The tiger project was one of a series of case studies on creativity in education presented at a conference in Dundee last week. Staff started by taking children to see a museum exhibition about tigers and live tigers in a zoo, and explored subjects such as the tiger's hunting habits. They involved parents by sending the children home with tiger games and drawings. The children's artwork in particular developed as the quality of their observations became more detailed.The work culminated in children, staff and parents all preparing a tiger-themed float for the Lord Provost's parade.
The staff evaluation record of the project says, 'In all the work the children displayed a growing empathy with wild animals and tigers in particular. They appreciated their beauty and wanted them to be protected. Through all their learning a great sense of fun and real understanding was evident during their role-play as they dressed up as tigers and hid in the dens they had made.'
On a more pessimistic note, the staff expressed fears that the creativity, confidence and questioning approach they were encouraging in the children might be crushed as they progressed through the education system, and that the children might be 'slapped back' for being precocious.
The conference, organised by Learning and Teaching Scotland and the IDES network, which promotes technology, design and enterprise education, explored case studies of creativity in action from around Scotland.
Another example was Springbank Nursery in Paisley, Renfrewshire, which has taken a creative approach to management and partnerships involving staff, parents and the community.
This has led to the establishment of a Parent and Staff Association, which became a limited company and secured 45,000 National Lottery and Pounds 8,000 Environmental Trust funding to construct a safe play area in the nursery grounds. The nursery also opened the new Snowdrop wing in 1999 to cater for children with a range of special needs including autism and language and communication disorders.
The case studies form the basis of a report, Creativity in Education, launched at the conference and available from Customer Services, Learning and Teaching Scotland (price 5.50, tel 08700 100 297).
Deputy minister for education Nicol Stephen, who attended the conference, described the report as an excellent resource and said that education needed to be 'more fun and more inspiring'.
