Aligning learning and creativity in education: Music composition as a domain to explore creative learning
This event took place on Monday 13 December 2004 at 12:30
Sylvia Truman
When learning about a subject area in the classroom, the acquisition of a set of core concepts is often perceived as a prerequisite for students being able to comment intelligently on the subject domain, this generally involves the student's individual accumulation of teacher presented concepts. However, contemporary perspectives on learning suggest that learning is most effective when the learner is an active participant (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Duffy & Cunningham, 1966), constructing content for themselves within a social system. Similarly, creativity within a domain involves the active construction of new ideas and content within the social context of other members of the field. Therefore, collaborative creativity need not be the preserve of experts, but can be regarded as an inroad to learning the core concepts generally seen as a prerequisite to active participation. Few have suggested that there exists an inherent relationship between learning and creativity; however, the similarities between the two are evidently striking (Karnes et al, 1961; Torrance, 1981; Guilford, 1950). It is suggested here that theories advocating learning as a socially constructive process may shed light upon creative phenomena.
With the advancements in technology, creativity research has progressed towards the development of software programs designed to encourage creative thinking. Traditionally aimed at art and design professions (Proctor, 1991) contemporary programs have targeted aspects pertaining to musicality (Bamberger, 1986; Holland, 1999). Music composition is an area which has long been linked to creativity, and researchers within the domain have conducted investigations pertaining to methods of enhancing creativity in music composition (Swanwick & Tilman, 1986; Levi, 1991; Kratus, 1991). It is suggested here that music is a suitable arena through which the relationship between creativity and learning can be effectively studied.
This talk presents a general overview of my research in progress. Beginning with a discussion of the synthesis between social learning theory and creativity, the theoretical basis for my generative framework of creativity will be explained. Uses of the framework will also be discussed along with an example of its application to classroom-based music composition. An example of a software program guided by the framework during its design will be demonstrated in the form of SoundScape (a creative-collaborative environment for music composition).
Background Information / Reading:
A framework for learning and creativity
This event took place on Monday 13 December 2004 at 12:30
When learning about a subject area in the classroom, the acquisition of a set of core concepts is often perceived as a prerequisite for students being able to comment intelligently on the subject domain, this generally involves the student's individual accumulation of teacher presented concepts. However, contemporary perspectives on learning suggest that learning is most effective when the learner is an active participant (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Duffy & Cunningham, 1966), constructing content for themselves within a social system. Similarly, creativity within a domain involves the active construction of new ideas and content within the social context of other members of the field. Therefore, collaborative creativity need not be the preserve of experts, but can be regarded as an inroad to learning the core concepts generally seen as a prerequisite to active participation. Few have suggested that there exists an inherent relationship between learning and creativity; however, the similarities between the two are evidently striking (Karnes et al, 1961; Torrance, 1981; Guilford, 1950). It is suggested here that theories advocating learning as a socially constructive process may shed light upon creative phenomena.
With the advancements in technology, creativity research has progressed towards the development of software programs designed to encourage creative thinking. Traditionally aimed at art and design professions (Proctor, 1991) contemporary programs have targeted aspects pertaining to musicality (Bamberger, 1986; Holland, 1999). Music composition is an area which has long been linked to creativity, and researchers within the domain have conducted investigations pertaining to methods of enhancing creativity in music composition (Swanwick & Tilman, 1986; Levi, 1991; Kratus, 1991). It is suggested here that music is a suitable arena through which the relationship between creativity and learning can be effectively studied.
This talk presents a general overview of my research in progress. Beginning with a discussion of the synthesis between social learning theory and creativity, the theoretical basis for my generative framework of creativity will be explained. Uses of the framework will also be discussed along with an example of its application to classroom-based music composition. An example of a software program guided by the framework during its design will be demonstrated in the form of SoundScape (a creative-collaborative environment for music composition).
Background Information / Reading:
A framework for learning and creativity
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Our research in the Semantic Web area looks at the potentials of fusing together advances in a range of disciplines, and applying them in a systemic way to simplify the development of intelligent, knowledge-based web services and to facilitate human access and use of knowledge available on the web. For instance, we are exploring ways in which tnatural language interfaces can be used to facilitate access to data distributed over different repositories. We are also developing infrastructures to support rapid development and deployment of semantic web services, which can be used to create web applications on-the-fly. We are also investigating ways in which semantic technology can support learning on the web, through a combination of knowledge representation support, pedagogical theories and intelligent content aggregation mechanisms. Finally, we are also investigating the Semantic Web itself as a domain of analysis and performing large scale empirical studies to uncover data about the concrete epistemologies which can be found on the Semantic Web. This exciting new area of research gives us concrete insights on the different conceptualizations that are present on the Semantic Web by giving us the possibility to discover which are the most common viewpoints, which viewpoints are mutually inconsistent, to what extent different models agree or disagree, etc...
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