Creativity in the Classroom by Ernest Boyer

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The American system of education is considered to be one of the most progressive in the world. One of the surveys on attitudes toward teaching around the world found that the United States is unique in its strong emphasis on "good teaching." My experience at State College has helped me to understand better how this system works, and what methods and techniques American teachers use to motivate their students for creative and active learning. However, I can also see that this system doesn’t work perfectly in every classroom. Reading Ernest Boyer’s article “Creativity in the Classroom” helped me with my understanding of the main problem that nowadays exists with the American college education system. According to the author, the problem is that teachers and students don’t see each other as one team doing the same business; therefore, in most classrooms the process of learning becomes a boring procedure instead of being mind-blowing. Moreover, reading this article, I could analyze the reasons of this problem that the author identifies through my own experiences at State College.

One of the issues, which Boyer points out , is that teachers and students have different expectations from college education. She says that the teachers are mainly concerned about students’ comprehension of the material, their attendance and attention while students’ hopes are to get good grades and to be well prepared for exams. It seems that the system of grading pushes students to not care too much about what is being taught from an understanding perspective, but only promotes more concern about grades instead. Some students don't really pay attention unless the instructor mentions an exam or something that will be graded. Furthermore, be...

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...would be further motivated to love and study their subjects, and not be just thinking only about grades. If all teachers dedicate their human potential to their students, then students wouldn’t be scared to participate in discussions in spite of many stumbling barriers. The issues Ernest Boyer discusses in “Creativity in the Classroom” are of current interest not only in American educational system, but in my country as well. So,I would recommend this article to be discussed at teachers’ meetings in different types of educational institutions because the criteria of successful and creative teaching the author identifies in his article are universal and simple at the same time: just be dedicated to your job, care about your students, and don’t be afraid to learn and use new ideas in your classroom. Hence, creativity in the classroom often begins with a good teacher.

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