Children should be allowed to get bored so they have the chance to develop their creativity, an education expert has asserted.
Dr Teresa Belton says that constant activity and stimulation could hamper the development of children’s imagination. She acknowledges that boredom may be an “uncomfortable feeling”, but claims modern society has “developed an expectation of being constantly occupied and constantly stimulated”.
The senior researcher at the University of East Anglia’s School of Education and Lifelong Learning, Dr Belton interviewed a number of authors, artists and scientists about how boredom aided their creativity as children. Speaking of the writer Meera Syal, Dr Belton says: “Lack of things to do spurred her to talk to people she would not otherwise have engaged with and to try activities she would not, under other circumstances, have experienced, such as talking to elderly neighbours and learning to bake cakes…Boredom made her write. She kept a diary from a young age, filling it with observations, short stories, poems and diatribe. And she attributes these early beginnings to becoming a writer late in life.”
Today though, children are more likely to turn to technology when bored. “When children have nothing to do now, they immediately switch on the TV, the computer, the phone or some kind of screen.The time they spend on these things has increased.”
But this means they miss out on opportunities to be creative, to develop and grow, Dr Belton’s research has shown. “Children need to have stand-and-stare time, time imagining and pursuing their own thinking processes or assimilating their experiences through play or just observing the world around them.” It is this sort of thing that stimulates the imagination, she continued, while the screen “tends to short circuit that process and the development of creative capacity”.
Children who fail to develop this creative capacity are more likely to encounter problems and display antisocial behaviour later in life. “Some young people who do not have the interior resources or the responses to deal with that boredom creatively then sometimes end up smashing up bus shelters or taking cars out for a joyride.”
Dr Belton concluded: “For the sake of creativity, perhaps we need to slow down and stay offline from time to time.”
What do you think? Let us know below.
Monday, 20 May 2013
Friday, 17 May 2013
Cross curricular project plan: Mysteries of the Middle Ages
Free lesson plan - Crime and punishment in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is probably one of the
most turbulent time periods in all of history. It began with the collapse of
the Western Roman Empire, as barbarian invaders formed new kingdoms across
Western Europe.
It is often referred to as the Dark Ages, because the barbarian
tribes did not foster advances in art, literature and architecture as the
Romans had. Religion became one of the biggest influences, and whether you were
a peasant or a nobleman, life was dictated and overruled by the church. Rights
were restricted, the fates of criminals often left to God to decide.
The Roman
government was replaced with the feudal system – thousands of small, regional
governments wherein the local lord was in charge and held all the power.
It was the age of kings, lords, wars and rebellions, of great riches and great poverty, of repression, disease and famine… and yet it is often romanticised. Dashing knights, beautiful maidens and terrifying (but always in the end, defeated) dragons and monsters dominate film and literature. For Hollywood, the Middle Ages were a time of magic and mystery, and in some ways, they are right. Many myths, legends and fairytales we tell today originated in medieval times, and most of the time, it’s nearly impossible to work out where fact and fiction collide.
It was the age of kings, lords, wars and rebellions, of great riches and great poverty, of repression, disease and famine… and yet it is often romanticised. Dashing knights, beautiful maidens and terrifying (but always in the end, defeated) dragons and monsters dominate film and literature. For Hollywood, the Middle Ages were a time of magic and mystery, and in some ways, they are right. Many myths, legends and fairytales we tell today originated in medieval times, and most of the time, it’s nearly impossible to work out where fact and fiction collide.
What is real history,
and what is purely legend? The Middle Ages and all its mysteries, therefore,
have great potential for investigation and development across the whole
curriculum.
Our latest issue of Creative Teaching and Learning included the project plan, 'Mysteries of the Middle Ages'. The project focuses on a combination of fact and legend from the Medieval Times. Who really was Robin Hood, we ask. What kinds of mythical monsters did people of the Middle Ages believe to be true? How would we lay siege to a fortified medieval castle? How fair was the medieval justice system?
The full plan is available only to subscribers (now also available to purchase here!), but since we are feeling generous, we have made one lesson plan open access - 'Crime and punishment in the Middle Ages'. The instructions for the lesson are shown below, along with links to where you can download the activity sheet.
Crime and Punishment Instructions (also available to download here)
Purpose:
|
Examining
information to discuss aptness of punishments and comparison to today’s crime
and punishment
|
Curriculum Focus
|
Communication – speaking and
listening, reading, writing
Thinking skills - identify gaps and
begin to build on existing skills, knowledge and understanding required for
the task, suggest alternative processes; identifying the learning and thinking strategy to be
used
|
Materials
|
Activity
sheets 7a and 7b, paper, pens
|
Groupings
|
Four or
five
|
Procedure
|
Give out
information sheet 7a. Read and discuss the contents with the pupils. In their
groups, the pupils discuss the questions posed about law and order and then
compare their answers to other groups.
1.
Cut
out the crime cards.
2.
Give
copies to the pupils, enough so they can all read them.
3.
In
their groups, pupils discuss the appropriateness of the punishments for the
crimes committed.
4.
The
pupils make a judgement as to whether they consider the punishments to be
right.
5.
The
pupils discuss the thinking processes they have used in drawing their
conclusions. Were the thinking processes the same or different in other
groups?
|
Click here to download Activity Sheet 7a: Crime and Punishment discussion sheet, and Activity Sheet 7b: Crime Cards.
To subscribe to Creative Teaching and Learning magazine, see here.
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