classroom. A review of literature has revealed a dearth of information on how creative university lecturers address equality and equity issues in their classes, especially in institutions of higher learning where increasing learner diversity resulted from internationalization of education. In this paper we aim at filling this gap in knowledge and stimulate further research by observing and interviewing creative lecturers. These lecturers have been nominated as creative by their students, for the creative strategies employed to ensure equality and equity in their classes.Secondly, we elucidate the cultural differences in how creative lecturers address equality and equity as certain cultures may be sensitive to these issues in schools (Misawa, 2010; Paul-Binyamin & Reingold, 2013).Our findings may have implications for teachers, curriculum developers and policy planners in a multicultural education system.

1.1 Research questions

Based on the preceding rationale of the study, the research questions that this study intends to address are:

i)In what areas do creative teachers address equity and equality issues?

ii)Are there cultural differences in these areas of creative teaching between Malaysian and Thai creative lecturers?

  1. Creative Teaching

Creative teaching has been defined in varied ways (see Gibson, 2010, for example). This could be due to the nebulous nature of creativity itself (McWilliam &Haukka, 2008) resulting in a lack of a universally accepted definition of creativity (Clouder, Oliver, & Tait, 2008; Pope, 2005; Reid & Petocz, 2004; Sousa, 2007). Most definitions have focused on teaching creativity (i.e., teaching creative thinking with the aim of enhancing creative thinking skills among students). Another aspect that has been neglected in most definitions of creative teaching is “teaching creatively”.

Teaching creatively is defined as a process of incorporating creative processes and components of creativity in the teaching process. In also incorporates the lecturers’ creative personality characteristics and creative thinking processes which they use to design the instructional strategies to enhance learning and motivate students. Examples of creative teaching would be activities that promote “creative problem solving, creative association, invention, creative imagery, and various forms of divergent thinking” (Chan, 2007, p. 5).

Hence, teaching creatively is defined as a process of designing and strategizing instruction such that it facilitates thinking skills especially creative thinking skills among students. For example, lecturers teaching creativity to enhance originality in thinking in a language class may ask students to develop a new ending for a favorite story or rewrite an ending to a story they know. It can also be a task to put students in the characters’ shoes and ask them to look at the piece of literature from their own perspective.

Hence, creative teaching is now seen as both teaching creatively and teaching creativity (NACCCE, 1999). Based on these two aspects of creative teaching, Palaniappan (2008) proposed a systems model of creative teaching (Figure 1). This holistic approach is aimed at enabling lecturers, trainers, school and university administrators as well as policy makers to direct their attention to a holistic view of creative teaching instead of focusing only on the lecturer behaviors and activities in the class.

In the systems view of creative teaching, for creative teaching to take place, it is crucial that all significant factors affecting creative teaching are taken into account when designing the creative teaching and learning process. These significant factors can be categorized as those within the school environment and those outside it (Cheng, Chuang & Bennington, 2011). Significant factors within the school environment include the learners, lecturers, curriculum and lecturer evaluations by the administrators (Davidovitch & Milgram, 2006). The success of any creative teaching strategy depends on the learner characteristics including, among others, the learners’ creative personality characteristics, creative motivation and creativity.

Figure 1. A systems view of Creative Teaching model (Palaniappan, 2008)

The lecturer variable is a crucial component in creative teaching. Many factors relating to the lecturer determine whether creative teaching will take place or not. Among them are lecturers’ personality characteristics (Cachia & Ferrari, 2010) including their level of independence, attitudes (Davis et al., 2014), and motivation toward teaching creativity and creatively, lecturers’ own level of creativity, and their pedagogical experiences.

Curriculum plays an equally important role. It should set the stage for creative teaching. There should be a deliberate attempt to provide for creative presentation of content and also to enhance the students’ creativity. For example, the curriculum should indicate for each sections of the topic being taught, the various pedagogical methods lecturers can use or provide opportunities for lecturers to use their own creativity to explore other strategies to present the material.

All three above mentioned factors depend on the school environment. The school environment encompasses other lecturers and colleagues, the principal, and other students as well as the policies governing the day to day running of the school and school infrastructure made available to the lecturers and students. For example, support from other lecturers form a valuable source of creative energy for the lecturer. A supportive principal who is willing to allow lecturers to try unconventional teaching methods is also crucial. Creative students also provide the creative climate that lecturers and other students need to grow creatively. The way students are treated will determine the creative attitude they can develop in solving any problem or brain storming any issue. A lecturer-centered classroom with creative teaching will fail to generate creativity in students unless these students are empowered to try out the creative components in every lesson on their own. Therefore the learner component in the systems view model is as important as the lecturer or the curriculum factor. Students grouping together to think of an easier way to raise funds for a good cause or design a new way to build an intelligent traffic system for the local town council are just some of the creative activities that can be organized.

Among the factors outside the school environment vital for enabling creative teaching in school are the parents, government policies, the future employers and the industry demands on the schools. Parents play a vital role in creative teaching. Lecturers wishing to take students on field trips which expose students to a multitude of stimuli crucial for creative thinking would need parental support.

Government policies relating to education especially in curriculum development and reference text for lecturers and textbooks for students play an equally important role. Lecturers may not be motivated to teach creatively if they are constrained by the curriculum and the strict policies regarding testing and evaluation. Research has shown that rigorous testing may kill students’ creativity as they will be focusing more on studying for examinations rather than reflecting and exploring the world around them purposefully for the benefit of society.

Employer or industry needs determine what is emphasized in schools especially in industry oriented schools. If employers only seek creative and innovative individuals, the government and universities will be duty bound to produce creative and innovative employees. For example, if IT companies need employees who are able to foresee future software and hardware needs and design innovative software and hardware, they will only seek out and employ creative individuals.

  1. Creative Teaching for equality and equity

Issues relating to equality and equity as well as the provision of more equitable opportunities to all learners have continually shaped educational policies and teacher education programs. All learners are equally able to succeed when given the most appropriate instruction and classroom environment.This humanistic view has resulted in inclusive education for the whole range of learners, from the gifted / talented to children with special needsand also culturally, linguistically and socio-economically disadvantaged learners. However, this is not easily achieved in the classroom, because in reality, teachers and lecturers often have to teach a large number of diverse learners with limited time and resources (Achinstein, & Athanases, 2005). Teachers need to be creative in completing the content and catering for learner differencesall within a limitedclass time.

Creative teaching has been defined in various ways(see Gibson, 2010). Thispartly stems from the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of creativity (Clouder, Oliver,Tait, 2008; Pope, 2005; Prentice, 2000; Reid & Petocz, 2004;Sousa, 2007). Creativity has been defined as the process, a personality characteristic or the production of something original and useful (RasulzadaDackert, 2009). Rhodes’s (1961) theoretical framework derived from the classification of creativity definitions comprised four dimensions, namely Process, Person, Product and Press or the 4P’s. His Process, Person and Product dimensions are similar to those mentioned by Rasulzada andDackert (2009)while the Press dimension refers to conditions facilitating creativity. Rhode’s (1961) model provided valuable input for the Creative Teaching Model developed by Palaniappan (2008) which also incorporated Torrance’s (1990) creativity dimensions of Originality, Fluency, Flexibility and Elaboration. This model provided the theoretical basis for the creative teaching framework for this study.

The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) report (1999) has defined creative teaching as comprising teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. The former involves incorporating creative teaching strategies while the latter involves strategies aimed at enhancing learner creativity. Creative teachers tend to exhibit both in different degrees especially in addressing issues relating to equality and equity. For example, some creative teachers focus more on using novel and innovative strategies to attract student attention (Lou, Chen, Tsai, Tseng, & Shih, 2012) while others choose strategies aimed at enhancing creative thinking skills, such as inquiry-based teaching (DeHaan, 2009) and problem-based learning (AwangRamly, 2008). Other researchers emphasize on developing students’ creative personality characteristics such as being inquisitive, taking responsible risks (Costa & Kallick, 2009) and being curious (Cheng, 2011).Developed from a comprehensive review of literature, Palaniappan’s (2008) model provides a holistic view of creative teaching that informed this study on creative ways teachers address equality and equity issues. These reviews also revealed some common characteristics of creative teaching that appear to be relevant in addressing the equality and equity issues in education.

3.1 Creative teaching strategies for equality and equity

Literature has shown that creative teachers do things differently and more efficiently in many areas. They tend to be able to use the right teaching strategy taking into account the need to address individual differences and lack of time and resources (Ambrose, 2005). Creative lecturers have a natural tendency to cater to diverse learners (Rejskind, 2000; Simplicio, 2000). They are better able to help learners with diverse learning styles. This is because some learners learn better with just oral explanations while others require real-life examples, hands-on practical activities in the language they understand or some forms of analogy to understand concepts (Grainger, Barnes, & Scoffham, 2004). Creative teachers are flexible enough to generate various forms of teaching aids that facilitate learning among diverse learners (Grainger et al., 2004). Others empower learners with freedom to choose materials that interest them (Gibson, 2010). Their flexible class structure allows them to cater for diverse learners (Davis, Jindal-Snape, Digby, Howe, Collier, & Hay, 2014).

Eventsinvolving people from the creative arts (Jeffrey, 2006) like artists and sculptors, are also used in the school curriculum to cater for creative learners. Situations encouraging teacher-learner dialogue so that learners find their own ways to solve problems and produce creative products also cater for learners who need challenging tasks (Tanggard, 2011). Teachers who use different teaching modalities, analogies, metaphors (Gibson, 2010)and other strategies to cater for all types learners tend to foster equality in the class (Grainger et al., 2004).Some creative teachers’ playful nature (Graingeret al., 2004; Kangas, 2010)allows them to explore various creative strategiesto get learner attention. Creating classroom conditions which support different learner abilities is one way creative teachers can address equity in the classroom.These strategies includingprovision of cognitively challenging activities in a student-centered teaching environment have been found to enhance academic achievement (Stritikus & Varghese, 2010).

3.2 Lecturer-learner interactions

Lecturers’ language, attitudes and behaviors play an important role in addressing equity and equality issues in the classroom. Creative lecturers are able to harness their creativity to address these issues even if they have to follow very rigid curriculum requirements (Sawyer, 2004). The lecturers’ body languagealso indicate that they appreciate and value students’ creativity (Eason,Giannangelo, & Franceschini III, 2009).

Using different languages which the diverse students are familiar with helps to enhance positive classroom experiences (Stritikus & Varghese, 2010). Creative teachers who are familiar with these languages use different languages to cater for their linguistically diverse students.Often, creative lecturers do this spontaneously and with minimal effort.Theyalso have high expectations of being able to address diverse students’ needs and are able to teach students in the best way possible (Cooley, 2007). They tend to adopt a culturally responsive communication style (Brown, 2007; Gay, 2000)where they use their own cultural knowledge of ethnically diverse students together with their own prior experiences to create an equitable classroom environment.