Evaluating the impact of creative learning on the development of pupils' participation and competences
Abstract
Education today has a difficult task - not only to provide students with the necessary knowledge (an increasingly difficult task with the growing amount of information), and to develop a variety of skills (so that they can use this knowledge), but also to equip them with the attitudes and habits that will enable them to have happy yet responsible lives. Since the conditions of this (personal, civic) life, and of future careers, are changing radically in today's society, this education must also be highly adaptable to external circumstances. Educational systems everywhere are thus seeking new educational goals to make learning itself meaningful in the context of the needs of the times - and to be perceived as such by all actors: teachers, pupils, and parents and politicians, for example.
This methodology shows how to find adequate tools for the chosen educational goals (in this case, in the field of creative education), which can be used to monitor the progress of students towards the intended, desired state. The tools were piloted in the Schools for the Future project, implemented in Czech schools by the Society for Creativity in Education - they helped to verify the impact of creative approaches on learning processes and outcomes. The project itself responded to the demands of overall changes in the education system, which are increasingly voiced in theoretical debates and in practice, and through continuous reflection (also with the help of this evaluation) showed new ways of education that could be gradually achieved.