Fueling Creativity in Education

Bridging the Gap: The Reluctant Creative, Multicultural Creativity, and Integrating Design Ethics

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!

Reverting back to a Novice Learner with Bea Leiderman

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
 

Integrating Inquiry-Based Learning with Dr. Frank LaBanca

Why is inquiry-based learning such a powerful part of modern education? In this episode of Fueling Creativity, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Frank LaBanca, a teacher, educational researcher, and change agent based in Connecticut. Frank is one of the few public-school principals, nationally, that teaches students in his own classroom. Tune in to learn his approach to inquiry-based learning, a significant part of his strategic planning in founding the Westside Middle School Academy Magnet. 
 
Frank shares why he prioritizes inquiry-based learning in the classroom over other approaches to education as well as the role of inquiry-based learning in developing creativity and problem-solving skills. He speaks on the power of teaching students to ask meaningful questions, how he does that, and how he helps teachers develop the capacity to implement and manage project-based learning in the classroom. 
 
“Inquiry is questioning and investigation. In that simple elegance, it’s a wonderful way to approach learning because children can ask meaningful questions and seek their own idiosyncratic, diverse methods to try to solve those problems.” - Dr. Frank LaBanca
 
Frank also highlights the value of teachers not being the ultimate evaluators of students’ work, rather their work being evaluated by others in the real world. Then, he divulges how he selected new faculty for his school, the challenges he and his administrative colleagues are currently facing, and how his creative projects outside of school that inspire his professional development.
 
Frank’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Spend time problem-finding. Don’t rush students through the process of developing ideas for study.
Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. Let it be exciting to not have answers for your students’/kids’ questions. Have confidence to facilitate the process of finding their own answers.
There’s a continuum between developing ideas and solving ideas.  Don't be focused on just solving ideas.
 
“Developing questions takes time and students need and deserve the time to go through that process of evaluating questions.” - Dr. Frank LaBanca
 
“I think a really important part of inquiry is you learn to do and about at the same time.”
- Dr. Frank LaBanca
 
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episode with Natalie NixonListen to the episode with Jeffrey Davis
Listen to the episode with Dr. Vlad Glaveanu
 
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. Frank LaBanca:
Dr. Frank LaBanca is a teacher, educational researcher, and change agent. He is the Founding Principal of the Westside Middle School Academy magnet in Danbury, Connecticut. Previously he was the Director of the Center for 21st Century Skills at Education Connection as well as a 16-year high school biology and science research teacher. Dr. LaBanca has also taught and supervised research at the university level in both Biology and Educational Leadership. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, whitepapers, and research conference presentations. Having taught well over 2000 students, Dr. LaBanca’s most meaningful contribution to education is conducting extended open-inquiry authentic applied research with students. Over his tenure, numerous students have been nationally recognized for their work. He is one of the few public school principals, nationally, that teaches his own class with students. 
 
Visit Frank’s website 
Visit his blog
Follow him on Twitter
Connect with him on LinkedIn
 
 

How Culture Influences Student Creativity with Genein Letford

How does culture impact a person’s ability to learn and be creative?
 
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak withGenein Letford, Founder and CEO of CAFFEE Strategies, a top 'intercultural creative thinking' professional development training organization that trains employees to unleash their innovative thinking and create sustainable, organizational inclusion strategies. Tune in to learn the fundamentals of cultural competence and Intercultural Creativity™ along with neuroscience-backed tips for teachers on helping kids grow their cultural competency.
 
As a trainer on creative thinking and Intercultural Creativity™, Genein has inspired and led many to reconnect to their creative abilities and produce innovative ideas for an inclusive workspace.
 
Genein shares her thoughts on the impact of knowing your students’ cultural value as well as how to help students become aware of their value and their cultural capital. She highlights the powerful role of emotions and storytelling in learning, then breaks down a few of the gems from her book, The 7 Gems of Intercultural Creativity, including empathetic imagination and perspective shifting. Plus, Genein sheds light on how her work as an educator has inspired her role as a mother.
 
“We can’t really ask people and young people to be at their full creative best if they’re not in an inclusive environment that really has those cultural connections… That cultural competence is a big part of your creative thinking and creative growth.”      - Genein Letford
Genein’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Share last. Your perspective may skew the perspective of the students, so encourage them to share their views and ideas first and then share yours afterwards.
Say “thank you” to students who share their answers, ideas, and views.
There are miracles in the metaphors. Bring metaphors into your day, your lessons, and your meetings and have fun with it.
Arts are key. Artistry helps grow creativity.
Observation is also key. You can’t be creative if you have no data to be creative with, so create activities that combine sensory information, for example, going outside and listening to the sounds of nature.
 
“Knowing that the cultural capital and the cultural experiences that the children are coming in with is key. That is gold because the brain doesn’t learn by just throwing new information to it, the brain learns through integration, by integrating new information to already learned information. And so, if the teacher or the educator… doesn’t know what the child already knows and what is important to the child, that integration is low.”                        - Genein Letford
 
Resources Mentioned:
The 7 Gems of Intercultural Creativity by Genein Letford
Listen to the episode with Dr. Vlad Glaveanu
The Torrance Incubation Model (TIM)
Listen to Create and Grow Podcast Ep 74
Listen to Create and Grow Podcast Ep 66
Listen to Create and Grow Podcast Ep 79
 
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 Genein Letford:
Genein Letford is an award-winning speaker, best-selling author and corporate trainer on creative thinking and Intercultural Creativity™. She is the founder of CAFFE Strategies, and has inspired and led many to reconnect to their creative abilities in order to produce innovative ideas for an inclusive workspace. Her unique training intersects creative thinking development with building a culture of inclusion and belonging. She believes creative literacy is a critical skill and she is often called ‘America’s Creativity Coach’ for her work in reigniting creativity in our workforce.
 
Visit Genein's website
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Follow her on Instagram
Listen to the Create and Grow Rich Podcast

Multi-Passionate and Reluctant Creatives with Caroline Brookfield

How might we help ourselves and others be more willing to express our creativity? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Caroline Brookfield, a veterinarian, researcher, and stand-up comedian who delights in using humor and immersive experiences, backed up with research, to sway the most reluctant creative. Today, the dynamic trio delves into Caroline’s experience melding the worlds of veterinary medicine, comedy, and creativity. They also talk about the relationship between multi-passionate creatives and reluctant creatives.
 
For some of us, there is a desire or need to explore as many interests as we possibly can. Hence, the terms multi-passionate and multiple potentialities. For reluctant creatives, there is a resistance to acknowledging or expressing their creativity.
 
Listen in to learn the benefits of embracing your creativity and how to tap into it for future success. Caroline shares her science-based approach to exciting people about creativity and how teachers can use it to encourage students who say they’re not creative to express their creativity. She also highlights various creative thinking skills for dealing with judgement around what students, parents, and administration will think about integrating creativity and risk-taking into the classroom. 
 
“Over the last 10-15 years, I kept getting drawn into these creative endeavors, like acting classes or trying stand-up comedy or building businesses, and it took me a long time to connect the dots and realize it’s all about expressing my creativity.” - Dr. Caroline Brookfield
 
Caroline’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Try to incorporate more M’s for Maybes. School can be very black and white at times, so try to build in ambiguity to your lessons. 
Edit later! Just try something new. Nobody is really going to care about what you do if the stakes are low. 
Take time to regularly relax and turn things off. We need you so take care of yourself.
“You actually don’t have to even be good at what you do creatively to get the benefits of it.” - Dr. Caroline Brookfield
 
Resources Mentioned:
Read Caroline’s New Book: The Reluctant Creative!
Listen to the episode with Dr. Sally ReisListen to the episode with Natalie NixonListen to the episode with Jeffrey Davis
Listen to the episode with Wendy Ross
Listen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker
 
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. Caroline Brookfield:
Caroline believes that if everyone took small, unconventional actions to embrace their creativity, we could change the world. Veterinarian, researcher, and stand-up comedian, she delights in using humor and immersive experiences, backed up with research, to sway the most reluctant creative. Benefits range from personal physical and emotional results to organizational success. Caroline presents convincing evidence of the ROI of creativity for individuals and organizations, expressed in her passionate yet lighthearted and engaging style.  She is always up for a challenge, like learning guitar, rock climbing, getting her kids to eat vegetables, surfing, meditation retreats with sniper rifles. You know, the usual stuff. 
Caroline received honors for her veterinary degree from the Ontario Veterinary College, is a certified level 2 Creative Problem Solving facilitator, and holds a Certificate of Professional Management from the University of Calgary, where she lives, Her lectures go unheeded by her family. The dog listens, sometimes.
 
Visit Caroline’s website
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Follow her on Instagram
 

Discussing Beauty Over Functionality and Malevolent Creativity with David Cropley

How can teachers prepare students for the innovative future of work? In this episode of Fueling Creativity, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with world-renowned author and Professor of Engineering Innovation, Dr. David Cropley, about the psychology and ethics of creativity and innovation in the context of technology, engineering, and design. Listen in to learn how educators can prepare students to be better equipped to work with machine learning and AI in creative and problem-solving environments.
 
“The big issue with creativity right now revolves around the future of work and the growing role of AI, so artificial intelligence and automation and related technologies, that are impacting the work place.”                                                                                 - Dr. David Cropley
 
David explains the difference between domain general and domain specific creativity, why it’s more challenging to feel creative as a teacher in the sciences or humanities, and the unique role of malevolent creativity in education and business. He also speaks on how rigorous, objective creativity testing can be made accessible to schools. Plus, David shares his thoughts on the relationship between and prioritization of aesthetics, novelty, and functionality in any design process.
 
David’s Tips for Teachers:
Creativity is a multifaceted competency. Don’t think about creativity as a 21st century skill, it’s better to think about it as a general competency or capability.
Creativity is about how we think and personal qualities, like openness to new experiences, willingness to take risks, tolerance for uncertainty, etc. It’s also a matter of the environment. You have the opportunity to demonstrate aspects of creativity in the classroom.
Try and be very concrete about making creativity happen. Shift towards asking more open-ended questions and prompting students to solve open-ended problems.
 
 
Resources Mentioned:
Books by Dr. David Cropley
 
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. 
 
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
 
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. David Cropley:
David Cropley is the Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia. He specialises in helping people and organisations become better, more effective, problem solvers.
 
Dr Cropley joined the School of Engineering at the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT) in 1990, after serving for four years in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, including deployments to the Caribbean and Middle East. Following the establishment of the University in 1991, he completed a PhD in Measurement Systems Engineering in 1997, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education in 2002.
 
Dr Cropley is author/co-author of nine books including Creativity and Crime: A Psychological Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 2013); The Psychology of Innovation in Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and Femina Problematis Solvendis – Problem-Solving Woman: A History of the Creativity of Women (Springer, 2020).
 
Books by Dr. David Cropley
Connect with him on LinkedIn
Follow him on Twitter

Season Three: Welcome Back to the Fueling Creativity Podcast

In this short episode, Drs. Cyndi Burnett and Matthew Worwood discuss the community they are building on Linkedin, as well as upcoming guests for the third season of the Fueling Creativity podcast.
Join the Linkedin Community!
 
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. 
 
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
 
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!

Bridging the Gap: Serendipity, Excellence Gaps, and the role of Wonder.

What were the biggest lessons learned during the last five episodes in Season Two of the Fueling Creativity podcast? In this final debrief, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood sit down and reflect on episodes that discussed Serendipity, Student Engagement, Excellence Gaps, and Wonder.
 
Listen in as Cyndi and Matthew break down the following insights.
 
Major Takeaways from Season Two, Episodes 6-10:
 
Check for parent bias.  We can't always control where our children might excel. We also can't direct the career paths where they express interest. However, we can monitor our biases and do our very best to support them in whatever direction they pursue. 
 
Embrace incidents of serendipity. When things go wrong, or we experience disruptions on our journey, we can benefit by hitting the pause button and opening ourselves up to what we think, feel, and notice in the experience. 
 
Resources Mentioned:
 
Listen to the episode with Wendy Ross
Listen to the episode with Heather Lyon
Listen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker
Listen to the episode with Jeffery Davis
Listen to the episode with Ron Beghetto
 
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. 
 
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
 
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!