Unleashing Creativity: A Blended Learning Journey for Teachers
- CreativityInEducation
- SecondarySchool
- CriticalThinking
Emphasys Centre in Nicosia, Cyprus, organised a blended learning course titled ‘Creativity, an essential skill for teachers: Because a classroom can be a place of creativity!’. This case study describes the methodologies and strategies followed by Emphasys to transform the course into a blended course. Emphasys decided to make this change because some people couldn’t attend the course in person. The main objective of this course is to attract teachers who wish to enhance their creative, team-working, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
Context
Emphasys Centre organised a blended learning course titled ‘Creativity, is an essential skill for teachers: Because a classroom can be a place of creativity!’ in which teachers joined in person and virtually. Emphasys, decided to transform the whole course into a blended learning course due to the fact that some people couldn’t attend in person the course.
People Involved
This course is attended by 6 secondary school teachers from Italy who would like to improve their creative, team-working, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. The participants have the experience of distance learning as teachers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Emphasys changed the whole course to allow participants to attend also virtually and in person. In the tables bellow you can see the personas for the 6 teachers:
Fictional Name: Angela Demographics: 35 – 45 Italian |
| Fictional Name: Stefania Demographics: 35 – 45 Italian |
|
Profession: Secondary School Teacher - Geography | Motivation for joining the course: Learn creative ways to use in the classroom | Profession: Secondary School Teacher - Geography | Motivation for joining the course: Learn creative ways to adopt into their classroom especially in a blended course |
Their challenges as a student: To find creative and innovative ways as teachers to adopt into their classroom | Their challenges as a student: To find creative and innovative ways as teachers to adopt into their classroom | ||
How did the transformation help them: Can attend classes from home without any traveling | How did the transformation help them: Can attend classes from home without any traveling | ||
Fictional Name: Elena Demographics: 25 – 35 Italian |
| Fictional Name: Silvia Demographics: 35 – 45 Italian |
|
Profession: Secondary School Teacher – Marketing | Motivation for joining the course: Professional development | Profession: Secondary School Teacher - Biology | Motivation for joining the course: Professional development and to be creative in the classroom – adjust the school curricula into the students’ needs |
Their challenges as a student: To motivate her students to be active in the classroom | Their challenges as a student: To adopt new practical activities to use in the classroom for her subject (biology) | ||
How did the transformation help them: Can attend classes from home without any traveling | How did the transformation help them: Can attend classes from home, especially for teachers like her who teach practical lessons | ||
Fictional Name: Annaclaudia Demographics: 35 – 45 Italian |
| Fictional Name: Marialuisa Demographics: 35 – 45 Italian |
|
Profession: Secondary School Teacher – Literature | Motivation for joining the course: Professional development | Profession: Secondary School Teacher – Literature | Motivation for joining the course: Professional development and to be creative in the classroom – adjust the school curricula into the students’ needs |
Their challenges as a student: To motivate her students to be active in the classroom | Their challenges as a student: To adopt new practical activities to use in the classroom for her subject (biology) | ||
How did the transformation help them: Can attend classes from home without any traveling | How did the transformation help them: Can attend classes from home, especially for teachers like her who teach practical lessons | ||
Before the transformation
Before the transformation, the main aim of this course was to attract teachers who would like to improve their creative, team-working, and problem-solving skills with hands-on practical activities. Such as outdoor activities, ice-breaking activities, role-playing activities, etc. Emphasys faced the main problem with travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the whole course should be changed to a blended learning course.
The transformation
Prior to the pandemic, DS Formació had not provided any online courses, as all instruction had traditionally been conducted in a face-to-face format. However, they had to adapt to the new reality imposed by the pandemic.
A blending approach was implemented to give the participants the opportunity to attend in person or from home. This means that the trainer is in person with some participants and other participants are joining virtually.
Before the transformation, participants could only join courses in person. After blending the course, the organiser organised a Zoom link in order for the participants to have the possibility to attend the course also online.
Before the transformation, participants can receive the slides presentation on paper but during COVID-19, Emphasys developed an online platform where all the course material was uploaded.
The whole course was recorded in order for the participants to have a look at the recordings later on and the videos were available on the platform.
Due to the fact that people cannot attend in person, ice-breakers and energizers are very important and useful for the participants. Icebreaker activities are important because participants could learn from each other and learn more about the background of the other participants. Energizers are also important since online participants should motivate themselves to attend online and boost their energy.
After the transformation
At the end of the course, an evaluation questionnaire was sent to the participants in order to provide their feedback and comments on the course and also suggestions for the next course. The main comments that teachers mentioned are that they really enjoyed, they really liked the handbook provided by Emphasys with the ice-breaking activities and energizers, and the hands-on practical activities to help them improve their team-working and creative thinking skills. Additionally, they liked the suggested online tools to use in the classroom. However, they mentioned that they would like the course to be more personalised to class subjects and also how this course will help the teachers who teach more practical lessons in the school such as mathematics, biology, etc.
Technologies Employed
It includes:
- Virtual Classroom: Emphasys used the Google Classroom where the participants in each course can easily access the platform, upload their homework, and review the material provided by the trainers.
- Computer, Camera, and Microphone: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Emphasys was fully equipped with the latest technology in laptop, camera and microphone.
- Online tools: Using online tools for a blended learning course is necessary, so here is a list with different online tools used by Emphasys:
Kahoot! is a quiz-based platform where the trainer can add quizzes, and students can join a gameplay session using their devices. Kahoot helps the participants to test the knowledge gained from the course in real-time. Emphasys used it mostly as an assessment at the end of each topic during the course.
Quizizz is a quiz-based platform where the trainer can create quizzes but also it offers a library data bank with different quizzes and questions from other users. Emphasys used it mostly as an assessment at the end of each topic during the course.
Mentimeter is an interactive presentation software in which Emphasys is used mainly for interactive polls and quizzes during a brainstorming session.
Miro is an online whiteboard tool where the participants can join at the same time and collaborate together for brainstorming on a specific topic.
Google Forms is the best platform to easily create and share online forms and surveys and analyse responses in real time. Emphasys used it mostly at the end of the course to evaluate the whole procedure.
Canva is a graphic design online tool in which users can create different designs such as posters, invitations, cards, brochures, presentations, etc. Since the course was for creativity in the classroom, it is important for the teachers to learn how to use Canva to design different online designs.
Reflections
Challenges Faced
The main challenge of the course is to manage to personalise the whole course to different teachers’ specialisations and provide them with online tools etc. The future plans are to organise the same courses but for specific subjects, for example, ‘Creativity, an essential skill for Maths teachers: Because a classroom can be a place of creativity!’ or ‘Creativity, an essential skill for History teachers: Because a classroom can be a place of creativity!’
The methodologies and strategies used during the blended learning course benefited the teachers/participants in order to help them understand the whole course and also with the support of the online tools.
What went well?
Alternatives
For the next course, guidelines on how to use Zoom and all the online platforms that the trainers showed during the course could be provided to all participants.
Costs
Emphasys offered to the premises laptops, cameras and microphones so there is no extra cost for the participants to the course.
Effectiveness
The transformation contributed to achieving the learning outcomes. The trainers used the transformation plan which was very helpful for them in order to transform the whole course.