Transformative Teaching

Abstract

Creativity is one of the principal resources to face change. Especially in the last period, creativity seems the way to solve some of the problems caused by the pandemic. Consequently, improving creative skills becomes one of the main educational aims. However, creativity hides some traps. The first trap concerns its “definition”. Creativity has such a broad semantic field that could become ambiguous. It can mean fantasy, divergence, transgression, novelty, strategy, progress, … If we don’t define creativity, everything can be considered as creative (and so nothing can become truly creative!). The second trap is “freedom”. Creativity is the capability to create, but creating doesn’t mean doing in any way. The creative process has the power of modifying the existential spaces: for this reason, freedom of creativity needs reflective skills to choose the best way: “what does best mean”? The direction of a creative action depends on what we consider as “best”. The third trap is “mistake”. By changing the reality we are taking into consideration, creativity can make mistakes. Does creativity have to deal with mistakes? What are the mistakes of creativity? The questions are practical because the theoretical approximation causes disorientation. It is impossible to plan educational actions in order to train creativity, if we don’t have a clear idea of creativity. Reflection, dialogue and the ability to choose are needed to overcome these traps. Even if everyone is able to reflect, dialogue and choose, these skills must be trained. To address this task, the proposal aims to present the 3RPlay methodology, a version of reflective practice experimented by a research group of the University of Turin.