Creatology's Methodology
By being creative while learning about creativity in a co-creative culture, we increase our
- our knowledge about the power and nature of creativity,
- our understanding about our own creative natures and power,
- the capacities of our creative natures and power themselves, and
- the efficiency and effectiveness of our projects.
This method of learning is called Creative Education.
It is an arts-based approach that leads with a question and inquiry (where all human creativity begins),
and is experiential, hands-on, project-based… based in do-ing, in be-ing.
After all, creativity is a state of being.
It is not only applied to creativity studies or arts subjects, but can be applied to learning about any subject. In fact, it is how our subjects, such as our sciences and maths, were born.
We:
- bring up and out what we already know about creativity,
- build upon that knowledge through discussion and creative experiences,
- integrate what we are learning into our creative projects, taking them above and beyond, and thereby
- expand our our creative capacities and creative practices.
Creative Education
The most effective way to learn about creativity is by exploring creativity’s concepts while being creative…
through the creative process.
It’s called Creative Pedagogy or Creative Education, depending upon who you ask. ‘Pedagogy’ refers to the method… the way… a subject is learnt and therefore, taught.
Because environments have been shown to encourage or discourage creativity, learning about creativity by being creative within a co-creative environment is essential.
This is why our co-creative culture called The Creatopia Village is so important.
SoC refers to this learning and teaching method as Creative Education.
Creative Education is an umbrella term
for many methods of learning including:
- arts-based research,
- project-based learning,
- inquiry-based learning,
- action research,
- participatory research,
- problem-solving learning,
- experiential learning,
- activity (play)-based learning, and
- practice-led research.
These methods are all tools that collect qualitative information, such as information about the qualities of a thing / experience / experiment / project, etc,
to generate new insights and knowledge about any subject… in our case, creativity.
Each method shares similar principles including:
- inquiry,
- drawing out and building upon new knowledge and skills through discussion-based classes
- integration / practice of new knowledge and skills through a project
- self-direction, and self-determination,
but the overarching principle is the use of the creative process to learn and grow by
(as opposed to the academic process to learn and grow by).
Creative Education integrates:
The Person/People... you, me, us… our capabilities, practices, knowledge
The Process… a project’s creative process and its learning methods, eg project-based learning, experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, action research
The Product... the outcome of a creative project; a product or service
and
The Press (environment)… the internal and external energies that form and fuel our internal and external ecos, such as our creative state of being within ourselves and within the co-creative culture that supports us.
