VET & TAFE
campusreview.com.au
Creativity need not be individual,
Tanggaard said. It can be collective.
Further, citing the late linguist and
education psychologist, Vera John-Steiner,
she noted that “learning that leads to
creativity entails actual work ... it can also be
about rediscovery”.
“Creativity is a lot more ‘business as
usual’ that you might think. It’s not a
mystical thing.”
It may be commonplace, but to practise
it takes three steps: opportunities, analysis
of these, and action.
Opportunities are often pre-existing, and
can be in the form of problems as opposed
to solutions.
“Much of creation is re-creation,”
Tanggaard said.
Action, however, is perhaps the most
important element of creativity. Ideas are
nothing until they are actualised.
“This is where VET comes in,” she said.
“They are the ones making the prototypes.”
DID SOMEONE MENTION VET?
Creative training
Promoting creativity in VET will
make it more attractive and
effective, psychologist says.
By Loren Smith
Y
ou don’t necessarily expect to hear
Nietzsche quoted at a vocational
education and training conference,
but No Frills surprised attendees. Held in
Sydney last month, the National Centre
for Vocational Education Research’s
annual do was given a philosophical bent
by keynote speaker Dr Lene Tanggaard,
a professor of psychology at Denmark’s
Aalborg University.
Presenting on ‘Creativity in VET’, she
got deep. But before she provided a
snippet of free revolutionary thought, she
explained her choice of topic. When she
did her PhD on apprentices’ learning in
2005, people thought creativity was only
for artists.
“But it’s a vital part of vocational
education,” Tanggaard said.
She referred to the (Vygotsky-
approved) idea that imagination is inherent
to innovation. As a co-author of the PISA
creativity test, due to commence in 2021,
she is one of the leaders of this charge.
But it’s not just Tanggaard and her
colleagues who deem creativity essential
to learning. In 2010, 1500 CEOs, by way of
a survey, revealed that creativity was their
most prized future attribute – including in
their employees.
Although there aren’t many studies on
creativity, due to its indeterminate nature,
the ones that exist show that creativity
promotes cognitive ability, problem solving
and even writing.
The Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa,
who Tanggaard often cites, states that
creativity requires mind and body.
Tanggaard applied this to VET: “Some
propose that in VET, there’s a gap between
theory and practice.
“But this gap doesn’t have to exist. It can
be filled with creativity.”
Enter Nietzsche, who said that something
has to fade out to make room for the new.
In practice, this can mean apprentices
‘mucking about’ between classes. They
have reported to Tanggaard that they are
most creative when doing this.
Creativity in VET isn’t only manifested
practically. In explaining this, she referenced
Dewey: “Thinking is creative action.” This
can involve exchanging ideas with others.
In this context, disagreement is beneficial,
as it develops the idea, as well as a person’s
robustness.
Lastly, creation in VET stems from
immersion in the subject matter. She
dismissed the ‘light bulb’ theory of
creativity: “Forget instant creativity. Most
people are most creative about something
they know something about.”
If creativity in VET was more widely
known about, perhaps more people
would be attracted to the field,
she contended. In Denmark, only
30 per cent of high-schoolers pursue VET
qualifications. In Australia, the proportion
is around half of that. ■
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