More than just the facts: the California Content Standards emphasize factual knowledge, but with a touch of adaptive expertise, educators can encourage creativity in all subject areas.

Microsoft's school leader development program, "Building 21st Century Schools," emphasizes the need for today's students to become adaptive experts. The idea is that no one really knows what skills will be needed as we move deeper into the 21st century, but that what will be required is skill at knowing how to change. In the program it is argued that letting go of previously held beliefs and assumptions may be the key to innovative thinking.

Innovative thinking sounds a lot like being creative. "Letting go of previously held beliefs and assumptions" would, therefore, be a necessary step in order to be creative. If students are to be encouraged to be creative, then it would be necessary for a teacher to know what beliefs and assumptions students hold.

This is why John Bransford, Ann Brown and Rodney Cocking argue in their book, "How People Learn," that teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their students bring with them. This can be difficult to do with a student body as diverse as the one we have in California.

An effort to bring commonality to what students bring with them may be the reason that California's Content Standards so heavily emphasize what students must know and understand. In Fact, my own analysis of California's Content Standards shows that just over one quarter of the standards are written at a "remember" or an "understand" level, using "A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives" (Anderson and Krathwohl, et al, 2001) as the guide for rating the standards.

However, this emphasis on factual knowledge may result in a de-emphasis on the other end of the cognitive scale, the level Anderson and Krathwohl have called "create" and the original taxonomy referred to as "synthesis." This is exactly what has happened--just 5.5 percent of California's K-12 content standards are written at a "create" level (Manthey, 2006). A closer look at California's standards reveals that this 5.5 percent of standards written at the highest level break out this way: English/language arts: 6.8 percent; mathematics: 1.2 percent; history/social science: 0.2 percent; science: 0.7 percent; visual and performing arts: 15.7 percent; physical education: 4.2 percent

Are the standards and creativity a match?

The revised taxonomy defines "create" as putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole, or reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure. In other words, generating, planning or producing. With this definition and the limited number of standards that fit, it would be possible to conclude that California's Content Standards and creativity are not a match. Luckily, this assumption is not entirely warranted. Consider this viewpoint expressed in California's Science Framework:

"Science education in kindergarten through grade twelve trains the mind and builds intellectual strength and must not be limited to the lasting Pacts and skills that can be remembered into adulthood. Science must be taught at a level of rigor and depth that goes well beyond what a typical adult knows.... The study of science disciplines the minds of students; and the benefits of this intellectual training are realized long after schooling, when the details of the science may be forgotten" (Science Framework for California Public Schools, 2004).

However, with 64 percent of California's science standards written at a "remember" level, it becomes the responsibility of a creative teacher or the innovative textbook author--one who follows the science framework and not just the science standards--to ensure that the study of science is much more than the memorization of facts.

There is another way. The following, taken from the United Kingdom's National Curriculum Handbook, outlines the importance of creativity:

"By providing rich and varied contexts for pupils to acquire, develop and apply a broad range of knowledge, understanding and skills, the curriculum should enable pupils to think creatively and critically, to solve problems and to make a difference for the better. It should give them the opportunity to become creative, innovative, enterprising and capable of leadership to equip them for their future lives as workers and citizens. It should enable pupils to respond positively to opportunities, challenges and responsibilities, to manage risk and to cope with change and adversity."

And the subject of creativity takes prominence in the online resources for the UK's National Curriculum. Check out this Web site: www.ncaction.org.uk/creativity/index.htm.

How can school leaders foster creativity? The UK Web site provides some suggestions:

* Build an expectation of creativity into your school's learning and teaching policy.

* Consider providing extended cross-subject projects that give pupils opportunities to take greater control of their learning, work together and make connections between different areas of their learning.

* Try to avoid over-compartmentalized teaching. If pupils see the whole picture and are helped to recognize relationships and patterns in their learning, they will gain a deeper understanding.

* Involve all the school in an event to experience and celebrate creative learning.

* Show and share tangible changes resulting from creativity.

* Encourage, recognize and reward pupils' creativity. Ask teachers to nominate examples of creativity and celebrate these at a school or year assembly.

(source: www.ncaction.org.uk/creativity/foster.htm)

Where does creativity fit into the California Content Standards? With just a touch of adaptive expertise, it fits anywhere and everywhere.

A coherent whole--Examples of standards written at the "create" level include the following:

* From English/language arts:

* Kindergarten: Use letters and phonetically spelled words to write about experiences, stories, people, objects or events.

* Grade 4: Create multiple-paragraph compositions.

* Grade 7: Identify topics; ask and evaluate questions; develop ideas leading to inquiry, investigation and research.

* Grades 11-12: Develop presentations by using clear research questions and creative and critical research strategies (e.g., field studies, oral histories, interviews, experiments, electronic sources).

* From mathematics:

Grade 1: Create problem situations that might lead to given number sentences involving addition/subtraction.

Algebra 1: Students use properties of numbers to construct simple, valid arguments (direct and indirect) for, or formulate counterexamples to, claimed assertions.

* From history/social science:

Grades 9-12: Students construct and test hypotheses; collect, evaluate and employ information from multiple primary and secondary sources and apply it in oral and written presentations.

* From visual and performing arts:

* Grade 1: Use visual and actual texture in original works of art.

* Grade 5: Develop and use specific criteria as individuals and in groups to assess works of art.

* Grades 9-12: Improvise original melodies over given chord progressions.

* From physical education:

* Grade 5: Design and perform a creative dance combining locomotor patterns with intentional changes in speed and direction.

* Grade 7: Develop and teach another an individual or dual game that uses a manipulative skill, two different offensive strategies and a scoring system.

* Grades 9-12: Develop and describe a physical fitness plan that enhances personal health and performance in future leisure and workplace activities.

References

Anderson, Loren, Krathwohl, David (el al). (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Bransford, John, Brown, Ann, Cocking, Rodney (ed.). (2000). How People Learn. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council.

Manthey, George. (2006). The Standard Finder v6. Burlingame, CA: The Association of California School Administrators.

Science Framework for California Public Schools. (2004). Sacramento: California Department of Education.

George Manthey is assistant executive director of educational services for ACSA.