Dr. Claire Badger - Can We Teach Creativity? - London
In this episode I am speaking to Dr. Claire Badger. Claire is the Head of Teacher Professional Development at InnerDrive, a UK-based education and coaching company that specialises in bridging the gap between cognitive science, psychology, and the classroom. She is also a former assistant head and now specialises in helping schools develop their evidence-informed practice.
Claire has also co-authored a book entitled Creativity for Teachers: A Cognitive Science Approach. It was this book and the discussion of creativity in schools that prompted me to contact Claire and arrange what proved to be a fantastic conversation.
We discuss:
1. The varying definitions offered up by all sections of society regarding creativity and what it actually means in academic terms
2. What different manifestations of creativity look like on a global, professional and educational level
3. How knowledge and creativity are akin to the amount and type of lego blocks a child owns and what this, therefore, means for curriculum design
4. How domain specific creativity is and whether it can be achieved through interdisciplinary projects
5. What 'Legacy Projects' are what they require to be done well
6. And finally, the extent to which we need to be planning with creative opportunities in mind and how much of it will come out naturally as a matter of teaching a knowledge-rich curriculum
Thanks again to Claire for taking the time to write the book and talk with me about it today. Creativity, as we discuss, is such a valuable and necessary part of everyone’s experience in education or their profession, so helping to dispel the myths from the meaningful evidence makes her work exceptionally useful.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk
Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming book: Reinforcing Middle School English You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.
Links:
Beta version of Reinforcing Middle School English
Claire’s book: Creativity for Teachers: A Cognitive Science Approach
