Fueling Creativity in Education
The Fueling Creativity in Education podcast provides listeners with unique insights into the field of creativity research, including best practices for applying this knowledge to a traditional school environment. Thanks to deep dive interviews with renowned creativity scholars, respected practitioners, and passionate educators, every teacher and administrator will walk away with new strategies that inspire and support student and teacher creativity in and out of the classroom.
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Episodes
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
What are you doing for this year's World Creativity and Innovation Week? In this special episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood provide small tips to help celebrate creativity in your life, your classroom, and in your family.
Past Episodes Mentioned:
Listen to the episode with Wendy Ross
Listen to the episode with Natalie Nixon
Listen to the episode with Jim Friedman
Resources for World Creativity and Innovation Week
World Creativity and Innovation Day Website
Our podcast interview with the Current Chief Steward of WCIW, Dr. Jim Friedman
Creativity and Education FREE Virtual Events
Raising a Generation of Creative Thinkers
Infusing Creative Thinking into Your Higher Education Classroom
Weaving Creative Thinking into your Pre-K-High School Classroom
Day of Surprises with your Family
Check out the Creative Thinking Challenges
Create Junk Inventions
Share the Creative Thinking Skills Sheet with Your Students
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
What is a makerspace and how can makerspaces change the landscape of education? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Caroline Haebig, author of The Maker Playbook: A Guide to Creating Inclusive Learning Environments. Caroline sheds light on today’s makerspace movement and the benefits of high-impact, inclusive maker learning culture inside schools and school systems.
Listen in to learn how educators from different fields can use a makerspace to foster innovative design thinking and creativity, the importance of integrating design ethics into the prototype design process, and the must-have and nice-to-have materials (both raw and digital) to include in a makerspace. Then, Caroline offers expert advice on finding entry points in your curriculum for maker learning and creating a more inclusive culture in your makerspace.
“Maker learning has a lot of opportunity to help kids develop their metacognition, reflection, and self-assessment skills.” - Caroline Haebig
Caroline’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Maximize opportunities for kids to share curiosities and ask questions.
Provide a scaffolded design process so students know what they’re expected to know, do, and engage with during specific parts of the design process.
Get kids to think and talk about the choices and decisions they are making.
Resources Mentioned:
The Maker Playbook by Caroline Haebig
Makedo
morphi app
Disruptus
Mission Feature Feature
Tinkercad
ScratchJr
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Caroline Haebig:
Based in Wisconsin, Caroline Haebig has extensive experience designing and leading professional learning for teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators nationwide. Focused on helping educators develop innovative teaching, learning, and assessment practices, she has successfully facilitated student, teacher, and administrator preparation for school system 1:1 technology initiatives to support student learning and led district -wide work in the areas of inclusive maker learning and technological literacy. Caroline Haebig is also the author of The Maker Playbook: Designing Inclusive Learning Experiences, a book for K-12 leaders and educators. An accomplished educator, Haebig was named an ISTE Emerging Leader, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Innovator, and a recipient of the Wisconsin State Superintendent Service-Learning Award, the University of Indiana Jacobs Educator Award, and the ISTE Outstanding Young Educator award.
Connect with Caroline Haebig on LinkedIn
Follow Caroline on Twitter
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
For this very special, one-year anniversary episode of the Fueling Creativity Podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood have gone through all 28 interview transcriptions from the Fueling Creativity episodes and identified four powerful themes that have emerged from these discussions. They originally presented these themes at the Creativity Expert Exchange at SUNY Buffalo State.
Today, you get to listen in on this informative and powerful presentation! Or, you can read the transcript here.
If you’d like to book Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood to deliver this presentation as an interactive workshop to your school or institution, don’t hesitate to send them an email at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com.
Themes & Subthemes from Year 1 of Fueling Creativity:
#1 – Setting the creative environment of the classroom
Trust and Safety
Risk-Taking- feeling comfortable making mistakes
Openness to new ideas and perspectives
Allow time for questions and exploration Encourage respectful debate
Challenging students to highest ability- not average
Value differences
Think beyond the walls of the classroom
#2 – Creative Teachers
Creative Teachers are designers
Creative Teachers Model Creative Behaviors and Attitudes
Creative Teachers are Lifelong Learners
Creative Teachers are open and willing to try new things
Creative Teachers take risks and are willing to admit if they failed or made a mistake
Creative Teachers make time for self-care
Creative Teachers don’t have all the answers
#3 – Instructional Practice
Ask Open-Ended questions
Embed time for wondering and curiosity
Expose students to diverse things (books, museums, nature, etc).
Use Inquiry/Problem Based Learning
Spend time problem-finding
Help students find meaning, purpose and connection to content
Work through ambiguity, uncertainty and complexity
Get students comfortable with discomfort and failure
Shift student perspectives, allowing an openness to new ideas
Explore feelings and emotions related to the learning/creative process
Give students agency- a choice and voice on what they are doing
#4 – The Future Creative (Preparing our students for the future!)
A person who is cable of working with people of varied backgrounds and perspectives
A person who can think ethically when selecting ideas and developing solutions
A person who can work though complex problems and manage change
A person who can identify what humans do best, and what machines might do better
A person who can work in collaboration with AI
“This pandemic, although challenging, is really highlighting the creativity that exists within the teaching profession.” - Dr. Matthew Worwood
Do you have a theme that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know! Email us at questions@fuelingcreativity.com.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
What would it be like if creativity was a core pillar of your school system’s education? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Eitan Buchalter, Creativity Researcher and Practitioner.
Most recently, Eitan has designed and tested a school-based learning initiative that empowers students to look after and develop their creative thinking capabilities. He shares details on this unique initiative as well as his approach to developing a creativity program in school within the constraints of a curriculum or classroom environment.
Listen in to learn how Eitan is expanding creativity research to science as he highlights his research on how scientists generate ideas and produce creative outcomes. The trio also talks about creativity skills that bridge the gap between science and art, how to help your students find their interests and passions, and the importance of teaching your students to articulate their ideas.
Eitan‘s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Incorporate intrinsic motivation and your student’s personal interests into your lessons.
Model vulnerability so your students know it’s okay to make mistakes.
Make friends with uncertainty and risk.
“I’m a big fan of uncertainty and thinking of uncertainty as an important material.”
- Dr. Eitan Buchalter
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episode with Wendy Ross
Listen to the episode with Sally Reis
Nurturing Creative Thinking
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Dr. Eitan Buchalter:
Eitan is the Director of Innovation at the Global Governance Institute. He has two decades of experience in creativity and innovation which includes education in schools, college and university. Eitan has also brought his expertise in creative thinking to the commercial world and has worked for a wide variety of clients including: NASA, Proctor & Gamble, The Football Association and Tate Modern.
Most recently, Eitan has designed and tested a school-based learning initiative that empowers students to look after and develop their creative thinking capabilities.
Eitan has degrees from Oxford and UCL including a PhD on Ideas in Science. Most importantly though, Eitan is a father of two boys and can often be found chasing them around the beautiful Kent countryside!
Connect with Dr. Eitan Buchalter on LinkedIn
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity Podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Anna Abraham, an E. Paul Torrance Professor in UGA’s Department of Educational Psychology and Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education.
In part two of this two-part interview, you’ll gain insight into the work of E. Paul Torrance, the father of creativity and education, along with the work that Anna is now doing within the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development. She shares her vision for the department and how she intends on building upon the work of Torrance, particularly via The Torrance Festival of Ideas. As the Founding Editor of The Cambridge Elements Series in Creativity and the Imagination, Anna also sheds light on the key insights she’s learned about imagination and wonder.
“If you’ve managed to cultivate wonder in your student, you have done something magical.”
- Anna Abraham
“Being in the College of Education, our role is to be a resource, an educational resource, and part of that is getting people very instrumental together to talk about ideas that are really relevant for the community at large.” - Anna Abraham
Anna’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
See creativity as not the domain of a few, but a skill that is basic to all of us.
Having recognized that you have this creative ability, think about what it can do for you- not as a way to make money or prove your productivity, but as a way to discover yourself and the power of your own mind.
Don’t stop being creative. Keep at it, even if it’s for a few minutes each day!
About Anna Abraham:
Anna Abraham, Ph.D. is the E. Paul Torrance Professor and the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Her educational and professional training has been within the disciplines of Psychology and Neuroscience, and she has worked across a diverse range of academic institutions and departments the world over, all of which have informed her multidisciplinary focus. She investigates the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and other aspects of the human imagination. Her wide-ranging contributions to the field of creativity include theoretical, methodological and empirical advances in the context of basic and applied research. She has penned numerous publications including the sole authored book, The Neuroscience of Creativity (2018, Cambridge University Press), and the multidisciplinary edited volume, The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination (2020). She is the Founding Editor of The Cambridge Elements Series in Creativity and the Imagination.
Visit Anna's websiteConnect with her on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to part 1 linked needed
Sign up to join The Torrance Festival of Ideas
Listen to the episode with Natalie NixonListen to the episode with Jeffrey Davis
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Is there a difference between an imaginative mind and a creative mind? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity Podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Anna Abraham, an E. Paul Torrance Professor and Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Anna investigates the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and other aspects of the human imagination.
In part one of this two-part interview, you’ll gain insight into the similarities and differences between a creative mind and an imaginative mind based on neuroscientific research. Anna breaks down her findings on the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and how teachers can translate these to a classroom environment. Anna also identifies problems and potential solutions in unimodal forms of teaching and learning as part of the standard educational curriculum.
Plus, she shares her candid thoughts, from a neuroscience perspective, on the question: Can creativity be taught?
About Anna Abraham:
Anna Abraham, Ph.D. is the E. Paul Torrance Professor and the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Her educational and professional training has been within the disciplines of Psychology and Neuroscience, and she has worked across a diverse range of academic institutions and departments the world over, all of which have informed her multidisciplinary focus. She investigates the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and other aspects of the human imagination. Her wide-ranging contributions to the field of creativity include theoretical, methodological and empirical advances in the context of basic and applied research. She has penned numerous publications including the sole authored book, The Neuroscience of Creativity (2018, Cambridge University Press), and the multidisciplinary edited volume, The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination (2020). She is the Founding Editor of The Cambridge Elements Series in Creativity and the Imagination.
Visit Anna's websiteConnect with her on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to part 2 linked needed
Internet of Us by Michael P. Lynch
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
What were the biggest lessons learned during the first five episodes in Season Three of the Fueling Creativity podcast? In this Bridging the Gap episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood sit down and reflect on episodes that discussed reluctant creativity, inquiry-based learning, multi-cultural creativity, and integrating design ethics into the K-12 classroom.
Listen in as Cyndi and Matthew break down the following insights.
Major Takeaways from Season Three, Episodes 1-5:
Creative competency. Seeing creative thinking as a competency is more powerful and, most importantly, addresses its application in the real world. It's less about expressing the skill in the classroom and more about how you use and modify those skills in different environments.
Reluctant Creativity. When the pandemic hit, teachers across the grades were thrown into challenging teaching environments. The reluctant creatives who were less likely to engage creativity under normal circumstances were forced to engage to overcome many of these instructional challenges.
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episode with Wendy Ross
Listen to the episode with David Cropley
Listen to the episode with Frank LaBanca
Listen to the episode with Gene Letford
Listen to the episode with Caroline Brookfield
Listen to the episode with Bea Leiderman
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Fueling Creativity S3 Ep 6 with Bea Leiderman
What are the benefits of being a novice learner? How does having a personal passion or interest benefit your work as an educator?
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Bea Leiderman, an educational technology coach based in Virginia with over 20 years of experience in education.
In 2012, macrophotography became Bea’s gateway to learning about science, biology, and the natural environment. As a novice learner, Bea had the opportunity to consider learning from a new perspective, later changing her approach to teaching.
Bea sheds light on the power of being a novice as an educator by sharing her first interaction with macrophotography and how it has since influenced her teaching methods. They talk about the importance of finding joy in learning for yourself, exploring non-educational blogs and resources, and the connection that can be built between educators and students when you’re both learning something new.
Can you maintain a level of control while students explore their creativity? How do you raise curious children? Is it important to limit the technology and screen time your kids are exposed to? Listen in to hear Bea’s answers!
“Creativity is at the most creative when it’s cross-disciplinary, it’s outward-focused rather than inward-focused.” - Bea Leiderman
View Bea’s Macro Photography on Instagram
Bea’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Expose your kids to lots of things, even things that may not be traditionally meant for kids. Different types of music, old movies, museums, festivals, factories, etc.
Be interested in what your kids are interested in and don’t make fun of what they like.
Be open to social media and not “the hype”. Find the interesting, passionate, quirky people on social media. There’s something to learn from everything and everyone.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to do something simple or be a novice.
Look for things that bring you joy and fun.
“You end up learning all sorts of things by following people who are interested in things that are completely different from what you’re doing.” - Bea Leiderman
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episode with Ron BeghettoListen to the episode with Dr. James Kaufman
Listen to the episode with Dr. Caroline BrookfieldListen to the episode with Wendy Ross
Listen to the episode with Dr. Sally ReisCreativity blog series by Punya Mishra
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to RATE, REVIEW, and SHARE the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Bea Leiderman:
Bea is an educational technology coach in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and has over twenty years of experience in education. Her focus has always been on giving students experiences that lead to learning. In 2012, Bea bought a macro lens attachment for her iPhone camera. Macrophotography became a gateway to learning about science, biology, and the natural environment in ways she didn’t initially anticipate. Being a novice learner gave Bea the opportunity to consider learning from a new perspective that has changed how she approaches teaching. Bea has written several books about insects showcasing her photography and inviting readers to explore and learn.
Follow her on Instagram
Follow her on Twitter