Creative Teachers for Creative Learners: Implications for Teacher Education.

Conference Year: 2012
Conference Location: Radisson Blu Farnham Estate Hotel, Cavan

Our tenth annual conference, held in Cavan in October 2012, titled Creative Teachers for Creative Learners: Implications for Teacher Education brought together local and international expertise in classroom creativity.

The conference was officially opened by Irish Minister of Education and Skills, Mr Ruairi Quinn TD, and the NI Minister for Education, Mr John O’Dowd MLA. Both Ministers emphasised the importance of digital technologies for teaching learning and assessment.

In launching Approaches to Creativity: A Guide for Teachers, by Orison Carlile and Anne Jordan (McGraw-Hill/Open University Press), Minister Quinn emphasised his support for teachers in their role of unlocking young peoples’ creativity.

Date / Time Event Details Watch/Listen
11/10/2013
10.00am

Official Opening by Irish Minister of Education and Skills, Mr Ruairi Quinn TD, and the NI Minister for Education, Mr John O’Dowd MLA.

11/10/2013
10.30am

Launch of book: Approaches to Creativity: A Guide for Teachers* by Mr Ruairi Quinn with a short afterword by co-author Professor Orison Carlile.

11/10/2013
11.00am

Professor Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education (Literacy), The Open University: Inspiring passion, possibility and creativity in teaching and learning – followed by questions and discussion.

11/10/2013
12 noon

Dr Anne Looney, Chief Executive, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), Dublin
Mr Richard Hanna, Interim Chief Executive, NI Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA): Innovation and creative classrooms – how NCCA and CCEA work can support creative teaching and learning.

11/10/2013
2.45pm

Workshop 1 – Aspen Suite 1

facilitated by Dr Michael Finneran and Ms Dorothy Morrissey, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick Noticing deeply: Exploring the borderlands and tensions between imagination and subversion in teacher education
This workshop will explore an approach to aesthetic education devised in the Lincoln Centre Institute in New York and premised on the work of Maxine Greene in which students develop their capacities for imaginative learning by engaging with a live work of art: a painting, play, musical recital, poem or film.

11/10/2013
2.45pm

Workshop 2 – Aspen Suite 2

facilitated by Ms Majella Dempsey and Ms Angela Rickard, NUI Maynooth Critical reflection in science teaching and learning: a creative approach to the introduction to teaching practice
This presentation/workshop will introduce an innovative, social constructivist approach – CRiSTaL (Critical Reflection in Science Teaching and Learning) – designed to support second year BSc Science Education students to observe, analyse and construct lessons before beginning their teaching practice in second level schools.

11/10/2013
2.45pm

Workshop 3 – Redwood Suite

facilitated by Dr Michael Flannery, Marino Institute of Education Online CPD: analysing primary teachers’ perspectives on creativity, imagination and innovation
This workshop will examine perspectives on creativity, imagination and innovation as communicated by primary teachers while participating in online continuing professional development, and comparing viewpoints expressed in online discourse with workshop discussions and other sources.

11/10/2013
2.45pm

Workshop 4 – Hazel Suite

Facilitated by Ms Lorraine Cheadle and Ms Grainne Doherty, St. Oliver Plunkett Primary School, Belfast and Ms Sara Liddell and Ms Clare Caughey, Tor Bank School, Dundonald, Co. Down
Primary 1 iPads – children’s creativity
This seminar will focus on the use of iPads within a Severe Learning Disability setting and in a mainstream primary school. The facilitators will be exploring the use of iPads for assessment and how they can be used to support pupils with ASD and in a mainstream classroom.

11/10/2013
5.15pm

Dr Tom Hesketh and Professor Teresa O’Doherty, SCoTENS Co-Chairs: The future of SCoTENS 10 years on: a session to discuss SCoTENS’ future plans, following a very positive external evaluation by a team from Oxford University’s Department of Education.

11/10/2013
7.15pm

Launch of Reports in Redwood Suite Reception Area
Promoting Literacy and Numeracy through Teacher Education: SCoTENS 2011 Conference and Annual Reports, launched by Ms Brigid McManus, former Secretary General, Department of Education and Skills The compilation report: Exploring Japanese Lesson Study as a Model of Peer-to-Peer Professional Learning; Effective Mentoring in Physical Education Teacher Education, and Domestic Abuse: Using Arts-based Education to help Student Teachers learn about the Context and Impact on Children, launched by Professor Harry McMahon, formerly of University of Ulster, co-founder of SCoTENS.

12/10/2013
8.45am

Sir Ken Robinson, keynote address (on video from the US)
Optimising Creativity in Teachers and Students: the implications for Teacher Educators, followed by plenary discussion.

12/10/2013
9.45am

Sacha Abercorn, the Duchess of Abercorn
Inspiring Educators: the work of the Pushkin Trust, with Anne McErlane, Regional Leader, the Pushkin Trust, and two participating head teachers, Siobhan Smith and Carmel McKeown.

12/10/2013
11.15am

Professor Lisbeth Goodman, Chair of Creative Technology and Professor of Education, University College Dublin
Creative Technology Innovation and Creative Pedagogy – the SMART bottom line.

12/10/2013
12.30

Sir Ken Robinson, closing address (on video from the US) – A call to action.