Fueling Creativity in Education

Should kindergarten be more focused on play or academics? How does education in Hong Kong differ from American/Western education? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Dr. Alfredo Bautista, an Associate Professor & Associate Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at The Education University of Hong Kong. Alfredo is also Co-Director for the Centre for Educational and Developmental Sciences.
 
Listen in to learn about the current state of education in Hong Kong and how creativity is perceived in the Chinese educational system. Then, Alfredo shares his research on early childhood creativity in Hong Kong kindergarteners, detailing the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western education.
 
“We are making progress, schools are slowly learning, teachers are slowly improving and getting more and more pedagogical ideas, but there is still a lot of work to do.” – Dr. Alfredo Bautista
 
Alfredo highlights the roles of structure and freedom in early childhood curriculums and shares his fascinating opinion on whether kindergarten should be play-based or academics-based. 
 
Plus, the trio shines light on the importance of recognizing your values as a parent and being able to decide what type of education your child needs, as they do in Hong Kong - yet in the US, there are barriers to choosing your child’s educational environment. Tune in to learn more!
 
Alfredo’s Tips for Teachers and Parents (Preschool/Kindergarten):
Creativity emerges when there is some sort of framework. It’s important to learn how to design activities that provide a framework and give children the freedom to complete that framework in different ways.
Design activities that require exploration and experimentation.
Have discussions with colleagues and other parents about what they understand creativity to be. 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Dr. Alfredo Bautista:
Dr. Alfredo Bautista is Associate Professor & Associate Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at The Education University of Hong Kong. He is also Co-Director for the Centre for Educational and Developmental Sciences. Alfredo graduated in Psychology and Music in Madrid (Spain). He worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Victoria (Canada) and Tufts University (USA). Subsequently, he joined Singapore's National Institute of Education, where he served as Research Scientist and Assistant Dean of Professional Learning. Currently, Alfredo leads several early childhood education projects focusing on Curriculum, Pedagogy, Teacher Education and Professional Development, teaches courses for pre- and in-service kindergarten teachers (e.g., Music/Arts Education, Curriculum Design, Play), and supervises seven doctoral students. Alfredo is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for the Study of Education and Development and serves as Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member for other peer-reviewed international journals.
 
Connect with him on LinkedIn
Follow him on Twitter

What is your Dream Machine? In this episode of Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Piet Grymonprez, author and Co-Founder and Managing Director of MyMachine. MyMachine is a for-purpose non-profit that has a unique and multi-award-winning methodology that unites students in primary, secondary and higher education to co-create "Dream Machines" invented by children.
 
Tune in to hear how Piet and his fellow Co-Founders created MyMachine, why they’re asking children to create a “Dream Machine”, and what a Dream Machine is in the first place. Piet explains how MyMachine challenges the creativity of students at every grade level, from primary school to college/university, inspiring them to think big.
 
“It really ranges from a very personal to a global scope because of the open-ended question that we pose to them at the beginning of our methodology.” – Piet Grymonprez
 
Piet describes how MyMachine’s methodology adapts to each child’s personality and how it encourages them to be open, take risks, share their ideas, and develop creative confidence. Then, he shares how teachers can collaborate with MyMachine and start their own chapter.
 
Piet’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Whatever you want to do with your kids/students, challenge yourself to do it with an open-ended approach.
Don’t make it a competition. 
Embrace systems thinking. Explain to yourselves and your students that the world we live in is complicated and that’s okay. That’s how it should be.
 
Recommended Resources:
Learn more about MyMachine 
What Is Your Dream Machine? How Children Change Education Worldwide by Piet Grymonprez
Donate to MyMachine Global Foundation
Listen to the episode with Natalie Nixon
 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Piet Grymonprez:
Piet Grymonprez is Co-Founder and Managing Director of MyMachine, a for-purpose non-profit working globally. MyMachine has a unique and multi-award-winning methodology that unites students in primary, secondary and higher education to co-create "Dream Machines" invented by children. 
 
Based out in Belgium, Europe, Piet and his team have grown MyMachine so far to 13 countries on 3 continents.
 
MyMachine has been widely recognized and endorsed by the likes of United Nations, Harvard, The New York Academy of Sciences, Richard Branson, The Qatar Foundation, The Lego Foundation, Fast Company, and MyMachine was recently inducted into the renowned HundrED Hall of Fame.
 
Piet is the author of the book "What Is Your Dream Machine? How Children Change Education Worldwide", with a foreword written by Sir Ken Robinson. 
 
He is the founder and co-founder of different industry cross-over networks in his native country. Prior to MyMachine, he worked in higher education for 15 years, establishing research collaborations with companies around the world.
 
Connect with him on LinkedIn
Follow MyMachine on Instagram

In Part 2 of this double espresso interview, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood continue speaking with Dr. Patrícia Alves-Oliveira, a Postdoctoral Researcher who focuses on designing human-robot interaction. Patrícia is interested in leveraging the qualities of social robots to empower human health and education, foster creativity in children, and improve mental health among adolescents. 
 
Tune in to learn how robotics and future technologies can inspire and enhance creativity in young children. Patrícia talks about why she has focused her research on robots and human creativity, the key difference between robotics and artificial intelligence, and the mission behind YOLO, a robot she developed to boost creativity in children. 
 
“There is a lot of influence in our social brain when we interact with a robot compared to when we interact with something that is virtual but still has AI and could even be saying the exact same thing the robot is saying.” – Patrícia Alves-Oliveira
 
The trio discusses the fascinating role of cobots, or collaborative robots, in the future of education, along with the potential opportunities we have in using robots to support children’s growth and mental health. Patrícia speaks on the problems and solutions she’s encountered in using robots to address mental health issues in teenagers. Then, she details the most effective technological experiences for promoting creative skills in young kids.
 
 “I was never interested in creating robots that are creative themselves, but rather to make robots as tools that we can use that would influence our creativity.” – Patrícia Alves-Oliveira
 
Patrícia’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Intentionally trigger your inner child. Make it an important mindset for you to be playful, curious, and explorative. 
Don’t say “no” immediately.
Keep it simple. You don’t need much, you usually just need the right space and the right time to do things.
Don’t put everything on yourself. Children interact with so many other people that can help promote creativity, so leverage that connection.
 
Recommended Resources:
Listen to Part 1: link needed
Listen to the episode with David Cropley
Read Patrícia’s research papers
 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Patrícia Alves-Oliveira:
Patrícia Alves-Oliveira is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. Patrícia received her Ph.D. in Human-Robot Interaction studies in 2020 from the University Institute of Lisbon and spent time at Cornell University as a Visiting Graduate Scholar. Her research focuses on designing human-robot interaction. She is especially interested in leveraging the qualities of social robots to empower human health and education. During her PhD, she studied the application of robots in fostering creativity in children. Now, during her postdoc, she is investigating how robots can demystify and improve mental health among adolescents. Patricia’s interdisciplinary work unifies the fields of robotics, design, and psychology.
 
Visit Patrícia’s website 
Follow her on Twitter
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Read her research papers

In Part 1 of this Double Espresso episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Dr. Patrícia Alves-Oliveira, a Postdoctoral Researcher who focuses on designing human-robot interaction. Patrícia is especially interested in leveraging the qualities of social robots to empower human health and education, foster creativity in children, and improve mental health among adolescents. 
 
Listen in to this episode to learn the impact of creativity interventions for children, how teachers can assess children to see if those interventions are working, and why it’s not always important to measure the outcomes, but to critique them.
 
“There is so much around the process that can impact other ways of education. For example, even during the teaching of history or math or biology, could there be a space in the formal curriculum where teachers open a creativity thought process?” – Patrícia Alves-Oliveira
 
Patrícia shares her best advice for improving your interventions to promote creativity in young children, the power of not having expectations of your students, and how to introduce more fun, playful activities in your classroom.
 
“We tend to forget this, but the physical world wasn’t born. We created it. So, change it. Change it to whatever you need to make the activity you want to bring in reflected in the environment, too.” – Patrícia Alves-Oliveira
 
Stay tuned for Part 2 for a discussion on using robots to foster creativity in kids + Patrícia’s Tips for Teachers and Parents!
 
“I don’t believe that children always need to be doing something to be creative. Sometimes, it happens in the closet of their minds and then it comes out unexpectedly.”  
– Patrícia Alves-Oliveira
 
Recommended Resources:
Read Patrícia’s research papers
 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Patrícia Alves-Oliveira:
Patrícia Alves-Oliveira is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. Patrícia received her Ph.D. in Human-Robot Interaction studies in 2020 from the University Institute of Lisbon and spent time at Cornell University as a Visiting Graduate Scholar. Her research focuses on designing human-robot interaction. She is especially interested in leveraging the qualities of social robots to empower human health and education. During her PhD, she studied the application of robots in fostering creativity in children. Now, during her postdoc, she is investigating how robots can demystify and improve mental health among adolescents. Patricia’s interdisciplinary work unifies the fields of robotics, design, and psychology.
 
Visit Patrícia’s website 
Follow her on Twitter
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Read her research papers

In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Lola Schnapp, a creativity and education advocate from Chile. Along with Cyndi, Lola is also the co-author of 20 Lessons to Weave Creative Thinking into Your Curriculum. Her passion is to share the power of creativity as an engine for change and growth in education.
 
Tune in to learn what it means to be deliberate about creativity in education, the powerful role of digital technology in creative development, and Lola’s recommendations on how teachers can deliberately add creativity into their lesson plans. Her insights emphasize the importance of thinking about the affordances that exist in our environments, such as technology tools, and how we’re using these tools to nurture creativity.
 
“In order to transform schools into innovative cultures,  we need to be deliberate about creativity, since it is what starts the innovation process. Without creativity, we don’t have innovation.” – Lola Schnapp
 
She and Cyndi also talk about the creative process behind their book, 20 Lessons to Weave Creative Thinking into Your Curriculum.
 
“You need to embody what you want to see in students.” – Lola Schnapp
 
Lola’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
See yourself as a creative person.
Have fun, enjoy it! Don’t be too serious about your work.
Don’t do it alone. Find your kindred group to help you come up with those “crazy” ideas.
 
Recommended Resources:
20 Lessons to Weave Creative Thinking into Your Curriculum by Lola Schnapp & Dr. Cyndi Burnett
Blog Post – “Copying for Creativity”
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
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. 
 
Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!
 
You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Lola Schnapp:
Lola Schnapp is a creativity and education advocate, especially for the Hispanic community. Her passion is to share the power of creativity as an engine for change and growth in education. She finds creativity to be the missing link in education, since it helps to achieve great work by having fun and being motivated. She is the co-author of 20 Lessons to Weave Creative Thinking into Your Curriculum available in English and Spanish. She has worked as a primary school teacher and technology integration specialist, coaching teachers to integrate technology and new methodologies into their classrooms. Currently works in Chile helping to transform schools into innovation communities and cultures through consultancy and training.
 
Follow Lola on Instagram
Follow Be Spark on Instagram
Learn more about Be Spark

In this debrief episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood reflect on the first five episodes of Season 5. Cyndi and Matthew begin by revising a discussion where one guest suggested we shouldn't focus on the person, only the idea. However, Cyndi and Matthew discuss if that is possible and consider how that relates to what we know of sociocultural theory.
Cyndi and Matthew also discussed the use of the word Creativity to describe a new Ph.D. program and how the aspects of the artistic process can support STEAM projects.  
 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!

In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Dr. Jonathan Fineberg, an art historian, critic of contemporary art, and the program director of the PhD in Creativity program at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. 
 
Listen in to learn Jonathan’s perspective on the relationship between creativity and the arts, how art encourages us to see things in different ways and give things new meaning, and the process he uses to enable his PhD students to apply creativity to their specific discipline.
 
“If you want to get great abs, you do a lot of sit ups. If you want to try and be a creative thinker, you need to exercise the capacity to build the new connections in the brain for solving problems and in particular, problems that can’t be solved.” – Jonathan Fineberg
 
He also speaks on the beneficial role of critique in the creative process and why non-linear thinking is a critical part of The PhD in Creativity program while being frowned upon in other PhD fields.
 
Plus, Jonathan details how you can translate these PhD-level creativity strategies to your K-12 classroom.
 
“What you really want to do is understand where kids are coming from and what they’re interested in and how to enable them to do what they want to do better.” – Jonathan Fineberg
 
Jonathan’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Be a really open listener. Understand your students and what they need from you.
Develop a trust-based mentor relationship with each student. If students trust you, they will leap into something they don’t understand just because you told them to try it.
Have an open mind.
Recommended Resources:
Get your FREE download of Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being by Jonathan David Fineberg
The PhD in Creativity at University of the Arts
The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation by Jacques Rancière
Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious Hardcover by Antonio Damasio
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebeca Solnit
 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Jonathan Fineberg:
Jonathan Fineberg is an art historian, a critic of contemporary art, and the program director of the PhD in Creativity program at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The particular art theory that has evolved in his writing over a 50-year career is a social history of art grounded in psychoanalysis and the close reading of objects. This derives from his efforts to understand the dynamics of creativity and how societies use and interact with works of art. 
 
He is the author of "Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being," the most widely read survey of postwar art, and co-creator (with John Carlin) of "Imagining America: Icons of 20th Century American Art," the award-winning PBS television documentary of 2005. Fineberg is also the author of some 30 books and catalogs on modern art.
 
Learn more about The PhD in Creativity at University of the Arts
Follow University of the Arts on Instagram

How can creativity help students learn a new language? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Tanya Knudsen, an educator, world traveler, polyglot, and PhD candidate for creative leadership. Tanya’s currently teaching a TIM-based curriculum, Creativity Through English, via zoom to students at Wings of Change, a vocational hospitality school and hotel social enterprise in Madagascar. She teaches for creativity with an expanded and self-designed curriculum squarely rooted in the Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) for Teaching and Learning to combine Creative Thinking Skills with subjects.
 
Listen in to learn Tanya’s art-based framework for integrating creative thinking skills into her ESL classroom, simple strategies for keeping students engaged while teaching remotely, and how English teachers can use kinesthetic teaching to bring more creativity into the classroom. 
 
“The thing with language is it has to be a subconscious skill, ultimately, so how can I pass the concepts into the subconscious most quickly? And I believe that to be through physical because that’s how it will resonate.” – Tanya Knudsen
 
Plus, Tanya describes “the language of creativity” and speaks on the immense value that creativity can bring to ESL students.
 
“That’s really what we want to pull out in the creative thinking skills is what is your process for developing your understanding or ability to think through the information that you’re learning so that you can evaluate, sift, and formulate your own original thought.” – Tanya Knudsen
 
Tanya’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Try! Just do it. Whatever you want to try, go for it, because everything leads to something else.
Ask questions. That’s how you learn, figure out where they are, and how to teach them more effectively.
Have fun! Kids are bored at school and humans seek play at every age, so it’s important to have fun throughout learning.
 
Recommended Resources:
Wings of Change – Madagascar
GoNoodle
Listen to The Idea Gym Podcast
Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett (contributions by Tanya Knudsen)
20 Lessons to Weave Creative Thinking into Your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett (contributions by Tanya Knudsen)
 
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 in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
 
About Tanya Knudsen:
Tanya is an educator, polyglot, world traveler and PhD candidate for creative leadership. Tanya teaches for creativity with an expanded and self-designed curriculum squarely rooted in the Torrance Incubation Model for Teaching and Learning to combine Creative Thinking Skills with subjects. Tanya’s first creative curriculum, Creativity Through Arts, received scholarly recognition in 2021. Tanya now teaches her second TIM-based curriculum, Creativity Through English, via zoom, to students at Wings of Change, a vocational hospitality school and hotel social enterprise in Nosy Be, Madagascar. Tanya is headed to Nosy Be in the new year to conduct research for her dissertation. For Tanya, creativity is new new lingua franca and she’s on a quest to expand creativity to the far reaches of the planet.
 
Visit Tanya’s website
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Listen to The Idea Gym Podcast