Terwyl hardwerkende onderwysers ’n bietjie kon asemskep, het die minister van onderwys, me. Angie Motshekga, die nasionale asseseringstoetse vir geletterdheid en syfervaardigheid (Gr. 3 en Gr. 6) bekend gemaak. (Waarom doen die departement altyd sulke aankondigings tydens vakansies?)
Hierdie keer met veel minder trompetgeskal as die martiekuitslae van verlede jaar. Want soos dr. Wilmot James tereg sê daar is geen rede tot feesviering nie. Wie wil na ’n dokter toe gaan wat net vier uit tien vrae reg kan beantwoord? Motshekga het die uitslae as hartseer beskryf, maar gesê dit was te verwagte. (Die Burger 29/6/11).
Hierdie toetse evalueer maar net, soos wat my oupa gesê het, optel lees en skryf. Wat nog te sê van die ander belangrike goed soos byvoorbeeld kreatiwiteit? ‘n Vaardigheid wat noodsaaklik geword het in ons moderne samelewing en ekonomie.
In the USA the conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators, surveyed public school superintendents and business executives to identify and compare their views surrounding creativity.
They gave them a list of 11 skills or observable behaviours and ask them to rank which ones best demonstrate creativity.
The two groups agreed that the ability to identify new patterns of behaviour or new combination of actions and integration of knowledge across different disciplines are foremost in demonstrating creativity.
They also agreed that innovation is crucial to competition, and creativity is integral to innovation. And that arts training – and to a lesser degree, communications studies – are crucial to developing creativity.
But as with a lot of these theories it’s not so easy to put your money where your mouth is; or to walk your talk.
The findings of the survey also indicated that most high schools and employers provided such creative training and studies only on an elective or “as needed” basis.
When asked to name the educational backgrounds and experiences deemed creators of creativity, school superintendents ranked arts study as the highest indicator of creativity, followed by experience in performing arts/entertainment. The employers rank arts study second, topped only by self-employed work, as an indicator of creativity.
When the superintendants were presented with a list of 12 creativity-promoting educational activities/experiences, more than three-quarters reported that each one (excluding study-abroad programs) is supported within their high schools. However, in more than half of these schools, only three of these experiences/activities are part of the required curriculum.
Teen hierdie tyd dink ek weet ons almal al dat kreatiwiteit niks met kleinspierkoördinasie te make het nie.
Kreatiwiteit het te make met die aanbied van die regte vakke in ons skole en blootstelling aan aktiwiteite wat die kreatiwe deel van ons leerders se brein stimuleer.
Al wat oorbly om te vra, is: Hoe ingestel is Suid-Afrika se skole op kreatiwiteit? Meer nog: Hoe kreatief is jou skool?
(Bron: Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the US Workforce? James Lichtenberg, Christopher Woock, Mary Wright. The Conference Board, Research Report 1424, 2008.Report)
Ten slotte:
A public school teacher was arrested today at O R Tambo International airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator. At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the Hawks with carrying weapons of math instruction.
“Al-Gebra is a problem for us’, the Attorney General said. ‘They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values. They use secret code names like X and Y and refer to themselves as unknowns, but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say,There are 3 sides to every triangle.”
When asked to comment on the arrest, President Zuma would not comment.
Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts. – Albert Einstein
Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. – William Plomer
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. – Scott Adams
Image: Salvatore Vuono/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
